“Thanks but we’re not interested,” she said, shaking her head.
“But you don’t even know what I’ve got to sell!” the merchant protested. “Look!”
He was pushing a dusty, two-wheeled cart with a dark blue cloth over the top of it. Now that he had their attention, he whisked off the cloth, revealing a wire cage with several small, furry animals inside. As soon as the cloth was removed, they started squeaking in high-pitched voices and scrambling to poke their pointed little noses through the wires.
“Oh! Are those heechees?” Bobbi exclaimed, taking a step closer. “I’ve never seen a live one before!”
Though she had seen several, already dead and skinned in the compound’s kitchen, thankfully she had never been asked to participate in killing or skinning the small, fluffy animals herself.
“Indeed they are, my fine lady!” the merchant proclaimed. “Freshest and best heechees in the whole city! Young and plump and tasty they are! Been force-feeding ‘em goola grain for a whole solar month, I have!”
“They should make good eating then,” Keelah remarked, as the two girls came closer, to get a better look. “Maybe we should buy some for the compound if they’re a good price. I know Res. Tizlah would be pleased.”
“Oh, I don’t want to buy any to eat,” Bobbi said, feeling horrified at the idea. “I couldn’t eat these little guys.”
Indeed, the little heechees looked very much like guinea pigs, but with the long ears and fluffy tails of bunny rabbits, she thought. They had big, liquid black eyes and little wiggly noses with long whiskers. She could never eat anything so absolutely adorable. The idea of killing one of the cute little critters for dinner was abhorrent to her!
“But if you don’t want one to eat, what do you want with it?” Keelah asked, clearly mystified, and Bobbi remembered that Saurians generally didn’t keep animals except for food.
“Well…I might want one was as a pet,” she said. Poking her finger through the wires of the cage, she stroked the soft fur of one of the little creatures. It had purple and gray spots, just like the pelt of Dragon’s old heechee that was sewn into the blanket Res. Tizlah had made for him.
Would the big Kindred like it if she bought him a heechee that looked like his old pet, she wondered? It might be nice to have a sweet little animal to take care of. And she could just picture his face when she showed him that she had found one that looked just like the heechee he had lost as a child…
“They’re a fiver, pretty lady,” the merchant said to her, his forked tongue flickering. “Do you want one or not?”
“You know, I think I do,” Bobbi told him. “In fact…”
But suddenly, Keelah was gripping her arm.
“Bobbi, we have to get away from here.” Her voice was low and frightened. “Come on—we have to get back to the Market—now!”
Looking up, Bobbi realized that they had, indeed, wandered past the last stall that marked the boundaries of the Market. The heechee seller must have backed up little by little and she had followed, not noticing where she was going because she was focused on the cute, furry little animals in his wheeled cart. But why would he lead them outside the bounds of safety?
A movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention and answered her question. Two large Saurians with colorful, moving tattoos on their scaly arms had ducked out from the blind alley that ran between the rows of houses and the Market place. They were headed straight towards her and Keelah.
“Come on!” Keelah exclaimed. “I know them—they’re enforcers from the Silver Scales Clan—we need to get back to the Market!”
But it was too late. Even as they started to run, the huge Saurians were on them.
“Now then, pretty little mammalian, where do you think you’re going?” one of them growled, grabbing Bobbi’s shoulder and swinging her around.
“Yeah—don’t run away when we just want to talk to you,” the other one said, grinning widely to show a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth.
“Let me go!” Bobbi shouted, trying to yank her arm away and failing. “You’ll be sorry if you don’t—I belong to Dragon of the Crimson Blades Clan!”
“We know that—why do you think we’re after you, girly?” the enforcer who was holding her snarled. His grip on her tightened painfully. “Somebody don’t like it that Dragon’s got himself a bride. Seems like they want you disappeared.”
“Let her go!” Keelah shouted. She was still holding the pointed wooden skewer her candied meat stick had been on and she used it to stab the Saurian holding Keelah in the arm.
He shouted but never lost his grip. Instead, he shoved Keelah to the ground with his other hand.
“Leave well enough alone, you little slut,” he snarled. “Unless you want to die alongside her!”