He hooked the sausage off her plate and began munching it, ignoring the cold stare Em was giving him.
“Hmm—not bad, not bad,” he said with his mouth full as he continued to chew. “Some kind of land meat, eh? Thought so—all the most primitive people live on the land instead of in the oceans.”
“On my planet it’s considered unspeakably rude to steal food from another diner’s plate,” Em snapped. She had nearly gotten over the sight of Lord Torrid’s twin turgid members and had been eyeing the sausage as her next bite.
“Really?” Om’bobla looked surprised. “What a strange world you must live on! On my world, when we see something we want, we just take it. What’s that?” he continued, impaling one of her mushrooms and popping it into his mouth.
“It’s a fungus,” Em said blandly. “It often grows in animal feces.” Which of course wasn’t strictly true, especially of modern mushrooms one could get at the market, but she was hoping to shock the extremely rude squid man into being more polite.
It didn’t work, however. Om’bobla simply nodded, chewing thoughtfully.
“Hmm…I think I can taste a bit of that. Gives it an earthy flavor,” he burbled. “It must be a delicacy on your planet.”
“Indeed,” Em said frostily. She moved her plate as far away from the squid man as possible, hoping to eat her baked beans in peace. She wished she’d made some bacon and buttered toast to go with her breakfast, but she had run out of clay. And anyway, Om’bobla probably would have stolen them.
“Now speaking of delicacies from other worlds, you’re looking very sexy today,” he remarked, still speaking to her, though she was pointedly ignoring him.
Em said nothing. Keeping her eyes on her plate, she continued to chew. She refused to dignify such talk with a response.
“Are you ready for the Third Trial?” Om’bobla continued, grinning suggestively at her. “Ready to fuck for the glory of your planet? Because I must say, you’re looking very fuckable today, my dear.”
As he spoke, Em felt something slimy crawling over her right knee. She gasped and jerked upright at the sudden, extremely unpleasant sensation.
“What in the Hell?” she muttered. She glared at Om’bobla, but both his hands were in view. He had turned his head away from her and now he was messily devouring something that looked like it had once been a sort of a shark. It had a black body and purple fins and a mouthful of jagged teeth which would have been terrifying to behold if it had been alive. The squid man was elbows deep in its carcass, tearing out handfuls of dark gray meat with both tentacled hands and shoving it into his mouth.
Em thought she must have imagined the strange feeling—possibly sitting beside Om’bobla was just making her skin crawl. But as soon as she settled back to her own breakfast, she felt the sensation again—this time sliding around her knee and creeping up her inner thigh.
“Ugh!” she exclaimed involuntarily and jumped up from the table.
Rarev looked up, a protective growl rising in his throat.
“Are you well, my l’eeja?” he asked. “Has someone bothered you?”
He looked pointedly at Om’bobla, but the squid man only returned a mild, innocent look.
“What?” he asked, speaking with a mouthful of dark gray alien shark meat, which turned Em’s stomach.
That’s it, she thought. I’m officially finished with breakfast.
“I just, er, need to use the facilities,” she said, trying to make an excuse for nearly jumping out of her skin.
“Oh—they’re just through that doorway and down the hallway to your right,” Elfa said helpfully, coming forward. The Rigellen attendant had been standing in the corner of the room while they ate, clearly hanging around on orders from the judges, in case there was any trouble.
“Thank you,” Em said stiffly. “I’ll just excuse myself, then.”
With a quick nod at Rarev to let the big Monstrum know she was all right, Em stalked out of the dining area. She couldn’t prove that Om’bobla had anything to do with the strange, slimy sensation she’d felt twice on her leg, but she didn’t want to sit near him one more minute. She would take her time using the facilities and hopefully return just as breakfast was over, she decided.
She had no idea how much danger her plan had put her in.
32
The toilets off of the dining area were extremely plain and functional which was fine with Em—she didn’t need a repeat of the experience she’d had last night. She scanned the area carefully for colorful buttons and found none—still, she was determined to be careful what she touched.
She didn’t really need to relieve herself, but she wanted to check the leg that had felt like something was crawling on it. Lifting the semi-translucent skirt of her wrap dress, she had a look at her right knee.