Page 79 of I'm Not Your Pet

“You’ll see,” Ushuu replied. Both he and Mala had been acting secretive. I wasn’t worried. How could I be when Roark had very carefully reiterated this morning that he had a surprise for me?

He’dpromisedthat they’d keep me safe, the best that he could in stilted English.

“Huu-goh safe with Mala, Ushuu. Soo-Prise.” Surprise was a new word for him, and the fact he’d disappeared the night before for several hours told me he’d made Ushuu teach it to him just so he could use it this morning.

The sentence had been a bit garbled, but I’d understood what he was trying to say. We’d been talking enough lately that I’d grown better and better at filling in the blanks for him. His pronunciation was getting better too—as was his vocabulary. Ushuu was teaching me to write—because I wasn’t capable of saying more than a handful of words in sharkish, but even then, it was frustrating sometimes not to be able to say what I wanted to Roark.

I shook away the morose thoughts and instead took in my surroundings.

The massive buildings that dotted the skyline ahead were even taller the closer we got to them. Small aircrafts that basically looked like floating silver golfballs sped through the air so quickly all you could hear was the quietswooshof them. Ihadn’t noticed them at first, as they zoomed high above the usual space shuttles.

I made a mental note about them, too, watching them dance above with fascination.

There was a giant winding staircase ahead—though as we got closer, I realized that “staircase” wasn’t the most accurate descriptor to give it. Escalator on crack would be more truthful, because it moved with a blur of bodies, sending them up, up, up what looked like over a thousand feet to a platform so high I couldn’t see what was on it.

A bulbous alien with a single eye the size of a dinner plate waited at the exit to the port. He spoke to Mala with a series of clicks and whirrs, swiped something on what looked like a giant tablet with a hologram floating above it, then gestured for us to move past him toward the moving stairs.

As we took our place on the steps, I felt a little giddy.

I still had no ideawherewe were going—or why we were going there—but at this point, that hardly mattered. We were goingout! And that was a bigger gift than I’d dared hope for since the day I was abducted. The only thing that would’ve made this better was if Roark was here.

Did he find the city as fascinating as I did?

Or not? Because his planet was similar?

As I gawked at the rising metropolis above, it struck me for the first time how absolutely shitty F’ukYuu had been.

Since it had been the only planet I’d visited, besides my own, it hadn’t occurred to me how seedy and dirty it truly was. Sure, the pleasure house I’d come from was clean and well-kept, but the streets of the planet had been crawling with discarded trash.

It wasn’t fair that the wealth there remained in the pockets of the owners of the houses, and that the rest of us were forced to suffer. I was glad I was out now, but that didn’t mean my heart didn’t hurt for the people I’d left behind.

Sure, I’d never really made any friends—despite trying—but still.

I felt bad.

None of them had been adopted by a giant pink shark daddy.

None of them would ever see a planet like the one I currently occupied.

I truly was the lucky one.

I missed Roark then, fiercely, as our little group reached the top of the winding staircase to discover it led to what I could only describe as a…mall? Analienmall.

The structure was made of glass, just like the dock had been, shops stacked on top of one another as high as the eye could see. There was no end to them from left to right—vendors that carried every kind of ware, out haggling on the street or standing in their almost box-like store fronts, waiting for customers to ride the elevators beside each section to meet them.

A mall in space.

Huh.

Why did Roark send me here?

Mala stepped off the stairs to lead the way, and as I followed, I couldn’t hide my astonishment. Ushuu stayed close behind me, protective of my back, as we shuffled off to join Mala. When we were on solid ground, off to the side and out of the line of traffic, both Sahrks paused to let me take it all in.

The big buildings I’d seen from the pier climbed the sky like giants. But they barely held my attention. No, that was reserved for the stores that lined both sides of the walkway. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe. All brightly lit and beautiful, looking inviting, clean, and fancier than anything I’d ever seen in all my life. I could see what they sold more clearly up close, and my eyes danced over the glittering gems, lacy corsets, and dresses that were for sale at the shop nearest where we stood.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I let myself imagine what the fabric must feel like.

Silky probably.

---