Page 4 of Alien Abduction for Professionals
"I assume they're some kind of delicacy?" Trish asked when we walked away from the stall. "You seem to be very keen on them."
Havel laughed. "Wait until you've tried one. You'll never want to eat anything else."
"Which is impossible because we couldn't afford it," Xil muttered, but humour glinted in his eyes. He loved piki cakes just as much as the rest of us.
The medic handed Trish one and she unwrapped it eagerly, revealing the dark red cake. It was stamped with the traditional Intaran symbol that marked it as an original. Many people had tried to replicate them, but none had succeeded.
Trish took a first bite and her eyes widened. "This is amazing. What's it made of?"
"Nobody knows," I explained, "but don't let that stop you. It's not harmful."
She stopped eating. "You don't know? How can you eat something without knowing what it is?"
Havel chuckled. "Do you really care after tasting it?"
Trish took another bite, then shrugged. "Point taken. I'm glad you ordered that many."
We continued walking while enjoying our piki cakes, ignoring the other food stalls for now. We might return to them later, but the cakes would sate us for a while. Despite their small size, they were as filling as a full meal.
"Let's have a look over there," Xil said and led us towards a tech stall. "I could do with some upgrades to my communicator."
I suspected that wasn't what Trish was interested in, so I took her hand and pulled her the other direction. "You do that while Trish and I will continue to explore. Get me some upgrades too. My holo screen has been flickering recently."
Before the others could protest, we disappeared into the crowd. I was glad to be alone with Trish. Living in such close quarters on the ship, it was hard to spend some time with just her.
"Where are we going?" she asked.
I shrugged. "Wherever you like. Shall we look at clothes?"
Professor Katila had emphasised how important clothing was to females. Especially shoes.
"Yes - wait, what are those?"
She hurried towards a pet stall. Oh no. Xil had told me to avoid those. Larger animals were sold on one of the other shopping platforms, but pets and smaller service animals could also be found on this platform. Klat. Xil would kill me if I allowed her to get a pet. But looking at her expression as she took in the animals whining, barking, chirping and meowing from their cages, I knew that it was too late.
"Welcome, welcome," the owner called from behind a massive aaven who was getting its scales polished. Those six-legged beasts were prized as guard animals, but they were also great with children and would often be the first mount of juveniles living in rural areas. No, we were not getting an aaven.
"What are you in the mood for, my dear? We've just had a delivery of loovins. They're aquatic, but each comes with a floating liquid-filled bubble so you can take them with you wherever you go. They're long-lived, very loyal and don't make any noise."
He pointed at a stack of glass balls, each housing a strange-looking creature with fins twice as large as their bodies. I had no idea why anyone would want those as a pet. The word pet implied that you could touch and stroke the animal, but I doubted you could do that with loovins.
To my relief, Trish ignored both the aaven and the loovins. Instead, she stared at the tribitts housed in a large cage beneath the stall. I remembered how we'd once mentioned them in conversation. I dimly recalled that Xil even told her she could have one.
The little long-eared creatures were a sorry sight. While the other pets were all in pristine condition, the tribitts looked like they'd not been brushed in days. They were well-nourished but clearly hadn't been given the same attention as the other animals.
"Those are tribitts," the owner said dismissively. "Very old-fashioned. Nobody wants them nowadays. I only keep them because nostalgic tribitt enthusiasts need new breeding females for their herds."
"Ooooooh," Trish exclaimed. "You told me about them, Matar. You didn't say that they look like rabbits!"
"That's because I have no idea what a rabbit is," I chuckled. "But if you say so..."
"What's a rabbit?" the stall owner asked curiously. "Are they cute?"
"Very," Trish replied with a dreamy expression. "I used to have one as a child. They have ears just like these tribitts, but they're a bit smaller and less colourful. Mine was white with beige spots, but you'll also find black and brown ones."
"That sounds dull," I remarked. "It would make them hard to spot."
She laughed. "That's the point. In the wild, they're prey and need to camouflage."
