More than once they paused at a stall because Lauren was just as awed as she was.
“Look at this!” Lauren reached forward to touch a wisp of smoke that floated into the air. The merchant at the stall was smoking something that looked like a huge needle with a ring on one end and blowing the smoke through what she assumed was his nose?
Somehow, he was making shapes with the wisps and she was partly captivated and turned off at the same time.
“What is that? How does he do that…” Her murmur caught Riv’s ear and he grunted.
“Woogli smoke.” With that, he steered Lauren forward, and they continued on their way.
He seemed to know exactly where he was taking them, judging from the way he walked with confidence, weaving them through one street to the other, and Nia was happy to follow along behind.
When they finally stopped walking, it was in front of a stall with some hovering cylinders.
She didn’t realize what they were until one of the things slid open.
“Oh, a cradle!”
Lauren beamed and reached forward to touch the nearest one.
The things looked expensive but she knew Riv wouldn’t mind. He’d gladly give an arm and a leg to make Lauren happy.
As she glanced around at the throng of aliens moving up and down the street, Nia vaguely heard Lauren’s oohs and ahhs as she looked at some of the other cradles.
She could sense Lauren’s excitement, but something else had caught her attention.
On the other side of the street, there was a group of aliens in robes similar to the one she was wearing.
Nia frowned a little as she watched them.
“Hey, guys, looks like my fashion choice isn’t so abnormal…” she said, but with the noise surrounding them, it didn’t seem like Riv or Lauren heard.
They were too busy discussing which of the cradles would be best and the merchant was arguing, and trying, it seemed, to sell them the most expensive one.
Riv was translating what Lauren said to the merchant—because only the few people they knew personally had English uploaded to their translator devices—and he scowled at the merchant while doing so.
Nia huffed a laugh through her nose. Poor merchant didn’t know who he was up against.
She was about to glance back toward the group of cloak-wearing aliens when one of them suddenly bumped into her.
“What are you doing, fool? You want to get beaten? Move it!” She could hardly see the face of the alien that spoke, but alarm rose within her as he pushed her and she stumbled into the middle of their group.
They were walking together heading down the street and Nia realized quickly that she was being pushed along, caught within their close formation.
“What? No. I’m not—I’m not with you.”
She tried to get out of their way and to safety at the side of the street, but there were so many of them, about twenty at least, and freeing herself from within their midst was proving difficult.
The frustration of being five foot five and thin hit her hard.
It was like being caught in a crowd of moving people who were headed in a singular direction while she was struggling to go the other way.
“Um, excuse me.” She struggled to find her footing and make it out of the middle of the group, but that wasn’t working. “EXCUSE ME!”
“Phek. It looks like this one drank too much. What an idiot.” The voice came from her right. It was so androgynous, she couldn’t determine if the speaker was male or female, but she guessed male. “He’s so phekked he’s speaking nonsense.”
There were a few grunting sounds that she assumed was laughter before she felt a hard blow to the back of her head. It almost made her lose consciousness and her vision swam in front of her.
You’d think they’d let her fall and leave her on the road so she could recover and crawl back toward Riv and Lauren, but no.
She stumbled a little from the blow and her feet dragged, but they collectively pulled her along.
“Stop!” Her head hurt and her shout wasn’t even a loud one. “Stop!” She dug her feet into the ground, but that didn’t hinder them. All it did was cause her to almost lose her shoes a few times.
“Keep going if you know what’s good for you, idiot.”
Arms held on to hers, forcing her along as panic arose within her like a cold icicle up her spine.
“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not with your group!”
She tried to shake them off as she spoke, to no avail. These motherfuckers were strong.
They’d walked far enough now that she couldn’t see Riv or Lauren but she wasn’t sure if that was because of the distance they’d moved or if it was because she was so caught between the aliens that she could hardly see over their shoulders.
Her breathing started coming hard and fast, and Nia did the only thing she knew she could.
She put all her weight on the arms holding her and kicked the ones in front, trying to break free. That made the group lose formation for a little, and a few of the aliens stumbled.
“Phek!”
“Hold him down!”
Nia caught a view of dark faces before she screamed. “Stop! I’m not with you! Let me go!”
Surely, the aliens around her would realize something was wrong. Surely, someone would help her.
But she knew even as soon as the thought left her mind that this wasn’t true.
The Exchange was ruthless and one thing aliens did here was mind their own business.
“Hit him again. He needs to shut up. If the boss hears him blabbering when we get there, he’ll know all of us were drinking.”
As her feet hit the ground once more, she almost stumbled, but they were walking in such a close-knit unit that she was kept upright. One of her trainers almost slipped off her foot, and there was a moment where she was hop-hobbling, trying not to lose the shoe as they dragged her along. She’d
