I hated waiting.
8
Dana
I hated not knowing. I didn’t know if N’Ashtar had taken anything to heart about what I told him, if he had set any traps or just ignored me altogether. Were the Caterri about to have a bad morning, or would things go as fine as they always would?
Well. Fine for the Caterri, anyway. I grimaced down at between my legs. The cloth they had given me only did so much. However, I hadn’t seen Squire so far that morning, and I didn’t think any of the other Caterri were even remotely friendly. Then again, they did think I was dying of some blood-borne disease, so maybe they would have been amenable to providing what I needed.
“Eat.” B shoved food and a small packet of water in my direction. “We are to leave soon.”
“Can I get a new cloth?” I asked. “I need a new one for my disease.”
B wrinkled his nose in an oddly human gesture. Was that something his people had picked up, or was that something they did innately? The diplomat in me was always curious about other people’s cultures, and that became even more important when you took into account we could go to other planets. “We do not have cloths to waste on you.”
I let out a dramatic sigh. “I guess I’ll just have to bleed all over your fancy hovercraft, then.” I shook my head, glancing at the thing I was still handcuffed to. “Sure hope you’re not planning to reuse it after I disease it all up.”
B looked like someone had shoved poop under his nose. “Fine.”
“Also, I need to relieve myself,” I added as an afterthought. When he stared blankly at me, I hid an inward sigh. “Pee? Go to the bathroom?” Then I paused. “Do you even have bathrooms?”
It was clear from B’s expression that he wasn’t picking up what I was putting down, but I’d survive.
“I will have someone come escort you,” B grunted, stomping away without pushing the food or water close enough that I could reach it with my handcuffed hands. Instead I was left trying to grab them with my toes, and let’s just say, they are not prehensile digits. It was frustrating as fuck, lying there and trying desperately to get food close enough that I could eat it.
“I am here to supervise you.” The familiar voice was almost reassuring, something I never thought I would have assigned to a Caterri.
“Can you undo the cuffs?” I asked Squire, lifting my wrists in his direction.
“They have given me a temporary key,” he answered. “I am to return it once you are secure again.”
“So you don’t have the ability to remove them whenever you want?” Damnit. There was one hope for an escape plan gone.
“I am afraid I do not,” Squire said. “I am merely an underling, not to be gifted with such things. They only allow me to supervise you because they are afraid of catching your illness.”
Reminded of my lie, I watched him as he undid my cuffs and helped me stand. I massaged my wrists, watching as he did not balk and run away, or even look disgusted by me, even though the others did. Did he know I was lying, or was it something else? Did he just not care if he got sick?
“Thank you for looking after me,” I said softly, not sure if that was against Caterri etiquette or not.
Squire gave me a strange look, and I wondered if ‘thank you’ was even in their vocabulary. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it wasn’t. I dragged my mind away from those thoughts as he waited patiently for me to follow him. We’d come back for the food, because man, I really needed to pee. He took me a ways away from the camp, politely turning his back and giving me as much privacy as he could with the other Caterri not too far away. I was grateful for him, really. There was so much he could have done to make my life more difficult, but he didn’t.
Ignoring modesty because who really gave a damn at that point, I stripped my pants off to change the cloth in my underwear. Thankfully, I’d never really had a heavy flow, and my periods were light, so I wasn’t quite bleeding all over everything. I know, I know. I was That Girl who was not only perfect, but had easy periods, too.
By the time I yanked my pants back up, most of the Caterri had gathered at the edge of camp, watching me with hungry eyes. Even with my back mostly turned towards them so they couldn’t see between my legs, they still stared. Squire had turned back to me, probably because he couldn’t be caught not paying attention to the prisoner. He was nice, mostly, and I didn’t want him to get in trouble.
“I will dispose of this,” Squire announced, pulling another type of cloth out of nowhere and using it to pick up the bloody rag.
“Thanks,” I said again, earning me another strange look. At Squire’s nod, I followed him mostly back to the camp and where my food was, ignoring the stares of the others the best I could. Apparently they were impatient to leave, because I’d only finished half of my food when it was yanked out of my hand and I was shoved back in the hovercraft and handcuffed to it again.
I was starting to get sick of sitting and doing nothing, let’s be real. I wasn’t made for that sort of thing. I was a doer, not a sitter. Squire tossed the cloths he’d been holding in the fire, although he didn’t glance my way. When we were
