Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 108211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 541(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
The meal was different from anything Andi had ever had before. For one thing, it seemed that the Zo’rathian custom was to have a sweet main dish with a lot of savory toppings. Andi was served what seemed to be a giant dark blue waffle which covered her entire plate. There was a selection of “syrups” on the table, but not all of them were edible—at least in Andi’s opinion. She tried a little of each, however, filling the shallow indentations in the waffle with the different colored concoctions.
The one she liked the best was bright blue and had a strong taste of savory Thai green curry. The syrup she liked the least was pink and extremely spicy—it might have had some Boom-boom fruit in it, Andi thought, as she took a small bite and then hastily swallowed it.
Meanwhile, under the table, the Manimals were also eating enormous waffles, though without any kind of syrup. Goodie Tight-azz also served the older Manimal chained in the corner. But instead of a waffle, he got a small pile of dried brown pellets that looked like some kind of pet food to Andi.
When she put the plate down in front of him, he made a whining sound and looked up at her with sad eyes.
“There’s no use in complaining, Manfred!” Goodie Tight-azz snapped at him. “You’re on a diet—doctor’s orders. Eat that up because it’s all you’re getting tonight!”
The diet Manimal food looked awful to Andi, but she didn’t say anything. Flow-da, however, seemed to think this was a good topic of conversation.
“Poor old Manfred,” she remarked. “He always looks so sad when you serve him his kibble!”
Goodie Tight-azz snorted.
“Sad? Oh yes, he’d like you to think so! If he’d get out and run around the yard and exercise some, he might lose some of that gut! But no—he always was bone-idle, even before The Incident.”
“Then…he was your husband?” Andi asked uncertainly.
“My brother,” Goodie Tight-azz said succinctly. “We never were close, but once The Incident happened, his wife left him on my hands. Went up to the Moon colony and I haven’t heard nothing from her since.”
“It must be hard on you, having to take care of him,” Flow-da ventured.
“Not at all. I just keep him on a short leash. Otherwise he’d go join the wild packs that live out in the woods.”
“Oh—we were attacked by one of those packs on our way in to town!” Andi exclaimed.
“You were, were you?” Goodie Tight-azz narrowed her eyes and peered at Andi suspiciously. “And what happened? Did they mount you? Because I won’t have a Manimal lover in my house!”
“What? No!” Andi exclaimed. “I mean, they came after me but Cade fought them off and we got away.”
Goodie Tight-azz sniffed.
“Well…as long as they didn’t mount you. I won’t tolerate that kind of thing—it’s wrong. Just wrong.”
“Even if something like that would have happened, it wouldn’t have been my fault or my choice,” Andi pointed out. She was holding onto her temper with both hands—talk about blaming the victim!
“A woman always has a choice,” Goodie Tight-azz snapped. “For instance, you chose to go out there amongst the wild Manimals. Mayhap you wanted to get mounted.”
“You think I wanted to be raped?” Andi demanded. She was really upset now. How could Goodie Tight-azz say something so asinine?
Her landlady gave her a scornful look.
“I don’t know what you want, Missy. All I know is that’s what happens with a lot of girls in this town—they show up with a big belly and say it’s because the Manimal pack ‘attacked’ them. Huh—I know the truth—they went out into the forest because they were lusting to get knotted! It’s wrong and disgusting the way some women act!”
“I don’t think—” Andi began but then she caught sight of Flow-da, who was shaking her head and making a face, clearing cautioning her to be silent.
“You don’t think what?” Goodie Tight-azz demanded.
“Er…I don’t think I’ve ever had anything quite like this,” Andi said, swallowing her anger with some difficulty as she pointed to her mostly eaten waffle. “We have a food a little like this on my home planet of Earth, but I’ve never had so many unique toppings to go on it before.”
“It’s an old family recipe.” Goodie Tight-azz sounded mollified and Andi thought she was probably on safer ground now. Though she would have liked to argue with her landlady more about her pig-headed views, she recognized that she couldn’t afford to. She and Cade needed a place to stay until the Moon shuttle came back.
So she shoveled another bite of the sweet and savory waffle into her mouth to keep herself from saying what she really felt.
It wasn’t until the second course—a large bowl of something that seemed to be a cross between custard and flan topped with shredded purple meat—that the trouble started.