Part 3

A young teen finds herself with difficult decisions to make when thrust into a new chapter within the slave trade.

A motorized vehicle sputtered its way to a stop in front of the two with what Surani thought to be a relieved sigh. Habib opened the door for her, and she slid inside, taking one last look at the marketplace, unsure of what future awaited her. The other Tiger entered the car as well, and then shut the door behind him. “Home, please.” His regal voice requested of his driver. To Surani's surprise, the driver was a human. Habib must be very rich in order to afford service from a creature so rare to this area. “Tell me about yourself, Surani.”

“I have nothing to tell.”

“I'm sure you do. How old are you?”

“I don't know.”

“Hm. Where are you from?”

“I don't know.”

“Have you ever received an education?”

“No.”

“Have you thought of what you want to do with your future?”

“No.”

“Do you have any family members?”

“No.”

“What happened to them?”

“I don't know.”

The conversation shared many similarities to a fencing match. The sprightly, over-confident challenger thought he could defeat the champion because he always had his way with others. After a couple of tests quickly shot down, he would launch into a flurry of attacks, only for each one to be easily counteracted with practiced ease. The challenger would recognize the superiority, and let it go. Habib understood that Surani answered the questions to humor him, and would rather remain quiet. To win the game of challenger versus champion, the pair must figure out who is who first. For now, that required silence out of respect for each other, which is what followed.

The young Tigress gazed out the window and watched the landscape whiz by at dizzying speeds that she was unaccustomed to, but it was worse to look at the inside of the car, where things were motionless and simultaneously nauseating. The ride lasted much longer than she was anticipating. The scenery morphed from richly orange, well-trodden soil, to a road cutting through the middle of a densely populated jungle, to vast grasslands where non-sentient animals roamed.

Uncertainty was something Surani never had to deal with, and all of this uncertainty crashed around her like turbulent waves. She hated not knowing what to expect. There was a simple pride she took from being able to anticipate actions before they happen, but she had always lived with the same person for as long as she could remember, and was never allowed beyond his property. She had no idea the world was so big. Despite traveling at unearthly speeds, they traveled for hours.

The ball was in her court, so to speak, and she broke the silence at last. “Why were you in the marketplace when it's so far away from where you live?”

“Your previous owner made it known to all neighboring communities that a rare sentient Golden Tigress was going to be sold there. The more people who knew about it, the higher the price would be driven. I wouldn't be surprised if several hundred people know about you.” He answered simply and completely, his gaze also examining what lay beyond the windows.

The term 'several hundred' was lost on her, but she suspected that meant a lot. “How old are you?” She asked bluntly.

“Do you know your numbers, young one?”

She pursed her lips, disappointed that she had so many weaknesses and that they were apparently so obvious to this new potential threat. “I don't know my numbers.”

He gave a patient smile. “Then the number “thirty-five” means nothing to you. I am at the end of my natural, anthropomorphic prime.”

“What does that mean? An-thro...phic... What?”

Her ignorance was obviously at least a little amusing to him, but he did a decent job of hiding it, of treating her like she was more than a toddler. “'Anthropomorphic' means human-like, but not human. You and I are animals, but we think like humans, we walk on our back paws like humans, and we have the same lifespan of a human. We are anthropomorphic. Can you say the word?”

“An...thro...po...morph...ic?”

“Very good. Anthropomorphic. Human-like, but not human.”

For one as ignorant and sheltered as she to suddenly be exposed to such a large amount of new information, one might be overwhelmed. But not Surani. She was avidly soaking in all of this knowledge like a sponge, and was eager for more. “You are at the end of your... anthropomorphic... prime. What does that mean?”

“It means that I've been the strongest that I'll ever be. From here on out, I'll start to get weaker, instead of stronger. But, I'll be eating healthy and exercising a lot, so even though I'll start to get weaker, I won't actually be 'weak' until you're as old as I am now.” The sparkle in those bright orange eyes of his indicated he was enjoying answering the questions as much as she was enjoying asking them.

“Is that going to take a long time?”

“Yes, it is, Surani.” His ruse worked beautifully. After letting her wallow in uncomfortable silence, she caved in and started opening up to him, receiving what he had to say. He baited her a little longer like this, letting her lead the conversation, and now it was time to switch the roles. He could ask whatever question he pleased and she would be pressured and obligated to answer simply and fully as he had done. “What do you know about magic?”

“Magic?” Surani echoed the word in surprise, and cast her mind out to recall whatever information she knew on the matter. Her memory pulled up mostly blanks, asides from a few occasions that her previous master had offhandedly mentioned it. She was just about to offer what she knew when a red flag went up. She understood what he had done, the little strategy he had just employed. She may be ignorant, but she was intelligent. Her eyes went from curious to cold as quickly as the breeze changes. “Nothing.” She responded at last.

Habib, too, was intelligent. He noticed the change from childish wonder to adultish suspicion easily, but that may have been because she had made no attempts at hiding it. “One day, young Tigress, you will grow to trust me. When that day comes, you will wish you had started trusting me sooner. I wish for you a happy, easy life, but for this to happen, you must show me you are worthy of such things.”

The young Tigress in question understood what this thinly veiled threat meant. She was in the slave trade... And not in the hard labor trade, but something else. He had bought her. His intentions for her were more selfish than a 'happy, easy life', and she silently chastised herself for believing differently, even if she had believed differently for only a few hours.

Author's Note

This is a story set during the industrial revolution, in a parallel third world. Magic exists along with science, and sentient animals walk among man. I feel confident about this part, Act I, and I have a solid foundation for Act III, but I'm struggling with the bridge between the two: Act II. I would love some constructive criticism and some recommendations of how to continue the story and overcome writer's block.