Part 6

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

Speaking of living with Habib... She wanted to change that. The beautiful mosaics felt cool beneath her padded bare feet as she marched up the driveway to the edge of the property and to the dirt road. Standing on the edge of the sentient-made ground on her toes, Surani cast her green-eyed gaze out as far as she could. Yep. They were isolated. If she was going to escape, it would have to be after a long time of planning, for there were many things to take into account.

 

Firstly, they had traveled for hours. It was nearing evening and the sun was beginning its descent, which told her about the passage of time, as it had been late morning/early afternoon when she was first sold. It had been a long time on the journey since she had seen signs of civilization. She would either need to steal an automobile, which she had no idea how to man, or prepare for a several-day-long walk to a town. The walk, although longer and harder, was more appealing.

 

Secondly, in preparation for the long journey, she would need to pack some supplies. She may be a Tigress, but she was thoroughly domesticated, and had never used her claws and canines for more than eating what was served on a plate. And the idea of going without a change of clothes was very unattractive. Every sentient creature wore clothes, and she was sentient, not wild. But she would need to earn these things, or steal them. One way or the other, she needed to spend some time at this luxurious prison.

 

Thirdly, what of Habib? He was a deadly wildcard. As an experienced sentient Tiger, he was imposing and threatening to her freedom, as much as he seemed like he genuinely cared. And he was a magic-practitioner. Wild tigers are dangerous, sentient Tigers even more so, but a sentient magic-practicing Tiger has the potential to be one of the most dangerous beings in all of existence. If she bucked his thrall, who knows what he would do? It didn't help that he was so beautiful. It was easy to hate an old man who repeatedly harmed her, but although she hated to personally admit to being this shallow, she understood that Habib had the advantage of being attractive in her eyes.

 

A gentle cascading of water greeted her ears, which flicked softly in the warm, comfortable breeze. Her gaze raised from her paws to the water fountain she stood in front of, in the middle of a courtyard. She had always been one to pace and walk as she thought, but Surani didn't remember walking all this way. She must have been very absorbed in her thoughts. This is not okay. That had to be fixed.

 

Nonetheless, the fountain disarmed her by leaching away her fears. As far as fountains go, it was fairly ordinary, but Surani seldom saw anything so magnificent. She dipped her fingertips into the water, which was cool to the touch. A childish giggle bumbled awkwardly from her throat, and she gently wet her face with the water, droplets clinging to her nearly invisible whiskers like morning dew to a spider's web.

 

After giving a gentle shake to discard the water droplets, she moved on. Randomly selecting a direction in which to travel, she set off to the other end of the courtyard, where a door led inside. The door opened seamlessly as she approached, which she found both fascinating and unnerving. Stepping inside caused her to be greeted with a rush of cool air. The floor felt refreshingly cold beneath her feet, and she examined the contents of the room.

 

It was a ballroom, with a small but grand corner dedicated to musical instruments. These instruments were unlike anything she had ever seen. You or I may peer into this room and spy a piano, woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments, but music had never been a part of her life, and she barely recognized them as expensive and well cared for noise makers. Did Habib use these instruments? Did they magically play themselves? Were people hired on the evenings of dances and parties to play them?

 

Before she could stop herself, Surani found herself waltzing up to the piano. A single note played with the single key that she touched, and she jumped back in surprise. If the buttons that were black and white like her pelt made the sounds, than what were the strings on the inside of the chamber of the piano? Tentatively, she approached again. This time she was expecting the white thing to make a noise, and it did. It was so satisfying for something to happen when she expected it to. She was no piano player, but she sat on the stool anyways, and rested her fingertips on the keys, pressing down the notes. It sounded absolutely awful, the way she was playing it, but it was thrilling all the same.

 

Note by note, she touched the keys with her index finger from the low-sounding left end to the high-sounding right end. When she reached the highest key, she gave a smile, and dragged her whole hand all the way back down the piano.

“You'll be a concert pianist before you know it.” Habib's voice echoed across the room and penetrated her solitude. Despite having impressively sensitive ears, Surani didn't hear him enter the room, and although she may have been humanoid, the Cat within her caused her to jump several feet in the air out of shock from the unexpected sound, and she landed on all four paws as a puffball of orange and white fur, her back arched and her eyes wide.

 

Completely immobile, the two stared at each other, he with a smile and she with a snarl. Surani regained control from her animal instincts and stood on her two back paws again, brushing off the hopelessly dirty slave's sack of potatoes that she called an outfit. “Hi, Habib. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you come in.”

 

The Tiger gave a nonchalant wave of a paw as he approached. “Don't blame yourself. I should've announced my entrance rather than startling you so.”

 

Surani softly chuckled. Her fur had been so inflated, she felt like she must've looked ridiculous. With a shake of her head, she wiped the smile off of her face, and the euphoria from her mind, so that she could better deal with the predator that stood before her. “Did business go well..?”

 

Habib nodded and sat on the piano bench, playing a simple and well-practiced melodic tune as he spoke. “Yes. I just wanted to make sure that the house would be properly ready to welcome its newest member. Dinner will be starting soon, we should get you groomed and ready. Perhaps a little bit of fun first though, eh? Tell me, do you like to listen to music?”

 

The young Tigress dubiously sat next to her new owner as he played his instrument. “I know about it, but I've never heard music before.”

 

The melody halted instantly. Habib's voice was riddled with disbelief. “You're a teenager, and yet, you've never heard music...” He shook his head sadly. “You've been deprived of living life, haven't you? I'm so sorry, Surani. We shall remedy that together.” At the tail end of his last sentence, he started to play a more intermediate and complicated melody that Surani could never hope to duplicate. She detected a pattern of threes, but her tail flicked with mild surprise when Habib started singing along to the music.

 

Oh, he had such a lovely voice. When he spoke, it was quietly, for he had never needed to raise his voice; the power was always there, and never needed to be brandished like a shield or a sword. But when he sang, that power revealed itself in ways Surani never could've predicted. In just sitting next to him, she could feel that his frame rumbled with the bass tones of his voice, and she never knew that such art could be expressed through noises a humanoid could make.

 

After a few minutes, the song ended, and Habib flashed a charming smile to her, his bright orange eyes searching for her opinion. She nodded, and clapped her hands together, the way she had sometimes seen her old master do to express being impressed and pleased with something. “That was beautiful.”

 

“Thank you, Surani. Now come, let's get ready for dinner.” He stood gracefully and began to purposefully stride away, and she quickly followed.

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.