Shared Mercy Book 5 of the Guardians Saga

CH. 11.2 Forgiving Enough

After being up all night and into the morning, Alex snoozed well into the afternoon, with several of the new girls, also exhausted, curled around her deliciously warm mammal body.

Hunger, and the staring of many pairs of little eyes, finally woke her. She blinked blearily at the Mercy Tent girls, who giggled and smiled at her. The new girls around her gasped and clung to each other.

"Don't be afraid." Alex yawned widely. "This is the Mercy Tent where you are safe. Dola and Raba will feed you and take care of you. Once you've recovered enough, you'll have lessons in cooking and weaving and the like."

At the mention of their names, Dola and Raba entered the tent, smiling hugely and carrying a large basket of warm bread, the scent nearly driving Alex out of her mind with hunger.

"Sausage rolls and sweet rolls." Dola offered her basket. "Today you may pick whatever you like. Later we'll feed you up the right way."

Alex plunged her hand into the basket of sweet rolls and drew out a handful. She then passed them around to the timid girls. Alex tore into her roll, encouraging the girls to eat as well. The Mercy Tent girls then took sweet rolls for themselves and sat next to them, murmuring their names. Kira then squeezed in and Alex once again admired her calm composure.

Kira ended up taking over and Dola and Raba gently drew Alex away.

"Come with us to the market," Dola said. "We will shop for the girls and we think you would enjoy it."

The three eased out of the tent and walked toward the market. Rile intercepted them and handed Alex a leather pouch of coins.

"Don't spend it all in one place," he said with a mischievous grin. "And please buy some different hide oil for us. We really don't like smelling like flowers after a good hide oiling."

Alex giggled. "Does that hurt your masculine pride?"

He kissed her cheek. "It doesn't help. Buy something that you like too."

"Want to come with us?"

Rile shook his head. "Best if I don't come along. Dola, Raba, don't let the merchants take advantage of her. She wasn't raised in a bartering culture."

Alex considered swatting him, but decided that since he was right, she shouldn't.

The market was bustling at this time but not unpleasantly crowded. Vendors laughed and cried out for the passerby to stop and buy their wares. The smells of pickled onions, tomatoes, and a thousand kinds of spices filled the air, making it almost too pungent to breathe. The cries of vendors mixed with the sound of children laughing, the clanging of pots, and the constant chatter. Alex loved this time of day: the crowd, friendly smells and sounds, ear-to-ear grin on her face, and light racing through her heart.

At one of the weaver's booths, Dola and Raba insisted that Alex pick out blankets for the new girls. Alex loved the patterns of rust brown with mossy green, although a cheerful orange and yellow one also caught her eye. She bought them both, then several ones in shades of calm blue and turquoise.

At the hide oil booth, Alex selected the proper masculine scent after trying several. Two female Agama joined them and started picking among the bottles.

"Smooth skin is so important to be attractive," one female said, ostensibly to her friend, as they also browsed the oil bottles. "Not dry or scarred."

Alex pulled one of the blankets she had bought for the Mercy Tent over her forearm, scarred from her many battles.

"Absolutely," her friend confirmed. "And long, shapely claws, not stubby or broken."

Alex's fingernails fulfilled the 'stubby' description. She worked too hard to maintain the luxury of long nails. Her hand trembled slightly as she counted out the coins for the oil.

"I remember when such things were important," Dola said loudly to Raba. "Male customers at the brothel always demanded smooth skin and long, shapely claws."

Alex blinked away tears at the unexpected defense from an unexpected quarter.

"I also remember," Raba replied in a way meant to carry. Raba rarely spoke and for her to speak loudly made Alex stare. "Funny how it's the males who attend brothels who want such things from females."

"I didn't know there were males who valued females beyond the surface until I left the brothel. Odd how other females don't know it." Dola proclaimed the decisive sweep in the verbal battle and the two females left in a huff.

"No charge, Guardian." The merchant pushed Alex's money across the table with two extra jars of oil. "My humble gift for three perceptive females. I'm grateful they're forgiving enough to credit my gender, despite their past treatment."

Alex's smile was grateful. "I'd like to head back now, if that's all right."

Dola and Raba linked arms with her and they ambled back towards the Mercy Tent. But when they reached 'the perimeter' as Alex called it, the unmarked circle where no male passed closer to the Mercy Tent, they say Drake sitting on 'his' boulder.

Dola patted Alex's shoulder. "It'll be fine. He'll give you a new location and you'll rescue more girls. I can't wait." She waved and trotted off with Raba.

"It's rather early to have a new location," Alex said as greeting to Drake.

He hopped off the boulder and Alex noted his clothes weren't his usual finery.

"It's not good news and I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to beat me," he said in a grim tone.

"Beat you? Why? Did you enter the child prostitution business?" Alex put her hands on her hips and looked him up and down. "Why are you dressed like that, anyway?"

He grinned saucily for a moment. "Wouldn't want my best clothing ruined in a beating, now would I?"

"What's going on?"

Drake leaned forward and whispered, "Could you yell that and wave your arms around, please? We are being watched by Flint's spies."

Alex grabbed his collar and shook him as she shouted, "What is going on?"

"I came to tell you that you'll get nothing from me, alien," he snarled. "Your power has no further hold on me. Leave me and my females alone!"

Alex pulled him close, nose to muzzle and said, "I'm going to slap you right, left and then right again. Jerk your head like I've hit you." Then she shoved him away and proceeded to make a Hollywood-esque punching, her fist smacking loudly into her other palm as she pretended to beat him. "If my power doesn't work, my fists do! And my knees!"

She dramatically 'kneed' him in the abdomen, while Drake grunted loudly and doubled over. He collapsed to the ground and as Alex knelt next to him, 'punching' him, he whispered, "Hawk Beak Ridge, the abandoned mining settlement."

Alex stood up and 'kicked' him, showering him with dirt. "That's what I think of you challenging me near the Mercy Tent! Come around again and I'll make you beg!"

With a final shower of dirt over him, Alex stomped off to the Mercy Tent, a small audience now watching her from around it.

***

A/N

Dedicated to faithful readers

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