Loki's Daughter

Chapter 5: Diamonds

The city was bustling with activity. Kuna stared in wonderment at all the beings around her. Some had beautiful, brightly colored skin, others had tails and pointy ears, others still were covered in long, thick feathers like birds. Some beings were gigantic, standing a few meters above their heads, some normal sized (or what she thought was normal), and some were quite small.

"This looks to be a rather advanced civilization," Loki observed, as they moved through the crowds. "Looks like they've at least made contact with their stellar neighborhood groups, if not further afield," he continued, as a rather stunning Xandarian walked by. He watched him walk by and raised a brow and winked at him as he passed, checking out his rather lovely rear end. Beside him, Kuna tripped and fell, breaking Loki's gaze. She crawled to her feet.

On the ground, a small, indigenous Sakaaran rolled onto his back. The insect-like being struggled to turn over and get up from the hard shell encasing his body. Kuna leaned over and took one of his four hands and helped him up.

"I – I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to knock you over. Are you alright, sir? I'm – I'm so so sorry, sir," Kuna stuttered. The bug brushed himself off and shook his head.

"You should watch where you're going," Loki said. Kuna looked up at him, worried that he was angry with her. "You might get stepped on, sir," he added with a sneer at the Sakaaran.

The little creature started cursing at him and Kuna in every language under the many suns, making all sorts of likely obscene gestures with his four hands. Loki covered Kuna's ears and they moved on. Kuna took Loki's hand to stay close to him. There were so many people, she was afraid of losing him in the crowd. He did not like her hanging on him in this way but thought there was little choice he had.

A bazaar was set up in the center of the bustling city. There were vendors from all over the galaxy. Suddenly fearing he might be recognized with all these migrant beings around, Loki conjured a dark hood for himself and pulled it over his head. He pulled up a cowl to cover his mouth as well, just for good measure.

Kuna looked around in amazement. She had never been to a market like this before. The only markets she ever saw were the slave markets in her home-system and they were nothing like this. Her nose filled with all sorts of new and exciting smells wafting through the open-air market stalls. Her eyes widened, taking in all the pretty colors and people and objects around her.

As they passed by a row of grills, flames shot up from sizzling skillets as chefs tossed them, sending the food they cooked flipping into the air. Kuna could smell all the spices they were using. It smelled so hot, it nearly made her eyes water. Meat hung from hooks in some stalls, in others, piles and piles of fish stood in little baskets. Some had buckets filled with water that had live creatures in them. Customers stood by picking out their next meals from the buckets and hooks and baskets.

Other shops had mountains of colorful fruit and vegetables all ordered by color and shape. She did not recognize very many of the fruits or vegetables, but they all looked delicious and she remembered her aching tummy. To distract herself from the glorious food all around her, she looked at another stall selling fine clothing. Some of it was like nothing she had ever seen. Shiny metal and leather, woven together like fabric. Other stalls sold weapons; swords and axes, guns and blasters, pikes and rocket launchers.

One side of the bazaar held pens filled with strange looking animals. Animals with long necks and legs. Animals that walked on their front paws instead of all four. Animals that had six and eight limbs. Kuna stared at them. She could barely keep up with Loki as he led her through the stalls and vendors.