* * * * *
Shan Lin nearly chuckled at Shari as he watched Vincent round up a few of the men and women who were trying to hide from the
krikers
. It would be up to himself and Vincent to convince Shari to stay.
“Look at…” Shari began.
“At what,
Kasha
?”
“I wonder what Vincent said to entice those folks to help round up the chicks?”
“I imagine he asked them.” Shan Lin said casually wondering if Shari had missed Winters addressing her by her own title. Shrugging it off, Shan Lin knew she would soon figure it out. Thinking to distract her, Shan Lin began to question her.
“Where would you like to start with the tour? Would you like to go to the top of the port? Would you like to see some of the
Tears
in the town? Was there anything particular about our realm you’d like to know?”
Watching Shari, Shan Lin detected her planned escape attempt retreat from her eyes, and waited patiently for what she would say.
“I…I think I’d like to see a bit more of the town before I decide. Would it be all right?”
“Whatever you would like. We are at your disposal,” he said, amusement in his voice.
Watching her nod of acceptance, Shan Lin knew he and his brother had their work cut out for them.
What work? All you’re doing is salivating over our bride.
Shan Lin did chuckle when he heard the impatience in Vincent’s voice.
“What? What’s so funny?” Shari asked as she turned from looking around Naralin once more to face him.
“Just watching the villagers rounding up the
krikers
. Watch when…”
Shan Lin was saved from having to further explain as one of the
krikers
chose to try for a man’s foot just then. As the man dodged the
kriker
coming at him, one of the other
krikers
charged the man from behind, and with an enormous leap, latched onto the man’s backside.
A howl of indignant pain, the man swatted at the
kriker
to no avail. The little bird hung on for its life until one of the women helpers came over and extracted it from the man’s backside.
“He’s bleeding!” Shari exclaimed.
“It happens. If they had been
kriker
handlers, they would have flak skin-suits under their clothing for just such accidents. It looks as if the owner of the
kriker
shop neglected to feed them. Or more likely, he’s just getting a delivery and they need to be fed.”
“What do they eat?” Shari asked suspiciously as she continued to watch the man limp off.
“If left to their own, they’ll forage mostly on vegetation.”
Shari turned giving him a look of disbelief.
“Those look like they were raised on a farm though.” Shan Lin continued ignoring Shari’s look. “If they are, then they’ll want meat. They’re being bred for the military.”
“What exactly could those tiny things be good for?” Shari asked skeptically.
“They do get bigger. In fact, they will eventually get big enough for a man or woman to ride or fly on. They’re handy to have in battle when the battlefield is a long stretch of uncovered ground. Easy in, easy out, and if you’re good, no damage to the person.”
Shan Lin watched Shari as the last of the
krikers
were put back into their cages and knew she wouldn’t believe him. It mattered little though. She would be here long enough to see what he was telling her was the truth, even if she thought differently.
She’ll leave over my dead body
, came Vincent’s response to Shan Lin’s thoughts.
Shan Lin agreed wholeheartedly.
Chapter Eight
Vincent joined them and they all made their way up and down the paved and unpaved streets of Naralin. Shari marveled at the things she saw. She barely paid the slightest attention to the two men following her other than to listen to their answers to questions she asked.
If she had paid attention to them, she would have noticed how the two men always kept her between them. How they steered her away from anything that would even remotely mar the pleasure she was having in what she saw.
Like now, they had stopped at what she assumed was a type of Radio Shack only to find out it was a Techio Trip.
“It’s a what?” she asked for the second time as she gazed into the front window of the building they had stopped in front of. Through the window of the cavernous building she watched men and women of all ages, different races, and some with strange looking pets, prowling around electronic equipment. She watched as one of the animals who looked like a goat crawl directly through what looked like a speaker only to come back out almost instantly staggering on all four legs.
Before she could ask again, Shan Lin explained.
“A Techio Trip. This is a type of hotel you can stay in. Any kind of techno equipment out on the market today is in this hotel. You can spend a week watching nothing but what you want to see. You can spend three days listening to concerts of your choice, you can spend a month using the Pseudo Reality games and take reality trips around the different Realms without ever leaving your hotel room. You can set up an elaborate game of Warrior and Wasted, and slay the enemy without ever leaving your room. The most popular version of the game lasted for four and a half months, seventeen hours, and a couple of minutes.”
Vincent interrupted his brother to further explain.
“There was a convention of techies here who took over and blocked off the hotel for six months. When they finally came out of the game they’d booked, they didn’t know if the game had been real or if they were the last surviving members in Naralin. They wondered if they had offed every known person in the vicinity. The entire group ended up having to go through a program deprogramming before their reality righted itself again.”
Shari shook her head.
Techies. Warrior and Wasted, program deprograms. Huh?
She might not have understood what they were saying, but she got the gist of the hotel’s purpose.
“Why is a goat in there though? Is it for a pretend sacrifice in the game, or dinner?”
Shan Lin and Vincent turned to look into the window for what she was seeing.
“What goat?” Both men asked in unison.
Shari looked once again for the goat going through a speaker.
“
That
goat. The one going in and out of a speaker over there.” She pointed at the window and watched the now nearly dead on its feet goat enter and exit the same speaker over and over as it got weaker and weaker each time.
Shan Lin and Vincent began to chuckle and Vincent answered her.
“It’s not a goat. It’s Aharlin.”
“What’s a harlin?” Shari asked.
“Not what, who.” Shan Lin answered this time.
“Okay. Who’s a harlin?”
“Aharlin is a shifter.”
“A shifter?” Shari asked inanely.
“Yes, a shifter. He’s from Krinmal and vacations here every year. He enjoys staying at The Techio Trip. He shifts into whatever animal takes his fancy whenever he’s here. Aharlin enjoys the feeling of orgasming in the vibration chamber as an Earth animal.”
Shari nodded dumbly wondering if she hadn’t stepped down Alice’s hole and gone too far ‘round the bend.
“Ok. Ummm… I think I’ve seen enough.”
Before either man could respond, Shari walked further down the street only to come to a halt when she reached the end. Before her were huts made of crude materials. They were the same type she had seen on their drive into the town.
Thinking about the drive she became distracted remembering the feel of both men surrounding her with their bodies, grinding their hard…
“Um… What are those?”
Her question fairly shot out of her mouth and tripped over her tongue as she did her best to stop the reaction her body was having at the remembrance of her trip into town.
“People’s homes,” was Shan Lin’s response. Shari thought she heard a smile in his voice but when she turned to look, his face held a bland expression.
“People’s homes? Does that mean this is, what, the poorer side of the tracks?”
She watched as a look of confusion stole over the men’s faces before Vincent spoke up.
“No. The tracks are on the west side of town. This is the east.”
Shari grimaced before correcting him.
“No. I mean, is this where the people who can’t get work live?”
Vincent shook his head negatively.
“No. These people chose to live like this.”
Shari thought her jaw might be permanently lodged into the completely open position as she snapped it shut once more.
“But… Why?” she asked, baffled anyone would want to live in squalor. Because that’s what it looked like, primitive, crude, nearly caveman-like. The huts were built out of what looked to be whatever the owners could find. Straw, bricks, sticks, metal sheets… Maybe the three little pigs lived there.
A snort sounded behind her and she looked back to find Vincent stifling laughter.
Ahhhh. They were teasing her.
“Very funny. People don’t actually live there, do they? You were just pulling my leg.”
Shan Lin frowned as he looked down at her legs.
“No, but if you’d like…”
He walked forward and reached out for her leg. Shari thought he might just be trying to really pull it and managed to step back quickly.
Shan Lin straightened giving her a curious look.
“No. I mean, you weren’t actually telling me the truth about people living there.”
The curious look stayed on his face.
“No, I wasn’t joking. People actually live there. Would you like to see inside one?”
Shari, thinking they might be taking this joke a bit too far, accepted.
“Sure, show me.”
The three of them walked across the street and approached one of the buildings.
“Just go up and knock on one of the doors. They’ll let you in.”
Unsure whether to trust him or not, Shari hesitated. Before she could make up her mind, Vincent walked forward and banged on the side of the shanty.
It took barely three seconds before the entrance was opened and a man, dressed in what Shari could only decide was some kind of business suit, stepped into the doorway.
“Yes?” he asked looking at Shari.
“Er…” She was at a loss how to ask a complete stranger for a tour of his…abode.
“My Lady Princess would like a tour,” Vincent’s growled.
Shari watched as the man’s eyes opened wide then watched as he bowed deep from the waist toward Vincent, before rising to stand proud.
“Anything, My Lady Princess. Please, my home is yours.”
Shari looked from the man to Vincent before entering the man’s home. Laying a hand on his shoulder, she felt the flinch he tried to hide as well as the shaking.
Without looking back to the brothers, she spoke softly to the man.
“What’s your name?”
“Why, My Lady Princess?” he asked in a confused voice. “It’s not important.”
A low growling sound suddenly came from her right. She ignored it as she spoke to the man.
“Well, I can call you Sir, but if I’m to come into your home, I’d enjoy knowing your name. If you wouldn’t mind giving it.” Shari added the last hoping to quell the man’s fear. Shan Lin’s growling wasn’t exactly helping.
And why should it? The man had been ordered to let her in, and now he was being growled at. Gently, so neither Shan Lin nor Vincent could hear, Shari leaned closer to the man and whispered in his ear.
“You don’t have to let me in, Sir. I can tell them I’ve changed my mind. If you’re afraid…”
“No. Not at all!” The man protested hastily. “I’m proud to have…”
“Get away from him, now.”
Shari’s head whipped around at the sound of Shan Lin’s usually calm voice suddenly speaking in a soft, menacing whisper. She watched Shan Lin struggle to control his anger.
Almost before she knew it was happening, he was advancing slowly on her and the man now visibly trembled. Both she and the frightened man could feel the anger coming off Shan Lin.
Shari came to a sudden decision. Placing herself in front of the man’s body, her only thought to protect him, her mind could come up with only one question.
“What the hell is going on?”
* * * * *
Shan Lin! Control yourself now!
The thought was as close to ice water as Vincent had and he prayed it stifled the
Try Nas Ayn
Shan Lin seemed to have developed. Stunned, Vincent made his way over to his brother but found when he neared Shan Lin, his brother, the other half of his near whole, turned on him.
“Back away. She’s mine,” Shan Lin grated out stepping closer to Shari in an attempt to block Vincent’s advance.
“Warrior Rayan! Control yourself immediately.”
Shan Lin suddenly stopped his forward progress and stood still, his body visibly vibrating, as he seemed to fight himself. Several seconds went by as Vincent edged his way nearer to Shari, and when he finally reached her, he watched as his brother’s body shuddered.