The Alien King’s Pet by Loki Renard

8The Power of Pity

Left alone, Katie dissolved into tears. Real tears of misery and pain. Her ass fucking hurt. Dominax had really torn into her. Every time she breathed, she felt her rear pulse with fresh sting and ache.

Maybe she’d deserved it. Maybe she’d even pushed for it, but he’d punished her and just walked the fuck away. For some reason, that hurt more than the thrashing itself.

She didn’t know how long she lay there, bare-assed, crying out of self-pity and doing sweet fuck all to help herself. Could have been half an hour, could have been half a day. She was caught up in that exquisite state of pure misery which requires abject wallowing, and she would have stayed there unless the door hadn’t opened.

Katie looked up over her arms, expecting Dominax. But it wasn’t him. It was Alf, the guard.

“I am getting you out of here,” he declared.

Her plan was actually working. She couldn’t believe it. But she wasn’t going to question it. The guard had seemed like a good guy, and she guessed he was. Having to stand out there listening to the king whip her must have been hard for him.

“Really?”

“You were abducted from your world and taken to be the servant of a king you don’t recognize. Freeing you is the right thing to do.”

“Won’t Dominax kill you?”

“If one of us tells him what I’ve done, perhaps,” the guard replied. “The official story will be that you escaped and fell into the lava.”

“That’s a good story. He won’t come looking for me then.”

“Hopefully not, no. Put this on.”

The soldier held out a big, bright pink, floppy piece of constructed clothing which came with a built-in hood. It looked like a hazmat suit, but bright and colorful and with a lot more room in the shoulder region, almost like it was designed for someone with wings.

“What is this for?”

“The palace is shielded from storms,” he said. “But out beyond the verges of this landmass, we get rain.”

“I’m used to rain.”

“Not this kind of rain, I’d bet. You don’t have any leathering of your skin. You’re very soft.”

She was also pretty much naked, so why the hell was she whining about getting some clothes?

“Thanks,” she said, clambering into the outfit. It fit surprisingly well besides the shoulders. “Why do you have this?”

“Our young cannot handle the storms,” the soldier said. “This belonged to my daughter before she outgrew it. You can keep it.”

“Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome. I never thought I’d taste the food of another world,” he smiled. “And I never thought I’d have the chance to do something that mattered again. Dominax is a good king, but he is not a good lover. He is impatient and he is brutal, and you are far too impudent to be a match for him. It’s best you get as far away from here as possible.”

Katie felt a little pang in her gut at hearing the guard say that she and Dominax weren’t compatible. But of course, she couldn’t say anything. To say that they were would be like saying she didn’t want to escape, and she did.

“Close your eyes if you don’t like heights,” Alf said, picking her up under her arms and swinging her around onto his back, where she nestled between his wings and wrapped her arms around his neck for security. “This is a long flight.”

They lifted off out of the window and took to the skies. Almost immediately, they were enveloped by a cloud which hid them from view. She could see condensation forming on the visor of her suit, and was glad for it. The smell was extremely acidic and not at all pleasant — but she didn’t mind. Freedom was happening to her.

She wondered what Dominax would think when he discovered she was gone. She wondered what would happen to Alf if he got caught having helped her escape. And she wondered what was going to happen to her next — would she find freedom? Or was it out of the frying pain and into the lava fire?

She had plenty of time to think about it. The flight went on for well over an hour. There were no snacks, and no movies to watch. There was just the musculature of the guard who had taken pity on her and a whole lot of lava below waiting to swallow them up if he got tired.

Finally, however, she saw something. At first it just looked like another rocky plateau. But the closer they got, the more she started to make out familiar kinds of terrain. It wasn’t natural. It wasn’t craggy and jagged. It was square and orderly. It was a whole lot of construction, it was…

“A CITY!” she screamed into Alf’s ear.

“Golden City,” he confirmed. “The biggest city on the planet. And the only one with an intergalactic port. You’ll be able to hide here until you can get a ticket off-world. I’d give you one myself, but…”

“NO, YOU’VE DONE MORE THAN ENOUGH!”

She shrieked the words partially to be heard over the rushing wind, and partially because she was so fucking excited to see a city again. It felt like coming home to a place she’d never been.

Dropped in the city, and left to her own devices by the guard who had done more than enough just by getting her out of the palace, Katie was free. Alf wished her the best, told her she could keep the suit, and then got back on the wing in an attempt to get back to the palace before she was discovered to be missing. Katie really fucking hoped she hadn’t gotten that guy killed.

Dominax had fucking lied. He’d acted as though Royal Rock was the only place on Homeworld worth being. He’d made out as though all the rest of it was lava and dirt. He hadn’t even mentioned the existence of what Alf had called Golden City.

This place wasn’t boring. This place was absolutely spectacular. It was just all hidden away out of sight from the palace by the weather, super hot steam storms which would have burned the shit out of her if Alf hadn’t let her keep the suit.

The weather might have been supremely shitty, but the city was incredible. Spread across several landmasses, connected by bridges across which merchandise was moved, this was a city worth investigating. Even though everybody could fly, most were still walking, she noticed. The Homelanders weren’t all natural flyers. They were heavy and muscular, and though the king and his coterie were obviously agile in flight, she saw more than one of the more average Homelanders struggle to flap their way up to the third floor.

“Even aliens need wheels and wagons,” she mumbled to herself as a heavy transporter chugged by. It looked like it was being powered by lava, which seemed dangerous, but probably no more dangerous than cars which were powered by petrol explosions.

She liked this place. This felt almost like home. Everybody was busy, and they were everywhere, dashing about among one another, except unlike NYC where people pushed past one another on the streets, the air was also full of traffic. Feathers drifted down in puffs when Homelanders collided above. This city was magical and filthy. Finally she had found something to love.

And then there were the aliens. Well. Other aliens. Aliens who weren’t human and weren’t Homelanders either. Aliens with springy legs and coiled tails. Aliens with four eyes and two mouths. Aliens of all manner of configuration and imagination. Aliens that slimed along the streets, and aliens made of blades.

Katie sat on a street corner and just watched the world go by. There was so much to take in. So much to learn. It was as strange a place as she had ever imagined, and she was entranced by it all.