I watch her walk up the ramp, cradling the horc in her arms. I’m sure the thing grins at me.
“Cute.” The word floats back, not in Maggie’s voice but mine.
Nev the creatures. Nev the fact I was too distracted by the information I’ve received to initially notice Maggie had left the bridge and nev my warriors for not informing me she was roaming the ship.
Up above, I hear the sounds of alarm as the horc, accompanied by my mate, is noticed. With a deep roar, I’m out of the hold and slamming warriors aside to allow my mate to pass.
“Anyone who touches her or the horc will answer to me,” I growl. “The dining hall is this way.”
I indicate the direction Maggie should take, and she folds her lips up in a peculiar way but follows my direction. Once we reach the area, it’s swiftly emptied of warriors as Maggie hands me the horc, and for reasons I don’t understand, I take the thing from her, holding it at arms’ length.
“I’m going to get Horace somemeat,” she says pointedly.
“I wouldn’t bother.” I release the horc, and it shoots off, devouring all the leftovers, platters and all, before returning to Maggie and climbing her leg.
If I was expecting her to be disgusted, I am entirely wrong. Instead she makes a fuss of the nevving thing as it gets into her arms and repeats back various words to her in her own voice. Words likecute.
“Maggie…”
“Yes, Driok?” she queries, holding me with a steady gaze.
The horc blinks its three eyes at me, one at a time.
“Do you know anything about keeping horcs?”
“No, but then neither do you.”
“They are literal eating machines. It will happily eat this ship around us and then float off into space.”
“But it hasn’t,” she says.
“There’s still time.”
“But if it wants to eat the ship, why hasn’t it done so?” She tickles at it, and a little blue tongue swipes over her fingers.
I shudder. My tail shifts and lashes from side to side.
“I don’t know!” I fire out. “All I know is having a horc on a spacecraft is a very, very bad idea.”
“Then you’d better drop me off somewhere because I’m keeping Horace.”
I lift my head up and drop it back as I stare at the ceiling, releasing a groan. She has given it a name.
“Fine. But you need to know where it is at all times.”
“Not going to be difficult,” she says defiantly.
“And when you’re not able to carry it around, it’ll need to be in a forcefield protected container.”
Maggie looks down at the horc. “What do you reckon?” she asks it.
I feel like my eyes are going to pop out of my head.
“We agree.” She looks up at me.
“It’s not sleeping in our bed,” I growl.
“You’ve never had a pet, have you, Driok? I guess we’ll see about that.” Maggie smiles at me.
