Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
“No! You stupid fish-scaled psychopaths! I’m not going back to that fucking store!” The human continues to protest at the top of her lungs. Of course, her owners have absolutely no idea what she is saying. To them, it is nothing but incoherent yelling, and judging by the way the lady of the house is covering her ears with her hands, it is quite upsetting.
“Let me help you,” I say to the owners in a soothing telepathic tone.
“You know better than to act this way, pet,” I drawl in my deep tones. I speak perfect human, and the one currently pitching a fit at the front of my store for all the world and good society to see, recognizes it instantly. Her head turns, and she shoots me a look of pure venom with her big brown human eyes.
“This is your fault, you fucking…” She goes off on another verbal tear, even more outraged now than she was before. I knew better than to think she would start behaving herself when she heard me. This is what happens when an untamed pet is sold. Jen needed a lot more training before she was ready to go to a new home.
I come forward and take the human’s feet from the owner’s hands. He is yanking on her alarmingly while still not managing to break her grip. Humans are not large, or strong, but they do have simian lineage in their DNA, and when they want to hold onto something, they can hold on for dear life. Still, his artless pulling and twisting could do damage to her relatively weak tendons and ligaments. If she does let go of the frame, she also has a significant chance of slamming her head into the ground, which could kill her. Humans can be surprisingly strong for their size, but they can also be easily injured.
I am careful when I take hold of her, running my hands up the curves of her body and then moving her back out into the street in the same direction as she was gripping, making it impossible for her to hold on, before tossing her up and over my shoulder in a position I’ve found very stable for most humans. Sure, they can kick you in the stomach, but the easy availability of a padded rear evens that risk out.
I take one hefty kick to my gut, and follow it up with a firm but not too hard slap to both of her cheeks. She lets out a squeal of outrage but stops kicking for the moment. She is out of breath. I can hear and feel her panting over my shoulder, as she finally takes a small break in the ongoing struggle against her alien captors.
“What seems to be the problem?” I address the owners.
The male sighs audibly, indicating an almost uncontrollable level of frustration. “She’s not working out. She’s destroyed three couches since we took her home last week. She’s eaten the children’s homework every night. My son is getting a failing grade as it is. And every time we get a visitor she attempts to attack them. The final straw was when she sent my wife to the emergency room with a nasty bite. They told us we should have her destroyed.”
The human they are talking about is oblivious to their frustrations, being far too concerned instead with her own. She is about five foot five in stature, with dark eyes, caramel tan skin, and rainbow pink hair, a popular combination ever since a similarly marked human became popular in an advertisement for insurance. She is wearing what can only be described as a rainbow tutu attached to a pink bodysuit. I sell these in my store, albeit reluctantly. I call them ballerina dresses, though they’re not really dresses at all. They make most humans look cute. They make this one look absolutely adorable, in spite of the fact it is clearly an aesthetic at odds with her mood. Some of the fluffy material brushes against my nose as she squirms. I do like the fact that the bodysuit provides little protection for her deserving rear, as well as snaps in the lower region which can and in all likelihood will be used to bare her ass.
Most Euphorians are capable of maintaining basic discipline with their human pets once order is established. Humans like to know where they stand. They generally do very well once they settle into a new home and new routine. Most of the pets we have sold have done very well. But there are always exceptions, and this little human has been an exception from the moment I caught her.
The owner’s complaints continue in a silent tirade. My species abandoned small mouth noises early in our development and now relies almost entirely on telepathy. We are able to be much more precise with the language of the mind than we ever were with verbal speech. This shift is credited with the unprecedented peace we now live in. Of course, small children still babble, and often are the only ones in a family capable of communicating linguistically with human pets. That is because, as in all species, the young have not lost their roots to their ancestral animal past.