NOVEL NEXT Chapter 89: Bait
Me, the bait.
'Why the fuck did I say yes to something like that?'
Did Rayden use some weave on me?
‘No!’
At least, I didn't think so.
What she used was something far worse: arguments that were impossible to disprove. I didn't want to end up in the hands of mind mages, looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life, or cowering in the barracks or the capital. I wanted to be free - free to go where I pleased, free from fear, free to have fun, and free to eat as much as I felt like.
"Another serving?"
"Yes, please." I sang back to the cook, standing just a few steps away behind the food counter in the barracks mess hall. Quickly finishing my steak, I licked the bone clean and got up from the table with an empty plate in my hands.
"That'll be the fourth one. Are you sure?" asked the cook, a tall, muscular man in a white kitchen uniform. "Not to question you, but one serving is plenty for much bigger guys than you."
"No, I'm sure. There's still some room," I argued, patting my belly, as that little den for the hunger beast was now purring with satisfaction.
"All right, but fair warning: the chef doesn't like to see unfinished food."
"I wouldn't dare." Practically snatching the plate out of his hand, I wagged my tail back to the table, where Senior Healer Hill was waiting for me, and pounced on the food again.
Whatever I was eating was like nothing I'd ever had before. It wasn't a meat I recognized or a veggies that looked familiar. But I couldn't care less. Whoever cooked it did a damn good job, and most importantly, this was the first time in a year and a half that I had been allowed to eat till I dropped. And I was going to do exactly that.
"You know that overeating isn't healthy, right?" Becca, sitting across from me, asked. Rayden and Marcus made her my barracks guide; she actually volunteered. My guess? The guilt of sending me to the morgue was eating away at her.
"Neither is starving," I argued with my mouth full, swallowed a bite, looked around the empty cafeteria, and burped. "Pardon."
Senior Healer Hill smiled softly. "You eat too fast. Nobody's gonna take that food away from you, Korra. And you should wash those bites down."
'Sure, Mom.'
But the truth was that each new bite was harder and harder to swallow. So, in the end, I had no choice but to follow her advice. Thankfully, when it came to food, all pride, whether human or bestial, went aside, and I wasted no time in taking a sip of juicy, sweet water. Sure, it wasn't the black, sugar-rich, bubbly liquid that could melt rust I indulged in more often than I should on Earth, but right now, I enjoyed it no less. Actually, now and then, purring rose from my chest.
"And done," I announced proudly as I licked the plate clean. "What now, Becca?"
"Now, I'm going to take you to the washrooms. And while you'll be getting rid of all that mud and blood. I'll see what I can do about your clothes."
The remainder of the state of my attire and the reason behind it hurt a little; the blood wasn't just mine. But otherwise, the plan sounded good, damn good.
"Okay, we can go," I said, feeling the fatigue creeping up on me as my body tried to digest all the food. And so, before the sleeper could settle in, I rose from the table to return the used dishes and express my gratitude. "Thank you for the food. It was delicious."
"Ah, look at that. Polite one. Well, glad you liked it." The cook smiled, but instead of waving me off, he leaned his elbows on the counter. "Say, we have a little bet with the boys and girls in the kitchen; whose blood is that?"
I didn't have to follow his gaze to know he meant my blood-soaked shirt. My regeneration might have kicked in quickly, but before it stopped the bleeding from the two stab wounds, my shirt had turned red.
"Mine mostly," I said, trying not to let what happened in that back alley get to me. Think about it too much and I might throw up - something I'd hate myself for.
"So, you lost the fight? Shame, bet on you."
Hearing that stroked my pride.
"Then you win," I said, baring my teeth at him in a grin, surprised at the confidence with which I was talking to the man. Was it a beast thing? Did he gain my trust because he fed me? Either way, I liked it. I liked not being afraid to talk to someone.
"Hold on, are you telling me that you really...?"
"Yeah, I beat them."
"Sorry, given your looks...I only bet on you because no one else did."
'Of course, I should have known better.'
"Well, you should see the other guys."
The cook chuckled. "Sure, and where do I find them?"
"In the morgue," Becca, waiting for me to finish chatting, said, surprising not only the cook but me as well.
'Wasn't that a secret?'
"Come on, Korra. We still have to get the rest of your damages settled."
'Damages settled? Was there anything else besides clothes and a bath?'
However, getting the hint, I gave the cook a tail-swaying goodbye and followed the Senior Healer out of the mess hall.
"Why did you tell him?" I asked as soon as I was sure no one was around to hear us.
"Why you?" Becca replied back, but then shrugged. "This is the barracks, Korra. By this time, at least half the people here know that they brought in the bodies yesterday. If they don't already, they'll soon know that you're behind it."
"Wait, so they'll know that..."
"...that I made a mistake? Yes." Becca didn't let me finish, telling the story Rayden had instructed her to go with. The woman obviously didn't mind; the guilt of what had happened forced her to take responsibility. And it wasn't just me and my fucked-up instincts making me at ease around the woman. The fact that Rayden and Marcus put me in her care spoke volumes about her trustworthiness.
─◇─◇─◇─
"Oh my tits," Becca gasped in awe as I emerged from the barracks washroom clean and in new clothes. The place wasn't all that different from Zuzum's Bathhouse. It was just bigger, with more tubs, metal ones instead of wooden ones, and no plaster coming off the walls. "You're so...fluffy; your tail is so big."
"What? You...?" I said, stopping short, realizing that she had only ever seen me at my worst.
"Yeah, big and deadly."
Just a reminder of when she bent down to pick up the tool I knocked down with a wing in the infirmary and brushed against my tail, a little warning to keep her from hugging Sage.
"I know, I know...still, wow. What a change. I wish I had hair like yours. Without the potion and the rune enchantments, mine hair is just flat. Well, glad to see the clothes seem to fit you."
"Yeah, they do. But what's with the shorts?"
"You don't like them?"
"No - I mean, I do like them."
'Actually, I was more comfortable in them than in the skirt.'
"But weren't you supposed to replace what I lost?"
Becca chuckled. "You'd be surprised, but there's not a single skirt in the entire barracks warehouse."
"Nor shoes, it seems," I remarked, hoping she would find the pity to give me a pair.
"Sorry, Korra. Regulations. We are obligated to replace or compensate you with an appropriate amount of what you lost, nothing more. Speaking of which, here." My backpack and towel appeared in her hands - to my utmost surprise, as clean as when I bought them.
"Thanks, I guess," I said, failing to keep the disappointment out of my voice. Not that surprising, though. After all, I was now the bait and didn't even have shoes to run in.