I nearly drop the fan in my hands when the warrior in the arena points to me and states his desire to have me. Usually, I avoid watching the fights completely. Bloody, fight-to-the-death battles do not sit well with me. But this warrior caught my eye. His features are eerily human and he moves in the arena as I imagine the gladiators used to in ancient Rome.

Still, my stomach dips when he chooses me.

“She is my personal slave. She is not for sale,” Master Yhm says.

The warrior below me drops his head and sheaths his sword. When he looks up again, he looks directly into my eyes. My heart pounds slowly as I feel his gaze on me. It lingers and I can’t look away. It’s obvious he wants to say more, argue even, but it isn’t wise to argue with the Master.

The warrior tears his eyes from mine and looks down at the slaves below me. My friend Bantoo is on the platform today, something that has filled my heart with sadness all day. But then the warrior points to her, standing on the end and says, “I’ll take her.”

Bantoo steals a glance my way, a quick goodbye in a place where we weren’t even suppose to know each other. The warrior steps up to the platform and helps Bantoo down, leading her from the arena and out of my life. He doesn’t look back, but once he is gone, a large group of aliens that look an awful lot like him stand up and leave the stadium together.

The guard animal that lies by my feet breathes out a deep sigh. He looks like a large brown bear, but with fangs to boot. I stare at his deep brown fur as tears burn in my eyes, threatening to spill over.

“Food,” Master Yhm says, distracting me from my thoughts. I pick up a piece of food from his platter and hold it out to him so he can take a bite. He crunches loudly as crumbs fall down his expensive robes. I continue to hold the food for him until he swats my hand away. “That is all for today,” he says. Apparently he means both the food and the fights because he stands up and begins to walk out. All of the attendants in the tent hurry after him. Before I go, I drop the extra bit of food onto the floor in front of Bear. He gobbles it down with two bites and licks his muzzle. As I follow the master, Bear follows close behind me.

Hours later, the house is pitch-black, everyone asleep for the night. Fight nights are the perfect night because the master has had a full day of festivities and he sleeps like the dead. Now that Bantoo is gone it feels like the universe is sending me a message. I’ve been waiting for a sign to take my chances and try to find my way back to Earth.

Tonight, I lay on my sleeping mat waiting for everyone in the house to fall asleep. My feet slowly throb from a day of standing on the hot wooden planks of the arena. Something else is awake inside of me tonight and I have a feeling I know just who is the cause, considering I keep seeing his face when I close my eyes.

The warrior.

He is a warrior and I am a slave and yet, he is the first one ever to choose me. There’s something about it that makes me warm inside. It makes me yearn for something I’ve never had. And that’s to be chosen as someone’s mate. I used to wish for it back on Earth, and tonight has renewed my desire to get back home and live every day as if it is my last.

The floor is cold as I carefully step from my sleeping mat into the hallway.

“Eleven steps from my mat to the hallway,” I whisper to myself, being careful to take the same size steps that I’ve practiced so many times before. I reach the hallway using one hand to guide me along the wall. From here I take the twenty-eight steps to get to the kitchen. With the locked house darkened for the night, it is impossible to see anything inside. But my rehearsal has paid off.

The sound of a soft growl leads me toward the door once I enter the kitchen. I check my pocket and feel the small chunk of food, confident it will distract Bear just long enough. Before I make my move, I take seven more steps and they lead me to the hooks next to the water basins. Every night, once the knives are washed they are hung on the hooks to dry. Every now and again the master will fall asleep without locking the knives, especially on a night like tonight. A bolt of adrenaline surges through me when my fingers brush against the sharp blade of a knife. I unhook it and grip the handle tightly, instantly more confident that I might just have a fighting chance.

Bear’s growls quiet as soon as I approach, the piece of food, some sort of fried bread that I snuck from the kitchen, extended at the end of my fingertips. I toss it at his feet and he pounces on it, wolfing it down with one bite. He lets me move behind him to the door where I take the knife and use it to break the lock. Either my adrenaline is giving me unexpected strength or the lock isn’t as hard to break as I expected it to be. Without another thought I silently slip through the door into the inky blackness of the night.

I’ve only gone a few steps when I hear a scraping sound on the door behind me. I freeze, worried the noise is going to bring unwanted attention. It’s Bear scratching at the door. My heart begins to pound as I weigh my options. When he scratches again I dash back to the door and slide it open. I’m about to shush him but before I can, he runs out of the door, too. The thick metal chain around his neck quickly stops him, clanging against the doorframe.

“Damn it,” I whisper. “You’re going to blow this for me,” scolding him by shaking my finger in front of his nose. And then, before I can pull my finger away, I feel his rough, sloppy tongue flick out and lick my hand. That one small gesture changes my mind in an instant. Without wasting any more time, I grip the knife again, this time lodging it in a link of the chain. It doesn’t break easily and I need to be careful so I don’t cut Bear. I jimmy it a few more times until I can feel the link start to give. A few more twists of my wrist and the chain breaks free.

Without warning, Bear takes off at a run, leaving me momentarily stunned before I snap out of it and run after him until we are both swallowed up by the night.