Evie
“I see something, everyone up!” Nix says, from his look out at the front of the rock. I sit up quickly, grabbing a dagger, and running to his side. I look at what he is pointing at and blow out a sigh of relief as I hold my hand up to pause the others.
“They are traders, nothing that will bother us,” I say loud enough, so the others can hear me. Traders are demons who literally do what their name suggests, they trade. A few years back, a bunch of them decided to try kidnapping humans and trading them to demons here as a new business venture. They were all killed by Protectors, even with the help of some demons who thought they had gone too far. I’m surprised to even see any trader demons alive anymore. These ones must have hidden when everyone went after them. These traders look like they are trading junk, though, and a lot of it. I look at them when they get closer, seeing how they are not good-looking demons at all. They have green skin, covered in bumps, with large round stomachs and beady eyes with long green cloaks on. There are two of them, pulling, what looks like, a couple of stolen supermarket trollies behind them that are overflowing with junk and tied with rope. How they are even getting them moving in the sand is beyond me.
“Why are they coming this way?” Trex asks from just behind me, and I shrug.
“They will try to trade you things, it’s what they do. They didn’t always trade humans. That was just a few of their kind that were evil, and they were all killed because of the actions of a few. I’m sure you killed many of their families,” I say, patting his arm as I walk past, and he glares at me, not liking the truth. “They are harmless and still people–don’t kill them or I’ll have to kill you, myself.”
“Fine,” Trex growls, going back to the rock, as I put my dagger back in my belt and go to my bag. I push all the stuff back into it, and check to see I have four breakfast bars, three protein bars and some random snacks left. I have two bottles of water, which isn’t the best when we have a hot desert to cross, but it will have to do.
“I miss bacon, and real meals,” I groan, shoving it all back the bag, and doing it up. At least my bag is lighter now and I don’t have to carry any arrows, I lost them all in the river with my bow. At least I have my daggers, it’s something.
“I have bacon rasher crisps. I don’t usually share them, but you look desperate,” Connor says, opening his bag, and going through it as I go to his side. He pulls out the small packet of crisps, and hands them to me. I smile as I take them, flashing back to memories of stealing them from shops as a kid.
“I used to steal these as kid. There was this little corner shop just outside the demon underground. When I was starving, and my friend couldn’t get me food, these were the easiest and cheapest thing to steal,” I tell Connor, but I don’t really know why I even told him. “I guess it’s why I became obsessed with bacon.”
“I’m sorry you had a life like that,” he says.
“Don’t be. I had a friend, who was like a sister, and a roof over my head. There were demon and human children in far worst places than I was,” I say, knowing from everything I saw, I was lucky. Kids don’t last long on the streets without being sold or killed. I was so lucky to have a guardian in a way.
“Who was your friend?” he asks.
“Hali’s mum, and she died what seems like a long time ago,” I tell him, looking away as he places his hand on my arm.
“She would be proud of you for protecting her daughter. Maybe one day, you can tell me about her? I would like to know,” he says, moving his hand away, not pushing me into an answer, and standing up.
“Maybe. Anyway, thanks for these,” I say, practically inhaling the crisps from the moment I open them. I look over to see Azi leaning against the wall, still glaring at me like he has been all night, and over to Nix who is talking to the traders. I watch as he holds his hands up in the air, shaking his head, and I realise that they might not speak English, and he could use my help.
“I’m going to check on Nix,” I tell Connor, standing up, and putting the empty wrapper in my trouser pocket. Connor looks over at Nix and nods at me.
“I don’t understand you,” Nix is saying when I get closer, and the demons stop talking to him to look at me instead.
“Artis? Artis?” The demon on the right repeats over and over. His eyes on the daggers on Nix’s belt.
“Non artis. Vos should relinquere,” I tell them, explaining that we don’t want to trade. The one on the right nods, huffing, and walking away with his friend following.
“Hearing you speak Latin is kinda sexy, love,” Nix whispers as the traders turn around, and start walking away slowly. I hear a little meow, and then I spot the cage in the back of their trolley underneath some metal rubbish.
“Is that a tiger?” Nix asks, leaning forward to look.
“Yeah, only a baby by the looks of it. Shame it’s down here. Animals like that need to be on earth and not in hell,” I say, feeling sorry for it, but there is nothing we can do. Nix looks at me, smiling widely, and then back at the traders.
“Could we trade for it?” Nix asks, and before I can stop him, he shouts for the traders to come back. “I’m going to trade for it.”
“What the hell are we going to do with a small tiger where we are going? Other than hope it doesn’t bite us?” I harshly whisper at Nix, who shrugs, pulling out a gold dagger from his belt. The trader’s eyes widen when they see the dagger, practically drooling with excitement.
“The tiger for the dagger,” Nix holds it up, showing them what he means without having to speak Latin. The traders nod happily, watching Nix walking around them, and lifting the small metal cage out from the rubbish. The tiger is a baby like we thought, about the size of a small child, and the cage is too small for her or him as it’s squished inside. It has white fur, with black lines around the fur on its face being the only pattern I can see. It’s cute, I’ll admit that, but this is still a bad idea. We are going to have a fight on our hands and we are trying to rescue three princesses from hell. I guess three princesses and a tiger now. That sounds like a fairy tale waiting to be written. The traders quickly snatch the dagger from Nix when he gets back, and one licks it before putting it in his cloak and walking away. Gross. Connor and Azi walk over, looking at the tiger in the cage, and Connor groans.
“You bought a tiger. Are you being serious?” Connor asks.
“Another thing to protect, good job,” Azi sarcastically comments, but Nix doesn’t care or even bother replying to them. I look back at the rocks to see Trex sitting on them, watching us, and he doesn’t look impressed. I almost want to shout that I had nothing to do with this, just so I don’t have to hear his lecture. He is definitely going to have a lecture waiting.
“Let’s get you out, little girl,” Nix coos, and puts the cage on the floor, opening the locked door.
“Girl? How do you know?” Connor asks as we watch the tiger come out of the cage, stepping on the sand and watching us all.
“Just a guess, but she is too pretty to be a boy,” Nix shrugs. The tiger looks straight at me as Nix talks, and runs, jumping at the last second straight into my arms. She starts licking my face, and I pull her away from me, making her start to cry, so I hold her close again.
“She likes you,” Connor chuckles as I try to get the tiger to stop licking my chin.
“Can you blame her?” Nix grins, and I roll my eyes at him as I look down at her as she settles in my arms. I notice she has a collar on when she turns her head to lie on my arm, and I turn it around until I see the tag.
“She must have had an owner, she has a tag. Her name is Star, apparently,” I tell them, and they all step closer to inspect the tag. There isn’t anything else on it other than the name. The collar looks expensive though, with silver stars embedded into the black leather.
“Maybe I should catch up to them and find out where they stole her from,” I say, looking around, but I can’t see the traders anymore, they are long gone. “Or not.”
“They are likely dead, that means you will have to look after her,” Nix says, folding his arms. “Think of it as a present.”
“Er, nope. I don’t do pets, or cute animal sidekicks like heroes have in movies. I’m not the hero here, buddy,” I say, making them all chuckle at me as I scowl at them. I try to put Star in Nix’s arms, but she cries, crawling on my chest, and scratching me.
“Alright! Fine!” I say, glaring at the stupidly cute animal, and walking back to the rocks. Trex just raises his eyebrows at me.
“Don’t say a word. Not one word,” I warn him, opening my bag and looking down at Star.
“I will carry you, but you have to go in the bag in case I need to fight. Do you understand?” I ask, and then realise I’m talking to a tiger who can’t understand me. I’m surprised when she doesn’t fight me as I place her in my bag doing up the sides a little bit to hold her in. She puts her paws out, tilting her head as she looks up at me with a happy expression. I don’t know how to explain that I know she is happy, she just looks it. I would let her walk, but the sand is deep, and we don’t have any kind of lead.
“Here,” Trex kneels down next to me, offering Star a stick of jerky. She jumps and snatches it out of his hand, lying down in the bag to chew it.
“Thanks,” I say, for Star. “Didn’t know you had a kind side.”
“I wouldn’t want her to starve, that’s all,” he grumbles at me and stands up, walking away to grab his bag. I lift my bag on my back, trying not to swear at how heavy Star makes it now.
“Let’s go,” I say, walking straight towards the pyramids, with a purring, cute tiger as a new friend.