SWRC: Gaining Trust. (Book 1)

Chapter 1 A Teenage Girl And The Small Boy.

<Mid-morning...>

"Aw crap," groaned a teenage looking girl by the name of Neeran, scratching her multi-coloured hair.
"Where am I going now?"

To most people, she would have seemed strange or intimidating.
She looked humanoid with wild, multi-coloured, spiky hair that had a pair of googles nestled in it and a long thin plait over her right shoulder that reached just past her collarbone, which contained the colours red, orange, yellow, white, black, blue, auburn, silver, green, grey, purple and slight tinges of pink. She had three scars on either side of her face, that looked like whiskers, red eye-liner that stretched from just above her eye closest to the nose to the furthest edge of the eyebrow and back down to the other corner of her eye to the corner, multi-coloured eyes which looked like her hair, and a yellow line that spanned from one side of her face to the other, just under her eyes.

She wore an orange singlet with a hoodie sewn on, black and white flight suit pants, brown and orange boots, a purple bandana concealing an onyx gemstone necklace, a brown and yellow short-sleeved vest, arm guards, red fingerless gloves with two gold coloured ring on her right ring finger and a silver one on her left, a silver watch resting between her left glove and arm guard, a blue trimmed Kama blaster guard with the blasters in the holsters, dark green knee pads and part of a mysterious tattoo on her right shoulder that poked out from under her right vest sleeve.

But perhaps the strangest thing about her was she wasn't actually a human.

Her burn-striped pointed elf-ears, pointed finger nails, burn-marks on her upper arms and a burn-striped triangular tail with a large amount of matted fur just above the triangle made that all too clear.

And no one even knew what her species was or where they hailed from.

As Neeran looked around at the surrounding vendors to find where she was, she noticed a slave auction commencing and, whilst lurching violently, groaned to herself, "I'm gonna be sick."

Suddenly, a nagging feeling caused her to look behind her and she noticed a squad of storm troopers lead by a tall white Pau'un with red markings on his face walking down the street.

"Only, they'll make me sicker," muttered Neeran raising her orange hood over her head and melted into the slave auctioning crowd as to not draw attention to herself. The feeling of watching people selling others lives was almost unbearable for Neeran, who was looking for a way to leave that horrid place.

Suddenly, the master of ceremony caught her attention.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen," said the black haired man with his hair pulled back in a ponytail, charismatically.
"May I present the final slave for auction."

The man gestured to the stage as a four-year-old looking boy was shoved forward.

The boy had raven black, matted hair, with a few loose strands flopping down in front of his face, electric blue eyes and a tan complexion. He wore a brown and dull yellow short-sleeved vest over a black singlet, long orange and brown pants that cut off mid-way down his shins and loose bandage wrappings on his bare feet and hands. On his left wrist was a small silver coloured bracelet that looked like it monitored his vitals. On both his wrists and ankles, he wore manacles that were tied together by an unbreakable electric current. Clutched against his chest was what looked like a bundle of rags.

Something sparked in Neeran as she looked at the boy.

She seemed to know this little boy was special and that she had to free him.

Somehow.

Neeran's eyes connected with the boys electric sapphire blue eyes and everything seemed to fade away into a dull murmur around her. Neeran broke eye contact from the boy and the voices all came back to her. Many were saying no to getting the boy and shaking their heads.

"No one?" asked the black haired guy, raising an eyebrow.

Before Neeran knew what she was doing, she'd thrown back her hood, raised her hand in the air and was saying, "I'll take him."

The boy looked at the teenage girl who'd said she'd take him. She didn't really look like a slaver, but she did look intimidating with her multi-coloured hair and eyes and all the other bizarre features of hers.

The man beside him chuckled and asked, "Why would you want him when everyone else seems to have refused?"

"And why do you care?" replied the teenage girl.

She seemed quick tempered.

The boy knew that if he'd ever said that, the man beside him would have beaten him severely. Instead, he just smiled his wickedly convincing grin and said, "In that case, he's yours. See me after to collect him."

Unnoticed by everyone else, the boy saw the teenage girl bite back a retort and glare at him with an intent to kill him.

The black-haired man turned to the audience and said, "And that concludes our auction. I bid thee good day."

With that he bowed and walked out the back of the stage, grabbing the boy as he went.

Neeran watched as the man pulled the poor boy off the stage. Growling an inhuman growl, Neeran stalked off to the area behind the stage to collect the boy.

She couldn't believe at what she'd just done.

She had just brought someone's life.

Neeran felt so wrong and confused as she reached the back area. Standing in the middle of the area was the man and he was talking to the boy. Neeran was too far away to hear what they were saying but then again, she didn't really want to know.

"Ah, my friend," said the man spotting Neeran approaching them.

Neeran stopped several paces away from the man and folded her arms.

She didn't trust him.

"There's something I wish to discuss with you privately, away from the boy," the man said, spitting out the last word like venom. Neeran saw the boy wince but say nothing at the remark. His mouth was buried in the ragged blankets.

The man walked up to Neeran and lead her a short distance away from the boy.

The man sighed, turned to Neeran and said, "The reason many didn't accept him is he's been on auction before and has acted bizarrely."

Neeran raised an eyebrow and asked, "In what way strange?"

"We aren't quite sure what, but this inhibits him from acting bizarre," replied the man, handing Neeran a syringe with a clear water-like liquid in it.

Neeran looked at the syringe as the man continued,
"Keep it handy, if you still want him."

Neeran nodded and put the syringe inside her vest. The man held out his hand and Meeran gave him the credits before he took them and walked back towards the boy with Neeran following.

The boy was crouching down above the dirt and drawing with his finger. To many it looked like simple squiggles and lines, but to Neeran it looked different somehow.

"Boy!" shouted the man as he approached him. Startled, the boy jumped up from the picture on the ground and bowed his head saying, "Sorry, master."

"You'd better be," snarled the man and the boy cringed in fear of being hit. "Now get outta here."

With that the man shoved the boy in the direction of Neeran, and he stumbled beginning to fall. Without thinking, Neeran thrusted her hand forward and caught the boy before he fell flat on his face. The boy had scrunched his eyes closed and wait for the impact of the ground.

Opening his eyes slightly, the boy looked up and saw the person, who was his master, had stopped his fall. The boy blinked and continued to stare.

"What is it?" asked Neeran.
"N-Nothing, Master," replied the boy, looking down for a moment then back up at her eyes.

Neeran wanted to tell him not to call her that so badly, but that would make getting out of there harder. Standing the boy up on his own two feet, Neeran turned and began to walk away, the boy following.

Neeran glanced back and nodded, much to the delight of the boy, and telepathically said to her friend,
'Hey Zach, I'm bring another kid and I need you to stay out of sight, 'kay?'
'Consider it done.'