Voices of Humanity

Chapter Twelve

As the weeks passed to months, I began to spend all of my time in the kitchen or the nursery complex. No more did I return to my own sleeping quarters except on occasion to grab fresh clothing or a shower in the main facilities.

In the morning I would rise early to nurse my child before heading to the kitchens to start my day. As soon as noon arrived I would grab my allotted midday meal, bringing it with me to the nursery where Dreda would be waiting with Mary and we could enjoy the hour before I was sent back to my afternoon chores and dinner prep. As soon as dinner was plated and sent up to my Master and his family I rushed back to the nursery where I would spend the rest of my evening, only catching a few hours of sleep in Dreda's bed before beginning the cycle all over again.

The first order of business was always Mary. In Dreda's oasis, I would be helped to the rocker and offered a cup of tea to sip as I nursed my child. Dreda would eat her own meal beside me, offering me secreted sweets if she had been gifted any by her own overseer. In these precious moments of privacy, we would talk. We shared our days and trials, exchange gossip and news we'd gleaned from other humans in our purview or from the whispers of our masters. It was impossible to believe I had found a true friend and the wonder of it was intoxicating. Speaking with Dreda every day, the reservations I held towards trusting the older human woman soon faded entirely.

When our meal was complete and the other infants in Dreda's direct care fed, we would go next to check on the toddlers. Though there were plenty of humans assigned to oversee the young, Dreda was ultimately responsible should anything be amiss among her wards. She took her job seriously.

"I leave older children I trust in charge of the younger," she explained to me as we made our rounds the first night I became an unofficial member of the nursery team. "They have a way of understanding the little ones I fear many lose as life wears upon them. It might not be much, but I hope to give every child a semblance of happiness here." I admired her efforts greatly.

With the children, young and old, Dreda was brisk in her manner, inspecting teeth and hair, asking after each's behavior in her absence, how they were eating, ensuring there were no signs of illness among them. Yet, through her feigned indifference, an undeniable warmth pervaded each touch and action.

As she helped the younger children to bed, she would take the time to offer them a smile and often a kiss on their small brows. A touch of love for those who would never know true mothers. In each child's cherubic expressions I imagined the faces of my own lost children, of the girl I hoped Mary would grow to be.

Helping the older woman with her wards I learned to copy each of Dreda's actions and cherished the small smiles I received in payment. All soon referred to me as "Miss. Alice" and I found myself growing more eager to visit not only my own daughter but the other children as well, feeling more and more attachment and care towards each. Of course, it was only females who lived under Dreda's direct protection. I saw no males aside from the infants.

"The males are taken quite young if they are to be breeders," she explained when I asked her about the absence of boys among her older brood. "As soon as males are weaned they are transferred, either to cages or to training." The sorrow in her eyes was tangible as she stated the fact.

"Those who are selected to survived are condemned to a loveless existence. They are tested for strength constantly and those found lacking are sent immediately to the vealer cages. They are forced to compete against one another for their lives every day. Those who manage to reach maturity are true monsters, breeding machines with no soul or conscience, creatures who take out the frustrations of their existence on their mates in cruelty."

Rage replaced pity in her tone and expression as Dreda spoke her accusations, judgments of the grown human males on the estate. I wondered at the ones she'd been forced to lay with. Everett had taught me well how a male might abuse a female. It was luck and compliance that had kept me from experiencing too much pain from a human mate, but I did not doubt that my friend had been badly hurt.