Valen: A Collector's Item

Terrible Idea

By their shoulders, Taserface shoved Valen and Peter down into their seats. Peter was at the end of the cafeteria-style bench with Valen in the middle between him and Taserface. The room was rowdy with chatter, laughter, and some men yelling back and forth with food falling out of their mouths.

Taserface whistled at another crew member walking by to get his attention. Without any words, he used his fingers to beckon him over. The man whose long black hair covered half his face obeyed. Taserface took the tray from his hands and set it in front of him. "Fetch us two more for the prisoners."

The man went to reach for his tray back, but Taserface turned in his seat with a low growl. The man with the long black hair bared his teeth but ended up backing off when Taserface started to stand up.

Valen looked at Peter and bared her teeth at him. He blinked a couple of times before she asked him, "Is this intimidating?"

"I think you chipped a tooth." He leaned in closer to get a better look. After a couple of seconds of examining, he nodded his head.

She used her tongue to slide over her teeth until she felt the slight difference on her front right tooth. With this small addition to her list of current problems, Valen was determined to make all the Ravagers' lives hell.

She whipped her head toward the red-skinned man next to her. Her hair accidentally hit Peter in the face, which caused him to spit on the ground. "I demand compensation from the sum you all will receive from my bounty."

Taserface, almost amused by her audacity, barely looked at her as he continued slurping on his soup. "What for?"

She stood up slightly from her seat and leaned in close to him as Peter did to her. "See this?" She mumbled as she bared her teeth at him. "My tooth is chipped."

Taserface used his hand to push Valen by her head down. "Don't you put your face in mine."

She started to stand up again, but Peter kicked her foot. When she looked at him, he mouthed the words 'don't antagonize him!'

Valen sighed loudly as she sat down. She spun in her seat toward Taserface, her hair hitting Peter in the face once again. "You all may not care about cosmetics, but I'm in my prime. I can't be walking around with half a missing tooth!"

"It's actually barely noticeable," Peter whispered to himself.

Painfully slow, Valen's body turned to the boy next to her. "Whose side are you on? Do you want some money or not?"

"We don't even know what currency it'll be in." He argued.

"I don't care. Money is money, honey."

The man with the long black hair covering half his face returned with two trays. One with one bowl of soup, and the other with two bowls of soup. He placed the tray with two bowls on it in front of the deemed prisoners. It was orange with some sort of protein mixed into it.

Valen stared at Taserface expectantly.

"What?" He grumbled, licking his lips but missing the liquid running down his beard.

"We've seem to come upon the same situation." She used her eyes without moving her head to make a point about the bowl.

Taserface once again snapped his fingers at a passing crew member. Once this crew member looked at him, Taserface used his fingers to beckon him over. "Feed them."

This man looked like the Greek Mythology Medusa, but instead with her snakes all over her body. His yellow beady eyes were sunken inside his swirling green body. However, his forehead, nose, mouth, and chin were solid white and not made of the same material as the rest of his body.