Lost Change

Chapter 93

I glared through the open doorway at the ktari.

Minna and her guards had pulled back down the hallway to discuss things. Our two Ilrivian escorts had taken up a position near the third Ilrivian's room. And that Ilrivian had calmly gone to another part of his room, pulled out a container of food, and begun feeding the ktari.

Feeding it shia fruit.

I was almost certain the pest didn't even like the fruits. Each time the alien tried to offer a slice to the lizard it growled and pulled on the leash to try and get further away. It was only after a lot of coaxing that the ktari would be persuaded to eat the treat, and even then only after the fruit was dropped out of the alien's hand.

The ktari would sneak forward to grab the piece of fruit before scampering back to the safety of its far corner, but it didn't seem to care about the shia fruit any more than I imagined it would care about any other food. It just nibbled on it occasionally in between growls and frantic glances around.

It was painfully obvious that the ktari did not want to be there. If it hadn't been eating shia fruit right in front of me, I probably would have felt sorry for it.

I continued glaring at it from Minna's shoulder and focused back on the general mindlink. "Something weird is going on. I just found a ktari."

"That's not that weird. A ship this big is bound to have them crawling around." The scarlet whose name I still couldn't remember paused, then continued thoughtfully. "Though I'm a little surprised you found one before us. You'd think they would want to avoid the parts of the ship with people in them."

"Yeah... you'd think that..." I shifted on Minna's shoulder to get a better view of the thin collar looped around its neck and the leash securing it to the table, then sent that image across the mindlink.

The link went quiet for a moment as the other dragonets thought through what I was seeing.

"...they're keeping one as a pet? On a ship?" Ivy's voice sounded incredulous. "Why would anyone do that?"

"Beats me. But wait, there's more." I dredged up the memory of the ktari snatching up the shia fruit and sent that through the mindlink, then sent the memory of it half-heartedly nibbling on the delicious fruit after it.

A wave of immediate disgust came back from each of the other dragonets. None of them were happy at the idea of shia fruits being wasted on a pest, much less one that didn't even appreciate the delectable treats.

Tom recovered first. "This seems suspicious."

I hissed in frustrated disbelief as the ktari dropped the rest of the shia fruit to the table. "The word I was thinking of was 'insulting'."

"That's my point. Maybe, maybe somebody is keeping a ktari as a pet. Like people who kept mice or other rodents. It's not that hard to believe that eventually it would happen, even if it's strange that it'd be allowed on a ship like this one was." Tom paused, and I thought through his point.

"...but why would somebody just happen to be feeding it our favorite food? Especially when it doesn't seem to care that much for it." I narrowed my eyes and looked from the ktari to the alien still hovering over it.

"Exactly." A sense of alertness and suspicion trickled into the general mindlink as the rest of the dragonets thought through it.

"That's an awfully big assumption to make from just one ktari. It could be a case of somebody just being quirky?" I got an impression of uncertainty from Ivy, along with the faint sour note of dishonesty. She didn't really believe what she was saying. Still, it was good not to leap to conclusions too quickly.