Page 51 of Leviathan

I walked further down in the direction I'd last seen them when a familiar sound caught my ear, causing my heart to jump.

I turned down an alley between two large ships to see the hyenas had formed a semi-circle around two figures, one of which was a small, human woman in a gorgeous moonlight dress that flowed around her like it was made out of silk, who looked both utterly terrified and furious.

“It is a human,” I gasped on the private com.”

"What is wrong with him?" Lyrien gasped through our coms. He could see everything I could. "No Vaurelcar wouldn't have his core walking around like that, not without some form of shell around it! Why are his neurofilaments so short?"

His tone was strangled, like he was seeing something horrific and confusing at the same time. It caused me to drag my eyes away from the first human I’d seen in months, to the alien with, one whose appearance was familiar but also confusing. He looked like Lyrien's core, but that didn't make any sense.

His neurofilaments were short, like hair.

Where was the rest of his body?

"Maybe he is just raw dogging life?" I asked.

"Something has gone very wrong for him," Lyrien said. "That, or he is insane. Don’t get too close to him. Having the core exposed like that can cause severe issues, as the instincts will be going haywire to try to rebuild or reconnect with the rest of the body."

"Just tell us how much you want for her," one of the hyenas barked out, their language clipped and guttural. The planetary language was loaded into my translator, but based on what Lyrien knew of the planet, there was a good chance that none of them would have one equipped, so even if I could understand them, they couldn't understand me.

I didn't need them to understand me.

I popped my guns out and charged them up, pointing them at the hyena's backs.

"Say hello to my little friends," I said.

The woman's eyes popped open so wide as her gaze wrenched past the aliens surrounding her to land on my form. One of the hyenas glanced back over his shoulder.

Red boxes popped up around each of the hyena’s faces, with labels appearing at the bottom of each one marking them as hostile 1, 2, etc.

“I’ve labeled the hostiles so that your auto targeting system will focus on them if you start firing,” Lyrien said on the private com.

"You're from Earth?" the human gasped.

"Yes, I have a translator so I can understand their language," I said. "These guys bothering you?"

I waved my guns at the hyenas again, and they took a step away from me, looking at each other.

The human grabbed the alien next to her by the hand and dragged him through the opening towards me.

One of the hyenas reached out towards her, and the stunted Vaurelcar let out a snarl. He had a long neurofilament coming out of the base of his spine like a tail, and it lashed out, slamming into the hyena's chest so hard it knocked him backward, causing him to stumble and fall down.

"They know where other humans are," the woman said. "They bought me from a human woman, they said."

Could it have been Evangelia who sold her? Evangelia was the one who brought me to the research station.

"What did she look like?" I demanded, taking a clunking step toward the group. "When did they buy you?"

"My friend wants to know what the woman you bought me from looked like and when the sale took place," the woman in the moonlit dress said.

"Your friend?" the messed-up Vaurelcar asked. "You can understand it?"

"He doesn't appear to have a translator, which means he must have been on this planet since he was young," Lyrien said on our private channel. "That doesn't explain why his neurofilaments look like they've been severed recently."

"It speaks my language," the woman said to him. "It's from my planet."

"Taller than this one," said the hyena spokesperson, brightening up as he gestured at the woman. "Darker hue, thicker mane. Traded for laboratory supplies and food."

That was the description, but was it her?