Violent Souls (Blood City Chronicles, Book 1)

Cadyn stalks away, giving her response with a single finger.

She uses a key and a fingerprint scanner to open the locks to her room. She looks around before slipping into her hiding hole. The locks engage with a series of clicks and snaps. Cadyn exhales audibly. She takes off her kitana and hangs it on the wall, pulls a knife from her wrist band and puts it on a metal desk, pulls another knife from her left boot, and then reaches to her back and retrieves another cnif that was held by tape. Cadyn pats herself down while counting the knives on the desk, then pulls down her pants, revealing a thigh holster with another large, serrated blade.

Cadyn walks over to her bed and looks under it. “How’s it goin’, Eorl?” She clicks her tongue on the roof of her mouth and taps the ground. As she backs away from the bed, she’s followed by Eorl, a twelve-foot hama.

Eorl is mostly black, but sports a series of gold diamonds running down her back. She wriggles side to side; her tongue flickers, helping guide her. Eorl spirals up Cadyn’s leg and ends up wrapped around her arm; she hangs on with the help of two tiny legs located near the back of her body, by the tail. These legs are the last vestiges of hamas of the past, which scurried rather than crawled.

Cadyn opens the desk drawer and pulls out a handful of dead bitels. Eorl greedily licks them up, swallowing each one whole. 

“I’m sorry I was gone so long, but we had to go to the forest.”

Eorl stares at Cadyn as she talks.

“I always wonder if you know what I’m saying, Eorl.”

Cadyn rubs the hama’s head with a circular motion. Eorl rests her head in response. Cadyn walks over by the closet. She picks up and inspects a faux wood guitar, looking down the neck to see if there’s any warping. Then she takes out and inspects a flute.

Cadyn’s room is spotless. The bed is neatly made with a huggable, fluffy duvet on top. Next to the bed, there’s a metal stand with family photos on top. Against the wall hangs a series of flags from all four planets. Her pride is a light blue LaRoccan flag which dates back over two hundred years. 

Before getting into bed, Cadyn leans over to smell trimming from a pintreowl she keeps on the bedside table. She hums a lullaby she learned as a child and sinks into her pillow. For the first time today, Cadyn is relaxed.