“None of you bird-dogs ever could,” he said without malice despite the insulting slang his people often used for hers. Then his tone changed to another one Curswoom recognized quite well. “We can work that out. Come with me.”
The dark-haired woman was already composing the next name on her list as Curswoom followed the guard down the corridor and into a small empty office.
###
Woo ducked into the room and stepped to the side; the guard followed her in. On the opposite wall hung two sets of jingle-pants. One pair was in the original style: a belt of soft leather straps with bells sewn on. The full-length straps tangled in the legs of the Bel Avi to sound their arrival and slow their pace to a walk. Many bells were missing from that pair. The other was a newer pair and in the current style: a half-length split skirt of cloth and bells. With the proliferation of [gunpowder-based weapons] [humans] no longer needed to slow the Bel Avi as much as they used to.
Except for a desk pushed against a second door, the room was empty.
[begin the rape here]
193 words on day 946
