A Vorax ship holds a shock to the humans, another human. A female who was raised from infancy by the Vorax. She's as fierce as they are. -- Anon Guest
Peace rarely happens all at once. There is no universal celebration when the Evil Overlord is vanquished. There is no worldwide breaking of chains when the fascist is hanged, or meets a lonely demise while hiding in a bunker from the revenge of the righteous.
Some are kept unaware of their new freedom. Some wrap their chains around them out of a desire to have what the fascist offered. Unaware that they, too, would be betrayed by fascism.
In some cases, other surprises turn up. Like Nang. A Human living in a Vorax raiding vessel. Those who brought the news to the raiders, along with a 'welcome basket' of a host of Unsuitable foods, were very surprised to see her there. The ambassador handing out the deep-fried halloumi in the pork-crackling crumb coating almost fainted at the sight.
She wasn't even missing any limbs[1].
She might have been missing what Humanity considered basic social graces, but the rest of the Thranityr treated her as one of their own.
There was a story to tell, and Courier-Ambassador Hla wanted to know it.
It began with the raid. A good fight, as most Vorax stories began. As they were busy looting the ship, one found a Human infant. Who bit them. Hard.
At the time, Nang only had four teeth, and used them well. The Vorax judged her a worthy warrior, and took her in. Nang named herself, more or less, after her ability to bite through an astonishing amount of things, and ate half what a Vorax would, and somehow fought like two of them.
The raiders, now ex raiders, were also glad to receive access to the Complete Manual of Human Care.
[1] There's a pre-Shattering joke about a peg-legged pig with multiple talents. The punchline, of course, being "A pig like that, you don't eat all at once." Galactics don't find it that funny.
[Image Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash]
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