Pet's Pleasure Read Online Free PDF

emanated from a food-laden table in the middle of the room they entered. One guard sped up his pace so he could pull out a chair, which Bekion went to and set Starling down. She could barely see over the edge.
    “This is ridiculous,” Starling grumbled to herself as she stood on the cushion of her chair. She made sure her makeshift toga was secure so she wouldn’t give the people in the room an eyeful.
    She situated herself but kept sight of Bekion walking around the table. He took his own seat. He watched her and she watched him, neither of them moving to touch the food between them.
    She asked, “I’m really going to be your pet?”
    “You truly are my pet.”
    “Nothing else?”
    He cocked his head to the side. “You’re too small for my tastes, little Starling.”
    Well that was a relief. At least she didn’t have to worry about being jumped any time soon. “Do you have other pets?”
    “You are my first, of any species.” He glanced at the food then back at her. “Are you not hungry?”
    There was a plate of something that could be bread rolls but she wasn’t going to trust that…books and covers and all that. “What is it?”
    Bekion picked up one of the bread-roll-looking things and said, “This is sweet savo —a plant much like the Earth potato though its texture is spongy inside. As the name indicates, it is sweet.”
    She took the savo from Bekion’s outstretched hand and sniffed it. It smelled like cake. She pulled off a chunk and popped it into her mouth. If a white sweet potato was crossed with a sponge cake and a baguette, that would be the sweet savo .
    She tore off another piece and ate it then pointed at the sliced fruit on another plate. “Fruit or vegetable?”
    “Fruit.”
    She had to put her hand on the table to reach for it. Given her size in relation to the furniture, her lapses in table manners would have to be excused.
    The fruit was purple and firm in her grasp. She bit into the pulp and it crunched like celery. That didn’t surprise her so much as it tasting like grapes…green grapes.
    Bekion named off the other foods present one at a time, sampling a few himself. He waited for Starling’s impression of each food before moving on to the next. Her disgusted reaction to one food had him laughing behind his hand.
    Was raw fruit supposed to taste like burnt sugar mixed with ash? And for that matter, who would eat it without the promise of monetary compensation? Not only did she make a face once she tasted it but she let it fall out of her mouth in a very unladylike manner.
    Bekion asked, “Not to your liking?” He cleared his throat then chuckled more.
    Starling took a big bite of the sweet savo to cover the taste. “Yuck,” she said after she swallowed. A lingering taste remained. She wanted to spit but didn’t know where.
    “I shall remember not to serve that to you in the future.”
    “Is it supposed to taste like that?”
    Bekion tried a piece. Not only did he not spit it out, he seemed to enjoy it. He nodded and ate another piece. “Very good. It’s in season and at the right level of ripeness.”
    “Gag.”
    Out of the twenty-two different fruits, vegetables and assorted pastries, not liking one boded well for the future. A future that remained uncertain.
    She asked, “As your pet, what do I do?”
    “What do pets on Earth do?”
    “Depends. Some pets are for company, like birds and cats and fish. Some pets are for protection, like dogs. There are dog and cat shows where owners primp and preen their little sweeties to show off how pure or thoroughbred they are and get prizes.” She shrugged. “Which am I?”
    “I have no intention of entering you in a human show. It would be unfair as you are more purebred than any human that would be present. Most of the humans in those competitions are so in bred you would not recognize them as your species mates.” He studied her with a half-smile. “I have guards for my protection and you are hardly big enough to see