70 The Auction of Tallmire [4]

Meira had lead them through the thickening crowd, uncaring for the odd glares she'd earned when she shoved a brutish farmer out of the way. Noah was unable to stop his cheek from flinching when their annoyance travelled to him, Liora's meekness having seemed to tell them that she wasn't the reason for Meira's rudeness.

It was hard to tell how many people were crowded around, while thick and brimming with life and bodies of all shapes and sexes there was still a good few centimetres between every person. Enough that you could get through easily enough but not enough that you wouldn't disturb at least one person in doing so.

The further into the crowd they drew the more Noah could see the large wooden podium on which he was expecting the auctioneer to stand. Just beside it, not too far off from the centre was another podium though set much lower and with chairs atop it facing the central one.

Meira brought them towards it about to climb the steps when a short boy with thin strands of hair held out his arm and stopped them.

"Ticket." He said neither irately nor excitedly.

Meira rolled her eyes and from her bosom pulled three small ivory tokens and tossed them to the boy. He caught them swiftly and inspected each one critically, nodding when he confirmed they were legit and stepped out of the way.

As they sunk into the seats Noah and Liora couldn't help but trail their focus to the crowds surrounding them. The faces that had looked at Noah with spite now even more irate at the confirmation that he was to blame for their shoving. They weren't high up, barely at even calf height compared to many of the others but it was enough to give them a semblance of importance.

'Suddenly I feel like I have a target on my back.' He solemnly thought.

Eying to his right just past Meira, there was one more seat set out presumably for Caina if she'd come with.

"Is this normal?" Liora questioned squirming uncomfortably on her seat. "These seats I mean?"

"Not at all." Meira responded, "having these high seats put out requires some high bidders or some type of relevancy. I was able to use the latter to get these set out."

"And this is just allowed? Doesn't seem very fair."

"Life isn't fair. We're all born different, we all have differences that separate us from each other. Wealth and connections being the most important of all."

Liora had no retort, she, out of anyone was plenty aware of the difference a vault and a coin sack had between each other. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but it was a realistic thought. No matter how much she wished it was different.

"Being on a higher plane is to be expected when one has the means. Feel free to call that my ego."

"I won't. My mother is a baroness, so I understand fully."

Meira spun an eye to Liora, shock evident in her expression. "And you're at a cheap farmers market? Did the barony fall or something?"

"I married a farmer." Liora laughed warmly and clutched her arm, feeling a disturbing itch on it.

Meira turned down to Noah with one brow raised but quickly shook her head and focused back on the auctioneer's podium just as a thinly, gaunt man with a straggly beard stepped onto the stage. Davor, Noah remembered him to be called. He dressed regally, his arms latched behind his back and head risen high enough that he gave off this holier than thou image.

That or he was guzzling a gods shaft, as Meira had so pointedly muttered with a visceral growl.

"What's he doing here?" Meira hunched over and locked her fingers together, the grinding of her teeth almost audible.

"He's not the one who does these?" Noah questioned.

"Not even close. Mikkelsen does the auctions around here. I spoke to him just last night and said he was excited for the day."

"And this guy somehow stole the job?"

"Not somehow. He pushed himself onto it without caring about my… Mikkelsen's wants."

For just a brief second she flubbed. Call Noah dense, call him foolish and blind for his blatant ignorance with Liora and her actions. But when faced with a woman hunched over, teeth grinding and lips nibbling while her fingers squeezed her palms a shade lighter… that was more than enough to be a punch in the face.

Noah lifted his hand and brought it over her shoulder but hesitated to drop it. He forced those concerns away and did so anyway. Meira looked at him and his worried expression. Her body slowly loosened and she leaned back into her seat.

"He didn't do anything to me if that's what you're concerned about. Davor just has a horrible personality and thinks everything has to revolve around him."

Noah removed his hand but not before giving her one more reassuring squeeze.

"You're a good man Noah." She sunk comfortably into the seat. It may not have been plush or kind to her backside but with what her backside was Noah was sure she had enough cushioning to not care.

"Thanks, I guess."

Their talking quietened down as Davor spoke.

"Ahem! Good evening everyone and welcome to this months livestock auction." He began, inquisitively scanning over the crowd and putting all the ones he was predicting to be high rollers into his memories. Lingering over Meira, Liora and Noah longer than the rest. Meira the longest of all.

"Sir Mikkelsen couldn't be with us today after a severe bout of the runs, so I Davor Komadni have taken over him for the day."

"Poisonous bastard." Meira hissed.

"We have plenty to go through today, a total of fifty-four lots, second-highest ever to come to Tallmire." He laughed, "to that extent why don't we begin with the first lot."

Meira turned her head and indicated for Noah to follow her gaze to a small straw laden ring of heavy-duty wooden fencing. A gate opened to the left-hand portion where an empty path was and a single centaur was lead inside by a group of three men.

It stepped inside, head swirling about as it circled the ring presenting itself to everyone. Contrary to what Noah had been expecting it wasn't a female, but a male with light skin and chiselled musculature coating its body. Its lower horse half thick with a tawny almost hay-like hue.

"Up first we have an Ambrosian Centaur, bids will be starting at fifty buckles, fifty buckles." Davor scanned and found a hand rising high, "fifty!, Do I hear sixty?" he spoke rapidly, quickly jumping from numbers and repeating them again with finesse Noah had only seen on the television. In the end, the final bid was a surprisingly meagre ninety buckles.

"Is that cheap for something like this?" Noah pushed through his distaste and the sickening churning of his stomach at watching the centaur prance back to its cage.

"For a centaur-like that? Yes, very much so. I would have expected it to run two, two-fifty at most. Not the best species you can get but decent for pulling a plough or ploughing antsy old women."

Liora coughed into her hand, a visible tick mark risen to the side of her head.

"Not you," Meira was quick to defend, "you have Noah to do that."

Had Noah been drinking he may very well have spat it all out and glazed the people beneath him wet. Liora though flushed and squeaked into silence burying her face into her hands.

"Lot three." Into the ring came a small group of three children sized monsters. Noah paled, quickly turning away when he expected their nudity much like all the others. Only realizing later that they were much, much more furred than the older ones thankfully hiding everything from view. "Three Fraerian holstaur calves, Three years of age. Bids will start at one hundred and twenty-five!"

"Two hundred and twenty-five!" Meira shot up a placard and drew Davor's attention.

"Two twenty-five up on the podium! Do I hear three hundred?" someone rose their hand.

"Three fifty!" Meira threw another hand up ignoring Noah's horrified grimacing.

Davor nodded, "Four hundred! Do I hear four hundred? Going once… twice… sold to the lady on the podium!"

Meira leaned into her seat nodding proudly at her purchase. A boy clambered up to them, skirted behind Liora and Noah and held out to Meira a token with a 3 labelled atop it.

When the boy was gone and the fourth lot came out—another centaur, a much larger one with black fur and large breasts—Noah face the woman unsure of what to say but said something nonetheless.

"Did you just buy children?"

Meira huffed and puffed amusedly, "I bought YOU, monsters."

"I guessed as much but, exactly what are you expecting me to do with children?" his whisper screamed.

"Raise them into maturity then milk and breed them. Simple enough." She shrugged, "though, if you plan on doing 'that' to them now, I won't stop you. Won't be proud of you but I won't stop you"

Shivers crawled across Noah's spine. "Yeah, uh, you know what. I'll just, raise them. How long does it take for them to grow?" Internally he was pleading for a few years but seeing as they were three years and already looking like they were about to hit their teens, he wasn't hopeful.

"Six years then they're breedable."

"Is that from birth or till these are…"

"From birth."

Noah shrivelled into his seat, 'meaning three years and then they're adult…' palming his face he was tempted to shrink further and just disappear from existence.

"One thing you need to get out of your head this moment Noah. Is that these are monsters. Not people." Come lot five when a more mature Holstaur came out, another Fraerian with full breasts and nipples already dripping from how much was inside, Meira lifted her hand and bid a one-fifty. "They grow faster than humans. Where you might take sixteen years to mature, monsters need only half. Some more, some less. An alraune can take a week while a dryad can take a hundred years. It's simply illogical to compare humans to monsters with such outlandish ideologies."

"That doesn't remove the fact they look like humans."

"To you perhaps. To me, I see women with tails, hooves and horns who moo and fuck anything that moves. They are bundles of instinct disguised in the body of humans. I don't know how things worked where you come from and frankly, I do not care. You are here, not there. What seemed normal to you is unusual to us. It is not us that needs to change to fit you but you to fit us."

Noah went silent, she had a point. It was the same on earth, places were different, people were different. Though here… the differences were larger and more prevalent. It would take time for him to get used to it like it would everything else.

"I suppose I should be grateful I have three years to get over this." He sighed and forced himself to look up. While his mind wandered, three more sales had passed with Meira taking no more.