"Nope," I say before anything else happens. "You're not going into my head."

The Mah'mert frowns, and the antler Karshok looks at the one next to me, and so do I.

"You swore on your Shurak," I say, pointing a finger at him.

He looks at me with sad eyes and says, "This Karshok promised to let her go after everything is done. We are not finished."

The fucking gall of this guy. I snatch the gun on my holster, but the moment I aim it at him, my wrist is tightly in one of his hands.

"You fucking liar," I hiss.

"This Karshok is sorry," he says and takes my gun.

Finn laughs and looks like he's watching the best movie of his life. "Oh this is hilarious. Do you think they want to know everything that happened between us as well?"

Bile rises in my throat and I look at the Karshok, begging him wordlessly.

I don't want anyone messing with my head.

"Can you at least limit the prodding only to my memories of the Shurak?" I whisper, defeated.

I know I can't do shit with so many of them around.

The Karshok turns to the Mah'mert and I follow his gaze. They seem to think about it, and then they nod, releasing the awful knot in my throat.

"But I won't forgive you," I whisper to the dude dragging me to the centre. "You're a big fat liar."

I'm planted on the ground and Finn decides it's the perfect time to attack; he darts his hand towards me, managing to grab my ankle.

I smack my free foot on his face and start kicking like a rabbit, then he's contained by the antler, but I continue kicking, not quite reaching.

He still has my fucking ankle in his fist.

I glower at him and lean over to his hands and start clawing it.

"You stupid fuckboy, thinking you're so fucking cool and shit, want a goddamn medal? Huh? Too bad you're dead as fuck, just come closer! I fucking dare you!" I swipe my nails towards him, but I'm out of reach.

So as the smart person I am, I get up and jump on him. I slam my palm on his already broken nose and before I can do more, I'm lifted.

"Let me at him, boss!" I flail and kick out, until we're separated much farther from each other. Finn glares at me, holding his nose.

"You want a rematch, cocksucker?" I grind out.

"You bitch," he rumbles, he's obviously locked in place by the antler guy now, otherwise he'd be charging. "I will kill you, even if it's the last thing I do. You got me in this shithole!"

"You delivered yourself moron!" I yell in exasperation. "Are you that daft? You're the definition of an... an aneurysm!"

I'm sure he doesn't have a clue what that is and it pisses him off.

His face grows angrier and he tries to move, but he can't.

Tough luck fuckface.

"Fuck off," I say and flip him the famous middle one. "You want some of these up your ass? Come over and I'll stuff my whole fist up there."

"Please," the Karshok keeping me in place whispers. "Could we not have more trouble? This Karshok thought she wanted to help the Shurak."

I scrunch my lips and give Finn one last glare.

The liar Karshok is right. I shouldn't give that asshole one more second of my life. I should get this over with and then help my Bambi.

I don't want to do this… mind shit though. There is stuff that I don't want anyone prodding about.

"Is she ready?" Mah'mert asks, she's not the one who mulled Finn's brain.

She doesn't seem too moved about my match with Finn, as she gazes at me with a serene expression.

"This Mah'mert will only look at the time she spent with the Shurak, as promised."

"And no off-roading, thanks," I mutter and take the most comfortable position to sit as I can.

Finn grumbles something, but someone silences him quickly.

I won't even give him the pleasure of using my ears. His stupid voice is just the wind from now on.

The Mah'mert is already in front of me, lifting her hand and just as her eyes start to glow I remember... I remember Bambi talking to me and how he's not supposed to do that.

Oh fuck.

"Wai—"

My head grows woozy, my vision turns white.

Honestly, it isn't painful, but I'm scared. There is no way of knowing what she's looking at.

I thought I'd get a slideshow or something, but I only see white and feel… odd. I feel like I'm floating in the dead sea.

Then the feeling disappears and I'm staring at the Mah'mert. She doesn't say anything.

"You didn't go off-road, right?" I ask, blinking rapidly.

It feels like it only took a couple seconds. Maybe it did?

She looks around at the Karshoks, and then she says, "this is a matter for only us."

Say what?

"She has nothing to do with the Shurak's captivity, nor does she hold ill will. But we need to speak with the Shurak."

I tug down the corners of my mouth and glance at the Karshoks. Yikes.

I don't know if this is good or bad. Is this about him speaking? Or about my name calling? I can take all that back, right?

"I can help with that," I say, lifting my hand up.

If anyone can back me up, it's Aladdin.

The Mah'mert nods. "The med-pod."

I narrow my eyes. "How do you know about that? You went off-road, didn't you?"

"This Mah'mert only looked at what a med-pod is, as she had mentioned it to Karshok," she says calmly.

"You looked at more stuff than the time I spent with the Shurak then," I say and cross my arms. "That wasn't the deal."

She smiles slightly. "Only from the moment she met him to this."

I throw my hands up. "Unbelievable."

"It is only for the best for our sun and sky."

Sun and sky my ass, useless lump of meat is what he is. A cute useless lump of meat, but still.

"Even if she might not think the same of him," she says.

"Are you still in my head?" I ask, horrified.

She smiles and shakes her head. "No, this Mah'mert could see how she thinks."

Ah, well that's fantastic. Everyone wants to know what goes on in my giga brain.

I guess the offer from Finn still stands; it's time for them to dig deeper than six feet under so I can fit.

"This was the trial," the Mah'mert suddenly says, then she turns to Antler. "Let it be known; this human had nothing to do with the Shurak's capture."

"By the authority of this Karshok, this trial is fair and concluded," the antler says, and the Mah'mert get back up back on the platform they stood at.

"Karshok," the Mah'mert say in unison and nod.

The bull guy comes next to the antler and ties Finn's arms back. He tries to struggle, but the two dude's keep him immobilised.

The bull lifts Finn up and starts leading him off somewhere.

Finn glares back at me, but he's air to me, so I don't react. I turn back to the Mah'merts, but they're not doing anything.

I glance at the Karshok next to me. "What's happening now?"

"This Karshok is not sure," he says. "Wait?"

"That's helpful, thanks," I mutter and get up. I don't want to be the only one rolling down on the ground.

The woman I met at the river walks by to the antler and whispers something to him. I try to listen in, but I can't quite catch what she says.

The dude shrugs and the woman looks perplexed. I frown, everyone is confused. Why?

All the Zohra are slowly dribbling out of the centre and it seems like nothing is going to happen until it's just me, the Mah'merts, and the Karshoks.

And so we wait. And wait. And I was never good at waiting.

"Anyway, shouldn't we go and slap big-boy Shurak to the med-pod now? You know what it is now," I say.

The Karshok frowns at me to the best of his ability. "Do not call the Shurak names. She constantly keeps doing that."

"Big-boy is a nice upgrade from whatever else I could say," I say and tut him as he almost speaks. "I remember your warning, that's why I wasn't insulting. It's praise."

He seems to disagree, but he can't say anything against it.

"Med-pod?" I say again.

"We must wait for the Mah'mert's words."

I scan our surroundings, only seeing a couple more Zohra drifting towards another place of their primal city.

They should get some sneakers. They slow as hell.

I kick the sand away from the marble under me and make it my mission to reveal a nice square slab from underneath.

After four squares the Mah'mert finally speaks again.

"This Mah'mert is unsure if even the Karshok's should be here."

I bulge my eyes. Is this a joke? What heinous thing did I do?

"But for now, let us focus on getting the Shurak better with her aid. Will she share her name with us?" She asks and I raise my brow.

"Jasmine, or just Jas." The princess of Aladdin.

Oh no, do I need to find another one? Aladdin was a Prince, but this one is already an Emperor. How would that work?

Brain, not now.

"Jasmine, would she be so kind and help our Shurak?" One Mah'mert asks and they all lower from their pedestal. "We are thankful for all the help she has already given, but we must be shameless and ask for her help again."

"Did we really wait for everyone to leave, just so you could ask that?" I ask, frustrated. These people don't have any sense of urgency. "But yeah sure, let's get him up my ship."

"Is it wise?" The liar asks.

"Wiser than waiting," I grumble.

The Mah'merts nod. "We confirmed the efficiency of the med-pod."

And then we are moving, the Karshoks are at least. I'm about to follow, but one Mah'mert takes my hand.

I instinctively pull my hand off her hold. "You're not gonna do your shenanigans, are you?"

"We will not enter her memories," she says. "Unfortunately Jasmine cannot go where the Shurak is being held. Shall we go to her ship? We must wait for them to bring him there."

"Alright then," I say, not exactly surprised anymore. "Let's go."

They follow me to the ship, not saying a word. I don't really know what to say either, they were in my head. I feel a bit violated.

A woman with thick black curly hair climbs a Zohra near the ship. I wave at her as she sees us come closer.

Rosaline, one of the ladies on my ship. She is obsessed with Zohra and I shouldn't be surprised to see her out of the ship, but I am a little surprised how she's practically climbing a dude that looks uncomfortable the moment he turns his face towards us.

"Rosa, what are you doing?" I ask with a tight smile as we come near. "Don't harass the Zohra."

"You're kidding," she says and lets go of the man. "I haven't harassed anyone, he's the one who offered. Who am I to refuse?"

I raise my brows and look at the guy who avoids my gaze. "Then by all means, do whatever."

Rosa looks at me and the Mah'mert and then asks, "you alright? Nothing shitty is going to happen now, right?"

I glance behind me at the Mah'merts. "I sure hope not. I'd like to say we're good for now."

"Good enough for me," Rosa says and hooks her arm on the Zohra's arm. "I'm gonna go somewhere else now."

I wave her off and glance at the three stooges behind me.

I have no idea if they are as prude as Aladdin. But by the lack of a blush on their faces, I assume sex isn't that much of a newsflash for the women as it was for him.

"So, you want to wait inside or?" I ask.

"This Mah'mert is amazed by Jasmine," the one who dug my head says.

I narrow my eyes and scan the area, confused if they're really talking to me. "Excuse me?"

"She is such a colourful person."

"I'm just a couple shades darker than you." I look down at my arm, attempting to joke, but their faces dont twitch. "Is there something you want? You don't need to sugarcoat me."

They all smile eerily. "We don't mean the colour of your skin. She has an interesting personality."

I do the awkward 'OK, gross' -smile and point my thumb at the ship. "So we going inside or not?"

"This Mah'mert is not trying to make her uncomfortable. We admire her tenacity."

The more they speak, the more insulted I feel. I don't know if they're mocking humans, me, or I don't know, everything?

They frown at me, probably because of my sour face.

I'm not in the mood for conflict, so I just keep staring with a polite smile.

One tilts her head and asks, "did we offend her? We only meant to praise."

"Thanks, but I don't need your praise. It feels awfully convoluted after you've been in my head."

"We only meant that she is interesting — different."

"Uh, thanks?" I say and point at the ship again. "Let's go in, yeah?"

Sure they don't know me that well, but I am good without those kinds of comments.

I used to be a proper person. I was. I mean, I was about to be a lawyer and I acted as one should, proper.

I managed my stress with way too many movies and then after the shitstom of aliens hit. I couldn't really watch anything anymore, so I became a little loony.

But who didn't? I have got more than a few backhanded comments about how I act, but ironically it's the thing that keeps me relatively sane.

I can be an asshole and that's fine to say, but don't cover it up with platitudes.

I don't want to be slapped with an "interesting personality" -tag, either. I rather be called pretty or an asshole and be done with that.

I'm not waiting for them to answer and march up the ramp to the ship. "I can show you the med-pod."

They look at each other, unmoving, then one says, "we should wait to guide the Shurak."

Mm, right.

I sit and lean on my knees, then wait for the Zohra who have no sense of urgency.

The Mah'merts just stand and smile slightly as they stare at me.

It's really just awfully awkward.

Surprisingly, a group carrying Aladdin comes quickly.

The three Karshoks are on his sides and two other Zohra carry him with a stretcher.

Aladdin is covered with a white sheet. It looks like they're moving a corpse and my heart aches a little at the sight, but I know he's alive, otherwise they wouldn't be bringing him here.

I get up and lead them straight to the med bay on the lower floor.

Our ship has three stories in addition to the command centre. The largest one is for lodgings, then there's the one with the med bay and a kitchen, and the lowest is the cargo hold.

As we get to the med bay I slap on the roof of the med-pod.

It's a bed that's surrounded by a transparent tube. A person lies on it and it goes into the wall and does some alien stuff. It does surgeries, but it mostly uses some goo and foam.

We don't have a clue what shit it uses is, but they work and that's the most important thing.

We've even refilled it twice at a mechanic who knew his shit around the stuff. Which honestly is really fucking expensive, but it's for my Bambi. He's in this state because of me, so it's only right I help.

Also I want to see his goofy smile again. I'm a sucker for it apparently. Who would've thought I would grow so fond of that useless lump?

The big boys lug him to the room and I slide the pod open.

"Put him here," I say, patting the bed.

They carefully move around and ever so gently lie him on the bed.

They pull the blanket off him and the sight is not as relieving as I thought.

Pressure builds up behind my eyes and the prickle a bit. I swallow and hold my hands tightly together to stop myself from touching him.

He looks so pale and all the energy is gone from his usual smiley face.

The Unitaur's stab wound has been cleaned from the glue spray, making it look grim. There are odd greenish veins around the wound, but it has healed a bit.

Makes me wonder if he would've been better off without the glue spray. Did I do something unnecessary when I used it?

Fucking hell, seeing his condition without the dirt and all is kinda hard. I'm surprised he managed to hang around with all the stuff he has going on.

I shiver at my sentimentality and try to shake it off, my eyes are starting to burn dangerously close to tears.

Oh boy, what a depressive sight.

"Do you have his horn?" I muster out, my voice strained.

Damn, even my throat feels tight. Bambi sure is making me feel awful, what a rude bastard.

"Where do I put it?" The horn appears in front of my face and I blink at it for a moment.

I turn to the guy offering it and suck in a breath. Red-eyes, Bambi's brother.

I hope he doesn't hold a grudge about the knife thing.

I take the horn, surprised it's pristine, someone has cleaned it completely.

I struggle with the horn's weight as I try to place it where it's supposed to be.

I swear these fuckers have horns made of pure lead, it so ridiculous. And only fucking decorative from what I've seen.

After a while of struggling Red-eyes grunts and bumps me aside.

"I just have to put it in place? There's pieces missing so it won't go perfectly," he says, but still manages to place it quite right.

"I don't know if it will fix it, but it's worth a try, isn't it?" I say as the man takes his hands off the horn, careful not to move it.

"Make sure nothing goes wrong. I will be watching."

"Yep," I mutter and slide the tube to cover Bambi.

Then I realise we're the only ones in the room. The med-pod hisses and Red-eyes jumps a bit, but he quickly tries to hide it.

I chuckle and watch as the pod slowly slides into the wall.

"Don't worry, this is normal," I say and go sit at the chairs on the side of the room. "The time it takes depends on how badly injured someone is. So this can take a while."

"Was he poisoned by a Rukh?" He asks, turning those red baubles that remind me of Bambi so much.

It sucks that I'm stuck with the bro. I don't want to face the replica of Bambi's innocent eyes right now.

"A Unitaur's horn, I don't know what a Rukh is," I say, realising it probably goes both ways. "A Unitaur is a two legged and armed thing with one green eye and a horn."

"It's a Rukh. It's one of the only things whose poison is actually a bit bad for us, it must've hurt a lot."

My mouth draws into a thin line. Poor Bambi didn't even insinuate such a thing.

Great, now I feel even worse.

The guy sighs and leans on the wall on the opposite side from me.

I know I'm staring a bit too hard, but his fucking eyes are haunting me. If I was really crazy, I'd want to pluck them to have them as my precious.

Hah, Jasmine the Gollum with two precious artefacts.

"So I heard you're free of guilt," he says, breaking the silence.

I avoid his gaze, feeling caught doing something bad. I clear my throat and force a smile.

"Yeah, I said so. I was protecting him from all evil."

He scoffs, but a tiny smile lifts his lips, making him look even more like Bambi. Goddamnit.

"So, uh… you're not talking formally?"

He shrugs. "Well I am the 'brother' or the Shurak. Shouldn't I have some leeway? I'm sure you won't tell anyone and I don't think it's that important right now. It's a new planet anyway, so we should get the sticks out of our asses."

I snort and lean back to re-evaluate the man. If he's not mad, he's pretty chill, I guess.

"You guys have a log up your asses, not a stick."

"You're a bit fearless, aren't you?"

"Do I have something to fear? I have a couple hidden guns in this ship," I say and wave around the room. "I'm sure I could find one here."

He smiles lopsided. "If it's not in your hand, you won't make it, I'm sure you know."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Maybe," he says blankly. "Depends how this all turns out."

Okay…

I start looking around the room. I