What Aisha hated most of all were whiners and crybabies. Seeing and hearing someone complain about every little thing really bothered her, almost as much as having a sobbing mess to deal with. Aisha respected backbone; it was one of the first reasons for hanging out with Jim. He was the only Terran Aisha had ever met that never once cringed in front of her, not even when she transformed into her more frightening bestial form. Jim had guts, and Aisha liked seeing guts. However, the fifteen Terran children in the cage in front of her had as much spine as jellyfish.

No sooner, did Aisha peer into the cage, did the crying and screaming start. It hadn’t stopped when Aisha took a step back, only counting with a lower pitch. They would point at her and huddle together. Several of the big ones would shove the smaller children in front of them to try and hide from the perceived monster in standing before them. Some had started blubbering promising that they’d give their siblings to Aisha if she’d spare them. It was all rather pitiful and was giving Aisha a world-class migraine.

“Would you shut up!” Aisha growled, baring her teeth and glaring menacingly at the cage full of frightened children. Aisha got silence for about a second, and then the screaming started again. This time louder and with more blubbering. Aisha fell back onto her bed, gripping her head in frustration as she tried to think of someway to regain some small amount of control over this situation. She had hoped to find a new slave that she’d be able to stand for even just one night, but she hadn’t had any luck. She wasn’t looking for a replacement for Jim, but rather someone to keep her mind of the current situation. Instead of getting relief, all Aisha got was more stress.

It made her so depressed. She shouldn’t be looking for a new slave, she should of Jim with her. Who else could she laugh with and fool around with to help break her out of the funk she was in? Certainly not one of these brats, that’s for sure. Jim was her anchor when she started to go adrift in sadness. She was string physically, but it was Jim that gave her the inner strength that she needed. She knew Jim was trying to give her a break from the stress of lying about him, and she knew he only had her best intentions in mind. But losing him was putting her into a major depression, and Aisha only had one solution for dealing with Depression.

Eating.

Springing off her bed, Aisha stopped her way to the cage. Her back was hunched and she was grinning savagely. It was time to let the animal out of its cage. Aisha opened the cage and reached in, grabbing an eight year old by the back of his dirty, ripped shirt. “Come here you,” she growled. Lifting him up to her face, he stared into Aisha’s eyes, which burned with ferocity. Aisha began slowly opening her jaws and stretched them wide in front of the boy’s horrified face. He looked into Aisha’s wide maw, dripping with saliva and looming so close.

He didn’t get long to look because with a quick snap of her neck, Aisha closed her mouth over nearly half the small boys body. Her cheeks bulged from all the food stuffed in her mouth. She usually started on the head and worked her way down, but today she didn’t want it slow and pleasant. Aisha wanted her feast to be fast and hard, like a real predator. Her throat groaned in protest as she took a huge swallow. The neck expanded in a flash and the boys head was pulled down her throat along with his chest, belly and rear end. Before her neck could get used to the sudden expansion, Aisha swallowed again, taking his legs into her mouth and down her throat.

The squirming lump in her throat moved down her chest and formed a small blob on her stomach. Aisha lifted her hand to wipe her mouth, and then let out a hoarse gasp for air. It took time for a Ctarl-Ctarl’s body to get used to having a large meal crammed into it and that time Aisha didn’t have. She wanted food now to quell her recession. She reached back into the cage, grabbing the first child she could find among the fourteen left. Their screams fell into the background as Aisha’s hunger took full control.

God she missed Jim.