It had been white, like her. White fur all over. White nose. White paws. Blue eyes.
It was her if she had been born a rabbit.
It was a ghost too—at least, that’s what she’d thought at the time. It was the name the other kids used to call her.
She’d followed the little creature as it bound into the woods and before she knew it, she couldn’t see it anymore. It had hopped away, out of her sight, and no matter how she’d looked to find it, it never reappeared.
When she’d turned around to head back home, she couldn’t see the trail.
She’d gone farther than she’d intended.
Three days.
For three days she was alone in that forest.
Scared. Hungry. Dirty.
Lost.
Her cries were never heard. Her mother never came, even when she wailed and said she was sorry for running off. When she fell over fallen trees or tripped over protruding roots, there was no sound of her father’s heavy boots rushing her way to make sure she was okay.
She’d been alone.
It had been terrifying. But it had been a turning point in her life.
Those three days in the forest was what had planted the seed for her interest in ecology.
Three days alone in raw nature had forced her to study every little thing around her.
It had altered her path forever. She had survived.
And, if she could survive such an experience as a four-year-old, she could survive a simple shopping trip in a foreign market.
For that was all it was—a foreign market like the countless other foreign markets she’d visited while traveling abroad.
Opening her eyes, she took in a deep breath.
She hadn’t had a panic attack since she’d been abducted and now it was happening here, while she was standing in a market of all places.
She supposed the week she’d had of complete safety had allowed her mind to finally let down its protective wall, leaving her open and vulnerable again but also allowing her to feel once more.
That’s where the depressing thoughts were coming from—it was why this memory of the forest was resurfacing.
Regardless, as she watched the aliens about her shopping, she could admit that this wasn’t the usual culture shock.
Back on Earth, culture shock had been temporary. She’d always eventually leave the country she visited to return home with her findings.
But this was permanent.
There was no home to go back to.
She and the other women hadn’t talked about it yet, but they all knew deep down that they were never returning to Earth.
That meant she didn’t have a choice.
Evolve or die.
She had to adapt.
If it turned out she had to leave to go live at the intergalactic port city, things were bound to be more chaotic than what she was seeing in this market.
So, this would be her test run. Phase 1 of adapting.
Mind set, she began walking through the throng, no longer standing in the middle like a rock that could not be moved.
It took her a few minutes, but soon she found herself moving through the marketplace with interest.
There was so much to see, so many strange products, most of which she had no idea of their purpose.
She passed a vendor selling what looked like tall vases with strange colorful smoke coming from the top. The vendor had his too large of a mouth stretched into a silly smile as he inhaled the smoke from one of the vases. A few of his customers were leaning idly on the stall, identical smiles on their faces.
Yep. That was the weed shop.
Or whatever was the equivalent of marijuana in this place.
Another vendor she passed was selling what looked like...
Evren’s eyes widened and she tried not to let her mouth fall open when she realized what she was looking at.
Various sizes of large dildos were on display. And it wasn’t just any normal dildos. No. These were dragon dildos.
Ridged ones, long ones, thick ones, curved ones, straight ones, twisted ones...horned ones?
There was no way some of those were not a product of someone’s imagination.
Try as she might, her mouth still fell open as she stared.
She wasn’t a prude but...dang. Those dildos were...
As her gaze moved over the wares, they fell on two eyes that were focused on her with dull amusement.
The vendor was looking at her and the skin of his head moved upward, almost as if he was...raising his eyebrows?
She would have stopped staring immediately and walked off if the vendor himself didn’t look like an uncircumcised dick.
The coincidence was unreal.
He had no neck; his head and face joined onto what she