Judd
"Oh." Rayia said suppressing a small chuckle.
"I suppose you have a point." She admitted, continuing to grin at him unabashedly when he said her idea might work. Normally, she might have been concerned that she was letting it get to her head. But this was the first time Judd seemed receptive to liberating her pack from the pirates. She nodded enthusiastically when she heard him say the plan might work.
"Most people don't expect you to tell the truth. So it might throw them off?" She trailed off, tone rising to indicate it was a gamble. After all, most plans went sideways when they encountered opposition. She also hadn't eaten the same food as these people, breathed the same... air as them.
'Putrid is the word you're looking for.' Her brain supplied unhelpfully.
"...I don't really know. I'm counting on their greed to overcome their lust to see me turned into a fur rug while I'm down." She supplied, shrugging.
Rayia's ears twitched as she caught the momentary lapse of hesitation in the normally solemn Dowutin's voice. '
There is definitely more than one reason he's happy to say goodbye to these snakes. I'm getting the feeling this isn't the first time something like this has happened.' Rayia thought to herself. If it was a more opportune time, she might have tried to wheedle the answers out of him. But something told her this wasn't the time. Beyond the likelihood that Judd would clam up like an oyster, every word they spoke had to be whispered carefully. Lest it carried to precisely the wrong ears.
Rayia stumbled along before Judd, feeling the poke of his blaster between her shoulder blades. A shudder seemed to course through her spine every time the cool metal thumped against her back. Rayia could feel the beast stirring within. The embodiment of what had harmed her casually caressing her skin was perhaps not the most calming sensation. Rayia was gripped with sudden fear. 'He wouldn't actually fire...would he? No, no. That's ridiculous.' Rayia thought, grappling with the instinctual pump of panic. The flaring pain crawling up her side as she hobbled along wasn't helping calm her. Each vibration from each step felt like a nail being driven under her skin. But Rayia pressed on, relying on her people's naturally miraculous endurance. Under her breath, she softly growled,
"You're the Feral Queen's daughter. You can handle this."
Rayia and Judd passed many pirates, most of whom shrank back or gave her wary looks. It was small wonder why. Rayia looked like she was in fact what the pirates had taken to calling her. The stumbling steps while covered in wounds, the grimace of a smile, the frenzied look in her eyes and frame. Everything about her screamed psycho. As Judd had shoved the only malcontent pirate who had deigned to try and strike her, Rayia's smile grew even more unfriendly. There was just too much tooth in the grin as Judd's quick thinking had stopped her teeth from closing over the man's fingers.
Finally they reached the cargo hold where Judd had said her pack would be. Rayia could see that there were two guards standing vigil over the entrance to the storage room exactly as Judd said there would be. Their bared weapons told Rayia that they were serious about the prospect of preventing anyone from skulking into the storage room. Judd delivered their lie after a moment's hesitation and Rayia could instantly see she'd made a mistake. She'd been hoping the pirates' greed would be strong enough to let her live long enough for her to gather up her things. But the glint in her eyes told her she'd miscalculated. These men clearly were just going to ransack her pack after turning them away. So...it was back to shooting them. Like Judd had said.
Rayia's ears flattened and she hissed as Judd raised his blaster over her shoulder and fired. One guard instantly slumped to the deck plates with a meaty thwump. The proximity of the blaster's whine had set her ears ringing, and it was through a muffled haze that she saw the other pirate successfully duck into cover and aim his weapon to fire back. Rayia knew they didn't have time for a prolonged skirmish. But it was the guard's next movement that caused her blood to turn to icewater in her veins. Rayia saw him raise one vambrace towards his head, fiddling with some knobs. '
If he calls for help, we're doomed.' Rayia thought, and grit her teeth as she realized what she had to do. Her eyes flicked sidelong towards Judd communicating she knew how stupid her next move was.
Her arm released Judd's shoulders as a ginger-white blur exploded towards the pirate. Rayia felt another slightly sharper lance of pain through her legs as she pounced... Well, no. She more flopped onto the pirate's legs at insane speed. Rayia quickly shifted to the side as she felt the pirate swing the blaster around and train it on her. Relying on her Felacatian hyper-reflexes, she felt a burning sting nip her ear as the blaster fired. In the same moment, Rayia brought her claws, still fearsome even in this form, across the pirate's throat. A crimson spray spilled from the three parallel gashes in the pirate's neck as he futilely pressed a hand to the wound to staunch it.
A few moments later, both he and Rayia slumped to the deckplates. Rayia pressed her cheek against the cool deckplates and groaned. She could feel a seeping moistness spreading through her Kolto bandages where she had aggravated the wounds on her legs. '
The Kolto should help prevent too much damage though,' she thought.
"I just earned myself more time in these bandages didn't I?" She asked a little louder than necessary. She still couldn't hear a damn thing.
"Did I at least stop him from calling for help?"