I was offered the chance to cryonically freeze myself for the journey and I declined. I had other plans

It's a long time, three months, you know? Trevis tells me. I knew he had a thing for me. I went to the training room to keep busy but I was actually scanning the ship to find nooks and crannies to hide in as a stowaway if I had to bring back the captured dragon.

What I did was typical of monsters: I wrote down and pointed at the humans so I could follow them and find them easily.

I found the banker and the troublemaker.

In France they say that a hunting accident is a settling of scores.

On board, I met the famous Mister Kim, a formidable bankster. He was the one who blocked the refinancing of World Co.

I arrived in the canteen of the Artemis, served myself a tray of disgusting bleeding meat and sat down in front of him.

"Do you mind if I sit across from you to eat?"

Miss... Eva Longhorn? I assume you work for World. You see I'm off on a leave of absence and on a one-time hunt and I hope you're not going to ruin my lunch to talk business?"

"Mr. Kim, come on, I'm off duty, too. I'm here to hunt big game as you can see."

"Your food choices are quite surprising, you seem to be mimicking predators."

"But, Mr. Kim, I'm a predator and I'm used to eating some of my prey. Did you know that by eating your prey, you take some of its soul and strength?"

"Interesting theory"!

And while he was answering, I took a big piece of meat that I cut with my razor-sharp teeth.

The bone cracked under the pressure of my jaws and he was surprised.

"The best is in the marrow!"

He wanted to get up but I put my hand on his forearm and he couldn't get up.

Terrified by the strength of a small woman, he sat down...

"Allow me to insist, Mr. Kim. I don't come to negotiate, what I want, I take it and my position, I don't owe it to my pretty eyes if you know what I mean.

Down there in the jungle, I'm ruthless and I destroy my enemies.

I hope we can be friends on Artemis."...

Then I kept eating and cracking the bones as loud as I could.

Then I spotted Artemis' main shareholder, the famous hunter Donovan...

the well-struck fifties and a belly showing a festive accumulation of various gains and pleasures.

His partly bleached beard did not make him look younger.

He was taking a break, arms on his hips, a short mocha shirt and black trousers completed the individual. Moreover, he could show off his antique watch, reminding us that he too was a financial ogre.

He came and sat down in front of me and, accompanied by Trevis, he asked me:

"What does a frail little girl have to do with Artemis?

Apparently they all have a hormone problem.

"Careful, Donovan, that little girl's got a lot of surprises in store for us."

"A secretary from World is certainly never going to impress me."

"You're hunting the fat guy? What equipment did you bring?"

"Oh, a knife. I love the hand-to-hand! I said."

The presentations having been made, they all prepared to go to sleep and to be fresh and ready for the great hunt.

I think I'll just shoot those arrogant monsters. These kind of people revolt me and make me want to vomit.

Trevis took me out of my torpor and asked me if I could survive these idiots?

A few days later, they were all in the cryogenic bed and Travis was eating with me and said, "Do you always eat bleeding like that?"

"It reminds me of hunting drunkenness. So I don't forget myself."

Trevis: "A personal question, but do you have someone in your life? Someone waiting for you?"

"Yes, I have a big family and I deal with their problems but currently I don't have any guys in my life. The one I love is too far away, too young and still in school. We'll meet again when he's recruited by World."

"Interesting, but I think behind this young lady-secretary facade is a powerful warrior who would shake any predator, right?"

"You flatter me, Trevis. "

And he put his hand on mine, hoping to achieve a relationship with me.

I too had desires and needs to satisfy and I let him take the initiative.

"I hope, Trevis, that your desires do not lead to your downfall."

I got up to go to my room but he grabbed my hand and put his other hand against the wall, blocking my way and his face came close to mine.

I felt his warm breath on my cheeks and turned my face, embarrassed red.

How beautiful you are and he turned my head to face him and he put his lips on mine and the next minute we kissed and the next minute we were in his room full of trophies and he hugged me and we made love.

Poor Travis, if he only knew.

His repeated assaults almost made me lose my self-control, but I was almost indomitable.

Precautions taken, I took a shower and we fell asleep, hugged but I was only thinking of the one I really loved: Fuchur.

Darkia was all alone and on her own on this inhospitable planet, this green hell.

Live! I must live to see Zmei again. I have to survive for her.

Those bastards will all pay for this!

To avoid being spotted, she ran into the river and pulled her up, facing the wind. The prey used to run down the river and be blown by the wind like children on a beach.

She didn't stop to hunt or kill prey, she looked for places to hide, ambushes, but the planet seemed to have been artificially shaped. The rocks were made of resin and concrete. Very well imitated but she could see well on the set and it didn't take her long to spot surveillance cameras.

The hunts were filmed and rebroadcast live to holographic TV editing and distribution centres where viewers could watch the reality show from their living rooms as if they were there.

Disgusting.

During her captivity, she did as Zmei did, pretending to sleep and learning about those who would hunt her.

So she secretly prepared spikes, traps and poisons with thorns wrapped in her scorpion venom. Her traps were extremely vicious. She even climbed a creeper bridge to a path of death - the fall led immediately to a nest of raptors.

She felt that she was the last dragon in this world and she was going to make her skin pay for it.

She may not have been a magician or an engineer, but as a hunter, she was a great one.

She learned by pretending to sleep, their tongues in bulk and all the features of their weapons and vehicles that the drunken mercenaries boasted of having and the latest model.

Instead of sinking into despair, she sank into the rage of being put in the arena.

I was jogging and every time I pretended to recover by stopping for long periods of time while drinking, but it was to inspect the cameras and blind spots on the ship.

Then I cast illusion spells to go into forbidden areas and I found large, unguarded and easily accessible technical voids. The accumulated dust indicated that no one came to visit these places. So I set up a room in these crawl spaces. These voids did not exist at the beginning but were added to fit out the hotel part of the destroyer and to rearm the destroyer partly with hunting equipment rather than war equipment.

These voids are like the inter-compartments between the rooms of the liners.

So I installed teleportation glyphs and illusion glyphs to hide properly. I also stored food and reserves for 2 dragons in case of a clandestine journey.

My time was very busy. I also went to the shed where the ammunition and crates were stored. So I put explosive runes on all the equipment and mana stones on the collapsible bunkers. A real pro-sabotage job. Really, it took all my time and I had to do it cunningly without being spotted neither by the androids nor by the hunters themselves and by the sophisticated surveillance cameras.

I decided that I would spend the last 15 days resting. This did me a great deal of good.

Then, before falling asleep, I got a call on my manacom from Mandrake.

"Mandrake, is that you? How are things in Aracadia?"

"Vermithraxa, you are in grave danger. Your real mother is looking for you and Metanovae has been resurrected. She has full power and is your aunt. She's Ignar's sister.

Your grandfather wants to see you but he has to help Metanovae find you and drag you to your mum. Your real mother. Fushia wasn't your mama. She was your stepmother. Another lie from Ignar!

Ignar killed her because she wanted to take your mother's place. She loved you, but she was as crazy as Ignar. She stole you and Auberone from your mother and mixed her eggs with yours pretending to Ignar that they were hers. But the deception didn't work.

"Who's my mother then?"

"Do you want to know? I shouldn't say, but you argued when she was trying to keep you..."

"Oh, nooooo, isn't that what I think it is?"

"Yes, unfortunately it is!?"

"Ah, your grandfather came to power with an army and weapons from your world. He has atomic weapons I think, he showed me pictures. Does it really exist?"

"Mandrake, I'm afraid there is.

A small bomb is devastating a city. A big one, a country.!"

So, be careful, it's likely Metanovae will drag you by the back skin here and take revenge on you and Falkor, or at best just bring you back here. But she hates you for selling her out, she hates the men and she hates Falkor for abandoning her. Your voice sounds strange, Vermi!"

"You have no idea! I do the visitors' dirty work, their leader is a plastic golem like my master. I'm a slave and so are the others. I've just managed to place the young people in the school, like the academy, but bigger, but that's all I've managed to do so far.

But the worst thing is that I have lost my innocence. I am a monster and I have no humanity left. I've had to sabotage ships and a disaster has become uncontrollable and 6000 people have lost their lives because of me. I'm a piece of shit and I don't know what they're pushing me to become. They're monsters and I hate humans more and more. I'm sorry, Mandrake, but you were the only one I could confide in."

Mandrake: "I'm going to pray for you. You don't deserve what you're being put through. "

"Thank you, Mandrake. Farewell."

And I cut off the conversation, all upset by the information.

I went to bed and slaughtered every human being I met in my delusional dream.

I even cried in my sleep.