The Penny Drops (Sea the Depths Book 1) by Karmon Kuhn (warren buffett book recommendations TXT) 📕

didn’t return. Instead, strangers visited me with extraction materials. They took my blood, my scales, my venom, and my claws. A few of them were gentle, but most of them yanked at me or stabbed freely as they took their samples. The only response that I ever received to my questions was the same haughty stare from each of them.

The length of my imprisonment was a mystery, but I was served many, many meals and refused many others. Given that, it was quite some time. Perhaps, years of getting weaker in body and mind. Although reasonably, it was likely only a few months that I spent in that room.

Initially, I was given short periods of time out of my bindings to relieve myself and clean my body, but I always stood sorer and weaker than the break before. In time, I proved that I was not a physical threat and was provided a cot for sleeping and a very small corner pool to help heal my chapped, peeling scales. Even with these comforts, my thoughts were clouded and my concentration waned. At times, I even saw things that weren’t there or heard voices that didn’t exist.

Once, I thought that I’d heard Penny’s voice say my name.

With a croak, I asked, “Penny? Are you there?”

I was answered with the guard’s stench of confusion and concern, and then she spoke, “Who are you talking to?”

I stared at her wildly. By that time, the guards were as much a feature of the room as the storage furniture, so her response was unsettling. I answered sharply, “I was not talking to anyone!”

“Who is Penny?” she nudged quietly.

I snarled at her defensively. “Do not play dumb with me! You know who Penny is!”

She puzzled and said, “I do not know anyone named Penny. This is my first day at the tsez̈ø. They told me to cover this room because the scheduled guard is ill today. I do not have any idea who you are talking about.”

Still suspicious, my tongue flicked in and out and tested the air. Could I believe her? She smelled rather neutral beyond the fear. What if she was telling the truth?

“What are you afraid of?” I asked her.

She answered with a wave of filthy smelling fear. It was me. She was afraid of me. First, I was insulted but then excited. If I could overpower her, that fear would provide an advantage. I slid up a small measure and then melted back down into my corner pool.

“Penny is the only one I’ve loved,” I told her, “She is here. Somewhere.”

The guard’s stench lightened a bit, and her face filled with curiosity. I waited. Speech had eluded me for so long, but what if she was yet another enemy? Could I trust her with my memories?

“She made me better. She showed me that even the broken and beaten can trust and love and grow. That even the ordinary can survive extraordinary things. She taught me that life of all types has value.”

From the look on the guard’s face, I clearly wasn’t explaining this well. She’d likely never felt this kind of connection or met anyone like Penny. I certainly hadn’t before I left home.

“I fell in love with a human.” I confided in her.

Instead of insults or violence, she followed my statement with a question, “Penny is a human?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you both here?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, “Do you?”

“Truly, I have no idea. I was meant to start in the engineering section of the center today, but my mentor told me to come here. All that I was told was not to overstimulate or . . .” she stopped then.

“Or . . . ?” I asked, hoping that she would continue.

“Or listen to what you said. I was told that you were a study candidate in medical and had to be under constant supervision due to your . . . side effects,” she answered carefully.

“I see,” I said, “And do you believe this to be the truth?”

“I . . . I am not sure,” she said.

I knew that I might die in here, and I wanted someone to know my story if I did. Even if she wouldn’t believe it, I had to tell someone what had happened to me.

“I went to my land trials and met the human, Penny. She showed me much about humanity, and I’ve learned now that they aren’t as we have known them. I studied their languages all my life, and somehow, even I didn’t understand their complexity. They are highly emotional and intelligent beings, and after meeting one of them, I learned something very important.”

I looked around the room suspiciously, almost afraid to make the statement. Expecting for a hand to fly out of the shadows and pelt my face. Or for a tail to strike my prone back.

“What did you learn?”

“That they are our equals.”

She looked at me curiously and asked, “Do you really believe that?”

“I do not just believe it as a possibility. I know it is the truth. Humans think differently, they communicate differently, and they act very differently. But, they share something with us. They are living, breathing, sentient creatures that can contemplate philosophy and plan for the future and connect with each other deeply. Their lives and their existence is worth no less than ours! And that is why I am here! Because I am alone in accepting that fact and the powers that be are threatened by my knowledge.”

“Do you mean that you are a prisoner here?” she asked me, her eyes wide.

“Yes,” I answered, feeling hope for the first time since arriving here.

“I do not understand,” she said, filling the room with that stench of fear again, “How could they possibly keep you here unless it was for your own safety?”

“There is something going on in this center that someone doesn’t want others to know about,” I answered, “And I think that they believe I pose some sort of threat to their ‘work’.”

“If this is