Oddworld Forums - "Akya's Story" (for lack of a better title)

First chapter of a fanfic documenting Akya's life...there IS some swearing in this just to warn the younger readers (its Molluck talking...I didn't go overboard, I hope...) ANyhow, hope you like. *goes back to writing part two*

CHAPTER ONE

"Get over here, frog!" Molluck bellowed, snarling at a shadowed corner of the room. There was a pause and then a faint scuffle as a mudokon slunk into view, eyes wide and hunted as it moved forward and stopped a short distance from the glukkon.

".......yes?" it asked in a tiny voice. Molluck said nothing and instead, sneered over the slave's shoulder at one of the sligs standing nearby. He nodded understandingly and grasped the butt of his gun, rapping it firmly between the mudokon's shoulders. It squealed in pain, doubling over involuntarily and lacing its hands over its head.

"Ya'll bow to the boss!" the slig hissed, its hand-like snout clenched in a fist of disgust. The mudokon cowered for a few moments, holding in whimpers of fright before slowly raising its head and goggling up at Molluck.

"Feh....ugliest things I've ever seen." the glukkon scoffed, his cigar giving a slight twitch between his leathery lips and sending a shower of feathery gray ash to the carpet. "Clean that up!!" he ordered, smirking as the mudokon scrambled to obey, vainly trying to tweeze the ashes between its clumsily large fingers. "Tell me again why its gotta be this one?" he asked, peering at the gangly Vykker that stood by the doorway, twiddling its spindly thumbs idly.

"The hips." the Vykker replied, his voice holding a thick transylvannian accent. "She has vide hips vhich are indezpenzible in breeding ztock."

"Breeding." Molluck snorted. "They already breed like slurgs. The forests're crawling with'em. GET UP!!!" He ordered her, making her scramble to her feet and watched bemusedly as the Vykker puttered forward, taking the mudokon's head in his hands. She flinched, turning her head to the side, but he forced it back in a forward position, squinting to peer at her eyes and probing his fingers into her mouth to examine her teeth.

"And zis one haz not been tampered mit?" he inquired, reaching out to feel her arms' muscles with his spidery hands.

"If you mean have we cut any parts outta her since we got'er, then no. Ya ordered one mudokon bitch, I gave ya one mudokon bitch! Fer cryin' out loud, Zan, do I look like I'm tryin' to screw you over??" Molluck snapped. Zan flinched as the glukkon raised his gutteral voice and backed up a step or two.

"I never zaid zat." he said calmly. "I zimply needed to know. Mitout her nezessary organs, she is useless to me, you underztand." Molluck regarded the Vykker with narrowed eyes a moment and then turned toward the picture window of his main office, overlooking the progress of Rupture Farms. As he watched, a mudokon worker on the third floor lost his balance and tumbled headfirst into one of the grinders, making a smile rise to his lips.

"Five hundred." he said matter-of-factly. "We agreed on five hundred before ya came down here."

"Ov courze." Zan nodded. He had secretly hoped Molluck would settle for a lower price for the purchase of the mudokon, but knew that heckling for the slave girl at this point would be futile and would likely result in the glukkon CEO losing his temper and not agreeing to any bargain at all. As he reached into a purse-like object hanging at his side, Molluck peered over his shoulder, a grin on his face as he watched him produce the money. Zan counted out a set of rumpled bills with his spindly fingers and offered them to the glukkon who stared at them a moment and then bellowed for one of his nearby assistants.

The slig marched forward, seizing the money from the Vykker and placing it on the edge of Molluck's desk before meandering back into his place against the wall. Giving a satisfied nod of his head, Molluck glared at the female slave, picking her up and down with a scrutinizing gaze. "Get'er outta here." he said at last. "She ain't mine anymore." Two sligs immediately stepped in, seizing the mudokon by either arm and dragging her out the door. "Pleasure to do business with ya again, Zan." Molluck smirked as the Vykker followed after them.

"Ze pleasure, it iz all mine." Zan nodded agreeably. "I do not find more willing hosts any place other zan here."

"Come back in a couple of days." the glukkon called after him. "Got a new shipment comin' in."

The mudokon, knowing protesting would be pointless, allowed herself to be led, head down and trying not to look at either of the sligs that had hold of her arms. She had, only a week ago, reached full maturity (at least by the factory's standards) after living a raucous few months on the factory floor and narrowly escaping with her life on many occasions. Now she had been sold...and for what? Probably something even more horrible, she decided. Tears puddled at the rims of her eyes, stinging them like hot oil as they reached the lift leading down to the factory's entrance.

The ropes squealed as one of the sligs began to lower them to the ground floor and she watched passively as the metal work floors passed. Now and then, one of the mudokons crouching on the factory floor would favor her with a look that dripped hopelessness before returning to their work. It hurt her to think that not a year ago she had been free and living out her childhood years in the vast woods.

Most of the mudokons had simply accepted their fate and resigned themselves to being a member of Rupture Farms' "cheerful staff" but there had been the few that still hated their captors. There had been attempts to form uprisings in the past....why not, after all? Mudokons had both arms and legs while sligs and glukkons lacked either/or. The attempts, however, had been quickly silenced. It was amazing how effective public executions had been in cowing the hundreds of employees into quiet servitude.

She winced as a hand alighted on her shoulder, making her whirl to face the Vykker...her new owner. His face pinched into what she supposed was a smile as his fingers trailed under her chin. "Your name?" he asked her. She didn't reply, doing her best not to meet his beady yellow eyes. His gentle touch beneath her chin suddenly became a clawed grip, tightening on her throat. "I asked you a qvestion!!" he hissed at her.

"Aggg...!" she gagged, eyes wide and bulging as his grip cut off her windpipe. She grappled for his arm reflexively to try and loose his hold on her but, despite its frail appearance, it didn't budge. She fought for a few more moments, the strength slowly leaving her arms as though someone had opened a tap on her ankle that her life was running out of. As things began to grow fuzzy and spin out of control, the vykker released her, allowing her to fall to her knees as she caught great swallows of breath that screamed in and out of her lungs.

"Now...let'z try zis again..." he said icily. "Your name?"

"A...Akya." she answered between breaths, coughing and tasting a bitter coppery flavor in the back of her throat.

"Vell Akya," Zan said conversationally as the lift bumped to a halt at the ground floor and he sauntered off, looking over his shoulder expectantly, waiting for her to follow. She really had no choice, after all. If she attempted to run, there were any number of sligs that would gladly shoot her and it wasn't a horrible setback for him to have to wait another few weeks for a replacement brood female. "I haff a very important job zet azide for you."

The mudokon stumbled to her feet, following the vykker's hulking form in reluctant obedience. "Tell me...haff you any children?" he inquired.

"No." she answered, embarrassed by such a personal question.

"Ah! Zat vill change, zat vill change....yes." Zan replied, sounding sinisterly delighted. Akya shuddered as she continued to follow her new owner to the front entrance, doing her best to ignore the jeers from passing sligs. As the front door opened, she drew in her breath...hoping for at least a brief look at the sunlight before she was loaded into whatever transport unit had been arranged for her and bundled off to her new home. Her small hope, however, was dashed as her gaze met with sheets of rain and darkened skies. "Hurry along, now." Zan instructed as he manuevered quickly toward what could only be described as a low-riding bus. She supposed with the limited mobility the vykkers posessed, climbing stairs was out of the question for most of them.

As she stepped into the rain, the freezing droplets piercingly cold on her flesh, she took a final breath of freedom before trudging aboard the vessel that would carry her to her to her next destination of confinement. Where? Who knew. Who cared...