The "Grey" Market

[Maero]

As the jerky was tossed in to the cages the merchant scowled. "Hey, dont feed em unless you gonna buy em." He said roughly, not moving from his seat next to Kase's cage. Kase crawled tentatively up to the jerky and batted it with his paw for a moment, trying to see if it was ral or not. He hooked it on his right hand with his claws and pulled it toward him, revealing that he only had three claws left. His ring and pinky finger claws had been pulled out, painfully no doubt, and left him with only three claws. His other hand was harder to see, since he kept it tucked under him and his claws were not bared there.

The small neko boy sniffed it and looked up at Kaylee. "For me?" He asked softly. As a Neko, he communicated mostly with body language than with actual words, and so his voice was rather weak to start from. He received a jab from the pole on his head not long after and retreated back to back of the cage with the jerky. "Oh no, you dont get any of that." The Trader said. Kase had been bad all week, the Trader was starving him to break him down, though in truth he was just giving himself an excuse since he also starved Silvia. Simply didnt care enough to spend what little money he had on food for the slaves. If they didnt sell for a few weeks in the slave market then there was always the exotic meat market.

And so he jabbed Kase again and again until the neko retreated to a corner in the back and left the jerky behind. The Trader then stuck the jerky with his pole and flung it into Silvia's cage. Silvia had reacted much like Kase at first, testing the food to make sure it wasnt drugged or fake, and then began to nibble happily on it. She didnt speak, she knew better, and so she enjoyed her jerky peacefully as she purred softly, loving the feeling of Kaylee's hand gently scratching her behind the ear.

Silvia was a high quality slave that had the misfortune of being born into the possession of this particular slaver. Her fur was very soft save for the dirty spots, but that was hardly her fault. Even with all the personal maintenance she did on herself, Silvia had a hard time keeping clean with no water save for her drinking water. When Kase's jerky flew into her cage she snatched it up greedily and the Trader smiled, not noticing that Silvia didnt eat it, but rather tucked it under her belly which she was laying on, to give back to Kase when the trader wasnt looking.

At this point Kase had teary eyes from being hit over and over with the pole and had dropped his hostility in exchange for a pathetic attempt to hide from attention, staying curled up in the farthest corner of his cage, trembling from fear, or possibly the cold. Silvia and Kase wore only rags to cover themselves, more like raggy blankets, and Silvia couldnt even cover her chest with it, not that the trader wanted her to.

The Trader looked back at Kaylee and said "They are both untouched so far. Virgin that is. Silvia is good pet, she quite and follow rules. Smart cat. Kase here is not so much, but I dont charge you more than $300 for him. $700 for Silvia." They were both being grossly over priced. Silvia, though normally could be worth $1000, was malnourished, dirty, and probably had not been given any shots or vaccines which meant she might even be sick, which would drop her price to more around $500. The same went for Kase, but in addition to that, he was also clearly beaten, hostile, and his claws showed permanent damage. He was worth only a $150 max.