Chapter 6

Lana Northwood, wearing a white blouse adorned with a myriad of flowers and a black skirt, took the witness stand with the confidence of a Tereskàdian hunter who had just cornered her prey, waited for Aaron Farrow to ask the first question.

“For the record, please state your full name.”

“Lana Lindsay Northwood.” Hands resting on her lap, head held high.

“Could you tell the court what you do?”

“I attend the University of Westover.”

“Could you tell the court what happened on the night of April 22^nd of this year.”

Lana cleared her throat, smoothed her skirt. “I was at my friend Marie’s house...”

“Marie...?”

“Marie Beauchamp,” she said, raising dainty eyebrows.

Beechm Beechm Beechm Beechm. Sendrhea rolled the name over in her head. Fharezhan poked her mind to get her attention back to the trial.

“It was about eight-thirty,” Lana was saying, “and I wanted to be home by nine because I wanted to watch this show about gorillas. I’ve seen King Kong about a dozen times. The original one, you know, not that stupid remake. They kid me about it, tell me I’m living in the dark ages, but I don’t care.”How old is that film? Sendrhea wondered, not expecting an answer from her whistling dragon.

“Please keep on track, Miss Northwood,” Kingsley said.

Lana sighed, fiddled with her hair. “Anyway, I took the shortcut through Benjamin Lassiter Park. That’s the one on the west end of the city. I’m walking past that new fountain, and suddenly I see this alien ... drinking from her whistling dragon. Kind of weird, if you ask me, even after they’ve told us about it. I think we’re supposed to be used to it by now, but ... who does something like that? Especially when you’re an adult.”

Kingsley cleared his throat. “Miss Northwood, your personal opinions don’t matter here.”“Yeah, sure. Anyway, you know how whistling dragons hover sometimes, and you can see their tits ... sorry, Your Honor, their teats sticking out. So she’s sucking on his tit ... I mean teat, and she has her eyes closed like she’s in some kind of dreamworld or something. So I go up to her, and I’m like ‘How are you?’ “ She shifted in her seat, rubbed her left hand with the index finger of her right, dabbed her cheek before placing her hands in her lap again. “The dragon ... the animal hisses at me, so she stops sucking and just looks at me. She tells me I shouldn’t bother her when she’s drinking, tells me I should know that. She’s got her ears back, you know, like she’s mad or something. She asks me what I’m doing here, and I’m like ‘None of your fu ... friggin’ business,’ and I keep walking. I know it’s a ‘she’ because she didn’t have those ... hairs around the ears like that male there. And her whistling dragon ... well, it was obvious he was a male because he had it out, if you know what I mean. She says, ‘Why are you bothering me, human?’ So I stop and turn around, and she’s standing there right in front of me. She asks me for money. Money? Don’t know why she’d do that, but she tells me to give her all my money, or she’d scratch me. Her claws ... Like a cat. One minute you can’t see them, the next, they’re out, ready to scratch you. So I said ... well, I used the ‘f’ word, told her to ‘f’ off, and she scratched me for no reason. She went berserk. She tried to get at my face, told me she would scratch my effing eyes out. I tried to protect my eyes, but she scratched my arms and my ... my belly ... Like a vicious animal.””How did you get to the hospital?”

“My friend Marie called an ambulance. They took me.”

“What puzzles me is this, Miss Northwood: Why are you so certain Sendrhea scratched you?”

“Those collars they have, with that red diamond symbol? Their names are on it, the Tereskàdian and their whistling dragons. I noticed it while she was scratching me. It had strange symbols on it, probably their language, but it’s the same collar that female has around her neck.” She stabbed a finger at Sendrhea.He’s not going to ask about her friends, Fharezhan sent.Of course not, but if I get the chance, I will.

“How do you feel at the moment?” Farrow asked. “It’s been what? ... three months since the ... assault.”

“Better. It’s been a long road.”

“How do you feel about the aliens in general?”

“I have nothing against them. I mean, they’re here to stay, aren’t they? I just don’t know what came over Sendrhea when she attacked me.”

“Thank you, Miss Northwood.” A sympathetic voice, like someone counseling a relative of a recently deceased human. “Your witness, Sendrhea.”

She stood, faced her accuser. Lana Northwood glared at her. The two, Tereskàdian and human, locked eyes. Like all Tereskàdians uncomfortable with anyone staring at them, Sendrhea relented and looked at Kingsley, the jury, the gallery, her mate and daughter, before addressing the young female.

“I find it amazing,” she said, “that you could decipher an alien language while you were allegedly being attacked.”

“I know what I saw. It was a dark yellow collar, just like yours.”

“Is Sendrhea going to ask a question?” Farrow put in.

“All right,” she said. She took a couple of steps closer to the witness stand. “Mr. Farrow forgot ... maybe conveniently forgot to ask about your friends who supposedly visited you in the hospital ... and Tony Demarest who watched ... sorry, allegedly watched the whole thing.”

Farrow stood. “I didn’t ask about that because it has already been established that Miss Northwood’s friends had committed perjury.”

“Mr. Farrow is right,” Kingsley said. “Questions pertaining to Tony Demarest being present in the park are no longer valid, and I suggest you move on to something else.”It’s not fair. They may have been charged with perjury, but they haven’t had a trial, and they haven’t been found guilty.Let’s ask her something else, Fharezhan sent.

She returned to her table, checked her notes. “Miss Northwood ... no, Lana. I’ll call you Lana; I’ll be asking you a lot of questions. You might say my future depends on our question-and-answer session. If your belly was scratched, why wasn’t your shirt torn? Did your attacker ask you to pull up your shirt so she could scratch your belly without ruining that nice anime shirt?”