Chocolate Contest…easy as pie!

I’m running a super simple contest all week.

Read an excerpt and answer a question.

Two lucky winners per day, drawn at random, will receive some chocolaty goodness as a Valentine’s present!

From Captured, by Julia Rachel Barrett

“It’s beautiful,” Mari whispered. “Your world is beautiful.” She stared from the window of the cockpit, watching wild rivers, sparkling emerald lakes, and rolling, grass-covered hills pass below. On the horizon, she could see the rugged outline of mountains. They seemed massive, larger than any mountain range she’d seen on Earth. “Your sky is blue, like ours.”

“We have much water vapor in our atmosphere. In that, our planets are similar. Also in topography.”

“But it looks cold out there.”

“Yes, my world is colder than yours.”

“They will die without warm clothes.”

Ekkatt looked at her. “They will die anyway.”

“Why?”

“They will be sold for food. I told you, your meat is considered a delicacy among certain species.”

“Do you…do your people eat humans?

Ekkatt let out a grunt of disgust. “My people do not eat flesh of any kind. A true man does not eat flesh.”

“But you sell it.”

“Yes. I am not in the habit of passing judgment on the dietary practices of others.”

Mari snorted in reply. “Bullshit,” she said. “You may not pass judgment on the dietary habits of others, but you pass judgment on the value of a life every time you grab a helpless woman and lock her into a cage.”

Up went Ekkatt’s eyebrows. “So, now that I have saved an animal from the slaughter house, the animal presumes to pass judgment on me?”

Mari knew she was treading on dangerous ground, but she answered him anyway. “Yes,” she replied.

“You have courage, little one, I give you that.”

“Why do you do it?”

Ekkatt didn’t bother to reply. Instead, he pointed to a large river valley below them. It stretched to the horizon and was bordered on each side by enormous snow-covered mountains. The valley shone a vibrant jade green. Lush plant life reached up to the lower slopes of the mountains. Ekkatt dropped their craft into the valley and flew just above the rushing river. Mari’s eyes opened wide, and she stared at the sight, entranced by the beauty of this new world.

“How did you fell Leader Tril?” Ekkatt’s voice interrupted Mari’s thoughts.

“Hmm?”

“Tril. You dropped him to the floor. How did you do this? He is a very powerful man.”

Mari leaned back in her seat and smiled at Ekkatt. She knew her smile was a little smug, but she couldn’t resist. “We have a saying among my people, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Have you heard it?”

“No.”

“You understand the meaning though?”

“Yes,” Ekkatt answered in his own tongue, followed by a grunt.

“He was leaning in close to me, standing off balance, and he didn’t expect it. I reacted…I acted towards him the same way I would act towards a human man who threatened me. I could only hope that…that Tril’s most vulnerable, um, body parts were in the same place as those of a human man. Apparently, they were.”

Mari stole a cautious look at Ekkatt’s face. She watched him sit deeper in his seat. After a brief moment of silence, he let loose a spate of words in his own tongue. Tossing his head back he laughed long and hard. The corners of Ekkatt’s yellow eyes crinkled with amusement. He looked so human in that moment. Mari couldn’t help herself. Laughter bubbled up inside her, and she joined him. This was the first time since she’d awakened in the cage that she’d felt the stirrings of hope and the first time she’d allowed herself to wonder if there might be some slim chance of a future in her future.

The question: Among Ekkatt’s people, does a real man eat flesh?

Leave the answer in your comment along with your email address. Feel free to tweet this contest! Good luck!

Another excerpt tomorrow!

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