Monster versus Discipline

                                        

                                              
It was a too short walk from Sampson's medical room to the more populated areas next to Daniel's 'throne room', and the moment Aeryn was spotted by the other Humans, the scent markers went crazy. Tokala didn't like the smell of these Humans, they were greedy and eager for the honorable young Human's pain. They didn't know her secret, but they craved her punishment all the same. A sick, decaying society that couldn't see that it was cannibalizing itself and dying from the inside out.
                              
Aeryn knew this was going to be a bad one the moment she spotted the look on Daniel's face. He looked bored. And bored Daniel was never a good thing. There would be no escaping being forced to play in the night's entertainment feature. Every time she was whipped, she ran the extremely high risk of being caught. She kept a knife always on her should something like the worse ever happen, Uncle Tavir had shown her just where to stab it that would guarantee a swift death. Aeryn very much wanted to live but she knew exactly what would happen to her should the truth of her gender get out, and that was not a fate she was willing to endure. 
                              
"So you've decided that you're gonig to police the men on what they do with the rewards I give them?" Daniel asked, voice daunting in its cultured smoothness. No real hint of his underlying anger showed yet, which only made things worse.
                              
"No sir. I merely acted on a moral impulse. I didn't realize that children were included on the list of rewards." Aeryn's voice holds firm, no sign of anxiety wavering the words. She feels nervous, but the realization has already hit her that she faces death daily, both inside the compound and outside it's supposed safety. The alien Tokala is standing on one side of her and her Uncle Tavir is mirroring his position on her opposite flank, almost like sentries escorting a prisoner. Aeryn tried not to focus on the darkly assessing look in Daniel’s eyes as he watched the small group. Two aliens, an old man and the wrinkled Sampson as her honour guard. But Aeryn had never known anything else, so she couldn’t figure out why this all felt terribly off to her. What little Uncle Tavir had explained of the World Before helped showcase the massive changes the human social structure had taken.
                              
“Moral impulse or not, you are not permitted to interrupt any of my decrees.” Daniel sounded too rational. The kindness in his voice only chilled Aeryn more. Growing up in fear of this man, trained by Tavir to be a coward when it came to him. A craven man is ignored, forgotten and left to the sidelines; which made behaving fearfully kept Aeryn safe in the back of anyone’s attention. Aeryn knew this but over the last few years it’s become harder and harder to squash down that  pressure to confront the threat of Daniel and eliminate him. Incidents like this weren’t exactly common, but they certainly occurred more now than they ever had before. A fact that did not seem lost on Daniel as he watched Aeryn struggle to keep eyes submissively on the ground. 
                              
“No sir. I don’t have any authority at all. I am a worm who will be stepped on for upsetting the status quo.” Aeryn mouthed the words Daniel forces everyone to say whenever he had to put them in their place. It was the same script for everyone who displeased their tyrant of a leader. 
                              
Daniel stood up from what was essentially his throne and almost everyone in the large room took an involuntary step backwards. It was ingrained in each and every one of them to fear, respect and somehow love their diabolical leader. Aeryn had been too young to remember clearly but many of the men here lived through those terrible days after the end of the world. Days where food and clean water were riches that would get a man killed, stockpiling food led to riots and children starving, and where anyone who could be overpowered was taken regardless of gender preference. Daniel had saved them from themselves, even Tavir had to admit that. And Daniel had done it quickly, thoroughly and without remorse. Whatever and whomever he had been in the World Before, he had become Master of his domain in the new world structure. A structure he would not see upset now.