Read The Hipster Who Leapt Through Time (The Hipster Trilogy Book 2) for Free Online Page B

prisoner’s and, with the signal of the alpha, they marched forward. Walking further and further through the dark prison.
    After picking up a few more cats, they stopped and picked up another human — a skinny, olive-skinned one. Dirtied, yellow robes covered his reproductive parts and a darker, thicker material wrapped around his head, covering all but his eyes.  
    Moomamu wanted to shout out to the human, to ask how he got there, but he didn’t have the energy. Humans, or humanoids, were fairly common in the universe. Not as common as cats, but they got around. He felt the need to scream to the human, to ask him for help, but instead looked down at the chains around his wrists. Bloodied and sore around the rusty edges of the metal. He felt the nerves in his physical body screaming at him, but he didn’t have time to listen. Listening to his pain would only give it a platform to shout even louder.
    The human was the last one they collected. They walked on further and found themselves taken outside into the cold dawn air. Moomamu’s eyes watered at the harsh wind. The planet in the sky was peeking its head, just around the corner. The stars and the moons were still present.  
    When he was first captured he was knocked on the head by a group of villagers. He had vague memories of being dragged through the town and into the stone walls. Now outside, he could see it was far more than a prison. The cells were merely a part of the whole. The giant blocks of stone piled up, peaking in two giant towers above him, with windows and guards and fiery torches for light. It was a place for royalty to oversee their land. He looked around himself and could see the hundreds more torches in the distance, lighting up parts of the town — brick and mortar establishments as far as he could see, and a great stone wall surrounding them all.  
    “Move,” said one of the cats as he slammed the thump-stick into the bottom of his back. Moomamu winced as he skipped forward to pick up the pace. Their collective chains and irons rattled throughout as they were taken across the field to another set of stone stairs going downwards.
    It seemed he’d been allowed to breathe fresh air for only a minute before being taken back down into the ground.
    The steps led them into another dungeon of sorts. Bigger, though, too big for one person. The smell of rot and damp and rust. Wooden benches lined the sides, and on the walls were weapons — eating sticks, but bigger, attached to the ends of thump-sticks. Spiked balls. Wooden shields. It was an armoury. The guards sat them down and locked their chains against the wall.
    “Well,” said the alpha, “it’s about time this day came. I was starting to get sick of smelling you.”
    Moomamu looked to his left and saw the other prisoners shaking. Urine puddled in the dirt beneath the brown stripy moggy in the middle.  
    The human, though, on the far side, looked fine. He exuded a calm confidence that Moomamu hadn’t seen in a human for a long time.
    “We’ve been feeding you this past few weeks, given you shelter from the harsh weather outside, kept you safe against intruders, and now it is time for you to pay your debts.”
    Debts? Moomamu didn’t feel he owed them anything. The hospitality was appalling.  
    “When the sun rises and the Prince of Minu awakens, When the afternoon begins and the sun is at its hottest, you, and your prisonmates around you, will fight, tooth and claw, to the death.”
    The energy changed in the room. The prisoners were no longer looking at each other like friends who’d landed in the same trouble, but as enemies they might have to kill. Moomamu noticed the human’s eyes firmly looking at him. His jaw clenched.
    “You will either do yourself a great honour and kill the others around you on the sacred Scrapping Grounds above, or you will die, shame your name, your body, and your family, and you will be either burned or eaten, depending on what species you are.” Here