A large, bearded man eyed Valkris and her companions up. His right eye had a patch over it with three small claw marks edging out, healed over by time and now faded. He rubbed his tongue across his teeth then leaned backwards. He seemed to struggle accepting Valkris’ statements. Slowly the head of the current operation looked to the nearest Black Sparrow member and spoke.

“So, mind repeating to me again why I should take your word for this?”

Valkris growled, but reined in her temper. She knew he was playing stupid in hopes to resell the animals and pocket the money, pretending no one had arrived for them. It wasn’t going to happen. Her eyes glanced toward the obviously dug out section where the animals were kept. Their drugged growling and wandering in their cages echoed into the tunnels where they were drowned out by the howling wind. The only issue was that their ‘sellers’ were being stubborn about releasing their cargo after seeing the Black Sparrow crew follow behind her.

“You were sent a message about it from my employer. I have a copy of it and when the animals are loaded, you’ll get the rest of your payment,” She stated then pulled out a small device and passed it to him.

The man scowled as he took it and looked it over. Finally, he passed it back unharmed. He looked at the nearest Black Sparrow member then asked a question.

“How do you two know each other?”

-Ensign Valkris MacLaren, Sec