"Listen to me, young lady," La-Rhuan said. "I will not hesitate to be rude to you, do you understand?"
Aira was inching away even though her back was blocked by the wall and she dared not look at the woman's face.
La-Rhuan did not seem like a good type of woman to be a mother. She did not have much patience in handling a child.
Aira screamed in pain when the woman grabbed her hair roughly.
"Eat your breakfast or I'll slap your cheeks until they swell!"
"Let go of me!" cried Aira. "You're hurting me!"
Doug just chuckled at La-Rhuan's cruelty to the nine-year-old girl. He didn't care at all about the little girl's cries.
After all, the al-Banix people certainly wouldn't mind if the girl was in an injured state when they received her later. Besides, she would be executed in the end, he thought.
