A bidding war starts

With rapidly mounting surprise, Druuna listened to the bids given. When the crowd had first appeared around the corner, all these men and women had much looked like a bunch of pennyless tramps. Now as they shouted their bids, Drunna stood perplexed at the amounts of money offered. 200, 300... 500 centrals - she could not imagine what she woulda have done for such a lot of cash. Finally, at 650, the bidding came to a stop. Druuna shifted uneasily, as the currently highest bidder was a huge hulk of man. Big, broad shoulders towerings over a massive chest. His face featured a stubby beard, and a long gash on his left cheek. In his calloused hands he held a sawn-off twin barrel gun. His grey eyes burned with hunger, and Druuna wished she could cover her nakedness somehow.

The old man, Hogue, looked at the leading bidder. "So, it looks like you're gunna get the wench, Bedford." Hogue scratched his silvery beard. "650 bucks. Not a bad trade for Mrs. Jones."

"Stop prattling, old bastard. Either you have something important to add, or the slut is mine."

Druuna shivered at they way this Bedford used the word 'slut'. She had been named like that before, and many other names, but the way that giant voiced it, rang full of greed and spite.

"Ah, ever impatient to the last, Bedford." Hogue ran another lecherous look over Druunas uncovered assets. "Can't wait to put her to work, nah?"

Bedford shrugged. "Six fifty. My bid's still holding. She's mine. Everybody stands a witness." Bedford made a step at Druuna's direction.

"Not so fast, Bedford," Hogue said. "I bid eight... hundred."

"Damn ya, old bastard." Bedford stopped dead in his stride and looked at the old man, his hatred badly veiled.

Hogue grinned, and licked his bad-shape row of yellow teeth.

Druuna watched the two men. Everybody else watched too, anxiously awaiting the outcome of this strange competition. Obviously there was a long standing rivalry between these two men. Druuna didn't know who to cheer for. That Bedford seemed a brute. His eyes were hard and merciless. Hogue, on the contrary, seemed to be a man of brains. But the way his eyes sparkled with calculation made her shiver.

Bedford clenched his fists in frustration. He cursed and spat at the ground. Hogue's grin widened. With a twitch of his hands, he gestured the burly man to come close with their loot. Druuna shuddered. She was led to her new owner like a piece of property. Strangely, the prospect of being owned, sent a hot shower through her body. Her nipples stiffened. Inadvertedly she opened her lips to a pout. Hogue noticed it and licked his old, cracked lips.

But somebody else had seen that luscious pout.