The poor class.

Dron had come through here on several occasions. Mostly to patrol and to chase an enemy who was trying to hide here. Besides that, though, there was never really any reason for him to come here. Sure, his home was only a few miles from the worst of this place, be he never thought to just come here and visit.

Now that he was looking around, he felt like a complete jerk.

How could people so impoverished be this close to him and he do nothing to help them? He’d been so focused on impressing the higher class that he never thought to look to those who were worse off than him. His self-induced pity party for being what the ignorant called cursed was over.

Dron stuck close to Tempest, who was being surrounded by the children who had been hiding in his back trees.

Once they were on their way, they all opened up to her. Each of them had about a million and one questions for her, but Tempest didn’t seem the least bit impatient.

It was just like her to show all the grace in the world to a bunch of children she had no connection to. Any other omega would have shooed the children away and gone back to their homes. Not Tempest. Not his temptation. More and more he was beginning to realize just how unique and special she was.

A blessing.

It was all he could think of.

"This is nothing like the royals have described. They said the poor class was on the rise. That they had worked tirelessly to build it up." Gerax spoke, his voice softer than usual. When Dron turned to look at him, he realized there was a deep scowl on his face.

"Of course there are discrepancies. Why would the royal class tell the truth about anything?" Dron huffed but didn’t move far away from Tempest, just in case someone here tried to test their luck.

"Did they think no one would come here and check?" Gerax questioned. He pulled his wrist device up and Dron saw him taking notes. Dron wasn’t sure what he was taking notes on, but the scientist as his side was working diligently. Dron could only hope that whatever Gerax was working on would help the poor people he could see around them.

"Of course they didn’t think anyone would come here and check. No one want to be caught in the poor class." Dron shook his head, and looked around some more.

The huts, if he could call them that, all looked as if they were one strong windstorm away from crumbling to the ground. People littered the streets, some of them completely prone and lying on the ground taking slow breaths. Others were bruised and scarred. Children begged for scraps in the corners. What also stuck out to him was the fact that there were very few trees. The ground was cracked and incredibly arid. There was no grass. It looked like a complete dust bowl. Dron didn’t understand how anyone could live here.

"I’ve never seen anything like this." Dron heard Mexyn say from the communicator on Tempest’s wrist.

"Shh." Tempest admonished the woman. Tempest still had a smile on her face, though Dron could see the sadness in his mate’s eyes. She was surprised by what she was walking through as well.

"My house is this way. Do you want to see it?" Pinat asked Tempest.

"Yes, take me there." Tempest answered right away. Pinat shoved the other children away and soon the four of them were walking down a hilly and sun cracked road. Dron wanted to object especially when he noticed that some of the walkways were small enough to give him trouble walking through, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Tempest that they shouldn’t continue following the small child.

Honestly, there was no danger here. Even if some of the people here wanted to go up against them, Dron was sure they didn’t have the strength to put up too much of a fight. They didn’t even look to have the strength to walk in a straight line.

Slowly, he let Tempest walk in the direction of Tempest’s hut.

Gerax followed behind Tempest and Dron brought up the absolute rear. He wanted to make sure no one was following them.

Finally they made it to Pinat’s home which was perched on a steep slanting piece of ground. Pinat struggled to move a large rock that was wedged in front of the door. After a few seconds of Dron watching the little girl struggle, he reached down with one hand and moved the rock for her.

"Thank you." the small child spoke softly.

With the rock moved, Pinat unhooked the door and it swung open wildly.

"Father, I’m home." Pinat called out.

"Where have you been? " A strong male voice came from the back. There was a shuffling sound and Dron gasped as he watched an alpha male literally dragging himself into the small room from what looked to be the bathroom. He was dragging himself because he had no legs from mid-thigh down.

"Oh goddess." Gerax mumbled and his eyes went wide as he saw the man coming out.

"Jesus, help them." Tempest whispered.

This wasn’t the first time Dron had heard her reference this Jesus person, but he hoped whichever God she was praying to would do as she asked.

This was horrible.

"Oh... I didn’t know.. Pinat, why didn’t you tell me you were bringing company? I’m not prepared. I apologize." The crippled alpha male instantly tried to move things from the center of the floor around the small room.

"I didn’t know they would come, Father." Pinat answered in a typical dejected child like voice.

It was clear this was her norm, as she tried to help her father clean up the space.

"Don’t worry about that, It’s perfect." Tempest rushed to stop them from fussing over the mess.

"No it’s not. We are unworthy to host you. What are you doing here?" Pinat’s father spoke, but his eyes remained locked on the floor.

Tempest put a hand to her heart and slowly dropped to her knees so she was level with the man. Dron took a step forward, not enough to stop her but just enough to be in arms length of her.

He didn’t know what the crippled man would get out of hurting Tempest, but he didn’t want to take any chances when it came to her.

She sighed shakily, "It’s I who is unworthy," Tempest reached out to put a hand on the man’s shoulder, or at least she tried to, but he quickly jerked away.

"I’m not allowed to touch."

Tempest mouth opened into a small ’o’, and she turned back in Dron’s direction.

"Sorry."

Dron nodded. He knew it wasn’t meant as disrespect. She was trying to comfort the man in front of her. If the social norms were different, Dron would have tried to as well. If there was anyone he’d ever met who needed some kind of support, it was this man.

"Where are your brothers?" The man questioned his daughter, still without looking up from the ground.

Pinat looked around and then bit the corner of her lip, "They went out to hunt."

"Hunt?" The father’s eyes jerked up to his daughter’s face. "I already told them there was nothing to hunt. They are going to get themselves killed. You must go find them and bring them home." There was a level of fear in the man’s voice.

"Yes, father." Pinat shrugged her shoulders and turned as if she were going to walk out. "Are you going to leave now?" She looked up at Tempest.

Tempest opened her mouth to answer but nothing came out. She was still dealing with a swirl of emotions.

Dron answered for her.

"No, I think we will stay with your father for a little while. Do you need help finding your siblings?"

"No, they are probably in the ditch. They think they can find nixes there." She sighed and walked out of the small hut with very little flair.

"Nixes?" Tempest turned and asked Dron for an explanation.

"I’ll show you later."

"It’s just a small hard-shelled creature. We use them for soup when we can find them." The man spoke.

"They aren’t native to this area though." Gerax added.

"True, but someone managed to get a few to mate and we’ve been living off the children for a while. Unfortunately they are just about all gone now." Pinat’s father sighed and shifted his weight from one arm to the other.

"How have you survived here like this?" Mexyn’s voice chirped from the communicator, and Tempest grimaced.

"As best we can." The man answered, finding the woman on the floating hologram.

"Will you tell me about your life? About your class?" Tempest questioned.

"Why do you want to know about my life? I’m nothing when it comes to the grand scheme of things. I’m not important." Pinat’s father finally looked up at Tempest.

Dron noticed the look in his eye. Not determination or anger. It was defeat. The man was defeated.

"You are important. Out of everyone I’ve had a chance to meet, you might just be the most important." Tempest nodded and crossed her legs as if to get comfortable in front of the man.

Dron didn’t know what he was about to tell her, but he knew he wanted to hear all of it too. He wasn’t sure what he could do to help, but he knew before he left the poor class today he would do something.

He had to do something.