Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
“Are you enjoying the xanthos?” Qi asked as Kara chewed and swallowed the thin skin of the ball she had eaten—which was a little like a grape skin, she thought.
“Oh yes—very much. Thank you,” she said quickly, nodding politely though she wasn’t completely sure if Qi could see her or not.
“Very good. Try a large one,” their host urged her. “Those are the most mature—the ripest, you might say.”
“Oh, okay.” Kara picked up a ball the size of a small lime. “If you don’t mind me asking, oh Qi,” she said, addressing the invisible plant being the same way Raak had. “Where do you get these, uh, xanthos? They’re delicious,” she added politely, though honestly they were some of the blandest things she’d ever eaten.
“Why, I grow them myself upon my own lower branches,” Qi told them just as Kara popped the large ball gamely between her lips and bit down on it. “You could say they are a kind of waste product. But since our species need such very different things to survive, our waste is actually very nutritious for you.”
“What?” Kara tried to say, but the exclamation came out garbled because her mouth was flooded with a slimy, cold liquid that had the same texture and consistency of a raw egg yolk.
Did he say waste? she thought wildly as she struggled not to choke on the weird, slimy liquid. Was the invisible plant alien actually feeding them its poop balls?
Ugh! Even if she hadn’t known that, Kara would have found it very difficult to swallow the raw egg yolk stuff that was coating her tongue. As it was, she felt some of it dribbling from the corners of her mouth and down her chin. She wished desperately for a napkin that she could spit the slimy mess discretely into, but of course, she had nothing like that. All she could do was try to swallow as fast as she could and wipe at her dripping chin with the back of her hand.
She nearly choked but at last she got the disgusting stuff down, though her stomach rolled afterwards. The remaining balls slid under her fingers but there was no way Kara was eating even one more of them—not after hearing what they actually were.
To her relief, Qi didn’t urge her to eat any more. The next time it spoke, it addressed them in a polite and formal tone.
“Well, now that you have consumed comestibles, please tell me in what way I can help you,” it said, its invisible leaves rustling.
“Would you like to tell Qi about your fangs or should I?” Raak asked her in a low voice.
“I will.” Kara lifted her chin and addressed the seemingly empty air before her.
“Oh, Qi, thank you for your offer to help,” she said politely. “My problem is my teeth—my fangs, actually.” She bared her teeth and pointed to her fangs, hoping the invisible being could see what she was talking about.
“Why are they a problem?” Qi sounded genuinely mystified. “Do not all meat creatures have dentition?”
“Well yes, they do,” Kara conceded. “But mine are long and sharp and they’re really prominent. I’d like them to be the same size as my other teeth, that’s all. Oh, and not so sharp and obvious-looking.”
“Their size and prominence should prove no problem to alter,” Qi said with a confident rustle of its leaves. “However, I fear I must warn you, if you repress that which presently flows outward, it will flow inward instead.”
Kara wasn’t sure what the alien plant person meant by that. Maybe that her fangs would retract into her skull? That didn’t seem like it ought to present a problem, though, she thought. As long as the part of them that people could see got smaller and less obvious she wouldn’t care if the upper part of her fangs were hidden.
“That’s okay,” she said quickly. “I don’t mind.”
“Well, if that is your will, then wish it and it shall be so,” Qi told her.
“Uh…wish it?” Kara frowned uncertainly. If she could have wished away her fangs, she certainly would have done so by now! “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” she said politely. “How can wishing help me?”
“You are in my Palace of the Unseen and you have eaten of my xanthos,” Qi told her. “These have transferred some of my power over matter to your small meat brain. If you wish your dentition to be smaller or less prominent, you have only to tell them to be smaller and less prominent and it will be so.”
This sounded crazy to Kara, but she reminded herself that Qi had been able to call a table and chairs into existence out of thin air. So maybe she could also tell her fangs to shrink.
She was about to do just that when Raak put a hand on her arm and murmured.