Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 111(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 111(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
“You still thinking about that human?” he asks as we head back to the barracks. Two human women—both slight of build and with wary faces—cross the street to get away from us. I nudge my brother and we move to the side of the pavement, giving them ample room to pass and avoiding eye contact. There’s a custodian posted in the street, watching our interaction, and I give him a friendly nod, because we don’t mean trouble. We need this job to go well, because it will mean more contracts in the future, and Lord va’Rin pays exceedingly well. No one wants to lose this job.
I grunt a response to my brother, since he’s expecting one.
“Maybe you’ll see her around here?” He gestures at the small street, taking another bite of a fried veg pocket held in his other hand.
“Haven’t seen her before,” I comment. “Don’t think she comes in much.”
“She might. Svurrk said he met a human with big teats.” My brother cups one hand in front of his chest, oblivious to the custodian that gives us a hard look as we pass by. “Said she had a really soft mane and a charming laugh. He wants to claim her. You think she’s the same female?”
Every hair on my tail stands up, and the skin prickles along my spine. Svurrk is our foreman and tends to have more credits and pull. If a human female wants a male with power, he’s a better catch for her than a lowly contractor. Still, the thought of Svurrk moving in on Chelsea makes me want to claw something. “Did he say what she looked like?”
“Just that he liked her teats. And…yellow mane? Maybe? I can’t recall.”
Hmm. Chelsea’s was a pale brown, but in the right lighting it could look reddish. “Maybe that’s why she was friendly. She already has a praxiian for herself.” But she didn’t strike me as the type to flirt with multiple males. She seemed just as surprised to see me as I was to see her. Friendly and open, but not cautious.
Interested. I even flirted with her and she didn’t shoo me away.
“Mmm,” my brother mulls, eating. “Was her door marked?”
“I didn’t see her homestead,” I admit.
“You should check. If it’s not marked, you should do so. Stake your claim on her. If it’s the same ample female, Svurrk will back off. Honor demands it.”
Marking her door. It’s an age-old tradition amongst praxii males. You mark the female’s home with your mating scent, letting all the other males in the area know that you’ve claimed this one for yourself. I doubt her door is marked at all. I doubt she’s the same female Svurrk saw.
But now that Jrrru has mentioned marking her door, I can’t think about anything else.
“Maybe,” is all I say, even as I make plans to sneak out before my shift.
If her door hasn’t been marked, what will it harm to go and stake my claim upon her? It’s insurance. It’s letting her know I’m interested.
And if it goes nowhere, then it goes nowhere, right?
Three
CHELSEA
I wake up early the next morning, glancing out the door at the sunny weather. It’s a gorgeous day, and I’m a little hopeful that my cat friend will be back at the stream, ready to flirt with me. I thought about him all day. Silly, really. I’m not here on this planet for romance, but it was nice to flirt and be flirted with. That he’s a praxiian doesn’t bother me. I’m a firm believer in the person is different from the people. If I thought every alien was awful because of what a few of them did to me in the past, I’d be a miserable person indeed.
As it is, I prefer to look at things on the sunny side of life.
And the sunny side tells me that I should fix my hair and wear a cute tunic just in case Hrrrusek shows up again. I practice his name, purring the “rrr” sound like he did, and play our conversation through my head again. Not a fisherman, that one. My guess is that he grew up in a city—or on a station—and has never gone fishing. I wonder what he thinks of this planet? I wonder what he thinks of, well, everything?
I wonder what he thinks of me?
Men are few and far between on this planet. Again, totally cool with that. I’m happy just to have my farm and a means to make a living. But the flirting unlocked a bit of yearning inside me, reminding me that I’m a woman in the prime of my life, and I still have needs. I thought I was fulfilling those needs with a handheld bot specifically for such needs, but maybe that’s not enough after all. I fluff my long hair and put on a tunic with a low neckline, since he seemed to like my cleavage.