Chapter 4
My bride will not be cold.
Filbur
The farther we traveled from our winter lands, the warmer the water points were. It was not just the fact that summer was warming everything, but also because, with each passing day, we got closer to the sea.
I would have still bathed without complaints if the water had been cold, but the warmth helped chase the worries from my mind.
What if she ran away when she saw me? Maybe she would not find me attractive. Maybe it would even make our reproduction attempts impossible. I knew my way around a Canco female’s body, but a human? Were the…reproductive parts the same? The pleasure points?
What if they were like the Tauri and Ari females and did not feel pleasure except during their fertility window?
I splashed some water on my face, shaking my head vehemently.
This does not matter. If reproductive sex was the only sexual activity she was willing to participate in, then it was the only one we would do.
I accepted to take on a human bride. Pleasure or not, I would do my best to be the partner she deserved.
Worst case scenario, I could still pleasure my damn self.
“Filbur!” someone yelled from behind me and I turned around, not at all expecting to find the person standing on the shore.
“Ghauro?” What was the Tauri doing here? Were we back to visiting each other now?
“I have been looking for you for a whole fucking hour. Hurry up, I have to go back.”
I was too stunned to argue or even ask about his presence. I walked to the shore where he stood, picking up the cloth I had brought to dry off.
“What are you doing here?” I muttered.
“Drop the attitude,” he snapped back. “I am here to save you from a damn headache.”
“I am a healer, I can save myself from my own headaches.” Not that I had one at the moment. His comment made no sense at all.
He let out a series of curses that my translator mostly picked up on and shoved a hard and heavy large rectangular thing against my now dry chest.
“The upcoming headache, you idiot.”
I looked down. It looked like a book, but the words on the cover were not written in a language I could read. What I could see though, was the detailed drawing of a human body.
“What is this?” I asked, opening to look through the pages. Hundreds and hundreds of pages I could not understand with explicative drawings.
“I call this the human codex,” Ghauro said, crossing his arms over his chest with a satisfied look. “Zhari stole it from the human base when she was staying there with Melanie.”
I blinked at him, unsure of what he wanted me to do with it. “And? My translator does not work on written words, Ghauro. How am I supposed to read this?”
His eyes widened. “Oh, right.” He dug into the pocket of his pants and pulled out what looked to be a magnifying glass. “Translating glass. It is set on Tauri, but you can turn the lens.”
He showed me some symbols on the side. All looked foreign except one, the one saying Canco, and written in our people’s writing.
“Where did your sister find this?” I asked, impressed.
Zhari, from what I had seen when Ghauro and I were a bit younger, had always been one mischievous woman.
“I told you,” Ghauro answered. “On the human base. Since you are a healer, I thought you would be interested to have this.”
“Why?”
His annoyance only seemed to grow. “Because this book contains everything you need to know about human anatomy. About their health, their eating habits, their reproductive system.” Ghauro made a point to insist on this last bit.
And this was the answer to a lot of worries I had.
“Are they…” I stopped, unsure of what I wanted to really ask. “It cannot be that different, right? The humans would have told us if there was anything—”
“Do not be alarmed, but humans have sex outside of their heat,” he said, his tone turning very serious.
I blinked, half confused by the whole situation, half relieved. So that answers my earlier questions…
“Can you believe it?”
I dropped the towel, the book and picked up the clean and more formal pants I had brought to wear for our partnering ceremony.
“I do, Ghauro,” I said calmly. “Only Tauri and Ari females do not feel sexual desire outside of their fertility period.”
He narrowed his eyes on me as I tied the knot at my belt. “How would you know about that?”
“Because as part of my healer training and to help ensure the brides’ program would go smoothly, I was asked by the human base to spend months at a time on all the planets of our system,” I deadpanned. “You know this. You were the one hosting me when I was on Taurus.”
His eyes lit with the memory. Ghauro and I had been friends at some point. The reason for our fight seemed meaningless now.
“And you learned specifically about my species reproductive system?” he asked.
“Of course not. I learned about a lot of things, the reproductive system was only one of them.”
I had enjoyed the two years I spent moving from planet to planet to learn about all the other species.
The humans had sponsored this experiment and in exchange for all the knowledge I gathered for myself, I was to report a few things to them so they could prepare for the brides’ arrival.
I was glad the information I had provided them had been useful.
Thanks to it, I was given a whole list of our food, medicine, and plants that were either safe or not for humans.
All the other species must have received one too.
“So you are telling me that Cancos have sex. Like, just to have sex? Outside of heats?”
I looked away. Sex was something private and important for my species, talking about it was not something we usually did.
But for the sake of our former friendship and to get rid of the confusion on his face, I answered. “When we find a partner we are serious about, we do.”
“Melanie said that is how humans usually are too,” Ghauro mused. “So I guess you will not need this,” he said, bending to pick up the book.
I did not think I would need it. Yet, I rushed to take it before him and held it tight to my chest.
“I will keep it.” He arched one of his hairy brows at me. “For research purposes.”
I was too curious. And too worried. I knew a lot about all the species, yet when it came to humans, I was completely clueless.
They felt sexual desire, like us, but were their pleasure points the same?
I knew enough about all the species’ anatomy to be able to pleasure any of their females—if I wanted to—so I would feel stupid to end up frozen on the spot facing my human bride.
“Research, huh?” he teased. The bastard saw right through me. “That is fine. I read the interesting passages so many times now that I know it by heart. I also spent so much time with my naked bride that I could find all her sensitive—”
“I get it,” I interrupted him. And here I thought Tauri males could only be aroused in the presence of a Tauri female in heat? Maybe human females could also poke at it…
We stayed still for a moment, facing each other in silence.
“Was this all you came here for?” I asked warily, lifting the book up.
“Oh. Yes.” He gave a sharp nod, like he was not used to the motion.
Right, the Tauris were some of the ones who spent the least time with the humans.
They must have barely started to use most of their non-verbal communication…
“I guess I will get going now. The shuttle I requested is waiting for me near your camp.”
And yet he did not move until I started walking.
“Are you sure?” I finally asked as we slowly made our way back to the rest of my people. They must have been done setting up the camp for the night.
“I—” He paused. Tried again but silenced himself before saying more. I stopped and he looked at me.
“We used to be friends, Ghauro,” I reminded him. “We can pretend for a moment that our argument never happened—I am not even sure I remember what it was about—so you can tell me what is bothering you.”
His face softened, like the little arrogance and animosity left him all at once. “What happens if the experiment does not work?” he asked.
Oh. “What do you mean?”
He looked away, his green skin becoming a shade darker around his eyes. “I mean, if our brides do not get pregnant. What happens then?”
I made sure to keep my tone kind and neutral, as I would if I was treating someone. “If you two are where you are now, it means both of your fertility tests were good,” I stated. “You have only met each other two months ago. It can take a bit of time,” I reassured.
“Even if we…have sex a lot?”
I held a smile. “Yes.” Then, because I was still a healer and I needed to make sure they were actually doing this properly, “You are doing this the right way, right?”
He groaned and looked away. “Of course we are. I had sex with Tauri females before, I am not completely clueless.” His eyes drifted to the book. “And I read the whole thing.”
I shrugged. “Then give it a bit of time. There is no need to worry about this issue until the time critically runs out. And if you are really concerned something might be wrong, tell the human scientists on the base during one of your visits.”
Ghauro visibly relaxed as we resumed our walk.
He did not say anything else until we reached my people’s temporary camp.
They all gave us strange looks, probably wondering why he, a Tauri most of them had never met, was here.
After all, I had been the one to travel to him most of the duration of our friendship, and only my family had joined me on occasions.
“Alright, so…I will leave you to it,” he said, stopping next to the shuttle.
The humans were outside, leaning against it and fanning their faces with whatever they could get their hands on.
Maybe they would handle the dry heat better if they had not been wearing such heavy full body coverage…
Ghauro seemed to handle it just fine, although it might have to do with the fact that his planet could also get warm—and the humidity made it way worse.
“Thank you for the book. I will make sure to give it back to you once—”
“No need,” he interrupted. “Just make sure you pass it on to the next. I would have given it to the Gemins but…Well, their bride had gone missing and when they found her, Melanie and I were already back to our homes, and…Well, the occasion did not present itself.”
The Gemins’ bride had gone missing? Wow, I had missed a lot by skipping the last monthly meetings…
“I have to go now, before my sister has the time to recruit Melanie into any weird activity that I will be forced to do too.”
I could not hold my smile. I would be worried too, if I were him…Zhari, although she was a lot older, had spent a lot of time playing with Juni, Guidy and Tegha when we visited. I had found them all laughing and covered in mud more than once.
“Sure. Please, tell your family I said hi.”
He gave a hesitant nod. “I will. Thank you for…the talk.”
“I wish you to…succeed, so we never have to talk about this again.”
He chuckled and shook his head as he stepped inside the shuttle. I was still standing there when they flew away, lost in the memories of a time, a few years back, where this visit would have felt almost normal.
I missed my friend. I knew my family missed his too.
“What are you doing here?”
“For fuck’s sakes, Juni!” I jumped around, hand on my racing heart. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“Your bride will be here any minute! Why do you still look like you have been avoiding all basic hygiene in the last month?”
I look down at myself. “I bathed,” I countered. “I even found pants that were clean and not covered in sand! What are you talking about?”
The familiar mischievous smile stretched her lips. “Where is your scarf? Where is your healer chain?”
Seriously? “I do not need them.”
I only had to wear my healer chain while I was on duty, so I would be easily recognized by my peers and called if needed. As for the scarf…Canco males wore them during winter to ensure we could cover our partner or child if they needed warmth.
“I think you do,” she argued. “What if someone is hurt tonight?”
“Then you, my trainee, will go first and assess the situation before reporting back to me if needed.”
“Wrong. It is also a matter of appearance. Your chain shows you are someone important, do you not want your bride to be impressed?” Did I? Shit. “And you need your scarf. What if your bride is chilly?”
This was ridiculous. “She will not be. It is summer, and I know for a fact that all the planets humans live on are colder than ours.”
Her damn smile widened. “It still gets a bit cold at night…You would not let her freeze to death in her own tent now, would you?”
“My bride will sleep in my tent with me,” I said. Her eyes widened. Juni’s parents needed to have the talk with her, this situation was getting out of control.
“What? But why—”
“If you have questions that are not related to your training, go ask your parents,” I said, turning to walk away back to the camp. “The only thing you need to know is that my bride will not be cold.”
And yet I still stopped by my tent to put on my chain and a damn scarf.