Chapter 6 #2
The next hour I spent in a mixture of awe and confusion as I was lead through the Shaman’s home on a tour.
Levant was a private male, his patients at Serqethos or the other nearby Clans only ever saw his medical room right behind his entrance.
We saw nothing of his private rooms, but this Shaman, Artek, he was happy to let us wander around and Krashe and Naomi clearly knew their way in his place.
Soon, Krashe had informed Artek of what we wanted and the male had kitted out Naomi and my mate with this little shiny thing attached to the top of their shirts.
A ‘recording’ relic I’d been told. He was going to have to gather as much of the ‘English’ they spoke so that he could fashion a translation ‘algorithm’.
All the words made my head spin but I didn’t care how it worked anyway, as long as I was the first to get it so that I could finally understand my mate.
For hours, the two females sat down inside the plant building while Cosima sketched.
They talked endlessly to fill these ‘recordings’ for the Shaman and I couldn’t help but just sit there, a little distance away, and watch.
Letting their melodic tones filter to me and desperately wishing I could understand.
“If you just touched her, you’d be able to,” the Shaman said from my left, having approached so silently that it startled even me, a seasoned warrior and hunter.
I scowled his way, if it were that simple, I would already have done that.
I wasn’t an idiot, as long as she was an unclaimed female, all the aspirant males thought they might have a chance with her.
Then I saddened, realizing what kind of sadness they must have felt to be cast out because their mate was not among their Clan.
To discover these sky-beings only to find out there were so few of them.
With only Min-Ji and Cosima without a mate but nearly forty aspirants at the camp by now…
Although those of the Water Weaver Clan, the green Naga, only dropped by.
Most never stuck around long enough to really settle in, struck with wanderlust that simply could not keep them in one place for long.
I understood that, without Ses to take me to the skies, I’d feel confined inside Ahoshaga’s caves too, even if they were as brightly lit by crystals as the Shaman’s home.
“You must try this relic on me as soon as possible. I will be your test subject, I don’t care.
” I tapped my ear, “I can’t court her if I can’t understand her story.
” The Shaman tilted his head to glance at the two humans sitting on the flagstones at the center of his luscious plant room.
Naomi had leaned in and was whispering urgently in Cosima’s ear and my mate’s frown was growing fiercer by the second.
“Are you sure about that?” Artek asked me, “Courting is done with more than words…” I curled my lips, I knew that!
Holding out the bit of clay I’d been fiddling with, I gave him a look.
Why did he think I was doing this? I was no seasoned goldsmith like those back home, but every Serqethos male worth his salt knew the basics of the craft.
When the gold eyes from the Shaman darted from my face to a spot over my shoulder, I turned and froze.
Cosima was standing right next to me, her hands on her hips and a fierce glare sharpening her gray eyes.
She raised a hand to wag a finger in my face, words spilling from her tongue like a waterfall.
I had eyes only for the way each word made her soft lips move, the way the leather clung to the full curve of her breasts.
“Seems like she’s very angry to hear you offer yourself up as a test subject.
You must be doing something right courting her.
” Krashe’s wry voice came from beyond Cosima, he’d entered the humid growing room just in time to offer his translations.
It was obvious that he thought I had been making a hash of things with Cosima, but I couldn’t care less.
I was elated. She did care, at least a little, she had to feel the pull of the mate bond between us just as I could.
“Now she’s upset that you’re grinning like a fool.
Maybe you should go out for a hunt or something,” Krashe said with amusement.
I caught the hint of a quickly disappearing smirk on his face and shot him a rude gesture.
Like he was the expert on mates just because he had one.
Naomi’s scars had been physical, but Cosima’s were of the soul. That was very different!
I rose, glaring at him, but then I focused again on my mate, because how could I not?
Her hair haloed around her face like flames, several small braids decorating them courtesy of Naomi.
Her cheeks were so red that the color obscured all of her cute little spots.
I smiled, I just couldn’t help myself. She was beautiful, and I was happy to take her anger.
Because since I’d first gotten her mad, she’d also had moments of happiness.
To bear the brunt of those flames was a very fair price to pay if you asked me, and soon she’d know that too.
Nodding at the Shaman, I dipped into a bow for Cosima, and then I departed. Not to hunt, but to locate more Exar berries for my mate, and maybe some of those flowers too.