CHAPTER 8
VALMIR
A perfect flower.
That is my next task. I did not ask the reward, because we both know I'm going to do whatever it takes to get her to be mine.
I dream about April all night — that she is petting me like she did the wounded two-fang.
That she runs her hands over me and coos soft noises to soothe me.
When I wake up, my belly is wet from my seed and my cock is still aching and hard.
It's a good thing I decided to sleep alone in a supply cave, because I reek of desperation.
I jerk my cock again to get it to go down and then wash the stench of the night's dreams off my fur.
I think about flowers.
The obvious answer is that all the flowers are at the fruit cave.
It's a journey of at least a day from the beach encampment if you walk fast, more if you are slower.
Walking all that is not normally an issue, but today my cock throbs with need and makes movement difficult.
My clothing feels uncomfortably tight, and every time I pick up April's scent on the air, my khui sings wildly. I don't want to leave.
So, like the gift of the creature, I must think of other ways to fulfill her request.
I wander the camp at the fringes, noticing that April is near the fire with the others through the morning meal.
She is chatty and comfortable with the others, sharing stories and enthusiastically helping with chores.
She likes being part of a big group, likes being one of a bigger family.
I do not know what to do with a big group.
There are no established guidelines in my head on how to behave in a crowd, so I avoid company, slinking around the fringes and watching to see who I can approach and ask questions about plants and flowers.
A dark-skinned human female — Yasmin — and Set'nef of the Ancestors head off to the cliffs with digging tools and a heavy basket resting in the male's four arms. I have not had a chance to speak to either of them, but Set'nef seems knowledgeable enough for someone who has lived his entire life underground.
Didn't someone say they had plants under there? Maybe he will know about flowers.
I follow after them, keeping a safe distance behind. I'm not stalking. I'm just...observing. Waiting for the right moment to approach.
The couple arrive at the cliffs and take the path up, moving to higher ground.
Once up there, they move towards a strange square that has been marked off by leather streamers on the ends of femurs.
The bones stick out of the ground at four points, and in between those points, the snow has been shoveled to the side.
It forms a low wall around the markers, and my curiosity gets the better of me. What is happening here?
I prowl closer, watching.
"You're welcome to join us," Yasmin calls out.
I remain where I am, because surely they were not speaking to me. I am well hidden.
Set'nef sets down his basket and leans toward the female. They talk, and the male walks away from her...heading in my direction. Just a coincidence, I am certain.
When he walks right up to my hiding spot and says my name, I must concede that perhaps the wind changed. "Valmir?"
I stretch, ignoring his greeting, and try to make it seem as if I were here all along. "Don't approach me while I'm hunting. You could have scared away my prey."
Set'nef frowns at my words, not understanding them. He doesn't have the language chip implant that the rest of us do. I'll understand what he says when he speaks, but it'll be a one-sided conversation. He glances over at Yasmin, but she just rolls her eyes at me.
"You're not hunting up here," she says.
"I might have been," I say, stubbornly sticking to my story. "You don't know."
"There's nothing up here. No animal caves. No water supply. That's why we're trying a garden in this area." She gives me an irked look. "There's not even a game trail along this section. Did you need something?"
I shoot her my haughtiest look, my tail swishing. "A flower, actually. Have you seen one?"
Her brow furrows and she makes a gesture of a growing thing with her hands so Set'nef can catch up. "This is going to be a garden, but nothing's going to come up for a while, if ever. It's an experiment."
"What sort of experiment?" I approach despite my efforts to appear disinterested. When I move to Yasmin's side, I see that the ground underneath has been cleared of the dry, stringy yellow grasses that thrive under the snows. The earth has been bared and scratched at.
Yasmin pulls the lid off Set'nef's basket.
"When the soil is bad underground, the Ancestors ferment fish and compost it to act as fertilizer.
Harlow says that Tiffany did something similar at the old caves in the other tribe.
I'm going to spread some here over seeds, cover them with the hay, and see if we can't get anything to grow.
All kinds of things grow on the cliffs, so it stands to reason that more than just grass can grow in the dirt.
It just needs the snow moved off of it so the more fragile plants can breathe. "
I scoff at the idea of a garden on a wintry planet. April said her home had greenery and warmth. This world has neither. "It sounds incredibly foolish. It snows here almost every day."
"It's worth trying, and we'll never know unless we give it a shot." She gives me an annoyed look. "Are you here to be a pest or are you here to actually help out?"
How quickly they forget. "As I said, I'm looking for flowers."
"Then you're just here to be a pest." She makes a shooing motion with her hands. "Go away, then. We have work to do."
"Who else would know about flowers?" I persist. "Or who can journey with me to the fruit cave? I don't know the path yet."
Set'nef ignores me. His hands — all four of them — are deftly weaving several grasses together. He glances at Yasmin and waits for her to answer.
She thinks for a moment and then shrugs. "Maybe go talk to Devi? She's the biologist. She'll know where you can find a flower."
Devi. She's the tall female that spends all day looking at shells on the shoreline with her one-legged mate at her side. I know which one she is. "I would say thank you, but I'm not sure you helped."
The human female makes a face at me. "You're welcome anyhow."
Set'nef finishes the braid of grasses and ties it off, making it into a loop. Despite the fact that he just started on it a moment ago, it's beautifully woven and complex. He sets it atop Yasmin's thick, dark hair like a crown, and she beams up at him as if he just did something amazing.
Disgusting. Both of them.
I turn and head back to the beach, and as I walk, I wonder if April would like a grass crown.
Devi is exactly where I expected. I find her on the beach, her mate a short distance away.
He sits at the edge of a tide pool with his son, plucking out snails and putting them into a basket.
He doesn't get up from his spot on the rocks, but he watches me as I approach his mate just the same.
The human female is crouched low, her long, dark braid dragging a line on the sand.
She is oblivious to my presence, focused on the thin bone tool in her hand.
With it, she carefully turns over what looks like a clump of seaweed and studies it thoughtfully.
I clear my throat.
She doesn't look up.
I clear my throat again. "I need a flower."
Devi turns her head, squinting up at me. "What?"
"I need a flower, and you are a biologist."
"I'm really not sure what those two have to do with each other." Devi returns to looking at the seaweed, dragging the tip of her stick across it. "Does this look like mucus to you or am I seeing things?"
"I don't see what this has to do with flowers," I retort back.
She pushes the stick under the wet seaweed and lifts it. It hangs in the air, and she straightens and holds it out in front of me. "It's wet, but is it water wet or mucus wet? I want a second opinion, and if my theory is correct, everyone on the beach needs to be aware."
I shoot her another annoyed look and touch the seaweed. It's slimy to the touch, and when I pull back, a droplet of clear ooze splats onto the sand. A stench arises and I cover my nose. "Ugh, what's that smell?"
"Mucus," Devi says grimly, staring down at the fallen blob of goo. "I was afraid of that."
"What's the problem with it?"
"Oh, it's not a problem. It's part of a natural cycle. Unfortunately for us, this particular natural cycle disrupts our natural cycle." She lifts her head and puts a hand to her mouth. "N'dek? It's mucus, all right."
He looks just as worried as her, turning to their son and indicating he should come away from the water's edge.
N'dek has one leg that is prosthetic, so he stands up by putting his weight on his hands first and swinging his prosthetic slowly into place.
Once he's on his feet, he moves over to us.
"Just as you feared. How much time do you think we have? "
She bends down and pokes at the ooze again. "If it follows the pattern of the last cycle, maybe a full turn of the moons?"
"Enough time to prepare, then." N'dek rubs one of his hands along his jaw. "Do we pack now, or wait?"
"Oh, we wait. We'll have more signals before we need to take action."
I cross my arms over my chest. "Hey, this is a great conversation and all, but do you mind letting me in on what the kef you're talking about? What does this have to do with flowers?"
The human female squints up at me, confused. "It doesn't have anything to do with flowers. It's the nautilus invasion."
"Nautilus," I echo. "Remind me what that is, friend?"
She gestures with her arms, flinging them in the air to indicate something massive. "They're cephalopods, but cephalopods of an enormous size with spiral shells. N'rav calls them big snails, even though that's the wrong phylum. Snails are gastropods."
"And this is important…"