20. Terra #2
“Here you are, my lady,” he said, handing it over. “The leaf is edible too and helps to quench the heat, as the cream does.”
Before she could change her mind, Terra picked up the leaf and popped the entire thing into her mouth.
At first, all she tasted was sweetness…then came a warm, smoky flavor that spread over her tongue. It reminded her a little of barbeque sauce.
“Hey, this isn’t so bad,” she remarked, swallowing. “It’s really just–”
But before she could finish her thought, fire exploded across her tongue!
“Oh my God!” she gasped, fanning her tongue.
Taurex was beside her at once.
“Are you all right? I tried to warn you–skarra pods are hot!”
“Water!” Terra moaned. “Please–I need some water!”
Taurex shook his head.
“No water. That will make it worse.”
“Then what?” she demanded. “I have to have something–I’m dying over here!”
Taurex grabbed a pale blue fruit from the stall beside them, split it open with his thumbs and held it toward her.
“Bite into this.”
Terra didn’t argue. She bit into the soft inner flesh, which tasted cool and sweet– something like melon mixed with vanilla. Almost immediately, the burning sensation began to ease.
“Oh, thank God,” she breathed around another bite as pale blue juice dripped down her chin and fingers. “Oh, that’s so much better.”
Taurex shook his head.
“You humans have a strange relationship with danger. I tell you something will hurt, and you immediately wish to experience it for yourself.”
Terra swallowed another mouthful of the cooling blue fruit, which really was delicious.
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“Is that why your face is red, and your eyes are watering?” Taurex asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Oh, be quiet.” Terra swatted him on the arm and swiped at her eyes. “You should never point it out when a lady is wrong,” she lectured.
Taurex smiled.
“I’ll have to remember that in the future when you are wrong again.”
Terra lifted her chin.
“A lady is never wrong, either.”
“Then I will keep my peace,” Taurex said gravely, but the corners of his mouth were twitching again.
The vendor was laughing openly now.
“Well now, it seems she knows her mind–and yours too, for that matter!” he cackled.
“So she does.”
Taurex paid for the vegetables as well as the cooling blue fruit and the merchant gathered everything into one of the green vine baskets.
Terra watched in amazement as several loose tendrils rose from the sides and wove themselves together, twisting back and forth until they formed a sturdy handle.
“Okay, now that is cool,” she said.
“The basket is alive,” Taurex explained as he accepted it from the vendor.
“What do you do with it when you’re finished?” Terra was fascinated.
He shrugged.
“You plant it, of course.”
Terra looked at the green vines in surprise.
“You plant the basket?”
He nodded.
“Yes. If you keep it watered, it will eventually grow into a tarka vine.”
“And what does that do?”
“It produces edible purple pods that are not unlike your Earth vegetable called edamame,” Taurex told her. “They are delicious steamed and served with kafoola oil and salt.”
Terra stared at the basket in wonder.
“So your grocery bag turns into more groceries?”
Taurex nodded.
“That is the idea.”
Terra sighed.
“Meanwhile, we have plastic bags floating around in the ocean for five hundred years.” She shook her head. “I think your people might have us beat on this one.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Only on this one?”
Terra nudged him with her elbow.
“Hey now, Bull-man, don’t get cocky.”
Taurex rumbled laughter and took her hand again as they moved farther into the Market.
Terra couldn’t help noticing that they had barely let go of each other since leaving Commander Rarev’s office, and what was strange was how natural it felt.
On Earth she would have been acutely conscious of holding hands with her boss– especially a boss she had once danced naked for–but here on the Mother Ship it seemed different somehow. Maybe it was because everyone around them was doing the same thing.
Everywhere Terra looked she saw Monstrum males walking with women tucked close beside them, their hands entwined or their arms around one another. Some of the women were human and some were clearly alien, but they all seemed comfortable and happy.
It gave the entire place a strangely romantic feeling…or maybe that was just because Taurex was holding her hand.
They came next to what Terra first thought was a bakery, due to the warm, yeasty smell in the air, though again there was nothing resembling an oven anywhere in sight.
Instead, enormous pods about the size of watermelons hung from thick brown vines overhead, each one giving off a faint glow from within.
“What are those?” she asked, pointing to the enormous pods.
“Fargas,” Taurex rumbled.
Terra frowned.
“Wait–that’s the bread? But I thought you said you were going to make it?”
He nodded.
“I am.”
Terra was confused.
“But…you mean the bread grows?”
He nodded again.
“The starter grows. I will season and finish it at my domicile.”
As they watched, one of the enormous pods gave a soft pop! and split down the middle. A puff of fragrant steam drifted into the air and inside was a warm, pale loaf with a golden crust.
Terra’s mouth fell open.
“No way. That’s amazing!”
“And delicious.”
The vendor—a furry Monstrum with long pointed ears and a face that vaguely reassembled a bat—lifted the loaf free using broad green leaves.
“Fresh fargas,” he announced. “It doesn’t get better than this!”
Terra breathed in deeply. The fresh fargas loaf smelled incredible–almost like fresh-baked sourdough mixed with rosemary and something sweet she couldn’t identify. Suddenly her mouth was watering.
“Can I try some?” she asked.
Taurex smiled.