22. Terra #2
“And what does that one do?” she asked.
Taurex carried several of the vegetables over to it.
“This is where I will prepare the stew.”
Terra raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“You cook in a plant?”
He nodded matter-of-factly.
“The inner surface produces heat.”
He stroked one side of the bowl and thin lines of orange light began glowing beneath its surface. Within seconds Terra could feel warmth radiating from it.
“Holy crap. That thing really gets hot!”
“You seem to be very surprised by my domicile,” Taurex remarked.
“Because everything here keeps doing things plants are not supposed to do,” Terra answered.
“According to Earth plants.”
“Well…yes,” she admitted. “According to Earth plants.”
Taurex gestured toward another cluster of smaller pods growing along one side of the counter.
“These provide different cooking temperatures.”
Terra looked at the pod clusters with interest.
“So those are the burners?”
He shrugged.
“If that terminology helps you, I suppose.”
“It does,” Terra assured him. “I’m just trying to figure everything out here.”
“I understand.” He nodded.
Another flower opened when he touched it and released a thin stream of perfectly clear water into a basin formed from overlapping leaves.
Terra pointed at it excitedly.
“Sink flower! That’s a sink flower.”
The corners of his mouth twitched.
“I suppose,” you could call it that.”
Terra grinned at him.
“See? You’re learning.”
He shook his head, hiding a smile.
“Being with you is certainly an education, lovely one.”
Terra couldn’t forget that “lovely one” was what he’d called her when she was dancing for him at The Doll House.
He hadn’t called her that once in all the time they’d been working together, but he seemed to feel more comfortable and informal here.
Was he calling her that because he had feelings for her and he was finally feeling ready to show them?
Stop it, she scolded herself. Stop reading into everything!
With an effort, she turned her attention back to the alien tree-house kitchen.
One of the strangest things was what Taurex called a “cleansing vine.” It grew along the side of the countertop—or “food preparation surface” as the big Monstrum called it—and was covered in small fuzzy leaves.
When he placed a dirty utensil beneath it, the vine immediately wrapped around the object, the fuzzy leaves moving over every surface before releasing it again completely clean and dry.
Terra stared at it in surprise.
“You have a plant dishwasher. Or a dishwasher plant, I guess,” she said.
Taurex nodded thoughtfully.
“I suppose you could call it that.”
Terra shook her head.
“Your entire house is making me jealous!”
He gave her a sidelong look.
“You know…you could live in one like it.”
The words were spoken casually, but they made Terra’s heart skip a beat.
She glanced up at him. Taurex appeared to be examining the vegetables in one of the baskets, but she wondered if the statement had really been as casual as it sounded.
Don’t read too much into everything he says, she warned herself. You’re being ridiculous!
Still, she couldn’t help imagining what it might be like to wake up every morning in a house like this, surrounded by glowing flowers and living furniture, with Taurex moving around the kitchen preparing breakfast.
The image was dangerously seductive, and she did her best to push it away…though it wouldn’t quite go.
“Come,” Taurex said, apparently unaware of her thoughts. “I will show you the bathing chamber.”
So Terra followed him down another softly curving hallway. What she saw at the end of it, nearly made her gasp.
The bathroom—or bathing chamber, as Taurex called it—was perhaps the most beautiful room in the entire house.
One wall was covered completely in flowering vines, and the floor was formed from smooth pale stones that felt warm beneath Terra’s thin-soled shoes.
In the center was an enormous shallow basin surrounded by broad green leaves, and at the far end of the room water poured continuously from an opening in the living wall, forming a shimmering waterfall that disappeared into a channel in the floor.
Terra walked toward it in amazement.
“This is your shower?” she asked, pointing.
Taurex nodded.
“Yes. You could call it that.”
She reached one hand beneath the falling water and found it was warm. Not just warm, though—perfectly warm.
“How do you control the temperature?” she asked.
Taurex pointed toward three flowers growing beside the waterfall.
One was bright red, one was blue, and one was white.
“You touch the red bloom for warmer water and the blue for cooler. The white one stops the flow,” he explained. “But mostly I just let it go—it flows right back into underground river that runs through the entire Mother Ship and is purified by special reeds as is goes.”
“Wait…you have a river flowing through the ship?” Terra asked, surprised.
He nodded.
“It is the life-blood of our ship. She needs water circulating continuously to keep growing and living.”
Terra touched the red flower cautiously and the water flowing in the small waterfall grew hotter. She tried the blue flower, and it got cooler.
She laughed.
“This place is ridiculous.”
Taurex frowned worriedly.
“You dislike it?”
“No! I love it,” Terra told him.
She touched the blue bloom again and the water cooled even more. Leaving it like that, she turned to look at the rest of the bathroom.
There were more flowers growing everywhere around the room—large white blossoms that released sweet-smelling soap when squeezed, pale pink ones filled with something that felt like conditioner and small yellow flowers that produced a light oil Taurex explained was used to moisturize the skin.
Terra was delighted.
“So instead of having twelve bottles falling over in your shower, you just have flowers,” she remarked. “This is all so amazing—I may never go back to Earth.”
Taurex’s golden eyes brightened.
“I would not object if you stayed here, ” he rumbled.
Terra felt warmth rise into her cheeks and quickly turned away to examine the rest of the room. Then she noticed a particularly strange plant growing beside what she finally realized must be the toilet—which seemed to have soil in it instead of water at the bottom of the bowl.
The plant consisted of a thick green stem topped by an enormous white flower with dozens—possibly hundreds—of soft overlapping petals. All of the petals were about the size of a tissue—or maybe a little smaller.
Terra frowned as she stared at it.
“What is that and what’s it for?” she asked. Because by now, she had figured out that every plant in the house had some kind of function. None of them were there just because they were pretty—they each had a job to do.
Taurex followed her gaze.
“Oh—that’s the cleansing bloom.”
“The what?” Terra asked, frowning.
He pointed toward the flower.
“It’s for after you relieve yourself.”
Terra stared at him…then at the flower…then back at him. At last, it clicked.
“You mean…that’s toilet paper?”
Taurex frowned.
“Well…I guess in a way. Though the petals are not made of paper.”
“No, but you still use them to…: Terra stopped herself. “Never mind. Yes. That’s toilet paper.”
She reached out and carefully pulled one of the white petals free to rub between her fingers. It was incredibly soft—softer than cotton—and the moment she plucked it, another tiny petal began growing in its place.
Terra burst out laughing—she couldn’t help it. Of all the plants she’d been expecting, this wasn’t one of them.
“You have a toilet paper flower!” she exclaimed, between giggles.
Taurex looked puzzled by her amusement.
“Well…yes. Personal hygiene is important.”
Terra pointed at the TP plant.
“That might be the single greatest thing I’ve seen all day.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“Greater than the living puzzle you purchased for Cody?”
“You purchased it. And possibly.” Terra nodded.
He shook his head.
“You humans have unusual priorities.”
“That’s because you’ve never been stuck in a bathroom with an empty roll,” Terra pointed out.
Taurex clearly had no idea what she was talking about, so he just shook his head.
Terra was still smiling when he led her farther down the hall.
“My sleeping chamber is here,” he rumbled, and a doorway opened at his touch.
Terra stepped inside and immediately understood why he had called it a sleeping chamber instead of a bedroom.
The room was enormous. The ceiling arched high overhead beneath a canopy of glowing vines, and one entire wall was formed by a curved window overlooking the forest beyond.
The bed occupied the center of the room and was so large Terra could have invited her entire family to sleep in it with room left over.
Like the couch, it was completely alive. The base consisted of thick interwoven branches, and the mattress was formed from layers of deep green vegetation covered by what looked like enormous velvety leaves.
“That bed is bigger than my entire bedroom at home,” Terra remarked.
Taurex nodded.
“I require considerable space.”
“You certainly do.”
Her eyes swept over his huge body before she could stop them, and she couldn’t help picturing the two of them in that enormous bed—possibly with her on top and riding him cowgirl style.
Just as she was getting hot and bothered, Taurex’s golden gaze met hers and Terra looked quickly away from the bed.
“I mean because you’re tall,” she said lamely. “You wouldn’t want a bed where your feet hung off the end.”
“I certainly wouldn’t want that.”
There was amusement in his deep voice, but Terra ignored it in favor of exploring the room.
There were no photographs or decorative objects in the room, but unlike his sterile Earth penthouse, this space somehow felt personal.
There were several large plants growing near the window, a broad living chair beside the bed and shelves formed from the wall itself holding books, strange crystalline objects, and several carved figures.
“This feels more like you than your apartment in Tampa,” she remarked. “I mean, it’s more lived in.”
Taurex looked around.