EPILOGUE
EPILOGUE
Shortly after we embarked on the journey to my home planet, Hannah and I performed a marriage rite ceremony.
She wore her dam’s dress. The one her dam began but Hannah finished. And following a human tradition where a young female of their species walks before the bride scattering the corolla of cultivated Earthen flowering plants, we enlisted Xoknith’s thrilled pup to perform this rite.
Via hologram brilliance wielded by Na’riths, Kaylee, human pup of Hotahn and Doc, is also a proud performer of this ritual. I am one of her honorary uncles in the human colony, and she was thrilled when I contacted her and asked her if she would honor us by ripping apart flowers and throwing their remains on the floor for our holograms to crush them.
Cyden crafted a truly breathtaking ring fitted for Hannah’s finger, and Zadeon walked Hannah across the ship’s bay and entrusted her into my keeping. He’d leaned down and murmured into my ear, “If you ever infuriate her to the point she wants you beaten, I’ve informed her that I volunteer to be the one to break you.” He’d straightened and given me a fierce stare that promised me he was entirely serious.
The remainder of the ceremony was completed without further threats to my person, and Hannah and I were officially married.
Seven human months later, we welcomed a princess who somehow looks like Hannah, and also like me. Tori. Named after her maternal granddam.
It seemed for some solars that she would be our only miracle, as we struggled to conceive, but then Seph sparked. He has Hannah’s eyes. He has my smile. From captures of my dam, I know that Seph has his granddam”s smile.
I feel such contentment, I can’t imagine how life could improve.
I thought that once.
Now I know that despite life being filled with its share of pains and heartsbreak, it is also an adventure infinitely more exciting than I could ask for or imagine. And it is filled with an immeasurable amount of joy. And love.
Zadeon no longer holds a grudge for my part in his ship’s theft and his sister’s escape, yet he still enjoys intimidating me whenever the opportunity arises. You can take the gladiator out of the arena, but you can’t take the gladiator out of a Rakhii.
Cyden and Julie have a set of twins. Hannah and Julie remain close friends, and our children have grown up with one another, never suffering loneliness as Hannah or I did when we were younglings.
Dohrein, good male that he is, accepted my apology upon our arrival. My relationship with Gracie was greatly changed. We’ll always have the fondness for each other that two friends have—but no longer are we close friends. Early on, when she asked intrusive questions about Hannah”s and my relationship—simply her habit with every person, everywhere—I told her gently but with firmness that our matters were private, between my mate and me alone. Gracie respected my stance, didn’t push, and healthy boundaries were established.
Hannah and I enjoy sewing clothing together so much that it became our primary source of income, although we occasionally help in the planting and harvesting fields when extra hands are helpful.
We adore visiting and occasionally caring for Mick, who lives a few rookeries down from our rookery. Even when we aren’t taking temporary care of him, he never feels very far. Whenever Xoknith’s family has their windows open, nearly the entire colony can hear Mick’s delighted cockatoo shrieks.
Saphkarra is not the only Earthen feline on our planet, but she is the largest. Because the human colony is free of predator animals—save for the occasional Narwari, when one breaks loose, and thankfully the felines know to run when they see our planet’s ‘carnivorous workhorses,’ as the humans call them—Saphkarra roams outside when she likes and returns home as she pleases.
Every day, she pleases. She’s currently sunning herself in a golden patch of sun’s light, care of the open window I’m sitting under.
I’m sewing while I wait for the dish beside me to reach its ready stage. Hannah and I have perfected a recipe for a human treat called gum. It is a sort of ever-chewable item that Matt, Inara’s mate, has a strong habit of gnawing on every day.
Hannah enters our dwelling, carrying a basket of breeze-dried laundry. We have a clothes drying unit, but she prefers the fresh smell of the primitive cloth-drying method usually employed by female Rakhii, and so this is how we often dry our clothes. She sets the basket down and joins me on the window seat, smiling as she leans back and rests her feet over my knees.
I cover her ankles with my hand, my thumb caressing her skin.
“The kids went over to Zadeon and Callie’s to play,” Hannah tells me. “We have the house to ourselves for probably an hour,” she says, using the measure of time’s word from her planet that was adopted into this planet’s vernacular thanks to the humans’ penchant for timekeeping by it. “Maybe two.”
I promptly set aside Matt’s chewing gum mixture and stand in a rush. I hold my sewing project out to Hannah.
Hannah grins, her eyes dancing. “A felled hob badge? For me?”
“You must earn it,” I tell her gravely.
It isn”t possible to represent the number of felled hob badges Hannah has earned. But the modest number I”ve managed to sew for her fills up an impressively decorated sash in our room.
“Oh,” she says, her finger beginning to tease down my arm. “I was kind of thinking about earning my lunch making badge next. Or maybe my napping badge…” She covers her mouth and executes a very polite yawn. Her eyes sparkle mischievously, not appearing ready for a nap at all.
“I see.” I tuck the hob felling badge into my pocket for safekeeping. And then I scoop Hannah up, making her laugh, and snap my wings around her, making her moan.
We proceed to enjoy our nearly two hours of alone time to the fullest.
And Hannah adds yet another hob felling badge to her sash.