CHAPTER 17
S’samph
He’d only been recovering for twelve standard days, but he was going to pull his scales out from boredom if he couldn’t find something more interesting to do with his time.
The last time he’d dealt with such boredom had been during the repetitive briefings he’d attended as a cadet on Latilla.
However, unlike a meeting, this boredom had no clear end time.
There were only so many hours he could spend scanning through the vast archives of human media to try and get a better grasp on human culture and mannerisms. Watching holovids of some of the more popular content creators helped him understand their facial expressions with a bit more accuracy, but the frustrating thing was every human seemed to have slight variations in the way they expressed their emotions.
He also watched some feeds from Gaia, Eleri’s home.
What struck him most was the darkness. Although there was a central star not too distant from Gaia, the air seemed choked with a dark fog.
The buildings were made of a non-reflective metallic material, and their roads were all paved with black asphalt.
Lurid tourism videos promised glimpses of pleasure districts while others gave warnings about air quality and gang violence in earnest. There were some other vids with more upbeat music and lighting, but many of those were from intelestars hoping to win the visa lottery to relocate to Earth.
Generously, he might refer to it as the embodiment of the Maw of Fire, but he couldn’t judge only from the content produced for shock value.
One day, he would ask Eleri what her home had really been like and perhaps share about Latilla in turn.
However, in all his mindless exploration, he found himself continually returning to the messages she had sent while on her voyage to Cassiaq-IV.
The messages he had foolishly ignored. He tried to envision a version of the present where they’d struck up a correspondence before she arrived in Laurus.
How different things would be if he had welcomed her as his mate.
If he had listened to the cadence of her soft voice expressing her hopes and fears of coming to a new planet and shared his thoughts in turn.
But it was impossible to turn back the suns.
For now, he endeavored to make the most of the time he spent with her as part of his medical care.
Eleri’s visits were the only thing breaking up the monotony of his day, but as she’d explained, she didn’t have much time to linger with him since Aglao had gone into hibernation.
However, he’d cajoled K’kaen to ask her about the clinic’s new schedule and was aware of their early closing on the last day of the week.
Perhaps today was the day he could convince her to let him purchase some things for her.
After K’kaen had told him about her abysmal lack of credits, it had taken every last drop of restraint he possessed to stop himself from marching down to the clinic to force her to accept a credit deposit.
She would never accept such a blatant transaction anyhow.
It was much to his chagrin when he learned she’d used the blue dress as temporary bandages for his wound.
No, Eleri wouldn’t accept charity. She had far too much pride and stubbornness for that, although she hid it well behind her kind deflections.
Despite her wishes to survive on crumbs, he fully intended to offer her more, but he would have to be clever with his strategy.
Eleri would not accept anything outright, so he would have to get her in a situation where his purchasing power made sense.
To do that, he would first identify the things she wanted.
S'samph had ignored her tapes for this long, but the only way to learn more about her in an authentic way was to listen to her original messages to him. He had a vague recollection of the questions when S’kasia had badgered him into responding to create what he had considered an inert profile.
A small kernel of himself had always hoped someone might stumble upon his profile and propose a mating union, but it was always a laughable idea.
Until it wasn’t and he’d stuck his tail in it like the miserable ravik he was.
Today, she was late. He paced around his nest and considered walking to the clinic himself.
It was well past sun-high when she finally arrived with a bright smile that did not quite reach her tired eyes.
He’d been studying human facial expressions again in his boredom.
They grew dark rings under their eyes when they were exhausted.
“How are you feeling today?” Eleri called her greeting from the doorway of his nest. She settled her heavy medkit by the door.
They made models with wheels, but they would never manage the uneven paving of Laurus’ roads.
S’samph disliked how she had to lug the thing with her while walking around all day in the brutal suns, but he was going to pick his battles wisely.
“I’m in fine health. But you look tired. What has made your face fill with gray?”
Eleri tilted her head, sending her tail of long fur sliding over her shoulders. “Is there something wrong with my face?”
S’samph reached out and traced the space beneath her eyes, careful not to let his claws too close to her fragile skin. “You are gray here.”
Eleri changed color again, this time pink instead of gray. “Oh! Those are just under-eye bags. I’ve been running around like crazy since Aglao went into hibernation. Not as much time for sleeping, unfortunately.”
“Don’t make yourself ill.” S’samph removed his hand from her face, although he wouldn’t have minded lingering longer. Her skin was smooth, and she had a floral scent that tickled the back of his scent glands.
“I’ll be okay. It’s just until Aglao comes out of their hibernation.” She didn’t move away from him like she might have at previous attempts at physical contact. Eventually, with great reluctance, S’samph removed his hand from her face of his own volition.
“Am I cleared to start doing activity yet?”
“Probably not, but let’s take a look.” She unwound the bandages and sucked in a surprised breath. “I forget how quickly latil’e heal. That blast would have killed most other species.”
“Then I can be active again.” S’samph didn’t ask. He was itching to leave his nest and do something, anything to keep his mind occupied. Eleri considered with one of her clawless digits pressed against the bottom of her face.
“I think yes, if we, I mean you, do something not too taxing, I see no reason why you can’t be up and about for a bit.”
“Should we do something together then, so you can monitor my health?” It was a bold question, but he wanted to gauge her reaction to his insistence. He wanted evidence of the success of his apology. If it was a successful tactic, he would employ it again as useful.
Eleri’s skin flared to a startling shade of pink. “I have some errands to run this afternoon. I also promised S’kasia I would come visit her for a bit before I need to get back to the clinic to study.”
“What errands?” She hadn’t said no.
“I need to buy some ingredients.” Eleri cleansed his wound, although the open amount of flesh was minimal. It would be completely closed in no more than another moonrise or two.
“Then I’ll join you.” S’samph was already calculating how much he could pay for without Eleri becoming suspicious of his intentions. Ingredients meant she had plans to do cooking for herself or perhaps with S’kasia. If he could convince her to buy extra on his balance, it would be a starting point.
“Are you sure?” She started packing up her medkit supplies and removed her gloves to drop them into the waste disposal compartment of his kitchen unit.
“Things didn’t go so well the last time you joined me for shopping.
” She made a slight noise he might have confused for illness if he wasn’t familiar with the way she always tried to hide her amusement around him.
“Yes. Besides, I’ll need to feed myself soon enough.
S’kasia and K’kaen’s generosity only extends so far.
” He’d given away the last of his vela beans to the raviks, not that he would have enjoyed eating them anyhow.
As much as he was reluctant to admit it, the meals provided by his friend and his sister were a lifeline as he recovered.
He jumped down from his perch on the low outcropping of stone and produced a cloth sack for any purchases he made for himself.
He made his way to his levibike, but Eleri stepped in his way. “You’re not healed enough to drive.”
“Why not?”
“You could pull the wound open if you move too aggressively.”
“Then you can drive. Now is a good time to practice. There aren’t too many people on the road.
” He reached into his pocket and tossed her the key for the locking mechanism.
She missed the toss, and it fell to the ground.
S’samph used the opening in her attention to grab her medkit off the ground and situate it in the storage compartment of his levibike before she could protest. It was heavier than it looked.
S’samph didn’t love the idea of her dragging it all around Laurus, but he would pick that battle later.
“You’re already injured. Are you sure you want me trying to drive?”
“To repeat your words, your driving skills didn’t ‘do me in’.
Practice will help.” He had searched for her curious phrase while bored and resting at home and found the indirectness of it strange.
The culture report mentioned humans were not nearly as direct as latil’e, but he had not realized it also extended to the very form of their language.