Page 104 of My Tiny Giant
A soft gasp came from where Madam Eehie, Inkra, was sitting. My breath caught in my throat as I watched, as if in a slow motion, General Hicrai stagger back then fall on his ass with a loud “humph.”
He scrambled back to his feet quickly but hesitated to launch a counterattack, faced with Agan’s grim expression and a raised fist ready to strike again.
“That’s assault!” the general yelled, instead.
“A Ravil man has the right to defend his honor,” Agan said gravely. “You disrespected my woman, therefore you insulted me.”
“How did I disrespect your woman?” The general shot a glance my way, more fearful than hateful this time.
Agan grinned, gazing at me.
“You implied I have the right to control her.”
I smiled back at him, ignoring the general’s glare.
“Agan!” someone yelled from the crowd as people continued taking their seats at the tables. Those who didn’t want to sit congregated around the high stands with food that had been placed around the garden.
“Hey, Hahlut, look! There’s Agan!” I recognized the voice of one of the Agan’s comrades, former comrades now, since he’d just quit.
“Are you talking about the little guy on the puny human’s shoulder?” Hahlut laughed.
They’d obviously missed the ceremony, arriving just for the party.
Agan slowly turned toward the voice.
“I’ll be right back.” He leaned in, placing a quick kiss on my cheek.
“Agan...” I started, concerned.
“It won’t take long.” He stretched his neck, cracking his knuckles. “I just need to talk to Hahlut for a minute.”
“Why?”
“I have to teach him the respectful way to speak about my woman, once and for all.”
I rolled my eyes. “No, you don’t. I already talked to him in the mall. He apologized, remember?”
“You talked to him for me . Now it’s my turn to ‘speak’ to him for you .” He leaped over a bench on his way to his former buddies. “Don’t worry, I won’t cripple him.”
I shook my head, catching the accusing glare General Hicrai tossed my way as he hurried after Agan. As if it was my fault that Agan decided to flex his newly grown muscles once again.
“Don’t look at me ,” I said to the general, huffing a breath. “It’s not like I can stop him.”
I turned back to Inkra who’d gingerly started filling her plate with food.
“I could barely restrain him even when he was pocket-sized,” I mumbled under my breath. “How am I supposed to do it now when he is the size of a house?”
“Men.” She shrugged casually, not at all concerned. “I can never figure out exactly what’s going on in their heads. Here...” she placed a small curd of something on a plate for me. “Try this, please. It’s whipped cheese made from marid milk.”
“The riding animals?”
“Right. Marids are kept for many uses.” She took a small dark cube off another serving dish. “This is marid meat, seasoned and cured.”
I gazed with curiosity at the large variety of foods spread on the trays in front of me, trying to guess what all of them were.
The Governor returned to our table, meanwhile, my man coming along with him.
Beaming, Agan plopped on the bench next to me. “Governor Eehie just offered me a job with the civilian border protection force,” he announced, grabbing both the whipped curd and the meat cube off my plate and popping them both into his mouth.