Page 54 of Citrine

She's mine to take.

"I'll keep watching you. Noagreement."

She sighs in defeat. "Fine. I'll try to ignore your intrusive stares."

She seems to finally be done adding to thedeal, good. "I have listened to you. You will give mekindhandsnow."

Something moves across her face as she hesitates, then she closes her eyes for a brief moment, stands up taller, then speaks. "No."

"There was adeal."

She moves her head back and forth. "No."

Anger starts to build, and I move out of the water. Her eyes widen, but she doesn't flee. I whip out a tentacle and wrap it around her wrist, then tug her forward, rubbing her grasper against the top of another tentacle.

Frustration builds in my chest, like I'm starving and my prey keeps alluding me.

She doesn't move, just stares at me. I put her other grasper next to the other, but she doesn't react. I gently move her graspers, rubbing them against me, but it just feels… like nothing.

"I told you, Wroahk.Kindnesscan never be taken, only given. It doesn't feel the same, does it?"

My grip loosens. "You will—"

She speaks over me. "Unless I move with intent, unless I decide to give mykindnessto you, it will never feel the same. It's empty without myconsent."

I release her and she takes a step back, pulling her arms close to her body and watching me intently. I look back down at her graspers.

That's not where herkindnesscomes from, I realize. It comes from somewhere inside of her. There is more to her than I can see, and I suddenly start to understand some of her power over me.

Is it a form of strength, but in a way that can't be seen or touched?

She takes a deep breath. "I think you understand now. The thing I want most of all is for you to ask if you want to touch me, not just do it. It's calledconsent. I won't touch you unless you ask. I will ask to talk, and you can ask forkind hands, but either one of us can always say no."

Asking for something. It's a simple yet strange concept. I don't ask prey if I can hunt or eat them. I've always done as I wished.

Except now I see that there are some things, very important things, that simply cannot be hunted.

"Agreement," I tell her, deciding to accept this new change to my life.

"Good. I think we will be just fine. Looking forward toworkingwith you, Wroahk," she says with a laugh, this one sounding normal again, extending a grasper to me.

I look at it, unsure of what she wants me to do. She points to my grasper with her free hand.

"You bring up yourhandthe same way I did."

"No."

"Oh, come on. It's nothing hard. It's just ahandshake."

Touching her grasper just seems so… dangerous now. And I fear breaking them, or not understandingconsent. I still want herkind hands,and I need time to think about all of this.

I refuse her firmly and dive into the water.

After a quick hunt to clear my mind, I return to watch her.

She moves around doing her mysterious things as I think, my brain sick of how much of it I have been doing. She's wandering around, picking plants and following around not-food like they are the most interesting things she has seen in her life.

She doesn't even try to eat them. I don't understand the point.