Page 84 of Theirs to Crave
I winced as Zafett growled, a low and surprisingly mean sound. But it was a sleekly black-furred arm that pushed between us.
Revik surrounded me for a moment before dropping some kind of dried fungus in my lap and returning to his spot. In the process, he shoved Shane back a solid foot.
The meddling fool laughed silently to himself, splaying his fingers in a gesture that said clearly, “I rest my case.”
Whatever.
I sniffed the hard, dry thing Revik had given me, hiding my smile and the warm glow their jealousy lit in my chest. It smelled...dusty? Not unclean, just dry and old, like something from an antique shop.
I hoped it wasn’t food. I didn’t want to insult the giant snake people, but nothing about this thing was appetizing.
Kashka picked up another one of the dried mushroom balls, mimed dipping it in something, and buffed it over her gleaming scales.
Oh, hell yes. Delicious lotionandalien loofah? The Svestrix were the best.
My excitement must have been obvious, because Litha chuckled. “Yes,ex iltal ves,” she said, running a hand down my arm.
One of the other Svestrix, this one a bit smaller and more muted in color—a pretty rust with gray stripes—gathered an armful of the loofahs, adding them to a collection of pots set aside from the rest.
That must be our shopping cart. I’d guess the pots were full of lotion—what had Zafett called it?
“Tonsa?” I asked, pointing to the pots.
Kashka nodded.
I held up the loofah. “What?”
“Eshek.”
Eshekandtonsa, the newest additions to my alien spa collection. I was going to be so soft and smell so good. It wasoverfor my three.
They’d also brought little baskets of shimmering, brightly colored pigments, which Cass, Salat, and I were very excited about, although for different reasons. Cass and Salat wanted to use them for art. My mind went straight to makeup. The Svestrix paintedtheirbodies with the stuff, so I figured it was probably safe.
There were a few more things—things they’d brought for the Teterayuh—and I let my attention wander.
I didn’t get the oppressive sense of disapproval and suspicion from the Svestrix that Saytireka and her cobweb-brushers gave off, but there was a reserve there. Some sort of bond obviously existed between Kashka and Litha, and to a lesser extent Revik and Zafett, but the other Svestrix were wary. Arvel and the other three Teterayuh edged towards hostile.
I took note—if there was tension between the two peoples, it would be good to know. Although, knowing Litha liked them and Arvel didn’t was enough for me to take the Svestrix’s side.
The Teterayuh and Svestrix repeated the process with the things we’d brought, and negotiations began in earnest. Bizarrely, Arvel pushed forward—after silently hate-fucking us all with his eyes throughout the whole process—and tried to take over. Litha shut him down with a single, mildly voiced phrase that had him slinking back, his tail actually tucked between his legs.
None of the negotiations meant anything to me. My vocabulary wasn’t built with trade in mind, and no one seemed to expect my input. I touched Zaf’s arm and tipped my head. He nodded, and my family and I scooted to the side. His tail brushed across my back, making me shiver.
We’d been on this planet three weeks, and things were starting to settle down. We were still learning a lot, obviously, and every day was full of adjustments, but it was so nice to see my family begin to creep out of crisis mode.
Cass was working with Roosa and the other weavers to figure out clothes for us and experimenting with painting on leather.She was still quiet, but she didn’t flinch as often, and her infrequent smiles were bright as the sun.
Salat had chosen Svixa’s family, and xe was thriving in the busy household. Between Svixa and the babies, xe had very little opportunity to be lonely. Xe joined Cass for painting each afternoon while the niños took siestas.
Ria was completely fascinated by the Teterayuh method of creating the concrete like substance they used for flooring, hearths, and built-in shelving. Apparently, it involved collecting the urine of some strange blue deer-pig called araysheel, and mixing it with a bunch of other stuff. She’d go off at a moment’s notice about the beauty of the process—meanwhile I was trying not to think about there being pee in the floors and counters.
Therry’s foster family also had a couple of kids, girl twins named Varoi and Reeya. Twins were the norm rather than the exception among the Teterayuh, which was odd but nice to think about. They were maybe four, as far as human development went, but Teterayuh children were a lot more physically independent than human kids. From xyr stories, the whole village spent a fair amount of time coaxing them down from places they’d climbed without knowing how to get out of.
Yin had found a set of kindred spirits in Aksha and her mates. They got along fantastically, but I could see the loss of Ilya weighed on xem still.
Did the Teterayuh have pets? I hadn’t seen any, but I hadn’t spent all that much time in the village. Yin could use a pet. I’d have to ask on the way home.
Shane was a font of all the knowledge he’d acquired. Indaro, Zafett’s sister—his twin—was the village’s historian, and most ofher food needs were provided by others, leaving them a lot of time for lessons.