Zat’tor cupped my chin. I swallowed a whimper.
“No one is being punished,” he said calmly.
“But what about the taboo? The sacrifice?” In a whisper, I added, “You made the consequences sound terrifying!”
Zat’tor looked amused at my squawking. “That is for intentional harm. Your mishap was an accident, yet you owned up to your mistake. That is brave.”
I blinked in disbelief. “So, you’re not going to kill me and turn me into plant fertilizer?”
“No,” he replied cheerfully.
My knees trembled with relief. If I wasn’t leaning my full weight against Zat’tor, my legs would’ve given out. I didn’t know how or why fate turned around, but I just dodged a massive bullet.
All thanks to a hunky teal alien.
“But we are going to clean up your mess,” Zat’tor said.
I nodded. Those reparations made sense.
“Wait,” I said. “We, as in me and my crew, right?”
“No. You said your crew had nothing to do with the accident,” Zat’tor pointed out.
Was the whole Maeleon village going to watch me pitifully return to the scene of the crime?
“Then who’s we?” I asked.
Zat’tor looked eager. “Since you are my filum, we will do it together.”
There was that word again. But I had no time to get stuck on it. He’d offered to help me with the clean-up. Did that mean we were going to be alone together?
Why the hell did that idea excite me?
4Zat’tor
“Ismy crew going to be okay?” Levi asked. He glanced over his shoulder for the third time as we left the village behind on our way to the Sweetfields.
“They will be fine,” I assured him.
He bit his lip. “I don’t want them to get hurt because of me.”
“No one will hurt them,” I promised. “It is as you said. Your siblings had nothing to do with the collision. They are not at fault.”
“Oh, they’re not my siblings,” Levi said.
I gazed at him, my tail curling curiously. “No?”
He shook his head, which seemed to be a human gesture for disagreement. As he did this, his dusty yellow tuft of fur whooshed back and forth.
“Humans reserve the word ‘sibling’ for blood relatives who share at least one parent,” Levi explained.
“But you are the same species, yes?” I asked.
“Well, yeah.”
“Then you share ancestors. This makes you relatives. Siblings.”
Levi blinked his green eyes. Then the corner of his mouth curved upward. “It’s true that we share ancestors somewhere along the line. Like, thousands of generations ago. But for humans, that’s not enough shared blood to be considered siblings.”
