“Oh, I see.” The human woman looks crestfallen.
I speak up, because I bet they never have visitors, and the human seems excited to cook for us. I feel bad. “I’d love to try the fritt-fritt—”
“Frittata.” She beams. “It’s a human dish. I promise you’ll like it.” She bustles away.
Farli passes by, and her hand goes to my shoulder. She leans in. “Stay-see is a good cook,” she murmurs, lips brushing against the edge of my ear. “And you have made her very happy today.”
I am more interested in making Farli happy, but I nod. I watch her as she saunters away again, her tail swishing. She moves toward an elderly couple dressed in furs and embraces them, talking and laughing. These must be her parents. Her animal is in one corner of the meeting house, chewing happily on a pile of roots.
There’s an overwhelming amount of people around us, and for space-faring loners who don’t see others for months on end, it almost feels like too much. We’re handed babies, introduced to everyone, and many of the tribe take a turn coming to sit by us. Farli’s father offers a skin of a fermented drink that Trakan exclaims over, which makes the tribe very happy. Chatav talks quietly with their chief, the human mate with the curly hair hovering nearby. Niri sips a cup of tea and doesn’t eat, and so that leaves me to taste all of the dishes Stay-see and the others are pushing in my direction. I try to ignore the textures and where the foods might come from. I don’t want to know. The flavors are incredible, though, and I think my surprise shows on my face, because Stay-see giggles every time I take a bite.
“Told you that you’d like it.”
“I do,” I say, shoving another spoonful of frittata into my mouth. It’s delicious, and if I don’t think about the fact that it comes from eggs, I love it. These people don’t use eating sticks, only spoons, so it’s a little bit of a challenge. The humans do seem to be fairly advanced, and don’t blink an eye with our talk of ships and interstellar travel. They nod knowingly when Chatav mentions that we are a freighter, and ask questions about trading posts near here or where the closest space station is.
As I eat, one female with a huge stomach comes and sits next to me. She is one of the smallest of the humans, and she has a baby on her hip, one in her belly, and a little boy with small horns and big, glowing blue eyes is clinging to her leg. He watches me with a wary expression. “Hi there,” the woman gushes happily. “You must be Farli’s new mate. I heard Haeden mention it and thought I’d come over and say hi. I’m Josie.” She sticks her hand out, and I realize humans have an extra finger. Ugh.
I take her hand anyhow, just to be polite, and clasp it in greeting. “I am Bron Mardok Vendasi, and I am honored to make your acquaintance.”
Her eyes widen. “So polite.”
“Isn’t he?” A yellow-haired human sits down next to her, grinning at me. “That’s different. I almost expected you to beat your chest and declare Farli yours. Maybe grab her by her hair and take her off to your lair, caveman-style.”
I’m…not sure if I’m being insulted. “Hello,” I say slowly.
Josie waves a hand. “That’s just Liz. Pay her no mind.” Josie jiggles her baby and then leans in a little. “Can I ask you something? Liz and I have a bet.”
“A bet?” Now I am curious. “What of?”
Instead of answering me, Josie touches her son’s cheek. “Joden, why don’t you go find Daddy, okay?” She smiles at him encouragingly and waits for him to scamper off. When he’s gone, she turns back to me, the look on her face calculating. “It’s about…anatomy.”
I choke on the mouthful of frittata.
The humans just laugh. Josie waits until I finish swallowing and then rushes on with her question, breathless. “We want to know what the spur is for.”
It’s just as bad as I thought. “Pardon?” I wheeze.
“The spur. It’s not a human thing. We want to know the purpose of it.”
“Biologically,” Liz adds. “We can’t figure it out.”
I look over at Niri, but she is deliberately ignoring me, turned in the other direction and feigning interest in what Trakan is saying. I’m pretty sure she’s smirking, though.
I feel trapped. I set down my plate of food and rub my jaw, trying to think of the best way to put it. Be blunt with the humans? Avoid the question? Am I offending someone if I tell them the truth? I don’t know how these people react, because their culture is completely different than mine. The last thing I want is some angry husband coming to beat the shit out of me because I talked anatomy with his wife.
“Come on,” Josie says when I hesitate. Her tone turns wheedling. “You’re our only chance to find out the truth.”
“Yeah, if I talk to my mate about it, all I hear is about how it’s to pleasure me.” Liz rolls her eyes. “I doubt that’s the actual biological purpose of it, but I let him roll with that ego-stroking explanation.”
“I…ah…”
Josie leans forward and pats my knee. “Don’t be shy. Spit it out.”
“Pheromones,” Niri says, saving me from an awkward explanation. “It’s a primitive biological way of marking afemale as belonging to a particular male. The spur secretes twice the pheromones that the rest of the body does.”
“And deposits them along the hooha. I gotcha.” Liz tilts her head. “That makes sense.”
But Josie frowns. “It doesn’t have anything to do with the sa-khui lack of a clitoris?”
