“That makes sense,” I said quietly, moving closer to him, my body seeking his comfort. “Why should you let your neighbors suffer when everyone can benefit?”
“Don’t worry. You have nothing to be concerned about. We’ve made plans and are fully prepared to defend our land.” He smiled softly as he wrapped his vines around my back, drawing me closer to him. “I’d like to show you around your balcony.”
“There’s a balcony?” My mouth dropped open once more. I was used to staying in tall hotels, but they never had a private balcony for guests to stand on. “How? Why?”
“I’ve noticed you looking at my vines.” As he brushed his hand across the petal-window framed doorway, he let out a deep chuckle. “What do you think I do with them?”
“I’m not sure...” My eyes were drawn to the tongue-like tipped miniature corn-on-the-cob ends, and my face burned with embarrassment at the erotic thoughts that raced through them. “Pollinating and harvesting nearby plants?”
“That’s correct; we do that, especially when we’re growing our own food on our land. But we also use them to swing ourselves to great heights...” He nodded, and the vine door burst open, revealing a sight I never expected to see. “Welcome to X’thyrl.”
As we stood on a carved-out balcony, a thick carpet of various colored and shaped trees covered the jungle canopy below. The bright orange sun peeked over the tree horizon, ushering in a new day.
Zyre approached the twisted wooden vine railing and leaned on it with his forearms, closing his eyes as if basking in the first rays of the sun. There was no need to be concerned about the railing’s strength because it was corded in such a way that its dark black color almost gave it the appearance of stone. The same bioluminescent runes detailed everything, their glow dim in comparison to the morning sunlight, as the floor lit up with each stop we made.
This had to be a simulation. There was no way I was standing on a balcony built in a tree within the emergent layer of an exotic rainforest filled with so much that was unexplainable... and yet it felt so real.
What if it really was?
In a brave moment, I reached out and grabbed one of his vines, then carefully wound my hand around its entirety. The shiver that passed through it made its way to his body, causing him to tighten his grip on the railing as his body flinched away from it.
“I… I’m sorry!”
“Don’t be!” His hand gripping my wrist and preventing me from retreating. As his gaze locked on mine, his teal eyes glowed brighter than I’d ever seen them. “There’s nothing to apologize for. You‘re free to touch me whenever and however much you want. I’m all yours.”
“You keep saying that, but I’m not sure what it means,” I muttered as his vine returned to the palm of my hand. "How do I feel so at ease around you... why am I not afraid of you and what you've shown me?"
Even with all his explanation, I was afraid that there would be a part of me that would refuse to believe it was true, even if everything told me it wasn’t a simulation.
Without hesitation, I wrapped my fingers around his offering, feeling the tight muscles within his vines expand and contract as some powdery pale green substance dusted off of it, covering my entire hand.
“What can I do to make you believe in this?” he begged, placing his other hand on top of mine, his vine sandwiched between them. “To make you believe in me?
“How can I convince you to believe in us? What can I do to demonstrate that everything I’ve said is true? That I am genuine, and that our connection is only the beginning of something wonderful.”
I’m not sure if it was how he appeared when he begged me, a stranger, to be with him. Maybe it was because he kept calling me hisluwaeriand telling me how we were meant to be together... that he had built this massive tree fort—a hometree—while waiting for me.
Perhaps it was my irrational fear of losing him if I refused him, crushing what appeared to be his entire meaning of life, that kept me from fully rejecting him.
Or maybe it was a part of me wanting to throw caution to the wind and take a chance on this, knowing that even if it was a simulation, I’d be able to experience how it would be with a plantman—something that wasn’t human—and then find him in real life to finish what we started.
That’s how most relationships functioned these days. Find your perfect match online—the one with whom you truly connected—knowing and falling in love with who they were on the inside, so their appearance didn’t matter when they met.
I’d already escaped death once, so why not take a chance on what he had to offer? If this were real, I'd fall in love with someone who wanted to worship me while I was here... no matter how different we were.
One thing was certain: if this were true, I didn’t want to reject everything he had to offer and live to regret not taking the chance to seize the opportunity.
“Kiss me.”
CHAPTERNINE
ZYRE
“Kiss? What’s a kiss?”
I shook my head and cursed myself for not researching other species’ mating rituals. I’d never met anyone from another species on my planet besides theEkoiskra, who ruled the skyline, and theMakezu, who ruled the oceans.
“Yes,” she laughed, nudging her shoulder against mine, clearly thinking I was joking. Her face lit up with joy, and her laughter rang out like the creatures who chirp at the start of a new day. “Please don’t tell me you’ve never been kissed.”
