“I did.” Some of the others seemed surprised to see him, but S’samph didn’t understand their confusion. He’d always been a reliable neighbor, quick to help if anyone had trouble. It didn’t hurt he was one of the few in Laurus with formal military training.
“Hey, S’samph, thanks for coming,” Pyo called to him. “We need another person to help repair the fences.” Pyo gestured to a large gap in the fence where the raviks had destroyed the posts. S’samph nodded and grabbed some tools before going over to examine the extent of the damage. With their jagged rows of teeth, it looked like they had chewed clean through the wood.
“What a mess.”
S’samph glanced up from his work to see Myla’s younger brother squatting beside him with a hammer in hand, held in a way that made it clear he had never intentionally held a hammer before in his life.
“Yes.” He’d seen the kyrot male riding with Eleri before and didn’t trust his intentions. Minio had come to Laurus only a few cycles ago under hushed circumstances. No one could understand why he had voluntarily come to live with his sister and her husband, but Myla had kept her lips surprisingly closed, and S’samph wasn’t interested enough in the gossip to pursue the story further. Although, he suspected S’kasia knew more about the particulars.
They worked in companionable enough silence until the twin suns at zenith became too much to handle, and everyone retreated into the shade for some hydration. As they walked back toward the others, Minio stopped and clapped a hand on S’samph’s shoulder. The claw at the kyrot’s wrist scraped against his scales.
“I’d take good care of her, you know. If you don’t want her, that is.”
His words elicited a defensive hiss from S’samph, and his frill flared to its full height. “Who said I didn’t want her?”
Minio shrugged. “She’s living in my sister’s home. You pretty much announced your disinterest in front of the whole town. I can pay you for your trouble if that’s what you’re concerned about. My family would be more than willing to produce the credits.”
It took all S’samph’s training in patience not to ram his fist against the kyrot’s face. “Stay away from her. She isn’t yours to have.” The words took him by surprise. The claiming nature of them rattled something deep inside of him. Eleri wasn’t his mate, not by any definition of the word, but she felt like his, nonetheless.
“Strange way to treat your mate,” Minio laughed irreverently. “She’s free to choose, you know. Even the IA contract can’t force her to stay with you if you violate the terms.”
“Why do you want her? You don’t even know her.” He did not feel it necessary to state the obvious that kyrot did not support interspecies matings. They were a fiercely homogenous society and protected their conformity with an unusual fervor.
“Not so easy to find a kyrot-compatible mate in Laurus.” Minio and pulled away to join the rest of the males, likely knowing S’samph was less likely to attack him with an audience. S’samph buried his annoyance at the dissembling. Something didn’t calculate, but now was not the time for a confrontation. He would ask S’kasia if she knew more about the situation. Before Eleri arrived, he had never thought too much about the other male, but now Minio’s face filled him with unwelcome annoyance.
Begrudgingly, S’samph also joined the rest of the males and took the hydropods offered by Pyo beforesetting to work. They’d managed to repair most of the damage, so there would be no need for him to return. However, the first thing he was going to do when he returned to his dwelling was read through the actual terms in the IA mating contract. Minio clearly knew something about it he didn’t, and that made him wary.
After he read the terms, he was going to beg his clutch sibling for forgiveness and ask her advice on courting Eleri properly.
Alone in his dwelling, S’samph dragged his dusty datapad from under the nest of bedding where he slept. Few people on Laurus had much reason to use communication tech, it was a small enough place that if you needed someone it made more sense to go find them directly. Besides, the signal was miserable enough to make it more trouble than it was worth to send and receive messages.
He went to uncover one of the windows to let in enough light to read the dim screen. His name was at the top of the contract. He skimmed through most of the text outlining the charter of the IA and their mission. Finally on the last page he found the information specific to the mating contract. Most of the terms were basic. Don’t bef’fretkind of things: no abuse, no excessive substance consumption, adapt to cultural differences. It wasn’t until he got to the lower clauses that he started to curse.If either mate declares a clear rejection of the other, it is grounds for the other to immediately terminate the mating contract. An unfulfilled contract will be reassigned to another eligible mate on planet.
S'samph began to pace the confines of his dwelling. He could only hope Eleri hadn’t read the fine print either. If she knew about this clause, no doubt she’d be remated almost immediately. S’samph chucked the datapad onto the bedding nest with more force than strictly necessary. He didn’t deserve her, but he didn’t want anyone else to have her. Despite his best efforts to pretend otherwise, he found her attractive. Physically, yes, but also her warmth. She had an unassuming kindness that permeated through the scales of even a miserable creature like himself. It was ridiculous. As a result of his distracted pacing, his tail thrashed a metal box filled with eating utensils off one of the low shelves on the far wall of his dwelling. The contents clattered to the floor.
S'samph cursed and went to clean up his mess. No doubt S’kasia was going to bite his tail off when he told her his plan, but unless he was ready to let Eleri be remated, he didn’t have another choice. Outside, the suns had calmed from their fiery height and S’samph was able to glimpse a few patches of shade. The IA promised an arborist would be arriving as soon as they could find one willing to relocate. It was the final stageof making Cassiaq-IV truly habitable. He could only imagine how much nicer Laurus would be with a modicum of shade.
S'samph emerged from his dwelling into the dimming sunlight. No doubt most residents would be heading to their own homes now. He half hoped he’d see Eleri again but wasn’t sure what he would say to her if they had another chance encounter. The path to S’kasia’s dwelling was short enough that he had paved the distance between their homes in the signature rust red stones found in Cassiaq’s streams and riverbeds.
Much to his chagrin, S’kasia was seated outside in a hanging chair woven from driedv’tterstalks. S’samph slunk toward her with his tail low. At first, she wouldn’t look at him. S’kasia folded her arms and pretended like he wasn’t standing directly in front of her. S’samph cleared his throat. She continued to ignore him.
“S’kasia.”
“Have you come bringing good news?” His clutch-sibling looked doubtful.
“Not exactly.” Admitting his mistakes to his clutch-sibling was harder than he expected, especially since she would no doubt rub it in his face.
“Then why are you here?” S’kasia reached down to adjust the blanket covering the basket protecting her eggs.
“I need your help. I can’t end the contract with Eleri.”
“But she won’t have you after you made such a horrible mess of things.” S’kasia filled in the gap in his statement.
“That’s why I need your help.”
“You don’t have much time.” S’kasia’s frill rippled thoughtfully. “A proper latil’e courtship would take many revolutions.”
“She isn’t latil’e.”
