“We’re supposed to be patrolling.” K’kaen made a rude gesture.
“Then link up with some of the others near the border,” S’samph’s tail flicked with annoyance. “I am speaking with Eleri.”
“Some help you are.” K’kaen revved his engine and then sped off, leaving a ribbon of dust in his wake. “I’ll be sure to tell everyone else you were eaten by a klatch of raviks, and I let them have you.”
S’samph lifted his healing arm and waved off his friend. He knew K’kaen was supportive of him trying to spend more time with Eleri, despite his protests. S’samph approached Eleri and crouched beside her, holding out a hand to offer his assistance with her organizational efforts. “Let me help,” he said. “You can tell me what happened to your hat.”
Eleri’s lips turned downward. “I’m almost finished. Someone took my hat from my last appointment.” She tucked a stack of bandages into a pocket of the medkit and then closed the lid, pressing a button to seal the supplies off from the heat and dust of the day.
“Someone at the appointment?” S’samph asked, not recognizing the home they were in front of.
Eleri’s frown deepened. “Not Glia, but I have a guess who.”
S’samph also had a guess, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions without more information. If it was Myla who had taken the hat, it would be ill-advised to confront her directly. He didn’t want to make things more difficult for Eleri by escalating the conflict, but he wouldn’t let the harassment continue. Perhaps S’kasia would have some ideas for how to intervene.
“Do you need a new one?” S’samph asked instead. “This one was damaged.”
“It still works.” Eleri clapped a hand on her head and then wiped water away from her forehead. He was going to get her a new hat anyway. She would never buy one for herself. Besides, letting her wear that damaged one around would let Myla think she had won the skirmish. The damage bothered him more than the theft. Whoever had taken it, Myla or not, was trying to send a violent message to his mate.
“It’s too hot for you to be outside without a proper hat,” S’samph observed as he tilted his head toward the overhead suns at the peak of their daytime strength. Even with thehat mostly covering the delicate skin of her face, a flick of his tongue in the air around her tasted of salt and human water.
“Well, this is where I live now, and it’s really not so bad. I’d rather deal with the heat than the smog on Gaia.” She took in a loud breath. “I never realized how hard it was to breathe for the first part of my life until I came here.”
“Your planet did not have adequate environmental regulations?”
“My planet didn’t have adequate regulations for most things, at least not where I lived.” Eleri stood up from her crouch and dusted off her uniform pants. “But I’m not there anymore.”
“You are not,” S’samph agreed. It was a mundane conversation. He wanted to learn more about her, about the things she cared about. He struggled with the idea of courtship. On Latilla, it would have been simple. He and the other eligible males would have presented themselves to the interested females and waited for a pheromone scent match. Then the mating and egg laying. If they were agreeable to each other, they could agree to prolong their mating into a true coupling like S’kasia and her mate had, but there was no shame in going separate ways to search again in the next cycle. He understood this procedure. He did not understand flirtation and tokens of emotion required for human mating. But he wanted to.
“What do you like?” He found himself asking. Eleri made a gesture he hadn’t seen before. It was also one he didn’t recognize from his crash course in human body language. She tilted her head to one side, and the ridges of hair above her eyes pinched the skin above the bridge of her nose.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what things bring you positive emotions? My understanding of human courtship is that I bring you things, and if you accept them then we proceed to physical contact with romantic intention. So far, you have not accepted any of my gifts, which means I have failed to select something you like.”
Eleri let out a single burst of laughter. “I guess you’re not completely wrong. Let me think.”
S’samph paused at her laughter, unsure if as a latil’e female she would be flicking her tail from side to side or rippling her frill. From his experience her laughter was usually positive. Eleri was not a derisive female. S’samph glanced skyward noting the position of the suns. For him the temperature was barely comfortable, but he still hadn’t managedto shake the guilt of allowing Eleri to get ill from sun exposure when he failed to retrieve her from the luxportal.
“While you are thinking, we should leave the sun. There’s a covered fishing spot down by the canal where we can sit.” He found himself putting his hand on her shoulder and wasn’t sure if it was wrong how pleased he felt that she didn’t resist his physical contact. Instead, she leaned toward him, increasing the amount of pressure between his hand and her body. He took this as a sign to move forward with the physical contact and wrapped the tip of his tail around her ankle. Once again, she accepted his advances.
“Lead the way then.” She started to lift her medkit before S’samph took it from her hands.
“I’ll carry this,” he said. “Don’t forget my first question while we’re walking.”
Eleri made another strange expression, this one also beyond his comprehension, but she opened her mouth to respond. “When I was younger, I always wanted a universal instrument. When my da was still alive, we joked that I’d be a songwriter one day.” Her face turned a bright shade of pink, one even deeper than the color she already wore from the heat.
“You like music.” S’samph’s frill lifted in a gesture of surprise. “I didn’t know this. I haven’t heard of a universal instrument, but if it exists somewhere in this sector, I will find one for you.”
“Oh, no. No, you don’t need to do that!” Eleri exclaimed. “It was a silly childhood dream. I haven’t played or sang anything in years outside of a cleansing unit.”
“But I asked you what you like, and this was your answer.” S’samph regarded her down the length of his face. “Is this not how human courtships work?”
“I’m probably not the right person to ask about that.” She shook her head. “I’ve never really been in a romantic relationship. People from the Quay, where I lived on Gaia, don’t usually marry or do romance. That was for the gaters.”
“What are ‘gaters’?”
“People who lived in the fancy gated communities in Sector Five. We called them gaters.” Eleri turned to look up into his eyes. “I was too busy with studying and working to have time for relationships anyway.” Her tone fell flat as she left his eyes to stare out into the canal.
