“I know I’m not on Earth anymore, but I’m still trying to figure out what I’m comfortable with. What I believe in.”
Jax looked thoughtful as he nodded his acknowledgement. They had a sweet way of understanding each other. Sarah seemed to read his thoughts, while Jax had a way of reading her soul.
He walked up to the elders playing the drums and made a slow wave motion.
“You want a slower song?” Gogron asked and Jax nodded his head.
“We can do that.”
The beat changed again to a much slower pace and Jax returned to Sarah with his hand outstretched. She eyed his hand nervously, but ultimately took it.
They stood alone a short distance from the fire where Jax placed Sarah’s hands on his shoulders and he placed his hands respectfully on her sides above her hips. How he knew that was what she’d be comfortable with, I’d never know, but he got Sarah to let out a deep breath and smile.
They did look a little like two freshmen at their first dance, but they also looked happy.
Orsu and I sat down next to Tayor on one of the benches. My mate placed me on his lap and I leaned into him as I watched the fire.
Brexl approached us and commented, “It’s a lovely night,” before he awkwardly stood in front of Taylor. There was a long moment of silence before he shoved something into her hand and said, “Here. I made this for you.”
Taylor lifted it up so the light of the fire could illuminate the object. It was a corded necklace with two pendants, a sun and a moon carved out of bone.
Before Taylor could respond Brexl walked away again. I thought he might stop at the tree line and watch the party from a distance, but he didn’t. The guy just kept walking.
“Did he just leave?” Ashley asked. “Like, leave the entire party?”
“I think so.” Taylor looked dumbfounded as she watched the hunter disappear into the woods. She looked down at the necklace he’d given her and ran her finger along the sun and the moon.
“It’s pretty,” she admitted before shaking her head and placing the necklace in her pocket.
Sozu was listening to Talia tell him about the dances her community would have back home.
"We dance in a similar style to you guys, but not dressed in pants. We wear long pieces of fabric wrapped around our waists called a lavalava. In every color you can imagine. My favorite lavalava was a pretty blue with flowers on it.”Talia’s joyful expression turned sad as she remembered home.
Sozu looked thoughtful as he got up and disappeared into the forest. He returned a short time later with a string of blue flowers that had been tied together.
“Stand up,” he requested. Talia did so and he tied the flowers around her waist. “It may not be a lavalava, but it’s the closest thing I could find.”
She blushed as Sozu wrapped his arms around her to tie the string of flowers. He stepped back and admired his work.
“Beautiful,” he remarked, but he wasn’t looking at the flowers anymore.
“Th-thank you.” The usually confident and outspoken Talia was looking unusually bashful.
Even Rhaz was in a cheerful mood. He approached Beatrice with an izarra star.
“This is different from the izarra moon. This one’s special. You throw it into the fire and make a wish as it burns.”
Beatrice looked pleasantly surprised that the grumpy male had even spoken to her.
“Go ahead, the goddess will hear you,” he encouraged.
She walked up to the fire, closed her eyes and threw the leaf star into the fire.
Rhaz watched her intently, as if he were studying a precious jewel or piece of art. But he didn’t stay long. He was gone before Beatric opened her eyes again.
Laughter caught my attention and I looked to my right to see Hai sitting on Lumod’s lap. He was whispering something in her ear that caused her to laugh again, but when she looked up and caught the heated gaze in his eyes she got uncharacteristically uncomfortable and scooted off his lap onto the bench.
“You look so beautiful in the moonlight.” Orsu commented with a heated gaze of his own.
