Page 21 of I Married A Syllen

The minute they dismounted, they both touched two fingers to their chins while looking at their leader, who reciprocated. A shiver of delight coursed through me as my nerd brain catalogued this information as to how they greeted each other. I could scream and squeal with excitement at discovering the true way of life of that mythical species.

They both smiled at Kayog and Mares, cast a dismissive glance at Ludwig, then stared at me with unnerving curiosity.

“Mirella, this is Nym and Drannor,” Taelen said in his language, indicating each.

He then quickly told them what happened.

“The land claimed you?” Drannor asked with a stunned expression.

“Clearly it did,” Nym replied teasingly as she marched towards me. “Do you not see how the Kalrin seeks comfort from her?”

I swallowed hard when she stopped in front of me and carefully took the Kalrin from me. To my shame, I almost protested, thankfully holding my tongue at the last minute. Judging by the smile that stretched her lips, she’d guessed at my sudden wave of possessiveness.

“You’re an interesting one,” Nym said before looking around us with a disgusted expression. “And far more appealing than this horror of a garden.”

I snorted before quickly slapping a neutral expression on my face. Professor Ludwig eyed us all with suspicion. While he didn’t understand what she said in her native tongue, her body language made little mystery that she had said something about our environment.

She turned to look at Mares, utterly unimpressed.

“What idiot combined the plants like this?” she asked him in Universal, her face scrunched with disdain. “How could you allow such an abomination? Even if these plants differ from those of your land, surely your veris would have told you all of this is abhorrent.”

Kayog once more clasped a hand around his beak while averting his gaze not to make eye contact with the professor, who audibly gasped in outrage. Mares snorted like I had before shaking his head and raising his palms in a gesture of surrender.

“I had nothing to do with it,” he said with a hint of amusement. “The original garden was set up by one of my fellow Edocits more than three decades ago. These changes are recent. I was no longer involved in the day-to-day maintenance and operations of the human colony infrastructures.”

Professor Ludwig was beyond fuming but wisely chose to keep his mouth shut about his involvement.

“This human did it,” Taelen said, pointing at Ludwig with his chin, the underlying contempt audible in his voice.

How does he know?! And why does he dislike him so strongly?

Granted, Ludwig always gave off somewhat of a pompous vibe, but he could be extremely charming when he wanted to get in someone’s good graces. I would have expected him to want to be seen as the ‘best friend’ of the Syllens, once he got over his conspiracy theories.

“It made sense to us,” the professor replied in a defensive tone, now that he’d been outed. “We made sure that they all thrived in this type of soil, and they do!”

“These plants are lethal!” Nym exclaimed, her voice incredulous. “Why would you place them in an area meant for people to relax and be entertained?”

“We had no idea that they were lethal,” Ludwig retorted as if it should have been obvious.

“Did you ask the Edocits before you changed their design?” Nym challenged.

Ludwig shook his head.

“Did you ask Shevraya?” she continued.

“Who?” Ludwig asked, the same confusion reflecting on Kayog’s and Mares’s faces while mine heated.

“Her,” Nym said, waving at me.

Ludwig blinked, his eyes flicking towards me before he refocused on the Syllen female.

“Her name is Mirella,” he corrected in a haughty tone, happy to have found something to criticize her about.

All three Syllens stared at him like they were seriously doubting his intelligence.

“It’s okay, Professor,” I said in a gentle voice to prevent things from escalating. “It’s actually a flattering nickname that she gave me.”

“A nickname? What does it mean?” he asked.