Page 64 of Citrine

I don't know why she keeps calling me that, but I'm even more disappointed in myself for listening. I sit by her, seeing scattered traces of the food she ate. I don't know why she even calls it food. It's hardly enough to keep her weak limbs alive.

"So, how was it?"

I look down at her, wondering what she means.

"I'm talking about this afternoon. Did you like thekiss? And be honest."

I'm tempted to not talk to her about it with the look she has on her face. I should learn that she is going to talk, regardless.

"You don't have to be sostoicabout it. It's only just us two here. Do you want another one? I don't know how it'll work with your… two, uh, things, but that doesn't stop us fromkissing."

The fervor in her eyes is back, and it frightens even me. She leans back and casually laughs. She reaches for my tentacle and touches it softly.

"Sorry. I was being too forward."

"You cannot harm me," I say but it seems like I'm talking more to myself. She cocks her head to the side and her eyes light up with a spark.

"Are you sure about…ouch!"

She immediately reaches for her side and scratches at it violently. I grab her grasper and stop her, catching her gaze.

"It just hurts too much."

I frown and touch her side. It doesn't feel too different from the last time I touched it, but this female is strange so I can't tell. She sighs and leans on me.

"I'm tired."

She doesn't say anything aside from that and stares up at the sky. We stay in silence for a while before she speaks again.

"On myplanet, people relied on the stars for many things.Navigation, predictionsofbehaviors,and telling when the best time to conceive was. Ridiculous, right?"

I don't get it. The stars are just things out of reach you can't eat. Why rely on them for anything?

"I'll sleep now," she says, yawning.

In just a short time, her breathing becomes even as she falls into slumber. I keep looking at the sky, wondering if I need to rely on them to find the enemy.

I need to rip those things that stole me from my home apart, then I'll be able to keep her.

"Kind… ly…" I say in a low rush of wind.

She says I can't take anything just because I want it, especially not her. For now, I just have to endure until I get my chance.

I look back up. If they lead me to that, then I suppose the stars aren't so bad even if they aren't edible.

31

Eli

The first thing I notice when I wake up the next morning is the itching. I felt like taking my skin off and the area felt weird. However, the next thing I feel is hunger. My stomach growls for attention and I reply to it.

"Alright, alright, I'm going."

The thing with maintaining a plant-based diet on another planet is nutrition needs to be obtained by a constant and regulated food schedule. My stomach serves as an alarm.

It's been a few days, so I know how to find my way around the cove. I have the usual scavenging point and some to put aside to see if they're poisonous or not. Edible plants wasn't a particular hobby of mine back on Earth. I know how to do it, of course, but what limited knowledge I had about what's safe to eat and what's not is useless on another planet.

"Time to eat meat? Nah…"

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