Page 22 of Rule

Bella took a swig of her juice, studyingthe human the entire time she drank. The small town we lived near had a fewhuman females mated to Draax, but I didn’t think Bella had ever seen them. NeitherBran nor I were particularly social, and we rarely went to town for anythingother than supplies. She studied the human’s pale skin before staring down ather own purple skin.

“So, um, what do you do for a living?” Evelynasked.

“We are farmers,” I replied.

“What do you farm?”

“The gallberry plant.”

“That’s interesting,” the human replied. “Wecan’t grow it on Earth.”

I gave her a look that suggested I thoughtshe was simple, and she ducked her head in embarrassment and stared into thebowl of faven again. “Sorry, you know that obviously.”

There was silence. The human stirred thebowl of faven before giving me and Bran a quick peek. “So, um, are you two,uh, a couple?”

My mouth dropped open and Bran made a loudsnort. “No, human. We are not mated.”

“Bran and I are only friends. We likefemales,” I said.

“Are there any Draax who are gay?” sheasked.

“A few,” Bran said shortly. “It does not happenoften, but there are some who prefer the company of other men.”

“Is that like, a taboo?” Evelyn asked.

“What does taboo mean?” I said.

“Um, like forbidden or frowned on.”

“Why would it be taboo?” I said. “Thereare humans who are gay, are there not?”

“Yes. But many years ago, there were somehumans who thought it was wrong or-or bad and it was considered taboo.”

I rolled my eyes. “A Draax is free to lovewhomever they want.”

“That’s good.”

“Girl,” Bella said again before pointing atEvelyn.

The human started to smile at her before seemingto think better of it and staring at her ceaselessly stirring spoon instead. “Whatdoes uda mean?”

“Uncle,” I replied.

“So, you’re her biological father?” Evelynsaid to Bran.

He nodded, scraping the bowl with his spoonto get the last bit of faven out.

I waited for the human to ask about Bella’smother, inwardly preparing myself to keep my cool over her prying and hopingthat Bran would do the same.

To my surprise, the human didn’t ask.Instead, she said, “What about meena?”

“It is a pet name,” I said. “It meanslittle one or small one.”

“She is very small,” Evelyn said with a quicklook at Bella.

“She is normal size for her age,” Bransnapped.

Evelyn recoiled, dropping her spoon intoher bowl. “Of course. I didn’t mean, that is… she looks very, um, healthy andnormal.”

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