Page 170 of Phoenix's Fire

Drozel chuckled, Lessa groaned, and I tried hard not to blush, pretty sure I knew which fluid they were talking about. Lessa wasn't exactly shy about sharing her views on sex. I also hadn't quite figured out the way these three fit together. Ayla had told me about men kissing, I'd seen women kissing, and I'd been married, so I knew about that part too. But was it rude to ask? I decided I'd wait until we were alone and busied my hands with the washcloth and this man's tail.

"You're good at that," Drozel told me when I finally reached for the bandage. "Didn't hurt much at all."

"You whine when I do it," Omden grumbled.

Drozel shrugged. "Because you're rough. That's a fucking hole through my tail, babe."

"You've suffered enough, sir," I assured him. "Now how often are you rewrapping this?"

"Every third day," Omden answered for him. "The doctor said doing it more often will cause it to heal slower."

I nodded. "If you'd like, I can come clean and wrap it. I'm not as good as Ayla, but I do know how."

"I'd rather have you do it than her," he assured me. "Ayla's mean."

"No, she is not!" I shot back, then sucked in a breath.

But Drozel roared out a laugh. "Oh, she can be," he promised. "Ayla yelled at me."

"And was right," Omden added.

Drozel scoffed at that. "True, but she still yelled. I bet she'd also yank on my tail. Meri doesn't."

"I don't really understand tails," I admitted, "so I'm trying to be very careful. I would think they're similar to an arm?"

"Close enough," Drozel said, leaning a bit to see what I was doing. "Is that tight enough?"

"I'll make the last wrap a bit tighter," I explained even as I did that. "This will keep it from sliding down, but we don't want to cut off the circulation either. If the wrap comes loose, let me know and I can fix that for you." I tucked in the end of the bandage, then gently eased his tail to the floor. "If it begins to itch, do not scratch it. That will slow the healing and could introduce an infection."

Then I began to gather up the used bandage and washcloths, but Omden stepped in to take them from me.

"I got those," he promised. "And you are good at this. Thank you. I make a mess of it and can never get the bandage flat like that."

I glanced down, feeling my face heating up. "Thank you, sir."

"Omden," Drozel reminded me. "When you say 'sir,' it makes us feel like you're putting yourself down."

"Oh."

Then Drozel sat up and swung his legs over the side, putting himself nearly face-to-face with me. My eyes dropped to his bare chest, tracing the line where hisscales shifted from a pale tan to the darker tan-and-striped pattern of his back. Green slashes ran across it, looking oddly familiar.

"Omden, grab me a shirt?" Drozel asked, making me aware he was looking at me.

"Sorry!" I whimpered, turning my eyes away.

Lessa chuckled before throwing herself into one of the open chairs. "He likes it."

"I also know these Mole girls are shy as fuck," Drozel said. "The last thing I'm going to do is intimidate the one who just wrapped my tail up so nicely."

"It's just..." I dared to look at him again. "Your pattern seems very familiar."

"Because my tail is hanging up in your dining hall," he said much too calmly.

"What?" I gasped, looking at the tail I'd just bandaged.

"He regrew it," Lessa explained. "He also whined the whole time."

"Because we need our tails to balance," Drozel said. "Even just this little injury makes me unsteady. I can't lift or stretch my tail without wincing, which makes me tip forward or back, and yeah. It's awkward."

---