Page 25 of Nixx
“But . . . Weren't you supposed to stay quietly waiting for me in the hall?” I ask her.
“Well, I'm glad she didn't,” Azarr interjects. “If she hadn't been there and intervened, a great misfortune would have befallen our community.”
“My wife and I would like to thank you. I want you to know that I am forever in your debt. Whatever you need, you can ask me. If I can give it to you, I will never refuse to help you!” Zull announced solemnly, while his wife nodded vigorously.
“By the way,” Azarr adds, “I understand that you and others as you arrived in our world by accident. I want you to know that you are all welcome in our community if you want a refuge.”
“It's nice of you to offer,” I retort curtly, “but Sarah stays with me. With our people, I mean.”
A smile lifts the corner of Azarr's mouth. And the mocking gleam in his eyes does not escape me. And I see the same in Lokk's. What's wrong with everyone today?
“Well, I just asked to have some apartments prepared for visitors. Let's go down to the dining room and celebrate your visit, the rescue of my best friend's daughter and our agreement in the talks with the North. And never mind the opinion of the grumblers. Our community is in debt tonight and as the leader of our community, I am paying our debts.”
Sarah's wounds have been cleaned, smeared with healing and disinfecting balm and bandaged. I take Sarah in my arms again and follow Zull and Azarr into the Complex.
A young woman leads us to the guest apartments. There are two rooms side by side, each with a shower room. The water for the showers comes directly from the stream below the canyon. A siphon system brings the water up through a series of steps and feeds the tanks in the sun . . . tanks that provide hot water for the showers inside the houses of the complex.
“You take the first room. We will take the one at the back!”I inform Lokk.
He's openly kidding himself.
“I thought the goal was to sell her to Azarr! And on top of that, he offered to take her and her human companions! And you know that if he keeps her in the South, she will be safe here.”
“Shut up, Lokk!”
I gently lay Sarah down on the wide bed, grab a flask of juice from the table and hand it to her. She drinks slowly and gets some color back.
“How do you feel?”
“Strangely, I'm not in too much pain. Still, I look like a mummy with all these bandages and I remember that I hurt like hell. I feel like a hurt dog also.”
“I don't know what ‘mummy’ or ‘dog’ is,” I say.
“Mummies are an ancient custom in my world, where the dead were wrapped in bandages and put in the ground instead of being cremated. And the dogs . . . one could say that in my world, the closest thing to them are vorks, but in a nice way and with a babakotia’s character?”
“A vork-babakotia!” I laugh. “Just that! That must be interesting.”
“What I mean is that in my world, the dog is mostly of a slightly smaller size than the vorks, but with the coat and character of a babakotia, that is, gentle and kind.”
“I know a little girl who was very excited to introduce you to her babakotia. But alas, at the end of the day, they return to the forest to spend the night. But don't worry, we have plenty of babakotias in the West too, since we are closer to the forest than here in the South. And ours are cuter than the ones here.”
“Cuter? Seriously Nixx?”laughs Lokk posted in front of the entrance of the room, arms crossed.
“Lokk, don't you have anything more interesting to do than to stay here and ruin my life?”
My friend seems to understand that he is boring me and leaves the room. I look at Sarah. She has regained some color and her aura has regained a normal glow.
My sudden urge to reach out and run my fingers through the partially unraveled braid is so strong that I can't resist it. This idea has been obsessing me for hours. She is startled and gives me a questioning look.
“I just wanted to feel if your hair was burning as its color suggests,” I say. “Red and gold flames.”
Her braid finishes unraveling under my fingers and soft, silky curls unfurl in my hand. The color of the most ardent fire, but the texture of the softest down.
I caress the warm skin of her neck with my thumb and notice that her breath is blocked in her mouth. On her skin, tiny hairs that I had not noticed rise up and now cover the whole surface, accompanied by a redness that suddenly tints her face.
If this phenomenon is identical to the one I feel in front of her, that is to say, a long shiver that goes up my epidermis in waves and this, on many occasions since I made her acquaintance, confirms that I do not leave her indifferent either.
For now, I see nothing wrong with satisfying my fascination and giving free rein to the curiosity she arouses in me. I move closer and slowly lean in intending to taste her lips, her luminous gaze riveted on me. While my intentions are clear, she does not move back.
