Page 34 of Taken to Nobu
“Hurr?”
“She leads the other xub’Hurr. They are responsible for preparing the kills caught by the warriors and trackers. She was with us when we ran into the mire.”
“Ah. And her name is just Hurr? Who is xub’Hurr?”
“The xub’Hurr are all those who work with her in preparing the meats for the village. She gives the orders and is responsible for training the others. Just as the Okkari is responsible for training and commanding the other warriors and hunters, the xub’Okkari.”
I nod, wheels ticking along and slowly locking into place. “Like Re’Okkari and Ka’Okkari.”
“Hexa, my Xh…I mean, human.” She cringes at the use of the word, yet uses it faithfully.Human. Is that who I am? All I want to be?“The only ones who have no xub’ titles are us hasheba, those who lead a discipline like Okkari and Hurr, and the Xhea or the Xhera — the male or female mate of the Okkari, though we have only had one female Okkari in the past and this was in the ancient days, before the breeding problem began to affect us.”
“Svera told me a little about it when I spoke to her. She said that the Xanaxana thing shines to help Voraxians find partners since there aren’t as many females as males and getting pregnant is so difficult.”
“It is true. Only one in fifteen females is so fortunate to be able to produce kits. That’s why the whole of Voraxia is excited to have discovered your human moon, full of so many fertile females. I have even read in the reports that your females are capable of producing more than one kit in a lifetime,” she says, voice lilting up in question.
I nod. “Yes. I mean, hexa. That’s true.”
Kuana trills, either at my response or at my use of her Voraxian word, or both. “Incredible. I hope only that you and the Okkari will be so fortunate.” I choke on my tea — mybakaba— and Kuana frets around me while I cough to clear my throat. “I apologize, my…human. I should not have suggested…”
“No. Just stop, okay. It’s fine.” She doesn’t listen to me though, and keeps on trying to bring me new liquids in new cups. Soon I’ve got half a dozen cups spread out on the small eating table in front of me and I can’t help it. I laugh.
The sound comes out of me weird and mangled and small, but it’s there, real and audible and I can’t stop it. And I’m laughing still when I hear the sound of a firm knock on my front door.
“Kuana,” I choke, swallow, cough, choke again, “can you get that?”
Brilliant white flashes across her face — as it did the last time I asked her to do something for me — followed by a deep orange. “Of course, my Xhea. Of course.” She bows to me twice, and then a third time, in quick succession and then jumps up to standing. She pulls a white fur pelt around her shoulders and hustles to the door and when she opens it by placing her palm to the reader just beside it, I’m still choking and laughing on the same breath.
The Okkari appears in the doorway, wreathed in white, and when he looks straight past Kuana at me and a symphony of color lights his body, I freeze. My laughter dies. Need becomes me and heat surges through my gut, so strong and intense that I feel sick with it. I quickly choke down more of whatever cool tang Kuana has placed closest to me and try to meet his gaze… but I fail.
“Is she ill?” Okkari asks.
His deep voice makes me shiver.Makes me fucking melt.“No,” I say at the same time Kuana says, “Nox.”
“Just went down the wrong pipe.”
“Pipe,” Okkari replies, a treble of concern on his tongue —his ridged tongue.He steps into the place I’ve called a home and the room that seemed so huge before shrinks rapidly around him. The doors zip shut at his back and everything becomes quiet. “There are no pipes in Nobu’s dwellings. The temperatures do not allow for them. We use a system of aquifers built of screa and re’ien farrn.”
“That’s obviously not what I meant. It’s just an expression.” A gust of laughter puffs out of me and Okkari lights up again. Even his eyes widen. The muscles in his neck stand out like live wires.
I quiet, lick my lips and wait for him to say something. But he just stares unflinchingly at my face and my embarrassment swells.I’m laughing in front of them and with no provocation. I’m laughing like I used to…
I look away, then back and when I do, I blurt out, “Did you need something?”
The vulnerable shock he wore vanishes as his emotions shutter.I’m almost sorry to see them go.“Hexa. I came to see if you had interest in joining me for adate.” He says the word in our human brogue and the shock of it feels like a palm to the cheek —the ass cheek.I shiver.
“A date? Like a date date?”
“I fail to distinguish adatefrom adate date,however the intercultural guide to human and Voraxian interactions produced by Svera and her team of experts detail the act of thisdatein great depth. It is an act of courtship, usually initiated by the male. I am here to initiate such a courtship and ask you to participate in this date ritual with me.”
I feel air whistling into my open mouth past my teeth.Slack-jawed idiot. “I um…you want to go on a date now? Isn’t the icefall coming down?”
“Hexa, but it is thin enough to walk through and we will be taking our date in the screa caves that line the mountain.”
“Oh. I…” I want to say no. I really want to say no. In truth it’s not got anything to do with hate either — the hate I carry for myself or the plaguing hatred I have for the memory of Bo’Raku and everything and anything that reminds me of him. I want to say no because he intimidates the shit out of me.
I open my mouth but a memory pinches my lips shut.I’ll try. That’s what I told him.Rejecting his first attempt towoome as he put it, isn’t trying. I lick my lips and pull my heavy braid over my shoulder. He inhales a little bit deeper — I can see it in the way the pelts strapped across his chest in intricate ties and buckles stretch over his pectorals. My gaze drops.Is he hard again?Oh stars…
Struggling to get my mind out of the gutter, I sputter, “What should I wear?”
