Page 83 of Taken to Heimo
“I knew where you were,” I grumble.
“But I didn’t know where you were. And I wanted to be here.” She places her small hand between my two hearts, where hers has a home.
I tell her the truth of it. “I wanted to woo you.”
“Wanted?”
“Turns out I’d rather rut you, instead.”
Her head falls back on her neck and she laughs loud and hard. “Xhivey. Then from this moment, we’ll never part.”
“Never. Here in the garden, I am home.”
“Me, too. Though I do still expect to be wooed.”
“And rutted?”
“And rutted.”
I chuckle. “I guess I have my work cut out for me, then.”
“You do. It’s all part of being a husband.”
I grin and look down at her, meeting her gaze. “In this case,whiff, I’m honored.” I stroke her hair away from her face.
Sometime later, when I’m awake still watching her and her eyes begin to close, I whisper, “You know, I think I have an idea for your human colony’s name.”
“Verax.” Sleepily, she licks her lips.
I lean down and kiss them and say, “I think you should call it Heimo.”
Sixty solars later…
24
Hu’Raku
The wind is hot, even though the lunar is upon us and the second sun has just begun to set. I stand on the crest of the hill, looking out away from the colony, towards the shards of black screa hills where the khrui roam. They keep to their side of the colony, we keep to ours, even though there is no more dome. We don’t need it. Not with the new warriors-in-training that have come to live here to be near to the Hu’Raka — who still acts as Krisxox. Raku has not yet authorized a suitable replacement because there is no one better, despite Anand’s pleas to the contrary. Secretly, he knows there is no one better, either.
“What arg yow zinking about, my whiff?” Comes Anand’s slow drawl. His accent is still something of legends, but his Human is progressing…
Sort of.
My brother teaches Krisxox Human early every solar before first prayer. My brother, mother, father and I take first prayer together while Krisxox cooks us first meal. He is an extraordinary cook.
From there, I begin my duties as Hu’Raku. It’s all budgets and numbers and organizing harvests. Construction of the biodome that allows us to diversify our crops and tilling the soil colony soil have been top priorities. Already some, but not all, species of trees we’ve tried to plant have taken.
We haven’t had any luck with werros, but some of the spindlier, sturdier Arabat trees have succeeded and are now lush, providing humidity and shade. Anand still shakes his fist up at the suns whenever I get the slightest bit red, but it’s a start.
There are also houses to construct, tearing down the old colony homes that are unsafe, repurposing the adobe homes into an “old” city center where shops and cafes can be found now in abundance.
It’s a lot of work and I wouldn’t trade a moment of it. Especially not the part where I seek the council of my friends and my Hu’Raka and come home in the lunar after a long day to Anand.
I grin and shake my head as he snakes his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into the wall of his chest. He bends down, searching for the same thing he always is. My lips.
As he offers his, I return his kiss in full, winding my arms around his neck, pulling him closer and closer as the breeze pulls around us. Anand pulls back just enough to look down at me and his expression turns all tender in a way I hate because these days I’m sensitive to every turn of his emotions and the result is always the same. He looks at me and has wonder in his ridges, flashing in all shades, while tears prick the backs of my eyes.
He scowls and pulls me in for another hug while I laugh. “I can’t help it. This was such an emotional solar.”
