Page 38 of Pulled By the Tail
A smile born of pure anguish crawled across her face. “He might be in prison, I don’t know. He left us. He didn’t want anything to do with his sick wife or his kid. I can’t believe I’m all teary-eyed about that bastard. It’s not like, you know, things were great when he was around. He made Mom so sad. We were better off without him.” She took a shaky breath. “I haven’t thought about him in years.” She sniffed, her nose pink but not entirely from the cold. “Ignore me. It’s the solar radiation levels or something. Too much oxygen in the atmosphere.”
Talen stood next to her. If she were Tal, he would curl his tail around hers in a sign of comfort. “How do humans give comfort?”
“You mean a hug?”
“Yes. I want to hug you,” he said. “May I?”
“Knock yourself out, fuzzy britches.”
He folded her into an embrace. Initially, she stood stiffly, as if enduring his touch, and then she slumped and melted into him. “I am an orphan, too,” he confided. “My parents died when I was eight.”
“That sucks,” she said, voice muffled by his coat.
“It is hard for me to remember them now. Quil remembers them better than I. My father was a scholar. I believe I have my love of books from him,” he said, not entirely understanding why he felt the need to share such personal information. Best not to think too hard on it.
She stirred, pulling away. The dullness in her green eyes alarmed him, like he was witnessing the light leave her and he desperately needed to bring that light back. Instinct told him to kiss her, to claim her mouth and pour his light into her. He did not care if he dimmed as he needed her to shine.
The civilized part of his brain cautioned that she might not appreciate all the things his body wanted to do to hers, not yet. Instead, he reached for a tool he suspected she would appreciate.
“Fuzzy britches? Really? My posterior is not fuzzy,” he said.
She laughed, the sound delighting his soul.
Georgia
Some truths are universal.Pests are one such truth, as unfortunate as that may be.
-Guidebook to Life on an Alien Planet
The pounceof little feet on the bed jolted her awake. The cat-peacock creature, either the same one that curled up on her bed to sleep or another, had a wiggling, squeaking rodent in its mouth.
The cat-peacock looked at Georgia, fanned its tail in a brilliant display of colors, and dropped the rodent.
On her bed.
The mouse scurried up the blanket and over her legs.
Georgia thrashed and screamed, jumping out of bed and pulling all the blankets with her. She landed hard on the floor, fully awake and certain that the mouse was in her hair. In a panic, she batted at her hair.
Someone pounded on the door.
The cat-peacock gave a malicious murder cry and pounced. She woke in a nightmare of claws and feathers and squeaks and screams.
The door smashed open.
“What has happened? Are you injured?” Talen stood in the doorway, wearing only boxer briefs. His chest heaved, the striation pattern across his chest and shoulders moving with each breath.
“The thing has athing!” She pointed at the cat-peacock, currently batting at the rodent.
The small creature gave a squeak and dashed under the bed. With a blood-curdling yell, Georgia scrambled back into the bed, clutching the blankets to her.
“Humility brought you a present.” He sounded pleased.
Pleased.
“That thing dumped a mouse on me when I was asleep,” Georgia said.
“That thing is awuapand you’ll hurt Humility’s feelings.” He crouched down and peered under the bed. “Who’s a good hunter? You. Yes, you are,” he crooned.
