Page 62 of The Alien Reindeer's Bounty
“You kept it from me just fine.” Odessa shrugged one shoulder.
“But this is our family,” he said.
A warm, soft sensation unfurled inside her as he called them a family. “Really? All of us?”
“You have always been my family.” He pushed back her hair, exposing her shoulder and bite mark. “Does it hurt?”
“Not really.” She could feel it, burning and pulsing, but it did not hurt. “I’m aware of it.”
“You’re brighter here.” He brushed his fingers against the mark, and she shivered in response. “I don’t know how that’s possible. You’ve always been mine, Dessa, and now you’re finally mine.”
His warm hands stroked her back and she drifted back to sleep, content to finally be where she belonged.
Chapter 17
Mads
Awareness pricked across his back. A pair of brown eyes topped by red curls peeked over the edge of the stone wall surrounding the patio.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m wearing a scarf. Does your mother know you are here?” He set aside his tools and wiped his dusty hands on a cloth.
“Mommy sent me to ask if you want to come to dinner, and your front door was open but you weren’t inside, so I went around looking for you, and do you? We’re having spaghetti.” Ruby hauled herself over the stone partition—it was only knee-high—rather than walk around.
“Spaghetti is my favorite. Thank you. Why didn’t you walk through?” The patio could literally be seen from the front door. He was hardly hiding.
Ruby shrugged. “I dunno. What are you doing? Why are you outside? It’s cold.” She climbed onto a chair and peered closely at the chisels and hammers on the table.
“I don’t want to make a mess inside,” he answered. Dust got everywhere, no matter how carefully he swept.
“Are you building a robot?”
“Um, no.”
“Good, because I don’t think you can make a robot from rocks. Not a good one.” She reached for a piece of chipped stone, but he snatched it away. Some fragments had razor-sharp edges, depending on how cleanly they sheared.
“I’m carving a doe.” He held up the figure of a seated doe, legs tucked neatly underneath. The figure lifted her chin, stretching out her long, slender neck. Antlers flowed gracefully like leaves tumbling in the wind.
He had been etching in a geometric design across the body. Thin lines barely scratched the surface but added texture to the smooth stone.
The figurine was stylized, of course, and carved from a soft, nearly alabaster stone he collected on a mission. Over the years, he had amassed a small collection of interesting stones. Geology and mineralogy had never particularly intrigued him, but he had a cabin with a male who did. He gathered seemingly ordinary stones and polished and carved them into miniature wonders.
At first, Mads picked up a chisel and a stone to pass the time. Missions often involved extended periods of travel and inactivity. He could only spar or clean his weapons so often before he was willing to do anything else, even play with rocks.
He would never claim to have much in the way of artistic talent, but he enjoyed the challenge of the craft, learning to wield the necessary strength with a precise, almost delicate, touch. His first attempts were monstrosities as he learned how to use the tools. Eventually, his chisels would carve the rocks into some resemblance of the images in his mind.
“She’s pretty,” Ruby said.
The doe was far from perfect, but the imperfections added warmth, he felt. “This is fire pearl. It’s hard to make it anything but pretty,” he said.
Fire pearl was not the actual name of the stone, but it translated close enough. He found it in a dried-up riverbed on a colony planet. Years of drought brought about famine and the colonists fought amongst themselves to control the little bit of available water. He was surprised Reilen intervened. Peacekeeping among colonials was typically viewed as pointless as there were plenty of other planets with abundant resources, minus the civil strife. It was uncharacteristically charitable for his homeworld.
“Would you like to hold it?”
Ruby nodded enthusiastically. He placed it carefully in her hands and instructed her not to grip it by the neck of the antlers.
“Now the cool part,” he said, shining a flashlight on the doe. The white stone of the figurine glowed with a soft light, revealing the golden heart. “Mineral formation allows for striation of color. I have other samples where the stripes run through the entire stone, but I like this one. It is like the secret heart of a stone.”
