Page 73 of Culture and Curiosities
Hopefully.
“Just remember safewords and it’s okay to say something is too personal to talk about.”
Daddy sighed again in my head but smiled at Kenzie and the deputy. “Should we follow you to your place? Wren has a rented car so we can follow you.”
He was really good at reading all the parts of my mind at once…it was really handy…what had we been talking about?
Oh, too personal.
Daddy seemed to be debating if laughing at me would be rude or not.
“My mate, I was asked about sexual play toys at the diner.”
Okay, good point.
“We’re just going to do our best to play nice but we’re not going to be afraid to point out something is rude or too weird to deal with.”
Daddy was right. Sex toys at the main town restaurant said there was only so polite we had to be.
“You know, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to let my mother come visit. Just the diner men would give her a heart attack.”
Before Daddy could finish a thought about how he agreed with me, Kenzie spoke up again. “Yes, that’ll be fine. Daddy can give you directions just in case, though.”
Did Kenzie not know where he lived?
That thought must’ve shown on my face because the deputy was desperately trying to take the conversation seriously. “There are quite a few roads that don’t actually have names and they aren’t always on the maps. I seem to be the only one keeping track of those, so it’s best I give directions.”
Kenzie shrugged, not worried or offended. “I don’t care how confused the new UPS guy was. He was rude.”
Oh.
“What is a UPS guy?” Daddy asked that out loud but I gave him the picture and what the website had looked like the last time I’d tracked a package. “Ah, thank you. I can see both of you being frustrated.”
Kenzie seemed to like not being told to be nice to the confused UPS guy, but he focused on something I wasn’t expecting. “You’ve got a good bond? Words and conversations right away?”
I wasn’t sure if he was leading us somewhere or not, but Daddy spoke up faster than I could decide what to say. “Yes, I’m not sure if our bond is unique because of our differences or similar to others, however. The portal opening also seems to have changed the bonds.”
Since he was right, I nodded. “I don’t even know how we’d begin to figure that out, though. Has anyone started doing a survey or anything about bonds over time? A research project?”
Kenzie and the deputy both cocked their heads, but it was the deputy who spoke up. “We’ve got an extensive library of old diaries. Could someone use those to put together the information?”
Who could do something like that?
“Do we have any dragons or mages in any of the university research programs?” I wasn’t sure it was the right angle, but it was the only one that came to mind right off the bat. “They might know how to compile the data more clearly.”
“University?”
Daddy’s question made me think he’d never heard the word, so I sent him over more info.
“I have a question.” Before the deputy could stop him, Kenzie smiled at his Daddy. “Everyone said I could ask questions.”
Technically yes…so he charged right back in. “What part of that didn’t you know? I don’t always understand what you’re confused about and what made sense.”
“Originally we were told to use a specific spell to help us acquire the local language.” Daddy was still frustrated about how that had gone and I was pretty sure they could hear it as well. “There seems to have been some problems with how the spell worked and because the woman we initially scanned did not have an up-to-date vocabulary.”
When Kenzie nodded and waited for more information, Daddy was polite and kept going. “The fact that your language has a variety of words for very similar or even the same thing makes it harder for the spell.”
“Oh.” Kenzie’s slow nod was mirrored by his mate’s, so it seemed like they’d both had questions. “That makes sense.”
