Pets in Space® 4

by S. E. Smith

  Volcair bowed his head. “I would be honored to be your mate, Kiara Moore.”

  Kiara reached down and grasped the sides of her skirt, lifting it so she could step over Cypher and stand immediately in front of Volcair. She took his hand. “We will be best mates.”

  Once again, that tingling sensation spread across his skin, intensifying the heat in his chest. Though he knew what she meant, part of him couldn’t ignore what that word meant to his people. “What does it mean to be a best mate?”

  She pursed her lips and scrunched her nose, looking up as though in deep thought. “I think it means important.”

  “So…it means we will be each other’s most important friends?”

  Kiara nodded, a solemn expression settling on her face. “Yes. We will be the bestest, most importantest mates ever.”

  Cypher inserted himself between their legs, clicking to make his presence known.

  “He does not want to be left out,” Volcair said.

  “Cypher can be our best mate, too.” Kiara patted the inux’s head. “Do you want to see my room? I mean, I have to ask my mum if it’s okay first because we’d have to take a car to get there, but I have the bounciest bed in the whole world, and it would be so much fun.”

  Volcair dipped his gaze to their linked hands. “Oh. Well, I do not think my father would let me leave the building right now. Besides, I promised him I would stay at this party for at least an hour.”

  “Yeah, I can’t leave, either.” Kiara pouted for a moment before brightening. “But we can go to the back room. It’s where my backpack is.”

  Before Volcair could say anything, Kiara tugged him toward one of the food-laden tables. He couldn’t find the will to resist; part of him liked holding her hand too much to let go. Cypher darted back and forth between them, nearly tangling himself in their legs with each pass.

  When they reached the table, Kiara released his hand. She stood on the tips of her toes, reached forward, and plucked a couple pieces of food from the spread—square-shaped items with colorful layers and leafy designs on top, cradled in little paper bowls. She held one out to him.

  “One for each for us,” she said.

  He accepted the food, regarding it skeptically. “What is it?”

  “Mum calls them pee-teet fours. They’re my favorite. They’re kind of like tiny cakes.”

  “Oh.” Volcair wasn’t sure what cake was, but he was willing to try. He lifted it to his face and opened his mouth.

  “Wait! These are dessert. We can’t eat them until later.”

  Volcair lowered his hand and furrowed his brow. “Why do we have to wait?”

  “It would spoil our dinner.” She glanced over her shoulder, leaned closer, and lowered her voice. “We have to sneak into the back room before we eat them, or an adult will stop us and make us eat some veg first.”

  “Veg?”

  “Yeah, vegetables. Yucky green stuff, though some of it is more orangey.” She jabbed a finger toward another platter sitting at the center of the table.

  Volcair tilted his head and studied the vegetables; they looked like cooked plants. He’d eaten many such foods on many worlds—even here on Earth—and had found most of them enjoyable. Was it possible these were simply of an inferior strain, or could only be appreciated by more sophisticated adult tastes?

  He was inclined to believe Kiara, even if she was younger than him. This was her homeworld, after all, and she seemed earnest.

  “So, do we just need the cake?” he asked.

  “There’s stuff from your people here, as well. Do you have a favorite? We can take some.”

  Volcair looked at the circular spread. The foods were arranged according to the culture that had produced them; he recognized the volturian portion, as well as the vorgal and terran sections. He walked around the table to the volturian food—followed by Kiara and Cypher—and nibbled his lower lip as he studied the offerings. She’d called the cake dessert, which he understood as some sort of after-meal treat.

  “Oh! These are really good,” he said, grabbing several kaanas off their tray. They were spherical treats large enough that he could barely fit two in his hand. Their exteriors had a clumpy, grainy look, but their insides were soft and gooey. He passed two of them to Kiara and took two more for himself.

  Kiara turned her head to glance over her shoulder. “My parents are talking to some green guys right now—I think they’re called vorgals.” When she looked back at Volcair, she grinned. “But I like blue better. Are you ready?”

  Volcair was suddenly quite aware of his pale blue skin. Heart beating faster than normal, he swallowed and nodded. The warmth in his chest hadn’t subsided. Was this just what it felt like to be a normal child, or was it something more?

  “Follow me,” Kiara said. Clutching her treats close to her chest, she turned and broke into a run.

  Volcair followed, struggling not to crush his treats as he dodged between tables and groups of guests. The adults barely spared the children a glance; for the first time, Volcair was glad for his effective invisibility. Cypher bounded ahead of them, stopping occasionally to loop back around so he wouldn’t stray too far ahead.

  Volcair found his attention repeatedly drawn to Kiara’s bouncing curls; he didn’t understand how hair could be so fascinating.

  Kiara looked back at him as she neared a hallway. “Come on! Almost there.”

  She disappeared around the corner. Cypher lingered at the opening, staring at Volcair with yellow eyes.

  Volcair hesitated for a moment and searched the room, picking his father out of the crowd. Vantricar, smiling his I’m-everyone’s-friend smile, was standing with a pair of tall borians and a terran. Doing his duty.

  Cypher bit down on Volcair’s foot.

  “Hey!” Volcair yanked his leg back. His stomach sank, and he turned back toward the guests, certain he’d just caused a scene and earned his father’s disapproval. To his relief, none of them seemed to have noticed his outburst. Without wasting another moment, he hurried around the corner after Kiara.

  He found her waiting just around the corner. She led him through a carved wooden door at the end of the hall. The lights turned on when they entered the room, revealing a large, rectangular table surrounded by fifteen or sixteen cushioned chairs. With gray-bordered white walls and three large windows on one side, the space was simple and somehow soothing. Stacks of cups, a basket of packaged food, and two machines Volcair wasn’t familiar with sat upon a counter along one wall.

  Kiara placed her treats next to a bright pink bag on the table. Once her hands were free, she pulled out one of the chairs and climbed onto it. She turned her dark eyes toward him, smiled, and patted the chair beside her. “You can sit next to me.”

  Volcair set his treats nearby Kiara’s and pulled out the chair she’d indicated. Warmth flowed along his qal and spread across his skin, intensifying when his foot hooked on the leg of the chair as he moved to sit. He fell forward, catching himself with one hand on the table’s edge and the other on Kiara’s chair. His heart thundered.

  Kiara grabbed his arm. “Are you all right, Volcair?”

  He tightened his grip on her chair as his flesh hummed beneath her touch; it was like an electric current running through his arm, but it was pleasurable rather than painful.

  She giggled. “You’re glowing again. I wish my skin glowed like yours.”

  If his cheeks hadn’t yet flushed, they did in that moment. “It’s just…um…well it’s cause…” He gently withdrew his arm, adjusted his chair, and plopped down onto it. He felt like the happiest fool in the universe. “Sorry if I bumped into you, Kiara.”

  “It’s all right.”

  Cypher clicked, leapt onto the seat next to Volcair, and climbed onto the table. His paws tapped the tabletop as he walked to Kiara’s bag, where he finally lay down. He cocked his head, crest feathers perked curiously as he glanced between Volcair and Kiara, slowly blinking his optics.

  “I’ve never seen an animal like
him,” Kiara said, brushing her fingers along Cypher’s side. “Oh, that’s so cool! He feels like metal, but it moves like skin.”

  Cypher twisted his neck to nuzzle Kiara’s palm.

  Volcair leaned his arms on the edge of the table and tried—without success—to shake off some of the strange feelings inside him. “He is in the shape of a zeget right now, but he can change his form.”

  “He can change? That’s amazing. Is a zeget something from another planet?”

  “It is an animal from my homeworld.”

  “Are they your favorite animals?”

  Shrugging, Volcair turned his gaze to Cypher. “I like them well enough, but…I think Cypher is my favorite. I usually let him pick what shape he wants to take.”

  “Mummy and Daddy won’t let me have a pet, but if I could, I would want a fox.” She glanced at Volcair. “Do you want to see?”

  “Yes.” Volcair’s orientation—hours of lessons about Earth from experts chosen by his father—had barely touched upon the planet’s native wildlife, and fox had never been mentioned.

  “Do you want to see, too, Cypher?”

  Cypher bobbed his head excitedly.

  Kiara grabbed her bag and dragged it closer, opening the flap. She pulled out several items, setting them on the table—a brush, small terran figurines, writing instruments, and a tablet. Sweeping the other objects aside, she positioned the tablet in front of her, turned it on, and flipped through its onscreen commands.

  She smiled and tapped the screen. A three-dimensional hologram projected from the top of the tablet. “This is a fox.”

  The hologram depicted a four-legged creature with reddish fur that darkened to brown and black on its legs. It had a narrow snout, large ears, and a bushy tail. There was something endearing about the creature—it seemed at once harmless and yet subtly mischievous.

  Cypher eased closer, his snout nearly touching the hologram.

  “I think Cypher likes it,” Volcair said, smiling too; he’d smiled so much since meeting this girl that his cheeks hurt.

  Kiara’s bright eyes widened. “Oh! Can he change into one?”

  Cypher tilted his head and looked at the terran girl, blinking slowly before he backed away from the hologram. He plopped down and rested his chin on her bag.

  Volcair reached forward and rubbed between Cypher’s crest feathers. “He is a bit…shy about changing in front of new people.”

  “Mates don’t need to be shy around each other,” Kiara said. “But that’s all right. You don’t have to change, Cypher. I like you just as well the way you are.”

  Cypher slid toward Kiara on his belly and nuzzled her hand. She giggled again.

  The sound strengthened the warm sensation inside Volcair. Her happiness eased something within him—the bitterness he’d carried since his mother’s death, the loneliness of his years of travel with his father. For the first time in his young life, Volcair felt like himself.

  Clicking softly, Cypher stood up and stretched out. His scales rippled, and his entire body shook, seeming to expand and come undone for an instant. Kiara sucked in a sharp breath. Cypher dipped his head, and as he lifted it up, a wave ran along his spine, rearranging his shape as it went.

  Volcair had seen the inux change shape many times, and it always fascinated him, but all his attention now was on Kiara. He watched her expression change from startlement to wonder.

  Cypher trembled, flattening his scales. His body was shaped like one of Kiara’s foxes, though his ears were a bit too large and he had four eyes.

  “Oh, thank you, Cypher. Thank you!” Kiara said. She leaned forward and hugged the inux.

  Cypher rubbed his snout against her cheek affectionately before wiggling out of her hold. He walked back to the pink bag and quickly reverted to his prior form, curling himself around the bag as he lay down.

  Kiara’s excited expression did not fade. “Are you ready to try some cake, Volcair?”

  He turned his attention to the treats they’d set atop the table. “Okay. How about you try a kaana, and I will try the cake. We can go at the same time.”

  “Deal.”

  They each picked up a treat and lifted it to their mouths.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  Volcair folded down the edge of the paper holding the cake. “Yes.”

  “Now!”

  He bit into the cake. Its texture was an unfamiliar mix—the soft, crumbly, spongy portions in the middle were contrasted by the dark brown shell around them, which cracked and melted on his tongue.

  The sweetness hit him a moment later. Volturian food often included a variety of plants and fruits, much of which possessed a natural sweetness, but this was a new sort of sweet, as overwhelming as it was intriguing. The melting outer shell complimented the softer middle layers perfectly, blending flavors and textures to create something unique.

  “Mmm, this is yummy.” Kiara took another large bite of her kaana.

  Volcair licked the crumbs from his lips and tossed the remainder of the cake into his mouth. He hummed to himself appreciatively, emboldened by Kiara’s response to the kaana; Vantricar would not have approved of Volcair’s table manners, but he was not here.

  “This pee-teet fours was also delicious,” he said once he’d swallowed.

  “I knew you would like it! Do you want to play a game next?”

  He folded the empty paper, careful not to dump the crumbs on the table, and set it down. “What kind of game?”

  “I’ll show you,” she said, stuffing the remainder of the kaana into her mouth before grabbing his hand. She slipped off her chair and tugged him along.

  Kiara taught him several games that were immensely entertaining despite their simplicity. His favorite was a game where one of them was it and had to tag one of the others; Kiara had proven surprisingly fast despite being smaller than Volcair, and Cypher’s natural agility and size allowed him to easily avoid being tagged. Even when Volcair finally had to bend forward, settle his hands on his knees, and catch his breath, he was still laughing and smiling.

  While taking a break from physical games, they used Kiara’s tablet to make three-dimensional drawings in the air, which grew increasingly ridiculous by the minute. Before long, Volcair and Kiara were giggling uncontrollably at the slightest additions to their artwork.

  He had no concept of how much time passed as they played; he didn’t care about time.

  Eventually, they returned to their chairs to eat the remaining treats.

  “Um, Kiara?” Volcair frowned and glanced at the half-eaten kaana in his hand. “Can I…can I tell you something?”

  “Of course. You can tell me anything.”

  “Well, it is just that I never…I have never had a friend before, and I just wanted to say that I am glad you are my friend now.”

  Her eyes widened. “Didn’t you have any mates on your homeworld?”

  “I was very young when I left with my father. And we’ve traveled around so much…”

  She smiled and placed a hand on top his; her skin was warm and soft. “I’m happy to be your mate, and I’ll be your mate forever.” Leaning toward him, she pecked a kiss on his cheek.

  Heat flared in his face and crackled along his qal, and, for an instant, his heart stopped. Kiara’s gesture seemed so innocent, but he could not understand it, could not understand what it made him feel.

  It is probably just how terrans express friendship, he told himself.

  But part of him didn’t quite believe that. Years later, he would look back upon this moment and realize it was the instant he knew what she would be to him, what she would mean to him; he’d simply been too young at the time to pick up on it.

  Cypher perked, his feathers flaring around his head in alertness.

  The children both started when the door suddenly opened.

  “There you are!” Jada Moore pushed the door wide as she entered. “We have been looking for you two everywhere.”

  Isaiah and Vantricar stepped inside behind h
er.

  Kiara leapt off the chair to face her parents. “Volcair and I were just playing! We were having so much fun.”

  Isaiah glanced about the room, his lips downturned, before he shifted his gaze to Kiara and Volcair. “I can see that.”

  Volcair hurried off his chair and assumed a rigid posture as his father’s attention fell upon him. His heart pounded; he couldn’t read Vantricar’s expression, couldn’t tell if his father was upset or amused.

  Jada moved closer to the table, which was scattered with crumbs despite the children’s best efforts. “Oh, Kiara, how many sweets did you eat?”

  Kiara clasped her hands behind her back. “Only a few. We didn’t spoil our tummies.”

  “Next time, Volcair, tell me where you are going,” Vantricar said, his tone as ambiguous as his expression. “There are forces in this universe that do not wish for our peoples to be friends, and when a child sneaks away, a parent’s first thought is of danger.”

  “I am sorry, Father.” Volcair bowed his head and averted his eyes. “My apologies to you, Minister Moore, and you, Lady Moore, as well.”

  “Ambassador Vantricar is correct. It is a risk you both took,” Isaiah said.

  Kiara frowned. “I’m sorry. It was my fault. I told Volcair to follow me and nick the sweets.”

  Volcair’s cheeks warmed. Why was she taking full responsibility? “I am the one who wanted to leave the party, and I should have known better. It is not Kiara’s fault.”

  A faint smile touched Vantricar’s lips. “It seems our children have set an example for us—they are already friends.”

  Isaiah chuckled. “So it seems.”

  “Best friends,” Kiara said. “Volcair is my best mate.”

  Volcair glanced at her from the corner of his eye and smiled. He didn’t know what he’d done to earn such loyalty from her, but it made him feel good.

  “Most of the guests are preparing to sit and eat dinner now. Would you two like to come and join us?” asked Isaiah.