Page 56 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“This is wonderful! I exclaimed, toeing out of my shoes and stepping onto the mats so I could sit down next to the plants.

“Stay,” Maz ordered the bots before following me onto the mats. Nadia was awake and looking around, clearly entranced by the gently billowing awning overhead.

“Can we take these back with us?” I asked, pointing to one of the plants.

He sounded a questioning rumble. “I don’t think we can fit them in the flier on this trip, but I could come back for them. Ithought we’d leave them because I planned for us to take more trips back here, if you wanted to.”

“We’re coming back?” I asked, already excited for the next trip. I loved this place. It was too bad we couldn’t live here, but I could already see the issue with this uneven and smaller stump. One end of it looked like a mountain from the way the tree had broken.

“We can come back as often as you like,” he agreed. “As long as it isn’t raining.”

He kept warning me about rain, but so far I wasn’t impressed. The one time it happened it was nothing but a gentle mist that fell for half a day and then left brilliant blue skies. If that was considered rain, I wasn’t scared.

“Thank you, Maz. This place is both interesting and entertaining. You did great on our first date,” I said. Not that I had a lot to compare this date to. I’d had a quick meal with Nadia’s father before we tumbled into bed. Did that even count?

“Date?” Maz said. “Is that a word for this part of the courting ritual?”

I chuckled. “It’s what we called it in my family. Other groups of humans might have a different name for it.”

“Then this is our first date,” Maz declared.

Nadia lost interest in the awning and started to fuss. I moved around until I was sitting next to her carrier. Lifting her out of it, I sat her in my lap and pointed to the waterfall.

“Look at all the pretty colors,” I murmured.

She stared at it and waved a chubby fist around. Then she got distracted by the movement of her own hand and brought it to her face, bonking herself in the nose.

“Yup, that’s attached to you,” I said with a giggle. “Maybe be more careful with the power that is a hand!”

For a very brief moment Nadia looked like she wanted to be upset, but then she stared at something to our right. I lookedover but there was nothing there. I adjusted her a little so she was facing the flowers.

“No more staring at ghosts,” I muttered. Mom once told me that when babies or animals stared at nothing, they were watching ghosts. I’d laughed until I watched my younger sister do it.

Unnerving!

Except what ghosts could be on this planet? Bugs? Trees? Vines walking around on their roots? No, that wasn’t right. Ghosts floated, didn’t they?

“As part of our date, I brought us food,” Maz said, pulling me out of those uncomfortable thoughts. I was more than eager to turn my attention to him. He pulled the crates off the bots and started opening them, setting up a feast for us on the mat. He finished it all off with decorative plates and bowls I hadn’t seen before.

“This all looks and smells great,” I said, reaching for some of the food. He sounded a negative rumble. I drew my hand back. “What?”

“I’d like to feed you,” he responded, moving closer and turning to face me. “You could hold Nadia while sitting in my lap.”

He hadn’t fed me for a while, and I’d missed it. It wasn’t hard to maneuver onto his lap, especially when he grabbed my hips and helped. I ended up sitting sideways, half leaning my shoulder against his chest and facing the brilliant waterfall.

During our short time here the light had shifted, creating a soft yellow glow at the very top of the waterfall. A look down told me Nadia was enjoying this as much as I was.

“This is nice,” I murmured as he moved a few of the platters around.

He purred and held some food to my mouth. “Try this. It’s human safe, but it has a strong flavor so you might not like it.”

I took a cautious nibble then drew back. It reminded me of the fermented seed pod mash Doringos liked to eat.

“No,” I said, looking around for something to drink. He popped the rest of it into his mouth then handed me an open canister. I drank deeply to get the taste out of my mouth then set it down. “We can put that on theabsolutely notlist.”

He sounded a rumble of amusement. “Noted. Let’s try this one next. The flavor is much more subtle.”

After introducing me to a few more foods, he started to feed me what I liked the best. We ate slowly and talked between bites. This might’ve been the most leisurely meal I’d ever eaten. I never really thought about it before, but being able to eat at a leisurely pace was something I hadn’t gotten to do often before Maz. Either I was starving so I quickly gulped my food, or I had to get it down fast between shifts.