Page 65 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“How?” he asked as if he could prevent it in the future.

I wasn’t going to tell him that he’d made me laugh when I was trying to drink and that never went well.

“It just happens sometimes," I said, keeping it vague.

“I hate that you can accidentally choke on your food,” he exclaimed, slumping back down to the mat next to me. “I was learning to relax every time you eat, now I need to be vigilant every time you drink.”

“I’d tell you not to worry, but I know it wouldn’t do much good,” I said.

“No it wouldn’t,” he agreed. Purring, he spread his legs and pulled me between them. I snuggled up against him with a happy little sigh.

“Life doesn’t get better than this,” I said.

“Are you sure?” he asked, surprising me.

“What more could I want?” I asked. “Or are you not content here?”

“I find a great deal of satisfaction in this life,” Maz answered. “I’d never required a lot of interaction with others, and any lack I felt is filled up with you and Nadia. I worry that this life might be too isolated for the two of you.”

I’ll admit that I was a little concerned about Nadia growing up without other children to play and interact with, but for right now it wasn’t an issue.

“I’m happy here,” I said, making sure he heard the truth in my voice. “When your assignment is over we can reassess.”

“Yes, that’s a good point,” he agreed. “I will send out messages to Talins who own humans with children. By the time we’re done here, I should have places we can visit where Nadia can interact with children and you can converse with other human parents.”

“I’d like that,” I said, although it might be hard to meet humans who were owned. If any of them were being mistreated or neglected, it was going to be nearly impossible for me not to react.

“I’ve also reached out to several healers to see if any of them will visit here so we don’t have to leave,” he said.

“That’s a good idea.” Not having to go to another Talin space station sounded great. “Do you think any of them will visit?”

“Without a doubt,” Maz said, interrupting his purring to sound an amused rumble. “A chance to meet a young female human with a very young pup is an opportunity few would pass up.”

A little shiver of fear went through me “Can you make sure they come alone?”

“No, they’ll need a crew to fly them,” Maz said. “But I can make sure only the healer is allowed on our ship. Does that make you feel better?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Much better.”

I took another sip of tea as something wet plopped down on my face. I looked up to see that, during our short time chatting, the irregular, light, fluffy clouds had been replaced by a solid mass of gray.

“Huh, that’s interesting,” I murmured as another drop smacked me in the forehead. Rain, this was called rain.

While I was making my observations, Maz jumped to his feet and started gathering things up.

“What are you doing?” I asked. I wasn’t ready to let go of our lazy afternoon.

“We need to move back into the ship,” he answered. “I can carry everything; please take Nadia and make your way inside.”

“Do you need to go back to work so soon?” I asked. “I thought you’d scheduled the rest of the day off to enjoy Nadia’s six-month celebration.”

“I did, but it’s going to rain,” Maz said. “We can continue to celebrate inside.”

I was slow to get to my feet, feeling like a few drops shouldn’t chase us away, but then the intermittent drops turned into a proper shower. In the time it took me to gasp, my shoulders and the top of my head were soaked.

Maz had already gathered most of the pillows and blankets but dropped them all to scoop up Nadia.

“Too late,” he announced. “Hurry!”