Page 71 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“Owwwwie!”

Iris and I turned to see her curled up next to the pile of rocks, clutching her right leg. We rushed to the little girl. No sooner had we knelt on either side of her than I heard thundering footsteps running at us.

Looking up I saw Damascus sprinting toward us. Maz was right behind him.

What was going on?

Iris either didn’t notice or didn’t care because her entire focus was on calming Mia down enough to figure out how badly she was injured.

When Damascus got to us, he looked so menacing I put myself between him and my new friends.

“They didn’t do anything wrong,” I said, talking fast, scared this Talin might decide to arbitrarily punish my new friends.

Damascus didn’t respond to my words. He grabbed me, turned, and tossed me into Maz’s arms.

“See to your human,” he grumbled, then knelt next to Iris.

Maz was quick to set me down and run his eyes and hands over me. “I’m fine,” assured him. “Mia’s injured, not me.”

“Injured?” Maz repeated, sounding a worried rumble.

“What happened?” Damascus asked, purring loudly. I turned around to see the little girl look up at him with no fear on her face.

“Owwwwie!” Mia said through her tears and held her arms out to Damascus. The giant Talin picked her up, patting her back as she clung to him crying.

“I think she tripped and skinned her knee,” Iris said. “There's a basic med kit in the shuttle. We just need some sanitizer and a few skin patches.”

“We need to check her for damage to her joint,” Damascus argued.

“I have a human calibration scanner in my lab,” Maz offered.

Damascus didn’t hesitate. “Yes, we’ll use that.” Without further conversation, he turned and walked back to our ship with long, smooth strides.

“We better catch up,” Iris said with a grin. “Damascus will give Mia anything when she’s like this, and the next thing you know, she’ll be going home with every rock in your lab.”

“She can have them all,” Maz said as we followed Damascus.

Iris made a hushing sound. “Don’t say that. I don’t know what to do with everything she’s already collected!”

“Damascus was really worried about her,” I said.

“He’d die to protect us,” Iris said with total confidence. We hit the ramp to the ship and heard both Mia talking loudly and the faint sound of Nadia fussing.

Maz and I exchanged a look, unsure what to do.

Iris came to a stop. “That sounds like a baby.” She turned to me and grabbed my hands. “Is that your baby? Is that Nadia?”

“Yes,” I admitted.

A look of complete relief relaxed her features. “That’s so good! We found records of you being sold with an infant, but there wasa note that you were both sickly. When we got here and didn’t see her with you, I was scared she hadn’t made it.”

“But I want it!” Mia’s loud demand drew our attention to the lab where Damascus answered her in an inaudible voice.

During our short conversation Nadia had stopped fussing, indicating she’d fallen back to sleep.

I looked back at Iris, her concern making me feel more comfortable. “My baby is alive and thriving. Let’s help Mia.”

Iris nodded with a happy smile, let go of my hands, and hooked her arm in mine to walk the two of us into the lab. Maz walked silently behind us.