Starfish

Twenty-Five

Nina bit into the roasted redfin, fresh and steaming from the waxy leaf envelope Ardus had wrapped it in before burying it under coals from the fire. The firm flesh flaked apart and the skin crackled, crispy and lightly scorched where some of the leaf had burned away. She sighed and closed her eyes in ecstasy, savoring the rich fatty skin and delicate sweetness from the thin slices of lurefruit Ardus had stuffed into the fish's body cavity after he'd removed the organs and bones. "This is amazing," she exalted, "how do you do it? I mean, I understand the process, but... Why are you so good at this?"

Ardus swallowed his bite. "When you have been around as long as I have, you develop some skills." He wiped lurefruit juice from the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

Nina smiled as she pinched off another piece of fish. The meat fell apart without the aid of a skewer or knife. "Right, because you're ancient."

Ardus gave her a mock-offended look. With a haughty sniff he took a pinch of salt from a little tin sitting on the driftwood log, placed between them so they could share, and sprinkled it on his fish. "You ought to treat your elders with more respect, you know."

"Whatever you say, old man."

Ardus gave her a narrow sideways glare, then opened his mouth and took a bite directly from his fish's belly, holding the fish in its leaf as Nina would hold a sandwich. Nina caught the flash of his distressingly large teeth and paused as she watched them tear away a chunk of fishmeat almost the size of her hand. They look like leopard seal teeth, especially the big front ones. His canines were almost as long as the first two joints of her finger. She plucked another flake while she watched him eat, comparing the Dreen to other creatures she was more familiar with. I wonder what his bite strength is, a thousand pounds? Going by the size of his head and jaw he could certainly crush the bones in her hand and rip the skin and muscle from her arm, but Nina could not imagine Ardus – or any Dreen – doing so. Other things caught her eye, such as the way the deepening late-afternoon light reacted with his dark skin, the reddening sky turning his shoulders and back purple and his chest and face lavender. He hadn't put his tunic back on, and for that Nina thanked the gods profusely.

"Is something wrong?" Ardus asked before taking a swig of water. Nina realized with an embarrassed start that she'd been staring. She looked down at the fish lying on its leaf in her lap and picked at it. She heard him shift in the sand. "You have been staring at me all day."

Nina looked up, meeting Ardus's deeply blue eyes. The way he looked at her, directly and openly with all of his attention, stirred warmth in her belly like stirring the dying campfire would reveal glowing red coals still hot under a layer of cool grey ash. "Er, have I?"

Ardus nodded. He took another bite, chewed, swallowed. "If you have questions, I am not averse to answering them."

"Oh." Nina drank some water to fill the silent pause. What is he doing? What am I doing? "I'm sorry, I don't mean to stare. It's just..." She trailed off and the Dreen gave her an expectant look. Nina worked up the courage to finish her thought. "I don't want to offend you, but sometimes I forget you're Dreen and then you go and do something that reminds me."

Ardus cocked his head. "I do not understand."

Taking a breath, Nina tried to explain. "Okay, so, we've worked together for almost three months, right? In that time a lot's happened and I've had time to get to know you, but sometimes I catch myself thinking of you more like a really big human than... you know."

"Than what?"

"Well," her face heated. "An alien."

Ardus cocked an eyebrow at her. "Correct me if I am wrong, but it would seem to me that you are the alien here." The corner of his mouth quirked and Nina released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "I mean, yes, but you know what I mean, right?"