Terra Prima

Bonding

Issi stirred in the morning as light barraged the outsides of her eyelids, making the girl see red-literally. Her eyes opened sleepily, and she braced one elbow on the bed to prop herself up. Oz was standing in front of the window, his form outlined by the harshly beautiful morning light. It was like he was wrapped in a halo of light.

He was blinding.

She blinked the sleep from her blue eyes. "Mmmrph?" It wasn't the best thing to say in front of your Paired partner in the morning-especially the morning after you first met them, and it made Oz's grin widen. Most girls he had met would have tried to look sexy and seduce him, but Issi was wearing her clothes from the day before, her hair rumpled and her eyes small and bleary from the sudden awakening.

"Come on, sleepyhead," he whispered in her ear. "Time to get up." Issabella stirred, pushing herself into a sitting position, and Oz was taken aback at how beautiful she was. Long, dark, heavy hair that fell down her back in a cascade of wild, unutterably tangled-looking curls. Her face was broad and her eyes dewy with sleep and her nose perfectly balancing her face. Issi's mouth was full, plump and pink, and was, at the moment, was pouting seductively.

Although he doubted she was trying to do it. It was more like she was pouting because he had showered her with the strong, harsh morning sunlight. "I don't want to," she moaned, pushing her face into the sheets and thumping the pillow down on the back of her head. Oz pried it out of her fingers, and tickled her waist.

Issi flew to the other side of the bed in a blink of an eye. She stood, and gestured him out of the room, pointing towards the wardrobe. Oz left, puzzling over her reaction. Once into the common room of their house, he pressed on the com. His father's face appeared, a hovering, blue-tinted hologram.

"Oz!" His father said. At the look on his face, the general paused. "Is something wrong between you and your Paired? You look rather bummed for someone who just got Paired with one of the most beautiful girls in the Colony."

"I tickled her and she ran away." Oz muttered, embarrassed. The man's mouth twitched in amusement. Like he knew something Oz didn't and had been waiting to see Oz's reaction. Oz hated it when his father did this sort of stuff.

"And all you did was tickle her?"

Nod.

"Ah, but your Paired is Issabella D'Avignon, right? The dark-haired girl brought for her memorizing abilities?"

"Yeah. That's her."

"Ah." It occurred to Oz that his father started his sentences with that particular tone of "ah" more often than he probably should. "She was assaulted by a known paedophile as a child. The man was exected for his repeated crimes-he was out on parole-but it seems she retained the trauma. She was in rehabilitation with a psychiatrist when she was chosen to come here. Your sudden contact frightened her. Want my advice?"

"My Paired is afraid of me. Why wouldn't I?" The blond said dryly.

"Spend time with her but don't touch her. Get her used to you." The general's eyebrow quirked. He was finding this amusing. "Let her come to you."

"You think I could take her to the Tree?"

"The Tree?" His father bit down on his bottom lip and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know, Oz. It's dangerous out there."

"But I think she'd like it! I saw her grinning at all the trees when we were on the walk to camp, and the Tree is one of the most beautiful things in the forest. Those pictures you sent me when I was back in the StackCity are beautiful, for lack of a better word. And Maj said they didn't even do it justice." His father sighed.