Last Holiday on Terra

9

Drogo sat in the passenger seat as I drove in the direction of home.

"How did you know to come?"

"Samantha," he stated plainly.

"Oh."

"The Princess is bound to you. I read the contract." He chuckled uneasily, "I had to have it translated."

"Legaleeze," I offered.

"I'm sorry?"

"The only people who understand legal jargon are the ones who write up contracts. Hence, legaleeze."

Drogo grinned. "So you don't understand contracts either?"

"Nope! Never did."

He nodded. "Good to know. Your Grace, if I may?"

Keeping my eyes on the road, I shrugged my shoulders. "Sure...what's up?"

"Counselor Azreal and I are concerned about your mental and emotional state. You seem increasingly frustrated and well...troubled. Is there anything that we can do to lessen your burden?"

"No. It's just something that I have to deal with and endure. And you know what?"

"What's that?"

"You've been hanging around me too long. You've picked up my speech patterns."

He chuckled as he nodded his head. "I suppose that I have."

I watched him scratch at the back of his head. "Problem?"

"The hair. How do you stand it?"

"You get used to it."

He shook his head. "I have scales, your Grace. I will never get used to it."

"As you wish, " I said. Then it hit me..."Drogo, are you in a borrowed body too?"

"No. This is a manufactured shell."

Shell....

"Oh. So you don't have to return it then?"

He shook his head. "Nope!" Then he grinned.

I had all sorts of questions pop into my head about the differences between the borrowed bodies and the cloned bodies. The logistics I could grasp easily, why one might be preferred over the other...but the intricacies of the entire process...Azreal is able to change shape at will...but he cannot breathe our air. So I get why he'd want a borrowed body. But my guard...he can breathe our air...did they have borrowed bodies too? Drogo is able to breathe our air...why would he want a cloned body...and why the body of an older human male? Perhaps it was a matter of individual preferences?

And dammit...how come Cee remains invisible to me?

_____

Drogo helped to bring my purchases to my back door, but declined coming in saying that he didn't want Moose to go off on him. Moose had already stared him  down into the next galaxy...but now, he was used to seeing Drogo that way...a big greenish-brown bipedal, lizard looking guy with soft caring amber colored eyes...
this look was completely different from that...an older black man with the typical graying at the temples...dark chocolate brown eyes replacing his natural reptilian eyes. He always kind of winked at Moose right before he would leave.

"Drogo," I whispered.

"Yes your Grace," he replied, also in a whisper.

"If you're in a borrowed body, where is yours?"

His index finger pointed upward. Then he smiled. "Which is why I should be returning."

"Can you check in on Sam before you go please? See if you see what she does?"

He nodded as he stood. His eyes were looking at something above my head.

"Oh god. What is it?"

"Moose. He's staring at me through the glass."

"He's used to seeing all kinds of people," I replied.

"In the middle of the night?"

"Well...." I squeaked, "maybe not..."

He bowed a tiny bow and winked at Moose like he always did, causing my big German Shepard Dog to whine and him to chuckle. "By your leave, your Grace?"

"Please let me know what you find? Even if it's nothing."

"I'll see ya in your dreams," he replied as he grinned and waved his hand in the air, disappearing into the darkness.

I smiled as I stood and turned to face my dog, whose whining was quite loud now. "You wake daddy up and you're going to the dog house..." Of course, those words meant absolutely nothing to him.

We don't even have a dog house...