Kara blinked, trying to get her eyes adjusted to the brilliance which felt blinding after the soft, ambient lighting of Qi’s palace. At least she wouldn’t have to look around to find a mirror, she thought. They were literally surrounded by reflective beings on every side. As they emerged from the Palace of the Unseen, the Xephronians surrounded them.
“Did you enjoy your visit with our Kaji?” one asked.
“It is said that Qi is all-powerful and completely unseen,” another chimed.
“Yes, indeed—I enjoyed it very much,” Kara told them, as she pulled the silver uniform shirt back over her head. “Um, could I look at your leaves for a moment?” she asked the closest plant person.
“Of course, meat creature.” The Xephronian held still and allowed Kara to peer at her reflection in its broad, mirror-like leaves.
At first all she could see was that she had dark blue lips—and a blue tongue and blue all down her chin as well.
What in the world? she thought, wiping at the blue stains. Then she remembered the raw egg yolk liquid inside the last squishy ball she’d eaten. It must have been blue—though of course she couldn’t tell that when everything was invisible.
She managed to get most of it off her chin and then examined her teeth anxiously. They had a blue sheen too but despite that, she could tell that her fangs were definitely smaller. In fact, they could hardly be called fangs at all anymore. They just looked like regular canine teeth—like any girl might have.
Nobody would look twice at her now, she was certain—her awful fangs—the bane of her existence for so many years—were finally gone. Or at least shrunk down so small that nobody would even know they were there.
“It worked,” she breathed, feeling her teeth with her fingertips to be sure. “It really worked!”
To her joy, the tips of her fangs weren’t even sharp enough to cut flesh anymore. She could press as hard as she wanted without being afraid she’d poke herself and draw blood.
“Well, baby girl—are you happy?” Raak rumbled from behind her.
“Happy?” Kara looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears of joy. I’m ecstatic. Oh, Raak—this changes everything!”
“I’m glad you feel that way.” His voice was carefully neutral and Kara couldn’t help remembering his warning—that he had a bad feeling about her shrinking her fangs.
Well, they were my fangs to do what I wanted with, she reminded herself defensively. So he gets no say in it. After all, it’s not like we were going to get bonded and be together forever. He’ll never see me again after he drops me off at the Mother Ship, so it doesn’t matter if he misses my fangs or not.
Kara was certain she certainly wouldn’t miss them! Though she had to admit the thought of never seeing the big Unbondable again made her sad.
“I feel wonderful,” she told him firmly. “Thank you so much for bringing me here, Raak.”
“You’re welcome, baby girl,” he growled. “Just hope you still feel happy about losing your fangs in the future.”
Kara frowned. “What is that supposed to mean? You think something is going to go wrong?”
“Didn’t say that exactly,” Raak rumbled. “I just hope this works out for you.”
“It’s already worked out,” Kara told him, smiling broadly. “Look—my smile is perfect now! Well, other than the fact that I have blue teeth at the moment,” she added, laughing.
Raak’s face relaxed and he laughed with her.
“Yeah, you got one of the bigger xanthos, I take it. I stuck with the smaller ones myself. Less, uh, juicy if you know what I mean.”
“Ugh—I do now.” Kara shivered. “I never want to have to eat one of those things again!”
“I don’t see why you would have to—now that you got what you want,” Raak remarked mildly. “Come on, I still have some trading to do and then we’ll go back to the ship.”
As Kara followed him back through the crowd of mirrored plant-people, she thought that she had never been so happy in her life.
She had no idea how drastic the consequences of her actions would be.
Twenty-Two
“Well, baby girl—are you ready to go back to the Mother Ship yet or would you like to make one more stop with me?” Raak asked, giving her a sideways glance as they got settled in the cockpit of his cruiser.
The trading on Xephron Five had been excellent—mainly because by now most of the natives there had begun saving their discarded leaves for him. They had piles of them just waiting and Raak had taken them gladly after distributing the goods he had brought to trade with them.
In this shipment he had included lots of shiny, multifaceted light beads which the Xephronians loved. They were especially enamored of the way the flashing lights of the beads were reflected in their own shiny leaves. Raak had the satisfaction of knowing that he'd left many happy customers behind when they finally lifted off the “disco ball planet” as Kara called it.
Now he watched her from the corner of his eye as he asked the question in a casual tone. Though he kept his voice light, his heart was pounding. He had a feeling—a strong feeling—that he needed to keep her near him. Raak didn’t know why and he didn’t question the certainty he felt—he was used to trusting his gut.
He was prepared to offer several reasons why she ought to stay with him for a while longer so he was relieved when she grinned at him and said,
“I’ll stick around for a while, if you don’t mind. I’ve never really been anywhere but the Mother Ship and Earth until now. And since I finally have my fangs taken care of, I’m ready for an adventure.”
“An adventure, huh? I think we can manage that, baby girl,” Raak told her. As for the fangs in question, he couldn’t help
