That was the life he’d have had if he hadn’t been betrayed by the first female he’d ever loved.
His own mor.
The thought made him hold back a growl.
Usually, these thoughts came late into the dark-cycle when he was alone and his defenses were weakened by tiredness and sleep.
But they came now, when he was fully awake but still defenseless against them.
He couldn’t change the past. He could only relive it over and over.
His step over the boundary into puberty, that invisible line that separated a boy from a fully grown Merssi male, hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Every night-cycle, females in the mines would come to him, touch him when he didn’t want them to, try to force him to do things with them…to them.
There was one female, who’d seemed the kindest. She’d been kind to Sohut and she’d never tried to coerce him into doing anything he didn’t want to.
He’d trusted her.
Till one night he saw her undressing as she moved toward his innocent brother. He’d chased her away but not before he’d realized all the metal they’d mined had gone missing.
Not only had she tried to take his brother’s innocence…she’d also stolen from them.
When the checkers came to collect the dues, he’d had none to give.
That wasn’t the first time he’d been whipped for something that he’d had no control over.
Not the first time he’d been punished.
But it didn’t end there.
The Tasqal female that had bought him and Sohut had also found out about his sexual readiness. When she sent for him, he knew his world was going to change.
He’d been pulled away from his brother and taken to the female’s chambers.
The smell was the first thing that had hit him.
Vile. Like something rotting.
She’d smiled at him with that too-wide mouth, her circular headdress sparkling in the light as she’d gestured for him to come closer.
When he’d refused, he’d been forced to kneel in front of her.
The beatings began that day when his cock wouldn’t rise for her.
And the day after.
And the day after that.
That last day, when her patience had reached its limit and she’d knelt his bloodied body in front of her, she’d held his gaze as she ordered for his tail to be removed.
Even now, with the memory, the stump that was left behind ached.
She’d rendered him less of a male…
Riv tossed again on the cushion, turning toward the door.
The faint patter of a person walking caught his ears.
“La-rehn.”
The thought of her pushed the memories away.
She was up already.
Rolling his shoulders, he rose from the sleeping cushion and stretched.
Donning his work garments, he set his face into a scowl, intent on letting her see that she didn’t affect him in the least bit.
But when he entered the main room, it was empty.
Checking the cook room, he didn’t find the human there, either.
Grot was missing too but the tevsi usually left through the back hatch early in the mornings to go hunt small game in the fields.
Phek it. He’d asked for this.
He’d told her to stay out of his way; maybe she was listening.
What he needed to do was follow his own advice.
As he left the building and headed toward the umu enclosure, he frowned.
The tilgran that usually stuck its long neck out to greet him wasn’t there today.
It only took him a second to realize he’d gotten used to the animal’s greeting.
The other thing that hit him was the soft melodious note his ears picked up in the air.
It was low, but the more he walked toward the sound, the clearer it became.
The human. He’d found her.
Even when there was no one to speak to, words still came from her mouth.
What was she speaking about now?
He wasn’t sure.
It was some melody about “mull-berry” bushes and chasing “wee-zehls.”
When he finally spotted her, she was ankle deep in purple tilgran dung as she used his shovel to move the poop into a bucket.
He opened his mouth to ask what she was doing but his mouth slammed shut instead.
Grot was beside her, pushing the bucket along with his nose and that only made his frown deepen.
Around her, the tilgrans all dipped their necks at varying intervals, bumping her slightly with their snouts as if they were thanking her for her hard work.
They never thanked him.
Watching the human, her new boots getting filthy in the dung, an eyebrow rose.
She was wearing the new clothes she’d bought.
The fact was a surprising one. He’d never met a female that didn’t treasure her new clothes, much less one that willfully shoveled excrement.
Granted, he hadn’t been around many females, but the ones he’d had the displeasure of being in close contact with had never been like this human.
La-rehn was…different.
Grunting, he turned away, annoyed that he’d wasted so many minutes watching her.
If she wanted to shovel shit that was her business. He hadn’t asked her to do anything.
Matter of fact, he distinctly recalled telling her he didn’t need her to.
He was just finished feeding the umus when he exited their enclosure, ready to put the empty bags of feed in the recycling cube when he saw the human struggling down the hill with the bucket of poop in hand.
Frowning, he glanced over at the tilgran enclosure. Sure enough, now that she wasn’t inside, a tilgran popped its head out to greet him.
It looked as if she’d shoveled the whole thing. A hard feat because tilgran poop wasn’t easy to shovel.
Following the path she’d taken, he walked a safe distance behind her, praying she didn’t turn around to find him following.
He trailed her as she walked toward the fruit trees, starting at the row he hadn’t fertilized yet, and began to add the poop to the roots.
Crossing his arms from where he stood, Riv watched her work, not sure what he should be feeling.
A part of him was annoyed, another part respectful, and another part…well, there was a feeling there he couldn’t define.
She took that moment to look in his direction, pausing with poop hanging in the shovel and their
