Belladonna

Chapter 1

Maria waded in the golden pasture. The meadow was lush with wildflowers and cawing birds. Her black hair blew around her shoulders. Honey eyes scanned the horizon for the yautja huntress. Fen'ri must have cloaked herself.

Unable to see her, Maria slid the pneumatic pistons from her back, folded the grass down into a comfortable nest, and sat. Despite being completely obscured below the waving tips, there was not a doubt in her mind that Fen would find her when she was ready.

The tall stems made Maria feel like a doe tucked away from bloodthirsty beasts. There was something safe about the shadows covering her, moving over her. She patted the pistons anyway. It was better to be prepared for trouble that didn't happen than the opposite.

Once settled, she flipped a small book open in her lap.

This book was it's own precious mystery. She had found it buying provisions. A junk shop in an out-of-the-way village had caught her eye. She dragged Fen in with the promise of cheap upgrades. The book was crammed on a shelf with unsorted thermosensors. She recognized the human-made object immediately, pulled it out, and blew the dust off.

It was a book on flower language. It's spin cracked with age when she opened it. She couldn't imagine how an old book ended up halfway across the galaxy. She thought about an alien visiting Earth in the nineteenth century and taking the book with them, a silly novelty from a pit stop between planet A and planet B. She chuckled to herself.

Or maybe, like her, the book's original owner was taken from her planet with only what she was holding. Now a hundred years later, Maria was carrying perhaps that person's last Earthly possession. This was a less happy thought. She stashed it away in the back of her mind.

She paid the shopkeeper a pittance for it. It was worth even less than what she paid, but already it was invaluable to her. It was the only thing she had that came from Earth.

On every page was a delicate etching of a plant in full color. Each plant's meaning was written in script next to it.

Daffodil = Regard, Unequalled Love

She peeked across the shop at Fen scrounging through a scrap heap and sighed wistfully. She was a juggernaut of a woman. Maria's neck could fit in her closed hand. Fen was heads above any human in height. When the rain hit her, the blue in her scales turned the same gray as a stormy ocean. Maria glanced back down at her new book, turned a page.

Hydrangea = gratitude in understanding or heartlessness

She sighed again but heavily. Flowers were complicated. Fen'ri was complicated. She barely showed emotion, and when she did it was a heart-wrenching, forlorn sadness.

Fen chittered at the pile before standing with a fluid poise that made Maria stand marginally straighter. Fen's numerous scars flexed as she approached. There was something truly fascinating watching her move.

Maria was a deer in the headlights, entranced, quivering, and instinctively afraid. She was completely in love.

"Ready?" she squeaked hopefully.

Fen simply walked past her toward the exit.

"Yeah me too," Maria sighed. She was made of sighs these days.

Fen was different in private. When they were back on the ship and underway, Maria had shown her the book. Fen had considered it with a slight tilt of her head. Encouraged, Maria went on, flipping pages, showing pictures, and reading out loud.

After some excited one-sided rambling from Maria, Fen clicked her mandibles and changed course.

Now Maria and Fen were here, on this phenomenal, verdant planet. The grassland was only a small sliver of what they had walked through when they arrived. Fen had to hoist Maria onto one of her shoulders to wade through the thick undergrowth.