Spears of Uu'kata

Chapter 38 - Chaperones

The long corridor was empty. It was easy to forget how lonely the castle seemed at night when Charlotte was tangled in her lover's arms, orgasm after orgasm obliterating her senses. But during the day the castle felt hollow. Despite how large the castle was, Charlotte was feeling cooped up.

It had been just over a week since she'd awakened from her coma and already she felt as strong as she had before she'd wrestled an ennelath. Stronger, actually.

The rain still poured in sheets and thunder still shook the windows in their panes, but everyone had a job to do. Everyone but her.

Gondroll apparently had several patients he made rounds to check on each day, Echnar was working to help a family rebuild part of a roof that caught fire after being struck by lightning, Ahnekk was in the throne room with some kind of council. He'd been grumbling about grain storage and salt so she figured it had something to do with the city's economics. Lastly, Shodara was busy at a local school. Apparently, she was a teacher. For a moment, Charlotte imagined her in a short skirt and wearing sexy teacher glasses and she smiled.

Everyone had a job to do, except Charlotte. She'd spent her days, while everyone was away, trying to get better at swimming, training Jalapéno, and playing her celdar. She was slowly translating some of her favorite songs over to Uu'k'asht, but it wasn't as fun playing it alone. Music was meant to be shared.

Charlotte's slippered feet padded quietly over the stone, her roomy, blue pants swishing beneath the long hem of her green tunic dress. The sleeves, sides, and hems were embroidered with delicate little pink, purple, and blue flowers, and a dark brown leather belt worked with the design of some horned animal she hoped she'd never meet cinched her waist. The fuzzy cub who'd finally warmed up to her purred loudly in her arms. His large stinger noodle was wrapped tightly around her wrist, ensuring she didn't stop petting him. She didn't know what else to call the stinger appendage so, noodle it was.

She sighed and looked out the window. Everything looked gray. She knew a garden existed right outside this window, but she couldn't see it past the sheets of water that pelted the glass.

Are they ashamed of me? she wondered.

Ahnekk had asked her to stay clear of the throne room while the council was in session and she understood that request. Government business was none of her business, but was it because it was none of her business, or because he didn't want anyone to see her?

She'd asked everyone if she could go out into the city with them. She'd even asked Echnar if she could help him with the roof he was rebuilding, but he'd laughed and said something stupid and sexist about it being a male's job. She'd thought about wrapping him up in magic again but didn't really have the ambition for it. Which was a bad sign. She wondered if she was getting depressed.

She missed Taco Tuesdays and playing Pokemon with Thompson, who, she supposed, was dead now. She missed poker with Ben and Vas and those moments when Delta would blare loud music and clean their armor and guns and talk shit to each other. She missed movies and flight simulators. She'd been learning to fly the larger skiffs before that last battle and she missed the weightlessness of open space and the weight on her body and butterflies in her stomach as high-G maneuvers were pulled during practices.

She missed humans.

Charlotte stopped, realizing she was facing the large doors that opened to the outside. She frowned and looked behind her. Those were the doors to the throne room. They were still closed so she supposed Ahnekk was still with his council.

I could go out, she thought. I'm not a prisoner...

Charlotte looked down at Jalapéno. He watched her with his luminous yellow eyes. He didn't like the thunder so she hustled back to their room and plopped him into his kennel, gave him some treats, and made sure the lock was firmly in place. Her lovers found her obsession with the animal disturbing enough, she didn't want to give them any reasons to think taking him away would be a good idea. She also didn't want to risk any of them being killed. She'd been stung more than once and it felt like an espresso shot to her but apparently, it caused heart attacks in Uu'k'asht.