Page 38

38

Kroaicho

I glare at the human. Again with the laughter. Olivia, bent over clutching zha’s stomach, lets out this… sound, an irritating mix of amusement and hysteria, and I feel my glow deepening to an even darker purple. I don't appreciate it. I don't see what's so funny about me sinking like a rock.

I shift my weight, pulling all four of my upper limbs tight against my upper segment as I stare at Olivia, waiting for this episode to end. Zha’s laughter continues, the irritating echoes bouncing off the cave walls. Zha looks up, wipes a tear from zha’s face, and finally manages to stifle another snort of amusement.

Olivia glances at me, and I can feel zha’s gaze softening when zha sees the irritation radiating off my skin. My glow flickers into a deeper purple, and I immediately regret it when I see zha’s ridiculous human smile grow wider.

"Oh, come on," Olivia coos at me, zha’s voice dripping down into lower chittering. "Stop pouting, Kroaicho. It wasn’t that bad. Eli snapped you right back up."

“And then you all laughed at me,” I point out. “This is a human reaction, isn’t it?”

I hate it when zha does this. I shift in place, narrowing my eyes and trying to focus on something else, anything else, other than the way zha is talking to me like I'm a zhannel.

“It is,” zha admits.

I huff, turning my head away slightly, though I keep my glowing eyes fixed on zha. "It was highly unpleasant and clearly dangerous.”

That finally sobers Olivia up. Zha straightens and gives me a look. I know this look. It's the one that makes me anxious because it often precedes zha’s temper flaring up. Whenever zha gives me that look, things tend to escalate. Fast.

This time, it just makes me want to get closer to zha and see what zha will do, not retreat. Maybe zha will grab my tusks and use that gruff tone again. I shiver in anticipation. Maybe zha…

I stop myself there, reminding myself that as much as I have changed, I am still holding on to my insistence to only look at things my own way. Olivia is not a zha. Olivia is a she . I roll the word in my mind, pulling up the equivalents in all the languages I have learned, letting the idea soak in until the words and the concept become natural.

I brace myself, but instead of shouting or snapping at me like I expect, Olivia just rolls her eyes. The glow from her pale pink irises pulses with some kind of odd… discomfort? She groans in pain, which makes my skin flair in response. My spikes twitch involuntarily.

"What the hell?" Olivia exclaims, eyes wide.

She rubs her temples. She is so stubborn. "Why does that hurt so much?"

I shoot Olivia a smug flash of skin, letting a low chitter rumble through my chest. "I told you to stop doing that."

She snorts out a breath, then looks at me, skin lighting back to orange. Suddenly, her eyes are far more intense and her skin lights up blue.

“What does that color mean?” she asks.

I’m confused for a moment, skin also lighting blue, but then I look down and see the streaks of black mixed in with it and my tusks drop open.

I stare, mesmerized. I haven’t seen black on a zhasie since my zhann…

“Kroaicho,” Olivia says. “Is something wrong? Are you alright?”

When I look up, her skin is pulsing red in fear.

“No, I mean, yes. I am well. Black means…” I trail off, not knowing the word.

“What?” Olivia prompts.

“The closest, biggest emotion possible,” I explain, looking back at the dark patterns.

“ Love ?” she asks, voice soft.

I don’t know the word, but when I glance back up, I see black swirls mixed with orange on her skin and I know whatever word it is, must be the right one.

I point a claw at her. “Yes. Love ,” I agree.

She looks down at her hands, using a finger to trace the black swirls as they solidify into full, dark expressions of feeling between us.

“Two, not one,” she says in a whisper and it sends the same thrill through my segments as it did last night.

With a wide human smile, she looks back up. “Apparently, I love you. Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Go to my… that makes no sense,” I point out.

She rolls her eyes again, then yelps, holding her eyes.

“I will keep reminding you to not do that,” I tell her.

“Forever?” she asks, voice light.

“If needed, but I hope you will learn faster than that,” I reply, then let out a shocked breath when her tentacle tail whacks me in my middle segment.

She is laughing now. “Like you learned about your hoard?”

“What hoard?” I ask as I carefully ignore the pile that has already started in the corner, skin lighting up yellow despite my attempts to stop it.

Zha moves around me. “How about I just rearrange this little—”

I whip around, arms reaching out imploringly as her laughter reaches a higher pitch. She is hopping around my hoard, six limbs gyrating in an odd rhythm when I realize it is a joke.

“I should have tossed you in that chasm you were sleeping next to when I had the chance,” I grumble, skin lighting up white in contradiction to my statement.

“Don’t worry,” she chants out. “There will be other chasms.”