Page 16 of Where the Shadows Land (Garden of Hope #1)

MAIRUK

S everal days passed in an awkward, tense silence.

Astoria did not emerge from her cabin. Bones appeared from recent kills every other day, but she never left the boundary of the garden.

When Mairuk slept, Astoria worked. The last of the western wall went up while she recovered from the rot, and once they started the southern one, Astoria set the logs in place with her Orsea .

Her garden beds were tended, and Bastian was not in distress.

Signs of Astoria sprouted everywhere they looked.

Her scent lingered all throughout the village, but she stayed out of Mairuk’s sight.

One night, they stayed awake and listened for her, but she never emerged and they didn’t understand why.

They waited for her there until midnight, but Astoria never returned to the planter beds.

It hit them like a wasp sting, but it clarified that there was something about their body, or their magic, that altered Astoria’s mindset.

Whenever they touched her, even in the most innocent of ways, she reacted to them with desire.

It made her smell different, too. A bit more like the forest in the spring .

After she kissed Mairuk, Astoria smelled like theirs.

The memory of her scent mixed with theirs bloomed a possessive, gnawing ache in their chest. They struggled, but kept their baser instincts in check.

Mairuk would kill Astoria if she broke their pact, but they would not cause her harm outside of that.

Touching another when they lacked their full awareness and couldn’t consent never sat right with Mairuk.

That’s why they needed her to wait. They made the right choice, because when not under their influence, Astoria did not want them.

Mairuk respected that, no matter how much it stung.

Astoria worked as promised, and though it was not with them, Mairuk never specified that in their pact.

Evidence of her efforts laid strewn about the garden.

Each little ghost of her presence deepened the aching well in their chest. In Astoria’s company, Mairuk was not alone.

Even if she refused to speak to them, having her body near theirs reminded them that another life was in the garden.

Without her soft voice and the gentle whispers of her movement, they went back to living with ghosts.

Bastian was let out often to hunt or generally do fox things.

For most of the morning, he ran off, but he also spent time curled up at Mairuk’s feet.

He allowed a gentle pat here and there without an attempt at Mairuk’s fingers.

He often smelled like Astoria, too. Berries, the slight tang of human sweat, and carnations.

Mairuk did what they could to pass the time.

Astoria said she was prone to outbursts, and perhaps her seclusion was the result of that.

She asked for grace, and they gave her what they could spare.

The first two days were empty, hollow, and slow.

The fourth day, a small ember of irritation flickered to life in Mairuk’s center and caught into a full fire as they set the clay between the logs on the southern wall.

By the sixth day, that fire boiled into heated rage.

Astoria touched Mairuk first! She pressed her soft, short body against theirs and squished the flesh of her chest against the sensitive fibers of their skin.

Astoria kissed them and ground her hips into them.

She begged them to touch her. Yet, she was the one who hid away.

She was the one who would not speak about what happened.

She was the one who did not want in the same way.

Humans were not beautiful creatures. Small, too smooth, and with only two eyes, they looked wrong .

Unfinished. Their noses sat in the center of their face, instead of expanding out into a muzzle like their animal cousins.

Human limbs were far too short to be useful, and their torsos were too long in comparison.

Their lips had extra skin that pushed outward in small, fleshy meat pillows.

Human hands, though tiny, had five thin fingers rather than three.

All of that was bad enough, and then there was the monstrosity of their ears.

Round and at the side of their head, they just… sat there.

Humans as a whole were not beautiful creatures.

But Astoria was beautiful in the way only something so alien could be.

Her hair gleamed like fire in the sunlight and was soft when free of tangles.

Her soft spring green eyes. The soft dotting of orange-brown marks on her face.

Her pale pink, fleshy lips. All of it drew Mairuk’s attention.

Whatever she lacked in texture, she replaced with curves and softness.

Her soft backside in their palms and the way her body squished against theirs, that was the beauty of her.

Mairuk grumbled and scooped another batch of clay into their palms and lathered it over the wall.

If their companions knew they had a human in their village, one Mairuk had not touched or yet made their loktossi?

Their companions would have a fit. In Ardelok lands, humans were the villains, the monsters under the beds of sprouts.

The few humans permitted to live in Ardelok lands were either gifted in magic or they belonged to an Ardelok as a loktossi .

The only other use for a human was fertilizer.

Cardilan would likely find the most offense in the current situation.

Mairuk chose a human companion rather than joining them in their garden.

Idelic was the most surly Rholctai Mairuk ever met and would berate them endlessly for keeping a human pet.

Leri possessed a loktossi , a male human they kept in their home.

Mairuk had never seen the male, but if Leri had one hu man already, what would stop them from gathering another?

Mairuk’s stomach clenched. What if Leri wants our human and takes her away from us?

The thought pulled a brutal growl from deep in their chest. Astoria was their human.

They would not allow anyone, companion or otherwise, to harm or claim her.

Claiming her as a loktossi required witnesses, a ritual, and more oaths.

Some laid claim to humans through force, but Mairuk was not comfortable with such brutality.

Astoria would have to offer her consent.

Given her sour attitude and apparent disgust, they doubted she would.

‘ She will not allow us to touch. Astoria would not want to be claimed,’ First said.

‘We should have given her what she asked so sweetly for. Then she would allow us to touch her even now instead of hiding.’ Seventh purred low in their stomach, the mass between their thighs writhing under their pants.

‘We do not know this to be true.’ First sent a wave of calm through the system, starting at the top of the cap and moving down their body, stilling the movement between their thighs.

‘She was so soft in our hands. What would she feel like inside?’ Seventh asked.

Mairuk tilted their head as they considered this.

Would Astoria be fleshy and soft? Or would they reach inside her and stroke her bones?

Humans were so full of bones. Mairuk shuddered and hoped for the first. Human anatomy was not something they knew much about, but Astoria was soft over her bones.

Perhaps she would be soft between them, too?

The possibility of Astoria being soft everywhere pulsed a pleasant chill through the fibers of their skin.

Their olctae started back up again, searching for something to bury into.

Mairuk groaned and pushed their hand down at the base to slow the movement.

They didn’t take a lover for the night on their last trip to Bounoss, and now they regretted their choice to leave early.

More than a year passed since anyone touched them intending to awaken their core.

Of course, they ached for the soft touch of their human .

In truth, touch was the one thing Mairuk missed the most. They got little of it.

The Rholctai typically only touched mates or close companions.

They ached for a soft touch along their body with the promise of release.

Astoria’s hands were so tiny, and some of the softest that ever brushed against their flesh.

In the past several days, before they fell asleep, they brought themselves to hurried and unsatisfying releases, thinking of her soft hands.

It was enough to quell their desire, at least until they smelled her again.

Astoria’s touch woke a desire in Mairuk that slumbered for years.

It only rose in the spring when the Spirit of Mieotsy commanded the planet to life and lust, and even then, only for a week or two.

Now, still at least a moon out from the start of the season, the faintest idea of Astoria’s body and soft touch made their shafts throb with need.

Mairuk finished their work with the wall for the day and cleaned themselves free of clay in cold water to bring clarity back to their mind.

‘We must talk to Astoria if she will not speak with us. Confirm she is eating and well,’ Third said.

‘We should inform her that if she desires to touch us again, she is welcome. If she desires us to touch her, we will not deny her again.’ Seventh sent a wave of pleasure through the system.

‘If she wanted that, she would have come back to her garden beds. She does not want us, ’ First said, the voice stern.

‘We will not know if we don’t ask,’ Seventh sang.

The system rumbled, torn and unsure of what to say to their human. They did not hesitate to approach her cabin or knock on her door. If they gave themselves time to question it, they wouldn’t maintain the confidence to do so. “Astoria. It is Mairuk. We have not seen you in many days. Are you well?”