Page 100 of Dancing for the Minotaur

The table appeared to grow directly out of the floor.

Its thick central trunk spread upward into a broad flat surface polished naturally smooth, with faint green veins running through the pale wood. Two chairs had grown beside it, formed from looping branches covered in soft cushions of moss and small velvety leaves.

Terra ran her hand over the tabletop.

“This whole thing is alive too?” she asked.

Taurex nodded.

“Yes.”

“Does it grow larger if you have company?” she asked curiously.

Taurex nodded.

“If I have enough notice, it can accommodate up to twelve.”

Terra stared at him.

“You have an expandable dining table that expands itself?”

“Essentially.”

She put a hand on her hip.

“That is so unfair.”

“To whom?” he asked, looking confused.

“Humans. We think we're advanced because our refrigerators make ice. And here you have all this amazing biotech and living appliances. I’m jealous!”

Taurex laughed.

“You don’t have to be jealous. You can come back to the Mother Ship and use our biotech any time. What’s mine is yours.”

“Well…thank you.” Terra felt her heart flutter at his offer. “I might take you up on that.”

His golden eyes were suddenly half-lidded.

“I hope you will,” he murmured.

They sat across from each other, and once again Terra experienced the strange sensation of living furniture adapting itself to her body. The chair softened beneath her, curling gently around her hips and lower back until she was supported perfectly. It put the lumbar support chair Jackson had insisted on having before they got divorced to shame.

Taurex served the stew into deep bowls that looked like hollowed-out gourds but had a smooth pearlescent finish. The gravy was an alarming shade of midnight blue, and the chunks of meat were even darker now after simmering in the sauce, but it smelled delicious.

Terra stared into her bowl, her stomach rumbling.

“This is very blue,” she remarked.

Taurex frowned.

“Is that a problem?”

“No. It's just…not a color I usually associate with gravy.”

“What color is Earth gravy?” he asked curiously.

“Brown,” Terra told him.