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“It’s okay, little one. You’re safe now,” he said in a soothing voice. “We’re going to take good care of you.”

“What did he say?” Ludwig asked, startling me.

I stared blankly at him for a moment before realizing Taelen had spoken to the creature in his native language. We would need to add it to our translation implants once I further polished it.

“He’s just comforting her,” I said distractedly, annoyed that he would disturb such a touching moment with his inane question.

Under the circumstances, anyone with a brain would have guessed what he might have said. And yet, I instantly chastised myself for my uncharitable thoughts towards the professor. As much as I disliked him, had our roles been reversed, I would have wanted to know the translation in case I completely misinterpreted what he said.

Taelen suddenly started singing to her. While I had no proof that the Kalrin was a female, my gut said that she was. He didn’t speak any words but merely hummed a melody. A shiver ran down my spine, and my skin erupted in goosebumps at the enthralling sound. The creature snuggled against him. I would have given anything to be in her place while his siren voice nearly put me into a trance.

Even as he sang, the Syllen extruded his veris again, burying them into the soil. Moments later, he interrupted his chant to look at Ludwig with a displeased expression.

“I need a large bucket of water,” Taelen said.

Without missing a beat, the professor turned to look at me with an icy expression.

“You heard him. Go get a bucket of water,” he ordered me.

“No,” Taelen said in an imperious tone, his hard stare leveled on Ludwig. “She stays. You can go fetch.”

I bit the insides of my cheeks not to burst out laughing. To say Ludwig was furious couldn’t even begin to describe the look on his face. I should be threading a lot more carefully so as not to further antagonize him. But at a visceral level, I understood that this ship had sailed. There was no question in my mind that he would initiate my termination as soon as we were done here. I could only pray that Kayog had not been kidding yesterday when he mentioned that the UPO might have an opening for someone like me.

Instead of complying with Taelen’s request, Ludwig turned on his com and called the groundskeeper with instructions as to what to bring and where to find us. Predictably, his ego was too great to lower himself by performing such a menial task as fetching a bucket of water.

“Is a single bucket enough?” I caught myself asking.

Taelen paused, he glanced at the soil and then looked back at me with an impressed look.

“Actually, one isn’t enough. Three would be much better,” he said. “Thank you.”

I smiled, feeling totally pathetic for craving his approval so badly. Hell, had I been a dog, I’d be wagging my tail and panting with excessive eagerness.

Taelen suddenly looked up again, his face focused. After a beat, he opened his mouth and did that silent hiccup again.

Did he receive a response to his previous ultrasonic message?

To my shock, he resorbed his veris back into his legs then marched towards me before placing the Kalrin in my arms.

“Wha…?” I exclaimed, the rest of the word dying in my throat as I gaped at the creature.

The Kalrin stared at me with an air of fascination that mesmerized me. After a few seconds, she reached her clawed hand towards my face, pawing it as if confused by my skin texture. Her hand then slipped to my hair, through which she combed her fingers with an even greater air of wonder. A surprised laugh escaped me when she pulled the long strands of my hair over her head to let them glide over her face. She emitted a strange sound halfway through a dove’s cooing and a chirping. I could only interpret it as being positive.

She turned to look at Mares then extended a hand towards him. Without hesitation, he approached with a paternal expression. Like she had done with me, the Kalrin reached for his face, drawing it towards hers. She pressed her forehead against his. My eyes widened as the vines in his hair intertwined with the veris of her forehead.

“Hello, to you too, little sister,” Mares said with such tenderness that my chest constricted.

She released him, patted his antlers, and touched his ear, probably wondering why his weren’t finned like with the Syllens. Visibly moved by this brief communion with an inhabitant of a world that shared so much with his, Mares took a step back, his eyes blinking rapidly.

In the back, Taelen was partially observing those interactions with approval. Simultaneously, he was walking around the garden, picking certain leaves or fruits before eating them. It didn’t look random but calculated.

Before I could further dwell on it, the Kalrin beckoning Kayog reclaimed my attention. The Temern didn’t hesitate to comply. This time, she didn’t draw his face first but greedily pawed the down feathers of his muscular chest. She then leaned forward so far that I feared for a moment that she would fall out of my arms. Mares and I both burst out laughing when she rubbed her face on his chest. After his initial shock, Kayog chuckled as well. The shaking movement of his chest interrupted her. She jerked her little face up to stare at him.

With the same awe she displayed for my hair, the Kalrin touched his beak in a careful and gentle way. Mares, Talen, and I laughed again when she closed her hand around Kayog’s beak to draw his face closer. Then, like she had done with Mares, she pressed her forehead to his. In that instant, I realized that it was her way of welcoming them and acknowledging them as friends or trusted people. For half a beat, I worried about the fact that she hadn’t done this with me.

But she’s allowing you to hold her while she meets the others.

That definitely counted as a sign of trust.