Page 20 of I Married A Syllen

“It is an honor to meet you, little one,” Kayog said gently, moments before the Kalrin released him.

To my surprise, she did not turn towards Ludwig and snuggled against me instead. I wondered if her interactions with us had drained what little energy she possessed. Just as I was starting to caress the back of her head in a soothing fashion, she reached for the collar of my blouse and tugged on it to expose one of my breasts.

“No!” I exclaimed, grabbing her hand to stop her while pulling my garment backup.

She gave me a confused look.

“No, little sister,” Taelen said, swiftly swallowing the leaf he had been eating while walking towards us. “She cannot feed you. But help is coming.”

I didn’t know how much she understood from him speaking to her in his language. She blinked, seeming still confused. She stared at my breast, peered up at my face, and then glanced back at Taelen.

“Soon. But not from her,” he said affectionately.

Although she still seemed confused, the Kalrin snuggled against me again, closing her eyes this time. Taelen studied my features with a mixture of surprise and approval.

“It’s a great mark of trust that she would seek to feed from you,” he said pensively. “Somehow, you have truly connected with the land. This is very good. It will make things easier.”

“Things?” I repeated.

He gave me a strange look but didn’t answer.

“We have incoming!” Mares said.

We all looked where he was pointing only to see two Syllens riding Nordjarimms who were flying in our direction.

“Yes,” Taelen said, looking pleased. “You’ve met them. It’s Nym and Drannor.”

At the same time, a man in his mid-twenties wearing the uniform of the Botanical Garden appeared at the other end of the path. He seemed extremely nervous, glancing warily at the plants on each side while he approached. The poor man feared an impromptu attack. Behind him, a hovercart followed quietly, ladened with three buckets full of water.

Taelen picked up a bucket in each hand and placed them next to the Kandra tree. The staffer grabbed the third bucket, following him, and put it down where he indicated. The look of wonder mixed with fear that he leveled on Taelen was both amusing and endearing.

“How many other trees like this are there in this place?” Taelen asked him.

“F… Four,” the man replied, his eyes so wide they looked on the verge of popping out of his head.

Taelen frowned and pursed his lips as he glanced pensively at the buckets.

“Then we will need three more buckets for each of them. Please bring them, then you can show us their location,” Taelen said in a commanding tone.

“Yes, Sir,” the staffer replied.

He swallowed hard, unsure what to do when Taelen simply turned his back to him. Realizing he’d been dismissed, he cast a nervous look in our direction. His jaw dropped when he saw the Kalrin cradled in my arms. Like the other people who hadn’t witnessed the attack, he had likely wondered whether one of the ‘wood fairies’ had truly awakened. I winked at him, and he smiled awkwardly in return. After giving each of my other companions a stiff nod, he headed back towards the entrance with the hovercart.

Taelen sank his hand into one of the buckets. His face went slack and his gaze out of focus as I assumed he was testing the quality of the water with his veris. A few seconds later, he scooped up some water, the webbing between his fingers turning his palm into a perfect bowl. He drank three handfuls. At that moment, I realized what he was doing. I bit the inside of my cheeks to stifle a smile in anticipation of what stuffy Ludwig’s reaction might be once he realized it, too.

Except, the foolish man had something else in mind…

Probably feeling slighted that the Kalrin hadn’t shown interest in him, Professor Ludwig marched towards me and reached for her. He never got to make contact. I couldn’t tell whether she sensed his approach or smelled him—not that his Cologne was particularly heavy. The Kalrin snapped her eyes open, jerked her head towards him, and hissed at Ludwig with such venom that it sent a chill down my spine.

He jumped back, wisely yanking his hand away. Taelen chuckled, and Kayog wrapped his hand around his beak in the telltale fashion bird folk did either to express contrition or to hide their laughter. That further rubbed salt into the wound.

To my dismay, instead of being resentful towards the little creature, Ludwig glared at me as if I was somehow to blame for that rejection. Dismissing him from my thoughts, I refocused on the two Syllens who were completing their approach.

Good Lord, they were also beautiful!

The male had a comparable height and body mass to Taelen’s. But his skin had a greige tinge, and he stared at us with bluish-green eyes. Despite being quite handsome, he didn’t make my toes curl the way Taelen did. I couldn’t tell if it was because I saw him first, but to me, Taelen was the embodiment of sheer perfection.

The female left me breathless. She had a slender body to die for, with a narrow waist, which flared just the right way at the hips, and an endless pair of legs. The most famous female fitness models would drool with envy as her fit and muscular body remained exquisitely feminine. Her skin had a golden, coppery color. And her skirt boasted a beautiful golden hue that matched her amber eyes. In that instant, I realized that the Syllens’ eye color determined the one from their skirts.