Page 23
How in the world did this loser become the Chair of the Xenobotany department of Acadia?
Anyone with basic gardening knowledge would know that urine—even from a human—is actually an excellent fertilizer. It contained some great nutrients for plants such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. You simply couldn’t spray it directly on the plants as the high levels of salt and ammonia could burn or kill the plant roots. Therefore, you needed to dilute it, usually one part urine with ten parts water. At a glance, the small amount Taelan had put in each bucket seemed to match that ratio.
It struck me then that the leaves and fruits he had eaten previously were meant to affect the contents of his urine. But could he process them that quickly? To my shame, even as that thought crossed my mind, I caught myself wanting to take a couple of steps to the left and stretch my neck in a vain effort to get a peek at his crotch.
“Go on. Tell Doopelok Moniuk what it means,” Nym insisted, snapping me back to the topic I was desperate to wipe out of my mind.
I heaved a sigh, knowing there would be no way out of it, and just bit the bullet.
“The literal translation would be ‘feces for brains’,” I mumbled, bracing for what would follow.
This time, holding his beak did little to hide Kayog’s hilarity as his shoulders shook with repressed laughter. Mares faked a cough to hide his. But all that amusement vanished half a beat later as Ludwig lost his mind.
“How dare you?!” he shouted at me, his face twisted with anger.
“Hey, don’t yell at me. You insisted on knowing the translation. I’m just the messenger. Please, calm down,” I said in a controlled voice.
“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down, you bitch!” he yelled, spittle flying out of his mouth.
“Professor!” Kayog snapped, his usually sweet and mischievous demeanor vanishing to be replaced by something hard I never expected from him.
In that instant, I realized that there was far more to this male than the rest of the galaxy assumed. Beneath Kayog’s jovial disposition lurked a fearsome protector, and maybe even a lethal hunter.
“Peter! Control yourself!” Mares exclaimed almost at the same time as the Temern.
Ignoring them, Ludwig took a couple of menacing steps towards me.
“Who the fuck do you think you—?”
He never finished his sentence as everything appeared to happen at once. The Kalrin stopped feeding to hiss at him. White fungus immediately started welling in the center of nearby Laurellis bushes. Drannor pulled a dagger from his belt. However, it was Taelen moving at lightning speed that took my breath away.
One moment he was standing near the buckets by the tree, the next he ran so fast near me you’d think he had teleported. His tail wrapped around my waist, yanking me to him. I collided against his body, the wind knocked out of me. It wasn’t due to the force of the impact, but just the shock of him jumping to my rescue like this, in addition to the incredible feel of his body against mine.
My brain just froze, unable to decide if we needed to be frightened by the fungus rearing its head, fearful that the situation might further devolve into chaos, or marvel at the fact that I was touching a Syllen.
That I was touching Taelen…
To my utter shame, I found myself growing increasingly turned on by the possessive and protective way he was holding me firmly against his side, his tail around my thighs, and his arm around my waist.
He did say that no harm would ever come to me so long as he was by my side.
He was staring at Ludwig, teeth bared and with murder in his eyes. My stupid brain couldn’t help but notice that his teeth weren’t blunt like ours but slightly serrated. I suspected that it allowed them to bite through pretty hard things. It made me wonder if they ate a lot of their food raw.
“Peter, stand down,” Mares said, worry audible in his voice as his gaze flicked between the fungus and the professor. “You must calm down. You’re upsetting the land.”
“This is proof!” he shouted triumphantly while pointing an angry finger at the bushes. “The Syllens launched the attack against us! And they’re doing it again.”
Taelen huffed with almost palpable contempt.
“We did not, you stupid human,” he said in a menacing tone. “The Kalrin and the land see you as a threat to one of ours.”
“I was yelling at her, not one of you,” he spat, his body almost shaking with fury.
“We’re well aware,” Taelen replied. “The plants chose to protect her of their own free will. I don’t need them to attack you.”
At the same time he spoke those words, he lifted his left arm in front of him, his hand closed in a fist. The veris on the back of his hand swelled seconds before some sort of black dart shot forward towards the professor.
I gasped while Ludwig screamed in fear before taking a few steps back when the dart struck the stone tile of the path directly in front of his feet. The impact resounded like a bullet, and rock fragments exploded all around it.
