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After their server walked away, Hope leaned toward Deimos. “I love their outfits. Are they uniforms?”
“Yes, they are. On Nova Aurora, we can customize our clothing to our mood.” Deimos seemed quiet or worried.
“What does it mean if they are wearing a combination of gray and black?”
Deimos grinned for a second. “They aren’t in a great mood.”
Hope looked at Deimos’s clothing. Indeed, it seemed to be changing from the blue and green he had worn earlier in the day. Now, it was all a dark blue.
“Is … that why your clothes just changed color?”
“Yeah … sorry, but I’m just worried about my cows. Are they being poisoned? Are they sick because they aren’t used to the environment up here?”
Hope wished she had already had the answer for Deimos. She saw that he wanted to help his cows get well.
“Deimos, we’ll get to the bottom of this. We’ll find a way to make them well again. Tell me, how long did it take for them to start looking ill?”
Deimos thought back.
“Not right away. Maybe … two or three months?”
“So, they had already been drinking the water on the ranch and eating the feed you gave to them? Do they eat the grass?”
“Now, they do. At first, the different appearance confused them.”
“And nothing happened right after they ate it?”
“No.”
“Does their energy level change? Do they get up and walk around before lying down again? Or are they always lethargic?”
“They rarely move around anymore. Sometimes, they are more lethargic than at other times.”
The server returned with their drinks and took their orders.
Deimos looked around, seeming to be looking for particular shifters. When he didn’t spot them, he seemed to relax slightly.
“Well … if they were already eating and drinking the food and water here, I don’t think it’s that. Do they eat the plant life here?”
“Yeah, they love it. It’s funny. They still eat and drink. They haven’t lost weight. They just have no energy.”
Without thinking, Hope patted Deimos’s hand. “I’m confident we’ll figure it out. Tell me. Do you have a vet here who can help us out? Just in case?”
“Oh, yeah … he’ll come out right away. He suggested finding a vet from Earth … but I wasn’t sure.” Deimos flipped his hand over and wrapped Hope’s much smaller hand in his.
Hope had difficulty expelling a breath after Deimos took her hand. “Did … did he want an Earth vet because your cows are from Earth?” Slowly, she expelled the breath stuck in her lungs.Who would have known just how good Deimos’s hand would feel?
Deimos responded to Hope’s question. “He did. He needed to be sure that the treatments you’ll use on the cows are something similar to what he would do.” Tenderly, Deimos ran his thumb over the top of Hope’s hand … he didn’t seem to want to lose the contact.
Finally, their food arrived. Hope had ordered a cup of beef stew with vegetables. Deimos ordered a large, rare steak with vegetables.
Gingerly, Hope tasted her stew.
“Mmm. Wow, this is really good.” Hope picked up the light-purple roll that came with her stew. Being used to rolls that were golden brown on the outside and soft white on the inside, she wanted to make sure she wouldn’t be too surprised.
“It tastes just as good as that bread you ate the other day. Take a bite.” Deimos’s grin lightened his face.
“Oh, what the hell …” Hope murmured. Closing her eyes, she took a bigger bite of the roll. Her eyes snapped right open. “My God! So buttery and smooth! Deimos, why is it that the different breads have different tastes?”
