Page 2 of Barbarian's Treat

"You will sit on my face and I will lick you like this spoon? I look forward to it." And his tongue snakes out and drags over the spoon again, making me all flushed. Goodness.

"Yes. Um. Where were we. Oh. Costumes. Halloween. It's a tradition back home, another holiday. It's one focused around children, really, though there are a lot of adults who enjoy it, too." Summing up all of Halloween suddenly feels very overwhelming. Where to begin?

"You do love your howl-days," Ereven tells me, his tone indulgent. "Is this another one we will celebrate?"

"Oh. I...I don't know. I didn't bring it up because of that..." Yet now the idea unfurls in my head. I do love a holiday. I love something special to celebrate, to see the kids' eyes light up at the thought of a big festival of some kind. No-Poison Day has become an annual experience, and a few couples have celebrated Valentine’s Day but not regularly. It would be nice to have another holiday to break up the long, dull brutal season. The sa-khui don't have official holidays but they celebrate births, matings and anything else they can.

We could certainly do a watered-down ice planet version of Halloween. Cute costumes, treats for the kids, maybe a festival for the adults of some kind...the idea has been toyed with before, but when the kits were very little, it seemed like a bad idea tointroduce a holiday full of scares. But now a lot of the kits are older...

"Is this another holiday about poison?" my mate asks, expression skeptical. "Is that why you are reluctant?"

"No, this is the one about ghosts. Goblins. Scary things that go bump in the night."

He winces. "Relvi is already afraid of the dark."

"I know. The human version of the holiday loves to play up scary things, but maybe our version can just be about fun. It doesn't have to be about ghosts or spookiness." I brighten. "We could call it a fall festival!"

"A fall festival. Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do we fall? Why is it being celebrated?"

I giggle and lean in to kiss my mate again, because he's so cute and his misunderstandings just give me fuel. We need a holiday that's kid-safe but fun for the adults, too. Trick or treating and dressing up, absolutely. Maybe carnival games. Maybe a fun maze...

Ereven's lips linger on mine. He tastes like spices, and when he nibbles on my lower lip, I forget about holidays for a brief moment. The kiss deepens and he pulls away, giving me a wicked stare. "Are you sure we do not have time for you to sit on my face?"

I bite my lip. "Well, maybe just a quickie."

We grab hands and all but race to the furs.

CHAPTER

TWO

CLAIRE

I'm still thinkingabout Halloween the next day, and so I head over to visit Asha to get her perspective on things. Ereven has the kids. He takes them in the mornings so I can get my visits in with the other women, and so I can have “alone” time to catch up on anything I need to or to just unwind. Since it's the brutal season, he's staying close to camp, fishing when he has to, and plucking dirtbeak eggs and nests when necessary.

When I arrive, my friend has a visitor. Asha is sitting with Josie, and both wave at me as I enter. Asha is barely showing, and Josie's belly is huge—ironic because they both got pregnant again at about the same time. But that's sa-khui pregnancy for you. I beam at them, pulling up a stool. "Hi ladies. No kids today?"

"Haeden took ours for a nature walk since it's nice out." Josie beams and rubs her belly. "He's such a good dad."

"Shema has her hands in smelly paste, just like her father." Asha shakes her head and pretends to be irritated. "She might look like me, but she must create things with her hands like Hemalo."

Speaking of creating... "I want to throw something at you guys and you tell me what you think."

"I think if you throw something at me, I will not be happy," Asha says, tilting her head at me. "What are you throwing?"

"Just words. Ideas." I immediately start pacing in Asha's cluttered hut. Hemalo has one hut that he uses for storing all the skins and leatherworking concoctions, but his projects are scattered all over their home. Half-sewn tunics and blankets-in-progress are strewn everywhere. Josie perches on a stuffed seat amidst the chaos, and Asha delicately works on making holes in clay beads.

"I think we should have another holiday," I begin.

Josie giggles.

Asha rolls her eyes, not looking up from her beading.

"What?" I demand, grinning. "I like a holiday. Sue me."

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