Page 14 of To Quench Her Thirst

Addie looked over and saw three old ladies. They were small and bent, all seated together on a padded bench at the end of the table. Their faces were netted with wrinkles but their eyes…

How are their eyes still so young?Addie wondered as she nodded politely at the old women. Their eyes looked clear and bright and they were staring sharply at her.

"Please let me introduce you, Lssa Addison," Sambla said. "This is Ls Tissa, Ls Hissa, and Ls Prissa. And this is Lssa Addison of the Kindred Mother Ship," he added, speaking to the three women. "She is our honored guest and she hopes to be allowed to participate in the Ceremony of Choosing. In fact, I invited her here just for that purpose, so I hope you'll approve my invitation."

“She seems a good enough sort of girl,” the old lady Sambla had introduced as Ls Tissa remarked.

“Her skin is lovely and pale,” Ls Hissa added approvingly.

“I’m not convinced. Show us your teeth girl,” Ls Prissa demanded.

“My what?” Addie was sure she’d misunderstood.

“Your teeth, your teeth!” Ls Prissa said impatiently. “Open your mouth and show them!”

“Oh, er, all right.” Addie nodded quickly.

Feeling somewhat awkward, she opened her mouth and bared her teeth for the three older women. To her consternation, Ls Prissa actually leaned across the table and ran her thumb over the top row, paying special attention to the small points of her canine teeth for some reason.

Unsure of what to do, Addie just sat there and allowed it. She didn’t want to be rude and she realized that different cultures had different ways of greeting each other, but still, this seemed to be beyond the pale. Was she at a feast or at the dentist?

Thankfully, it was over soon. Ls Prissa sat back and nodded solemnly.

“She’ll do. Those teeth show promise. Her hair isn’t Sheelash White, but we could use some fresh blood.”

“Agreed.” Ls Hissa nodded and Ls Tissa did as well.

“She can participate in the ceremony,” Ls Prissa said decisively. “Good judgment on your part bringing her here, Sambla.”

“I thank you for the kind compliment and your generosity towards my guest,” Lx Sambla said, bowing his sleek blond head humbly. “And I know that Addison thanks you as well.”

“Oh yes—thank you,” Addie said quickly, but she still felt strange. She had assumed she would have to impress the Council of Aged Ones with witty banter and excellent table manners. Instead, she felt like she’d just been inspected like a horse at a livestock auction.

She was about to try and make conversation with the three elderly women anyway, but just then the first course of the feast arrived.

"Ah, lovely! Blood cubes!" Lx Sambla exclaimed as the server scooped several jiggly, dark maroon cubes onto the curving, bone-white plate in front of him.

“Um…blood cubes?” Addie asked as several of the cubes were placed on her own plate as well. They were about twice as large as dice and they made unpleasant dark red smears on the white plate when she nudged them gently with the back of the two-tined utensil which she supposed was the Vargan version of a fork.

“Yes, they’re a delicacy—reserved only for feasts. Try them, lovely one—they’re delicious.” Sambla scooped up one of the cubes and popped it whole into his mouth.

Addie had no interest in eating the weird cubes, which looked oddly like some form of blood Jell-O. Luckily, she had a trick for when she was visiting a new world and had to eat unappetizing food. She just kept cutting it into smaller and smaller pieces and every once in a while she would bring her fork to her mouth and pretend to chew. That way it looked like she was eating whatever it was when in actuality, she wasn’t doing anything of the sort.

But this time her tried and true technique failed her. Because when she picked up the sharp serrated blade on the other side of her plate and began trying to cut the nearest blood cube, it burst and splattered all over her plate.

“Oh!” Addie gasped, jumping back in surprise. Her chair nearly tipped over but luckily Lx Sambla seemed to have superhuman reflexes. He reached for her chair and tipped it back into place before she could topple over.

“There, there, my beauty—are you all right?” he asked, giving her an anxious look.

“I…I’m fine. It just surprised me when the, er, blood cube exploded,” Addie explained, looking down at the bloody mess on her plate.

“You must have tried to cut it or spear it—blood cubes aredelicate. They must be scooped up using your toonsil.” He held up what looked like a miniature golden spade, which was as close to a spoon as anything Addie could see in her place setting. Then, to demonstrate, he scooped one of the jiggling cubes up with the small instrument. “See? And once you have it, you slide it right into your mouth and it pops on your tongue—notall over your plate,” he went on.

“Oh, I see,” she said faintly. “Thank you for showing me.” She started to pick up her own “toonsil” but Lx Sambla wasn’t done with her yet.

"Here, allow me to feed you one," he said, smiling at her and showing extremely white teeth that now had blood between them.

“Oh, er…” Addie tried to think of a way to politely decline. “I just don’t think—” she began but Sambla took advantage of her open mouth to pop the blood cube inside.

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