Page 63 of Tis the Season for Tentacles
“If you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to your units,” the clerk offers.
We’re taken through the forest down a path lit by some type of solar-powered light source. Felix stumbles along at my side, staring up and around him the whole way.
“It’s like the Ewok village inReturn of the Jedi,” he marvels.
Sasha gasps behind us. “Oh, my fucking god, you’re right. How fucking cool is that?”
Khephren beams at his husband. “You like it?”
“I fucking love it!”
Sasha jumps into his arms and they start making out.
“Kill me now. It’d be a mercy,” Luna says as she scurries past them. “Otherwise, I might slowly suffocate to death from all this lovey-dovey sweetness all around me.”
We finally arrive at a large tree that easily looks at least a good thirty feet wide and is too tall for me to estimate its height from where we stand below it.
Felix gapes up at it in wonder. “It’s like a cross between a giant sequoia and a Montezuma cypress tree on Earth. Granted, I’m no expert when it comes to trees, but I do find them fascinating.” He reaches out a hand to gently stroke the trunk. “And beautiful.”
You’re beautiful.
Neptune’s nads. Where the hell did that thought come from unbidden?
But I find I can’t look away from Felix’s face, filled with so much awe.
He really is beautiful. I can’t deny it.
Luna sidles up to me as Felix starts asking the clerk questions about the tree.
“Careful, Naj. You appear downright affectionate when you look at Felix. It’s written all over your face.”
“He’s different from anyone else I’ve ever been with. When I’m with him, I feel…”
She gives me a side hug. “That says it all, my friend. Youfeelfor him. I won’t say what those emotions are, that’s for you to figure out, but they’re already more than anything you’ve ever had with a lover before. Don’t just ignore them or you might live to regret it.”
She squeezes me tight one more time and wanders over to investigate the tree.
My gut tells me that she’s right, but my brain instinctively shies away from what it probably means.
Once the clerk finishes his lively discussion with Felix, we board a mechanized lift and begin our ascent to the different levels of our accommodations.
At least a good fifteen feet from the ground, we stop at the first level.
“This is our floor, so to speak,” Sasha says.
Kheph blows us all a kiss. “Have a good evening, friends, because my husband and I certainly will.”
“You bet your fucking ass we will,” Sasha growls.
But he soon starts laughing when Kheph picks him up and slings him over his shoulder, then hightails it to their sleeping quarters.
Felix and I get off at the next level, leaving Luna to ride up to the top level where she’ll be staying.
“This is seriously out of this world—no pun intended,” Felix murmurs as we head down a short rope bridge walkway that leads right to the entrance of our abode for the night.
“The clerk told me there are no locks on the doors, so we should be able to go straight in,” I say. “Don’t worry, though. They haven’t had any crime here in years.”
We open the door and stare in amazement. Even I’m impressed. The entire space is built in a circular fashion around the trunk of the tree, which forms the central anchor of the dwelling. The floor is made from repurposed wood, and the walls are a mixture of an indigenous form of binding clay mud, stone, and a bamboo-like material. Open windows without any glass or screens are evenly spaced around the diameter of the room.
