Page 12 of Cozy Prisons
Kamie pouted. “You make that sound like a bad thing.”
Daxus sounded a rumble of amusement. It was the first sound he’d made since the two had shown up.
“I look forward to watching this play out,” he announced.
“Don’t we all,” Kiran drawled, eyeing where Nataly’s hand was still joined with Daxus’s. “Were you two leaving?”
He took Kiran’s question literally despite the high amount of smirk in the human’s tone. “I’m escorting Nataly to her domicile.”
“Have a nice night,” Kamie said. “Please make sure to do all the things we’d do.”
Nataly rolled her eyes. “I’m not flexible enough for the games you guys like to play.”
Kiran gave her a cheeky grin. “Most aren’t.”
The couple walked away, whispering intensely. They were probably plotting on how to get Falkilm alone.
“They are bold,” Daxus observed as he guided her to the door.
“Very,” she agreed. The cool night air felt good after being in the overly warm communal building. She looked up, but therewere too many lights in their little village to see many stars. It was a shame; she’d gotten used to staring out at the stars on the journey to Arise.
“Do they really want Falkilm or are they playing with him?” Daxus asked.
“They want him,” she assured him. “Kamie and Kiran had a third and lost him a few years ago. They haven’t been interested in anyone else until now.”
Daxus let out a breath. “That’s good. Falkilm suffered badly in his past too. It’s not my place to talk about it, but I wouldn’t want him to be used and discarded for someone's amusement.”
“They’d never do that,” she said, remembering how deeply Kamie and Kiran had mourned when they lost Denel. “I promise, if they’re interested in Falkilm, it’s for something serious and long-term.”
Even though they were walking slowly, it didn’t take long to reach her domicile. The entire village wasn’t large yet, but there was plenty of space to expand as more people arrived. Palathum planned to add more rings of domiciles as needed. Nataly could already picture a large, thriving community of humans, Talins, and children.
It was something she couldn’t wait to see. An intense sense of pride filled her when she thought of it because she got to be part of it from the very beginning.
When they reached her domicile door, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Daxus yet. She didn’t let go of his hand as the door slid open.
“I have some sopa, would you like some?” she asked as she led him into her domicile.
“I’ve never been inside here,” he murmured, looking around. “It’s far more bare than the other humans’ homes.”
It was true that her home didn’t have any colorful blankets, wall hangings, or any little decorations that her friends seemed to collect without effort.
All the smaller domiciles were built the same, one large, round room with a flat roof. There was a small food preparation area on the wall opposite the door.
As you walked in, a small elimination and cleansing unit was to the right, so most people put their beds to the left. She’d done that, but instead of filling the rest of the area with couches, tables, and chairs, she had one long worktable with a powerful inset display unit and several ports for plugging in troublesome data crystals or cubed computing matrixes.
The rest of her floor space was taken up with small bots and parts and pieces from other bots and machinery.
When something started acting oddly, it was immediately brought to her. She had limited ability to do mechanical work, but she loved coding. Between Riff’s mechanical skills and her programming and electrical work, they were able to repair the bots and send them back out.
Early in the settlement, there was no place to work on them except her domicile. Even after several buildings were available for her to use as a workspace, she’d turned them down. That was about the same time she started having a hard time going anywhere alone.
So far the ruse had helped to keep her struggles a secret.
Moving her gaze around, she saw it in a new light. The place looked like a shop with a bed, not a domicile at all.
“I’m sorry, I guess I let my work take over,” she said, pulling her hand free of Daxus. “Do you want some sopa?”
“My observation wasn’t an insult to your domicile,” Daxus said quickly, his purring getting louder.
