Page 44 of Cozy Prisons
He still couldn’t believe he’d been successful.
Decard had suggested staging a play to show Nataly how much he’d changed. Kamie and Kiran said to make it into a musical. When he’d agreed to every suggestion, the band rushed to get their instruments, and everyone else brainstormed the basic plot of their production. After that, they came up with the dialogue and music.
Each step was relatively simple, but putting it together turned out to be more difficult than he expected. They’d practiced for several marks, with the chorus missing cues constantly. Then Sima had the bright idea of putting the script on a small information square and hiding it behind some small rocks at their feet. The band had something similar, so everyone could stay together.
He’d never felt so foolish in his life and half expected that the humans were doing this as a way to humiliate him.
Halfway through the process, he’d realized that this wasn’t meant to mortify; it was a way of bonding.
“I promise I understand now,” he whispered, sounding a constant soothing rumble. The rumble was as much for himself as for Nataly.
“Yeah?”
“Sima helped me to understand,” he explained.
“She’s good at that.” Nataly tightened her hold around his head, then let go. “As much as I want to keep holding you, everyone’s watching. Even though they’re trying to look like they aren’t. The food is on the table, and people are starting to sit down.”
Standing up, he swept her up in his arms and rushed to sit at one of the tables where Sima had already sat down with a bowl-plate full of food. Taking the spot next to her, he settled Nataly on his lap.
“How about this?” he asked.
“Great, except we’re still lacking some food.”
Before he needed to figure out how to keep Nataly on his lap and fetch a plate full of dinner, Rami set an overfull plate down in front of him.
“All your favorites,” she sang, then moved off to join Illea and Ula at another table.
He would’ve liked to have fed her, but she was quick to grab a piece of flat bread and scoop up some bilf meal.
“Ahhh, so good,” she said around a mouthful. “Here, have some.”
He realized her intention just in time to open his mouth before she smooshed the bilf meal ladened flatbread against his closed lips. As he chewed, Nataly’s attention was captured by something.
“Uh oh, someone’s upset.”
Sima and he followed her gaze to see Kiran and Kamie standing in front of Falkilm to keep him from leaving.
“We saved a spot for you,” Kamie said.
Kiran pointed to one of the tables. “Right between us.”
Falkilm sounded a negative rattle. “I will not remain where I'm considered a villain.”
“Oh no,” Sima murmured. “I warned everyone this might happen.”
“You’re not the villain!” Kiran objected.
Falkilm sounded a negative rattle. “It seemed as if I was.”
Kamie shook her head. “You were the dramatic foil, not the villain.”
Falkilm’s angry rattle stopped. “Dramatic foil?”
“It’s important that there is a dramatic foil, and you were the only character we could do that with,” Kiran said. “No one else was going to be able to hold that side of the production up. Without that role, none of it would’ve worked.”
“Balance is important,” Falkilm agreed. Daxus couldn’t tell if the healer believed what they were saying or was simply desperate to be convinced, so he didn’t need to leave.
Kiran and Kamie kept explaining how important his character was to the story as they led him to their table, got him to sit down, then crowded in next to him.
