Page 6 of Cozy Prisons
Then she seemed to withdraw and he rarely saw her except for the evening community meal. She seldom left her domicile, and it became common for everyone to bring problem units to her instead of asking her to go anywhere to fix them.
He’d tried to ask the other humans if she was feeling well, or if perhaps he’d done something wrong, but all he got were cheerful non-answers.
It wasn’t until Riff took the processing unit from a cleansing machine to Nataly’s domicile that he realized how he could see her again. All he needed was to find a malfunctioning piece of equipment! He’d been searching ever since. Unfortunately, nothing broke in the right way!
Then she fainted.
He hated that she was sick and was obviously not telling him or Falkilm everything, but he thanked the ancestors that he’d been in the perfect place to save her.
“Nataly!” Ula called out from across the room. The seven-year-old human had arrived not long ago along with her small family. Iris and Damascus found the impoverished family barely surviving on a Tiltimun-owned space station. They’d arrived too late to buy a human woman who was up for auction, but were able to offer the family a way off the station before they, too, ended up on the auction block.
The human-Talin couple ran much of Palathum’s station building empire. As a Talin, Damascus was the face and Iris was the brains. By taking over, they gave Palathum the freedom to stay on the colony she was building from scratch.
Daxus was invited to join the clever Iris and devoted Damascus as they searched the galaxy for humans who might want to live on Arise.
Then he’d met Nataly during a resupply visit and knew that settling on Arise was the right choice.
Now he was going to spend the evening with her. It was a small thing, but it felt significant.
“Nataly, you’re going to be so impressed!” Ula said, skidding to a halt in front of them.
“Hi, Ula,” Nataly said, smiling down at the excited little girl. “Why am I going to be impressed?”
“I programmed Iffy to do a trick,” Ula explained, jumping up and down with excitement. “Come see!”
“Iffy?” Daxus asked.
“It’s the strider Nataly gave me to practice my programming,” Ula explained with an air of impatient excitement. She gave Nataly a massive grin and hopped in place. “Let’s go!”
“Of course,” Nataly said. Daxus could tell she wasn’t as eager as she appeared, so he sounded a negative rattle.
“The strider’s trick will need to wait until Nataly’s eaten,” he told the little girl. When Nataly didn’t object to his declaration, he knew it was the right call.
Ula’s smile only dimmed a little as she looked at him, then back at Nataly. “I guess that's okay. Sima made cake, and if we left we might miss it. But promise that you’ll come see it before you go home!”
Nataly nodded. “I can’t wait.”
“Ula, let Nataly eat,” Rami called from where she was sitting with her partner Illea.
“Mom, she can eat while I talk to her,” Ula yelled back. Her logic was sound, but more than that, Daxus was impressed with her boldness. As a child, he learned early to obey all commands quickly and without comment or risk his caregiver’s displeasure.
Ula was an excellent example of how children should be raised: to be bold and questioning.
“Ula, please join us,” Illea said, their voice soft but firm. Ula made a loud, exaggerated sigh and stomped over to her parents. Daxus couldn’t help the rumble of amusement that slipped out of him at the child's dramatics.
He wasn’t the only one, Nataly and Rami also chuckled.
Nataly’s arm was still wrapped around his, so he guided her to a table laden with food. Quite a bit of it was already gone.
“Oh, there’s jorjuk!” Nataly exclaimed and pulled her arm from his. He missed her touch but liked that she picked up a bowl-plate and filled the entire bowl section with hearty, thick, jorjuk. Then she filled the plate area with mazo and a couple of pieces of black flat bread. All were good choices for her.
He wasn’t hungry, but he knew humans didn’t like it when others didn’t eat with them. He picked up a plate and put a token amount of food on it.
“There’s a place to sit over there,” he said, pointing to a bench. It was the only empty seat and it put them in a spot by themselves.
Another gift from the ancestors.
Nataly straddled the bench and placed her food in front of her. He mirrored her so they were facing each other. He took small bites and chewed slowly, waiting for her to eat her fill.
