Page 15 of Guardian's Legacy
I nodded.
"Why now?"
I closed my eyes, channeling my inner patience. Always with the questions. So many endless questions. "Because I haven’t had a chance to do so before. Now we're here, and I can, so what else?"
"Where exactly is here?"
That made my patience meter overflow. "Do you need other things or not?" I growled.
"Whoa, Mister Short Circuit, keep your pants on. Give me a sec. You can't just throw this at me and expect me to be ready."
I had no idea what most of her words meant, but I gathered she needed some time to think. We weren't technically in a hurry, but I would like to be far away from Morrakbarr before somebody decided to retaliate for the dead Pronex. I was sure Khuf had some friends here.
"We need hygiene articles," Alice said after a moment's pause.
"Hygiene articles?" I echoed. "There's soap and?—"
She waved her hand in the air, and her face turned red, a most appealing look, "For when one of us women menstruates?"
"Menstruates?"
"Oh my God," her face turned redder. "You know that women bleed once a month, right? Or wait…" she scrunched up her nose, "do alien women not do that?"
I had no idea what she was talking about. "We have healing wands and bandages."
"Fuck me. I'm about to give an alien a female anatomy class," Alice mumbled to herself. "Fine, look." She took a deep breath. "Earth women," she stressed both words, "bleed once a month from their vaginas." She stared at me. "You know what a vagina is, right?"
I nodded; of course I knew what a vagina was; I just… oh!
"You mean during fertility season?" I finally understood.
"Yeah, something like that," she nodded. "So we need something to… to catch the flow of blood."
"How often are human females in season?" I wanted to know, not that it mattered, but I was curious.
She sighed as if she took affront to my words, but kept her voice even. "Once a month."
"Once a month?" I asked incredulously. "Once a month? Are you sure?"
"Well, I'm a woman, so yeah," she inhaled and added louder, "I'm sure!"
And then, "How often do… alien women… go into… season?"
"It depends on the species," I tried to recall my faint knowledge of female seasons; it wasn't something I’d ever dealt with. "But most, like, once a year?"
"Once a year?" She looked dreamy. "That must be nice."
I thought about it for a moment. "I suppose if that happens, I could make one of the rooms available for the female so she can choose her partner and breed."
"What?" Alice glared at me.
Now what did I say? I thought that was a generous offer.
"Well, if they need to mate, they can use one of the rooms. How long do their seasons last? Do they all have it at the same time?"
She stared at me as if I had lost my mind. But then something must have clicked in her head because her features softened. "Oh."
"What?"
