Page 9 of The Alien Noble's Little Human

She nods.

“I’m nervous because… I’ve never met a princess before.” She smiles at me.

“Never?” A look of pride washes over her face. “I’m your first princess?”

“My very first. I don’t think I could’ve hoped for a better one to meet. That’s a good sign that you couldn’t tell. I must be doing okay. I think I forgot to curtsy.”

“You’re doing great!” she says with a laugh. “The doctors didn’t curtsy.”

I make a show of bending my calves into a plié hurriedly. “Phew. I almost became just like all the others.”

“Is there anything else the doctors did or didn’t do?”

She thinks for a long moment. “They asked a lot of hard questions.” I can hear in her voice as she’s answering a rattle that disturbs me. It’s different from an ordinary wheeze. It sounds like ball-bearings clattering in her lungs.

“I bet they did. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to ask you a few questions, too. But I’ll try my best to make them easy. If it gets hard, just tell me to stop. Okay?”

She nods hesitantly.

“Well, first question. I feel so silly. You still haven’t told me your name!”

“I’m Hanai!”

“Nice to meet you, Princess Hanai!” I hold out my hand, and she shakes it. I also do another curtsy, followed by a deep bow. She smiles and returns the gesture as best she can while laying in the bed.

I see streaks of red on her neck, but it’s not on the skin. It’s from the blood inside, and it’s radiating outward. I can make the conversation light to make the exam easier, but unfortunately, no amount of lightness can change the gravity of the symptoms I can already detect.

“Now, would you like to play a game?” Taurek clears his throat as if objecting, but I have my methods.

Hanai immediately lights up.

“A game? What game?”

“Give me your arm.” Hanai holds out her arm, and I take it as I kneel back down. I place two fingers on the inside of her wrist. “Count to sixty as fast as you can in three…two…one!”

Meanwhile, I check her pulse while she occupies herself by counting.

Hanai completes the counting task, although it took a strenuous effort for her to keep focus, and the numbers weren’t always in sequence. A few times, her mouth moved though no words came out, but she continued counting as if they had.

At twenty-seven, she started back at eighteen, but I didn’t correct her. It gave me more time to check.

“Fifty-nine! Sixty! Did I win?”

Her pulse is extremely elevated in bursts, followed by periods of activity so slow as to be indetectable. It’s incredibly disturbing, and it reveals her precarious situation. I manage not to reveal my alarm at the symptoms.

“A new record!”

I hold out my hand. “Next game! Can you please squeeze my hand as hard as you can? Try to hurt me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you! You’re my friend!”

“Pretend I’m one of those mean doctors.”

A smirk grows on her face as she takes my hand. She squeezes as hard as she can, but she can barely even grasp with her fingers. I pretend she’s crushing my hand.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!”

“Sorry!”

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