Page 63 of Unfinished

She still spent the majority of her mornings with Veesha and Faseeth, and he wasn’t even grumbling anymore when she asked him to document their adventures with photos. She was gathering quite the collection to send back home to her family and friends. She decided it was time to finally take a moment and write more than a quick line.

Sienna took the ramps up the back of the temple, getting off on the floor where Faseeth’s room was located. She was only halfway down the hall when she heard Veesha’s happy chatter coming through the partially open door where Faseeth held her indoor lessons. She was lucky to catch them before they headed outside for the day.

“Hello,” she called as she peered inside the room.

Veesha’s feathers ruffled, and she popped up off the floor, running to meet Sienna. Veesha wrapped her arms around Sienna’s legs, effectively trapping her in place. Sienna had to admit that she was getting spoiled by Veesha’s hugs. She hadn’t dared to hope that the little girl would warm to her so quickly, but Veesha almost always had a smile for her now.

“To what do we owe this interruption?” asked Faseeth.

“Do you have time to take a break? I need to contact my family back on Earth, and I was hoping you could show me how to access the pictures you’ve taken for me. I want to show everyone I’m happy and that things are good here. They worry.”

Faseeth stood and bent his head to her. “Yes. I’ll show you. Follow me—you, too, Veesha,” he added as he led them to his private room next door.

It was smaller than R’kash’s, with only a bed, wardrobe, and small table in front of a large window facing the courtyard. He walked over to the table and picked up a tablet similar to the one R’kash had let her use before. She’d need to ask for her own soon, but she wasn’t in a hurry. She’d come to Evathi to get away from a life where she spent all of her time bent over a device.

“If you can access the Mate Portal system, it should be able to scan my face and confirm my access. The program set up channels for us mates to communicate with a list of approved contacts from our home planets,” she explained.

“Here,” said Faseeth a moment later as he handed her the tablet. “Do you know what to do next?”

“Yes, thank you.”

As soon as she was in the system, she quickly dictated messages to Tasha, Theo, and her mother. It didn’t take Faseeth long to show her how to find the images he’d saved for her.

“I’ll make sure you can access all of them from R’kash’s record-tablet in the future,” he told her.

Sienna thanked him and sent her messages, and then she accompanied them outside for another walk to pick flowers. Veesha insisted on having Faseeth cut at least a small bouquet for Sienna each time they visited the fields beyond the temple grounds.

The next day she told R’kash to head to breakfast without her so she could check the Mate Portal system for any new messages. She was surprised to find R’kash’s messages already displayed on the tablet once she activated it. Was that what he was doing when she’d sometimes see him at his desk late at night? Reading their messages again? She reached out to touch the words on the screen and accidentally turned off the device.

Sienna shook her head and reactivated it, switching to her access page. Two new messages waited for her, one from her mom and another from Tasha. She opened Tasha’s first, and was overwhelmed with the photos from a holiday party her friend had gone to the day before. An eight foot Christmas tree sparkled in the background, and Sienna’s eyes shifted to the date on the message—the date back home, December 19th, 2235.

That meant today would be the 20th, and there were only four more days before Christmas.

Sienna glanced over at the two remaining unpacked bags she’d brought from Earth. Those represented everything she’d brought from home to celebrate the season in Evathi. If she was going to bother trying to bring Christmas to the temple, she’d need everyone’s help to do it in time, and they’d need to start today.

She pressed the side of the small communication device attached to her blouse. “Jesthi?” she said, waiting for a reply.

“Yes, Sienna?”

“I need your help. Do you think we can manage to cut down a tree?”

26

All of theresidents of Evathi stood assembled beside the parked glider and flyer.

“How do you think we should do this?” Jesthi asked. “It would be better for the habitat to dig it up, don’t you think? Then we could replant it later.”

Sienna pressed her palm against her forehead. Was that a headache coming on? Expedition Christmas Tree was getting more complicated by the second.

“Look, you use wood for your doors and furniture. Isn’t there something we can do with the tree if we do cut it down? It doesn’t even have to be that large of a tree,” she told them.

H’viss was frowning. “But you wanted us to place it in the kitchen. For it to fit there, it must be an older tree to be tall enough.”

“We don’t need it to brush the ceiling. R’kash, Jesthi, I showed you both Tasha’s pictures. A smaller tree will be fine, right?”

“Let’s travel to the near side of the river and then decide,” said R’kash. “I’ll take the glider with Sienna, Veesha and Faseeth. The rest of you can take the flyer. Make sure to bring the appropriate tools.” R’kash nodded and the others hurried to follow his orders.

Sienna grinned. She liked watching him take charge like that. He caught her smiling at him and his feathers lifted as he looked down. That was R’kash’s equivalent of a blush. She could hardly stop the warmth in her chest from expanding further each time she looked at him. Everything about him just made her happy.

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