Page 10 of Horns & Heart
Chapter5
Inkiri, after whisking off my backpack and putting it down against the wall in the living room, took me back to the mattresses where Lissir was once more engrossed in his manga.Fellisse, the biggest of the five, sat cross-legged on the floor between me and the sliding glass door Inkiri had brought me in through.So much for an easy exit.
“I didn’t mean to make you run,” Fellisse said.“But you are really quite safe here, with us.”He grinned.“And if Inki isn’t the type of mate you are looking for?—”
Lissir glanced up at Fellisse and said something in their language.Then he turned to me.“Fellisse is being an idiot.You will like Inkiri.He’s always been interested in human customs, ever since he was young.”Lissir tilted his head, leaning his horns toward me.They were smaller than Inkiri’s, definitely smaller than Fellisse’s, but still impressive.“I can vouch for him being a competent lover, if that’s a concern.”
No, no it hadn’t been.Who even knew if the parts fit?I certainly hadn’t thought about…parts.Or their fit.I was thinking about it now though, and my cheeks were heating.
“I can’t be monster-married, I just can’t be,” I said.Out loud.Lissir tilted his head in the other direction, his fiery eyes still on me, and I went on.“So you and he, huh?What’s this, some…some harem thing you’ve got going?Looking for a novel type of harem bride on a new world?”
I was a second away from telling them I would suck in the sack on account of my severe lack of experience.But for once, the brain’s quality control unit was on the ball, and I stopped talking.No one needed to know that I was untouched in all the ways that mattered.
Fellisse made his clicking noises while Lissir asked, “What is a harem?Is that your word for an intimate romantic family?”
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye just before someone else spoke.
“It’s when one of them, usually a man, gathers several women in order to control and repeatedly impregnate them.It’s one of the ultimate power fantasies of the patriarchy.”The sneaky one who’d kept me from leaving, Vergis, folded his tall body into a kind of lotus position on the floor to my left, kitty-corner from Fellisse.“Rulers of the past used to do that as a display of power, and some religions still favor the practice.The women are usually severely limited in where they can go, what they can do, whom they can talk to, even what they can think.”
He sounded terribly judgmental.Like, I wasn’t a fan of the patriarchy either, and nor did I think harems were a good idea—apart from the ones I’d read about when I’d been comfort reading things on the internet.Putting a group of movie superheroes in a harem simply made me feel warm and fuzzy, and there was nothing wrong with that.
At any rate, Vergis gave me a dose of razor cool side-eye before ignoring me.I knew I had to watch out for that one the most.Apart from being sneaky, he also didn’t fit in with the rest of them, who wore those fancy all-black outfits, apart from Nokim.Vergis was very human looking in his combat pants and hoodie—apart from the horns, of course.I wondered why he dressed that way.
Not that I really cared.I should probably be focused on leaving.I should not be gettinginterestedor eveninvolved, not even in the most platonic sense of the word.
Lissir tilted his head back and forth, his eyes still on me.“If that’s what a harem is, then no, that’s not it at all.It was just a few times with me and Inkiri, and anyway, I thought you didn’t have a uterus?If most harem arrangements require that… I don’t understand why human women let one man control them?Wouldn’t it be easier, if the mating wasn’t of your choice and if you were in a group with other women, to simply…sakkir?”He looked at Vergis.
Vergis clicked his tongue, not to make the soothing noise, but one more like what a human would make.“It translates to cutting off his horns.But he means basically murdering him.And cutting off his dick at some point in the process.”
The fact that it didn’t bother me that the topic we were discussing had gone from uterus to cutting off dicks was telling.I needed a break.There were no breaks from the apocalypse, but boy, did I ever need one.
“There are laws against that sort of thing.”I sounded confident, then recalled reality.“Or, there were laws against that sort of thing.”
Lissir raised one eyebrow in a very human way.“Laws against…hareming humans with uteruses?”
“Ah, erm, no.Cutting off dicks.You’re not supposed to cut off any dicks.”Go me.That would teach them.I wished furiously that I had the social graces to change topics easily.
Lissir did the head tilt again.“But it is fine to harem a person?”
I felt unfairly put on the spot here.I glanced at Vergis.Who was smirking.He’d turned this whole conversation on its head so it would bite me in the ass, and I was pretty sure he’d done it intentionally.Not that it mattered, since I wasn’t going to stick around, but I really didn’t like him.
“It’s… ‘Harem’ isn’t a verb.And I don’t know what to tell you.It’s unfair, but at some point, people with penises made laws for everyone.Or something.”I’d never been good at explaining complicated concepts either.Several of my teachers had told me that.They had encouraged me to focus on theater, which really should’ve clued me in to what they really thought about me.“I’m really not good at making this make sense…just, you know.Uteri and penises should be equal.”I blushed when that memorable quote blossomed from my mouth with all the oratory grace of…well.I was just a guy talking to monsters.Asking for grace was a bit much in this situation.
The silence was thick, and I could feel the three of them staring.I was pretty sure Vergis was enjoying my discomfort.
“Is ‘uteri’ a plural and a word in your peculiar dialect?”Lissir finally asked.In a very tactful manner.Especially for an otaku who didn’t need a costume to cosplay.
“It is a peculiar dialect, but so similar to yours, Vergis.”Fellisse seemed happy to jump on the tactful train.
“Sure, peculiar uteri dialect.”That was just one more reason for my English teacher to hate me.Vergis’s smirk had grown like a festering wound.
Another long stretch of silence followed.
“Humans are so odd,” Lissir finally said.He looked away again and turned a page in his manga.
As if on cue, Inkiri came back into the room carrying a plate with a sandwich and some potato chips on the side.It looked like regular, normal food.I hadn’t expected to see that here.
Inkiri sat on the couch-mattress between me and Lissir and handed me the food with both hands.He was so close I could feel the warmth of him.He’d taken off his swords.
