Page 33 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“Do humans bobble their heads as a sign of gratitude? How adorable you are!” Pumlura said and filled the bag with purple, gold, orange, and more blue bags. She put so many in there the top didn’t want to close. I could make an entire wardrobe with all those bags!

“There, now you have several of each color,” she announced, setting the bag aside. I would give her a hug, but having Nadia strapped to my chest made that problematic. Instead, I walked up and took one of Pumlura’s hands in both of mine.

“You’ve made me very happy.”

Pumlura purred loudly. “Oh, this is affection. You’re feeling affectionate toward me!”

It took so little to make these Talins feel special that I decided to go a step further. “Do you want to meet Nadia?”

Pumlura sounded a rumble of agreement. I let go of her hand and carefully peeled back the top of the carrier so she could see more of Nadia’s sleeping face. One of her hands was in front of her mouth, her little fingers loose now from where she’d been gripping my top before falling asleep.

“She’s so very tiny,” Pumlura breathed, putting her face close to Nadia. “Look at her miniature fingers. I’ve never seen blunt claws before.”

“Fingernails,” I corrected. “We don’t have claws.”

By now, Relson and Famorum had noticed and rushed to stand next to Pumlura so they could admire Nadia. I could tell they were all desperate to touch her, so I let them pet the top of her head with a finger.

When Nadia made a little sound, stretched an arm, and went back to sleep, you would’ve thought she’d done some kind of amazing feat of strength by the way the Talins reacted.

I thought my child was adorable and special because she was mine. These people thought she was adorable and special too, and she wasn’t even their species. It made my heart swell with pride!

“I’m going to find a human of my own,” Relson said with absolute conviction.

“They’re hard to find,” Mazorium said, coming up behind me. “I was blessed by the ancestors to have come across these two up for auction.”

“I’ve lived an honorable life,” Relson replied without taking his eyes off Nadia. “I’m sure the ancestors will bless me.”

Pumlura and Famorum said something similar. I could only be thankful that most humans lived deep in the Ilgorian Federation, far from the Talin Empire. As far as I knew, theIlgorians and Talins didn’t even have trade relations, so unless I said something, those humans wouldn’t be found and enslaved.

A small part of me wondered if they wouldn’t be better off among these Talins, but the larger part of me hated the lack of choice. If I thought the Talins could go to them and make a reasonable offer, I’d talk, but I knew better. This species felt superior to everyone and wouldn’t think anything of enslaving a bunch of humans without even saying hi first.

Nope, I was keeping my mouth firmly shut. If anyone ever asked, I’d say that as far as I knew, Nadia and I were the last humans left alive in the universe!

Chapter 11

Mika

By the time they were done, Mazorium had purchased more items than I’d owned in my entire life all together. I stared at the bot they were loading, absolutely flabbergasted.

“My flabbers have been gasted,” I muttered to myself, remembering a line from an Old Earth show I’d watched on repeat when I was young.

“My INT couldn’t translate that,” Mazorium said with a concerned rumble. “Was that in an archaic human language?”

I snorted. “Sort of.”

Most of the items were for Nadia. She would be growing rapidly over the next few years, and Mazorium wanted to be prepared with most of what she’d need. Even now, the tailor machine they had in the back was whirring away at a series of pants made out of the everclean material for when she didn’t need to wear onesies any longer. They’d even discussed designing little knee pads for when she started crawling, but atmy insistence it wasn’t necessary, they settled on special padded mats from a place several shops down.

That wasn’t the only thing coming from other stores. Pumlura helped Mazorium remotely buy specialty food packs, gentle body and “mane” cleansers, lotions, and salves, all to be delivered straight to our ship.

I wasn’t going to object, even though I had this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Nothing good ever happened to me, so if I was getting all this for me and Nadia, I was scared the universe was going to make me pay in some way.

I knew better than to try and explain that to Mazorium.

“These arrived for the human and her pup,” Famorum said, walking to the back with her arms full of boxes.

“Why weren’t they sent directly to the ship?” Mazorium asked.

She checked a tag on one of the packages. “They’re gifts from other Talins on the station.”