Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
"I insist," Zhur agrees, lowering his arm. "Make me the concoction and I shall bathe with it regularly."
"Yeah, well, I would, but you used up all my spices and most of my oil. I'm going to have to restock."
"You can do that tomorrow when we go into town."
That might look a little strange, me buying spice in bulk. I suppose I can just blame it on my new husband's tastes. That he loves the spices or something. "You act like I'm made of money."
That makes him pause. Concern flashes over his face. "My trunks—"
"I know, I know. Your trunks have your money in them. It's fine. I'll figure it out. Maybe I can get a line of credit." I wish I was joking about the money, but the truth is that I spent most of my savings to bring my pet here to Risda III and instead I got...him.
But Zhur isn't boring, at least. "Come on. I'll show you how to do the feeding command for the cattle. It'll make them come running and we don't have to stress about herding them. We'll also do a head count as they come in."
He scoffs. "Won't your bots tell you about that?"
"They tell me some," I agree. "But I like to see things with my own eyes to get the full story. Now, are you going to help me around the farm or are you going to argue?"
All of the cattle come in when they're called, but three have runny, green mucus that drips down their noses and leaves trails behind them. Zhur looks absolutely horrified, and I bite back my “I told you so” and turn it into a lesson. I run a scan on the animals and there's no fever or visible sickness, which means they ate something. We walk the pasture, looking for culprits, and sure enough, one of my crop plants has grown close enough to the fence that the cattle can eat the leaves by just leaning on the fence and making it give a little.
"This is why you check everything with your eyes," I tell him, slipping through the fencing to cut the plant back far out of reach. "Technically they're fine, but cattle are dumb. If they keep eating it—and they will—they could make themselves sicker. But the bots look for fevers, not stomach upset. Just like the fence alerts look for breaks. They don't say anything about the cattle leaning on the fence so it'll give a bit." I gesture at the metal stake tilted at an angle in the ground. "We'll get tools and drill that deeper into the ground in the morning."
Zhur eyes it, then grabs the stake and pulls it out. The cords for the electric fencing are turned off at the moment, but the sight of them twisting as he messes with the stake still makes me nervous. He jams the stake back in, deeper than before, and then looks around. There's a large rock—the size of a tire—nearby. He heads for it and hefts it in his arms, then sets it at the base so the cattle can't push against the fencing again. "There."
I stare at him in a mixture of surprise and awe. "Um. How strong are you?"
He just grins at me. "Stronger than a puny human who needs tools."
Well, he's not wrong there. And my stupid libido flares again because strength and competence are apparently my catnip. I really need to get this shit under control before we get married tomorrow, or I could embarrass myself. "Come on," I grumble. "Let's give the cattle something to settle their stomachs and get our story worked out for tomorrow."
CHAPTER
THIRTY-EIGHT
ZHUR
When we go into town the next day, I walk with confidence in my step. I might look a fright with my mane hacked away and dyed an unsightly color, but I am confident that no one will recognize me. It allows me to relax and enjoy myself a bit more. I don't even mind the scent of the planet too much.
Well, perhaps a little. I will never get used to the scent of dirt mixed with the plants, but I suppose it is less egregious than before. "Fine weather we are having," I say to Maeve as we walk down Main Street. The shops are open despite the early hour, and I can see humans going about their day. Maeve has drilled into my head that I am to stick to benign topics if anyone tries to speak to me. "Is that what we do when we meet strangers? We talk about the weather, yes?"
"All right, tone down the dick swinging," she says, amusement in her voice. "You're practically swaggering right now."
I stand a little bit taller and give her an arch smile. "Why should I not swagger and swing my dick? I am but a simple praxiian commoner who is marrying a beguiling human female. All of the unmated males in the vicinity will be frothing with jealousy."