* * *
Kilniara came out when her brother had woken her, prepared to handle her master’s nakedness because of her brother’s timely warning. As usual, her master seemed unconcerned with her eyes on him, and she found it easier to handle. She realized it was more the concept of her master naked than his actual nakedness that bothered her, as his soft flesh didn’t seem to titillate her sense as much as the beautiful glitter of scale and color.
Despite the strangeness of his flesh, she still found his form strangely similar to Acokzau, muscles rippling across his torso in almost identical ways she’d seen on other Acokzau mercenary slaves. The uniform pinkness of his skin was strange, but not as ultimately disconcerting as she’d thought it would have been. The hard planes along his torso and stomach, however, drew her gaze in an incredibly magnetic manner and she found it odd considering Master was the only man she’d seen with hard planes such as his. Brother and father… are round and soft… maybe… base are shaped like this? It’s… much more appealing. Kilniara blushed then furiously struggled to wash the blush away but she found her gaze continually drawn to the play of muscles that shifted under his skin and soon found herself comparing his arms to her own, her brother’s, and even Garndell’s arms once again. The muscles slid under the skin and scale in almost the exact same way and she soon found herself blushing and turning away, realizing that some of her friends may have been right; the races weren’t as different as they seemed on the surface.
She focused her thoughts back on her movements, although she allowed most of the movements to be relegated to her hind brain, allowing the movement to happen automatically as she had long since preserved them to memory. It frustrated her to no end that Master still seemed displeased with their performance, and wondered if he did not know that Acokzau could easily memorize movements and repeat them with near perfection. Even with her careful repeated performance, he continued to complain about her slow and, what he called, ‘stiff,’ movements.
At first, she was angered by his judgments, but he claimed she was improving, somehow, but she couldn’t fathom what the improvements were, as her movements were identical. She’d repeated them so often and perfectly that she had long known they were identical, she found them no different, each angle, movement, and shift perfect as he had shown the first time. But somehow, Master was able to sense some kind of miniscule change. Which goes against everything I know… humans don’t have body sense as we do, so how can he sense an Acokzau’s body better than an Acokzau themselves?
Despite this, his claims of improvements seeded curiosity which in turn drove her to discover what this change actually was. Her mind considered the movements once again but soon found her forebrain bored again as her movements were relegated to her hind brain. With her forebrain seeking stimulation, she found her mind and eyes tickling across Master’s torso once again. She resisted for a bit then gave up in resignation and allowed her mind to explore his body. She’d always been a bit interested in animals, creatures, and the body, and wondered if maybe she could rethink her dream of pursuing a different job. A futile dream as being able to grow her job enough to change to jobs she would need to develop in turn to finally arrive at some form of animal or physician job didn’t leave her with much hope. Until Master came. If what Garnedell says is true, Master changes jobs often. I wonder if he can teach us such a trick?
Practice came to an end and Master sent them all out to the dining room below while he took another bath in the morning, a practice that intrigued her quite a bit, although Garnedell claimed it was simply Master’s way of worshipping his goddess of water.
Still, she found herself at the table with her brother and Garnedell still in the room attending Master as an apprentice should. They sat in silence for a few moments.
“Zilnek? Do you think you should pursue Master?”
Zilnek glanced at her, considering before dismissing the idea, “I’m quite certain that men do not catch his eye. He does not look at any men that I have seen in such a way.”
“Is he… a eunuch?”
Zilnek smiled and shook his head, “No. He fancies women, this I can see easily enough, although he seems a bit unusual…”
“How so?”
“He does not seem to be … too partial to his own kind. He seems to find beauty in all races easily enough.”
Kilniara’s head rose slightly as realization came, “That’s why you advised I pursue him?”
Zilnek nodded without saying anything.
“Hmm… then how do…,” Kilniara trailed off as Garnedell sat down with them before turning to catch the innkeeper’s eye and calling for four breakfasts.
“Where’s Master?” Zilnek asked.
“He’s coming. He sent me down to prepare breakfast. He’s finished with his bath and is coming soon.”
Awkward silence settled on the table for a bit until Garnedell began grinning with some snark, “So… I think Master likes you, Zilnek. I think you should purs… gah!” Garnedell cut off as Zilnek lurched across the table and smacked him across a shoulder.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Kilniara began giggling hysterically and Zilnek looked towards her in betrayed shock. Garnedell regained his seat put his smirk on full display with a low chuckle. Zilnek finally turned his head away, shaking it but unable to hide his own smile. The awkwardness broke quickly and the three began chatting with each other, learning more about each other’s past while they waited for breakfast and Joe.
Joe came down only a few moments later and settled into his seat, nodding to each of them. “So, what are you guys talking about?”
Zilnek and Kilniara looked to each other but Garnedell quickly jumped in, speaking in an excited rush, “Mas… Joe, we were giving Zilnek advice about how he should pursue…”
Zilnek quickly began reaching across the table, swiping hands at Garnedell in embarrassment, shouting in panic, “Garnedell! Garnedell! You shut your mouth…”
“you in… urk”
“Garnedell! I mean… erg…”
“Because he… haaarg…”
“Garendell! Stop it…. Ouch!”
Joe took in the two’s antics, laughing at their actions before he realized what they were talking about and dropped his head back in with a deep sigh, a tinge of red coming to his cheeks.
Kilniara saw Joe’s cheeks turn red and found herself shocked, surprised that Joe would be embarrassed so easily. She watched with some fascination, finding her eyes glued to his face as she realized that Joe’s reaction was one of innocence, which astonished her. He’s… so young! I … he really is young!
Joe glanced back up at the two fighting boys, not noticing Kilniara’s piercing look, “Guys. Enough. Garnedell… not nice to tease. Zilnek. I’m sorry I … gave you the wrong idea yesterday. Look, I like you… all of you, but I’m not interested. I’m sorry.”
Garnedell nodded, but smiled brightly while sitting back, but Zilnek glanced to his sister and Kilniara looked into his eyes, seeing the determination in his eyes even as it was camouflaged with the subtle smile on his face.
“You… you don’t like men, do you, Master. You like women?”
Joe looked to Zilnek and smiled a bit before nodding, a small sigh of relief escaping his lips, “Yeah. I’m just… I like the ladies. I don’t find men… attractive to me.”
Zilnek nodded and opened his mouth to speak again and Kilniara felt her worry spike even as he began to speak, her feelings seeming to hint to her that Zilnek was pursuing a line of questioning that she found concerning. She dropped her hand to his leg and began squeezing his leg just above his knee. That squeeze quickly changed to a hard pinch that Zilnek had a hard time hiding when she heard what his question was.
“Are you a Pure One, Master?”
“Zilnek. Please,” Master spoke with some firm disappointment, “Just use my name. I don’t like being called master. But… as for your question, what does Pure mean?” Joe’s face had closed abruptly at Zilnek’s question, and she feared that her brother had offended him.
“Ah… sorry Mas… Joe. I did not mean to offend you.”
“Well, I’m not sure what you meant to ask me, so I’m not sure that I should be offended, yet. I have my own… feeling of what it means, but I want to make sure it means what I think it means.”
“Ah… well… it’s just…” Zilnek trailed off, flustered and a bit fearful.
Joe waited patiently but Zilnek withdrew even more firmly inward under Joe’s hard gaze and Joe finally continued the questioning, “Zilnek. Please relax. I know I reacted a bit … strongly. But different cultures are quite different, so maybe this is an appropriate question amongst your kind, but… well… I’m not really sure what you are asking. The best guess I have is that you are asking if I have been with women, others before… sexually.”
Zilnek’s eye’s opened wide and he quickly shook his head, “I… no… that is…”
“Oh… then what does being a pure one mean?”
Kilniara relaxed her pinching as she realized that Master had calmed considerably, patting Zilnek’s knee to let him know he was safe once again and that Master was not angry at the question or was at least willing to hear him out. Although Kilniara felt comforted by Master’s move from stern offense to calm curiosity, Zilnek found herself confused by Joe’s offense about why he was offended by a sexual question. Why would he be offended if others knew about such things? Is this something…
Kilniara brought herself back to the conversation as Zilnek calmed enough to reply.
“Ah… um… a Pure one is a person who will only be with or have children with those of their own race.”
“Oh… Is that a … god… religious thing? Is it wrong to be with someone who is not of your race? Or is it expected that one is with one of your own race?”
Joe’s honest curiosity calmed Zilnek more and he replied quickly, “Not particularly, although there are some who argue that it is necessary for the continuation of the various species.”
“Hm… well, I guess I could see that. It would make sense. If everyone married other species, then no children would be born at all, and cities and countries would start dying out. Is that a common problem? Cities and count… clans loosing people?”
Zilnek tilted his head, confused, even as all three apprentices looked between themselves in confusion, Zilnek replied, as Master was speaking with him, “Well… why would cities die out… um… Why would children not be born if one was not Pure?”
It was Joe’s turned to blink in surprise, shock seeming to tinge his face even as he leaned forward in either surprise or shock, “Are you saying that species can have children with each other?”
“Yes?” Zilnek replied, drawing out his response in a long questioning tone.
“So… like… a dwarf and a human could have a child?”
“Yes,” Zilnek replied more firmly, certain of that specific example.
“And … uh… a Dwarf and Acokzau?”
“Yes.”
“Human and Acokzau?”
“Yes,” Zilnek replied again, glanced towards to Kilniara even as she looked away in hidden but excited embarrassment.
Joe did not seem to see Kilniara’s response, and continued his query excitedly, looking to Garnedell this time, “And with a … what was that species we met on the road to the city, Garnedell… that ratfox … person? Lady?”
Garnedell hunched forward, glanced around the room in a little worry before whispering to Joe, “The Karnazel.”
“Right. The Karnazel,” Joe turned back to Zilnek and asked once again.
“Yes, with the Karnazel as well.”
Joe sat back in his with a heavy thump, “Huh. Wow! That’s pretty cool. Half bre… uh… what do you call children of two different species? Amongst my people, the closest thing we would have would be half breeds, or maybe mixed? Although it could be seen as offensive, maybe. I’m not sure. What would you call them?”
“Well, neither is really considered offensive, really?” Zilnek looked to his sister and Garnedell to verify before all three nodded while looking to Joe, “But mixed breeds are actually very rare.”
* * *