Queen of Their Colony (Kindred Tales)

“In other words, they’ll either make you high or drunk,” Terra said flatly. “No thank you—that’s the last thing we need right now.”

“I’m afraid you’re right.” Rive frowned. “It looks like the king was telling the truth—we don’t want to inhale these spoors.”

“But do you really think the only time they emit them is at night?” Tem asked.

Rive shook his head.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like to take a chance.”

“Can I wipe my hand off now?” V’rone demanded impatiently.

“Oh yes, sorry.” Rive nodded. “I just wanted to test—”

“Well, here you are, dearies!” It was the voice of the grandmother daisy with the pink petals, who had lead them around earlier.

Terra looked up to see the elderly daisy woman bent over, peering at them.

“Come away from those Chirrips now!” she exclaimed. “If you get ‘em riled up, they’ll start shooting spoors all the way over to the territory of us Froozles and we can’t have that!”

“We just need to get through them in order to go on with our quest,” Terra explained.

“Well then, go through them tomorrow when it’s daylight,” the grandmother daisy said firmly. “Right now, come and have a little rest. The king sent me to check on you—he’d be awfully angry if he knew you’d wandered all the way down here!”

“We were thinking of spending the night here, so we could continue our quest early in the morning,” Terra said tentatively.

But this idea seemed to horrify the old daisy woman.

“No, no!” she exclaimed. “The Chirrips will think you’re trying to invade their territory and they’ll blow spoors all over the blessed place! Oh, His Majesty would be so upset if that happens! No, you must come with me for now, and you can make an early start of it tomorrow. As soon as the sunshine touches the Chirrips’ caps, they’ll be safe to pass through but not until!”

“Oh, well…all right,” Terra said reluctantly as the four of them started following the grandmother daisy back up the hill. “What happens when you breathe in the spoors, anyway?” she asked as they trudged upwards.

“Why, it makes you silly and a tillik!” the old daisy woman replied. “You can’t think straight for ages afterwards, though females get over it faster than males, don’t you know,” she added confidentially to Terra. “With the males, the only way to get it out of their system is through the stamen, if you know what I mean.”

“The stamen? You mean the male reproductive part of the flower?” Terra asked, frowning. It was a good thing she taught science or she never would have understood what the old daisy was getting at.

“Yes indeed!” The grandmother daisy nodded vigorously, making her pink petals ruffle in the night breeze. “It goes right through the reproduction part, it does—just like you said. And ‘til it does, there’s no making sense of anything.”

“Okay, um, thank you.” Terra thought she knew what the old daisy woman was talking about, but it seemed crazy to think that the spoors emitted by the Chirrips targeted a male’s sexual organs in such a way. Still, they were on a whole other world—possibly in a whole different universe—so technically, anything was possible.

The old woman daisy led them to a round grassy area which was slightly concave.

“There—that’s a nice little nest for you,” she remarked and yawned. “Now I must be off! The night is coming on very fast and an old lady like me needs her rest. Have a good sleep, my dearies.” And she glided off into the deepening darkness.

“Well…” Terra sighed and looked around. “I guess we’re stuck for at least a few more hours until it gets light.”

“I really don’t like this,” Tem murmured pensively. “Maybe we should risk the spoors.”

“And get so fucked-up we can’t see straight?” V’rone demanded. “No fucking thank you. We’re staying here at least until it gets light.”

“Still, we shouldn’t just go to sleep,” Rive objected. “Someone ought to keep watch while the others rest. I’ll go first.”

“Just be careful,” Terra warned him. “I think Tem is right—we don’t belong here and we ought to leave as soon as we can.”

“We will,” V’rone growled. “But there’s not much we can do for now.”

“Except keep watch,” Rive added. “I’ll be back in a solar hour,” he added and stalked off.

“Well, I guess we’d better try to get comfortable,” Tem remarked, frowning.

Terra shivered.

“That would be easier if it wasn’t so chilly! The temperature feels like it’s dropped twenty degrees since the sun started going down!”

“We can warm you, my Lady,” Tem offered. “Just lie down between V’rone and me—you’ll be toasty in no time.”

Terra normally wouldn’t have taken him up on this offer, but at the moment, it sounded like a pretty good idea. The Monstrum seemed to run hotter than humans and right now she could use some of their heat.