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Squatting, I swept my arm from my back end and outward in a dramatic gesture while making a sound I hoped sounded like flowing water.
His chuckle rang out. “I believe I know what you need.”
“I’m sure you do,” I said dryly. In more ways than one. At least he couldn’t tell how much his simple gestures turned me on.
Thankfully, he didn’t tumble me onto the furs to go exploring between my legs for confirmation. He took my hand and led me out of his home.
Pausing at each alien we passed to introduce me, followed by them bowing—even to me, now—Aizor led me away from the circle of crystal structures, past a huge pen holding glassy-ish purple dinos like the one he’d ridden last night, and over to a row of crystal buildings fused to the side of the hill. NoLadiesorGents noted on the leather flaps outside two of them, but I understood when he swept one aside and gestured for me to enter.
“Braline,” he said.
“Bathroom.”
“Braline. Braff-roon.”
This was the beginning of us understanding each other outside his home. At this rate, I should be able to tell him what I needed in about twenty years. Still, it was a start, and I appreciated his eagerness to help me even if I wasn’t going to be here long enough to learn more words than I had fingers.
Since it was dark inside thebraline, I paused to let my eyes adjust before moving toward tall wooden structures mounted across the back wall. For a bathroom, it smelled amazing, like fresh air and flowers.
The tall stone structures didn’t have steps, and if these were toilets, they’d been crafted for people who were two feet taller than me. I peered into the opening at the top of one of them and gulped to see the hole drop away what looked like forever. Stone covered the sides, and when a gust of wind swept up, hitting my face, it smelled like flowers. Squares of cloth rested on the back. Nothing beat soft toilet paper. The toilet people back on Earth could learn some new tricks from the Zuldruxians.
I really had to pee, so I peered around, hoping to find a stool or rock I could use to help me climb to the top. Nada. What did little kids do?
With a shrug, I gripped the edge of the structure and launched myself upward, smacking onto my belly across the top. Some scrambling put me in the right position, and after hitching my underwear down, I did my business, using one of the cloths to wipe. Should I toss it into the hole? I couldn’t tell if it was biodegradable, but since I didn’t see any bucket to throw it away or a place to leave it, I gingerly dropped it down the hole, watching as it was swept away by the flower-scented wind.
Since there were no sinks for washing, I left the building, finding Aizor waiting outside. He nodded as if he could tell my bladder was no longer screaming at me and started back toward the ring of crystal buildings.
I tapped his arm, and when he stopped, I made a rubbing my hands together gesture. “I need to wash.”
“Ah. Wevire abreck.”
Sure. Maybe.
He led me past the toilet buildings and around a bend on a well-trodden trail. Approaching a regular old cave entrance about two stories high at the top of the opening, he took me inside.
As if there was a sophisticated motion detector system near the entrance, lights bloomed overhead, pale blue crystal blobs that wiggled and generated enough light for me to see smooth, dark purple stone walls and a brownish-yellow dirt floor.
“Lectum,” he said, pointing to the blobs.
“Light,” I said.
He nodded. Maybe this could be fun. I’d always wanted to learn a new language. Now was my chance.
However, when he and I returned to his home, I’d ask him what was up with the crystal aesthetic all over the place. I enjoyed testing new styles as much as the next woman, but glass was highly breakable. Why use it as your primary construction material?
We walked through a stone channel slowly sloping downhill with the lights turning off behind us and others igniting when we got close. Rounding a bend, we came to a big open cavern that had to be at least a football field across. The ceiling arched high overhead and spikes of clear blue much like the buildings these people lived in jutted down from the glassy light purple surface. Vines draped among the spires, covered with pale purple flowers. They also glistened in the light. More glass?
I was beginning to get worried about all this crystal.
Wind swept through the cavern, buffeting me with floral-scented humidity as I took in the numerous pools scattered across the base of the vast open room. Even the pool surrounds appeared carved from crystal. Did glass permeate the entire planet?
Blue-skinned aliens like Aizor sat in the water that, for now, looked normal enough to me, though it had a subtle purple tinge. Some bathed alone, others in groups, their animated chatter lifting through the air. A few were partly hidden by spikes of blue glass projecting up from the golden-brown soil underfoot, the soil flecked with purple flakes that reminded me of amethyst.
He led me to one of the empty pools, gesturing. “Wevire abreck.”
“Water.”
The grin he gave me made my heart skip a few beats.
