Mid_Flinx by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster [Foster, Alan Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780345454577
Google: MU84r3ej3bkC
Goodreads: 35124
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 1995-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Flinx awoke with a start. Prodigious concepts slipped rapidly from the grasp of consciousness, sudden wakefulness serving to nudge a procession of alien thoughts just beyond comprehension. Dream worlds became subsumed in reality, swept away like shells on a wave scoured beach.

It was still dark out and the night rain continued its fall unabated. Watching and listening, he felt as if he could cast himself into the curtain of water and swim off into the sky. It was the day's transpiration reversed, a kind of aerial communication between plant and atmosphere. Not privy to its subtler meanings, he was reduced to contemplating the poetry of it.

No thunder tonight, he realized, and not a breath of wind. He was aware of a warm and pleasantly rounded shape pressing up against him. Peering down in the dim light, he saw that Teal was awake and staring openly up at him. Her eyes were the hidden green of the forest, and when she smiled gently, her teeth flashed like the sun that had not yet risen. She had removed her cloak and simple, hand-woven garments and lay close, browned and open, her body adorned only by echoes of moonlight.

"Teal," he began, "I don't-"

She put a finger to his lips. She was older than him, but not by much, and her diminutive yet perfectly proportioned form made her appear younger. On this world he was the vulnerable one, not her.

Sensing the rising tide of conflicted emotions in her master, Pip stirred uneasily on his chest. Beginning with the jaws, a yawn passed through her, transformed into a muscular ripple that concluded with a last quiver of the tip of her tail. Half asleep, she slithered off his sternum and coiled peacefully against the very back of the cavity.

"I like your pet," Teal whispered. "Sometimes perception is better than intelligence."

Flinx found that he was trapped between her naked form and the slumberous green mountain that was Saalahan. Near their feet the children slept on, oblivious to the rest of the world. Moomadeem and Tuuvatem lay curled about one another like a pair of matching green salt and pepper shakers.

As near as Flinx could tell, his emotions and Teal's were the only ones active.

"You were dreaming," she whispered. "I know; I was watching you. What do you dream of, Flinx?"

"I can't remember," he replied honestly. "Different things. Big and small, bright and dark, green and black, cool and hot."

Nearly as supple as Pip, her arms flowed across his chest to meet behind his neck. "I like hot."

"Your mate-he just died," Flinx reminded her, keeping his voice down.

She sighed. "Jerah is gone. He has returned to the world. If I were gone and he were here and you were a suitable woman, he would not have waited this long."

"On my world it's customary to wait a little while."

"Then you must have time to waste on your world. Here life is threatened by too many things to lose it also to hesitation." She lowered her head, resting it on his stomach.

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