Romancing the girl and hazards of a popular clanmate:
Yorso considered. They were almost to the dining hall when he stopped Tukui. “We have to elevate her. Treat her as if she’s the Mother of All Herself.”
“Aren’t we already doing that?” If Tukui were the sort to cry, he’d be doing it.
“The Earthers have a saying. Something about putting the cart before the—the—oh, it’s their equivalent of our kestarsh. Anyway, our current situation is backward. We had no opportunity to romance Tina before asking her to clan. We clanned her first.”
“You think we should court her? After the fact?” Though as he thought about it, it began to make sense.
“Praise her, bring her presents, adore her—win her love. As if it were an arranged clanship—but that’s not quite right. If we’d had a promised Matara, we’d have had years to work on the relationship before she joined us. You get what I’m saying though, right?”
“I get it. We praise her already,” Tukui mused. “Presents would be nice, but rather hard to come by in our present circumstances.”
“We can show her what we’ll buy her when we get the chance—oh, and there’s something else. Come on.”
Yorso hurried away, turning from the dining hall. His sudden enthusiasm was great enough that Tukui had to run to catch up.
“Where are we going?”
“To visit Dramok Cres.”
Tukui scowled to hear the name of another former rival for Yorso. At least Cres kept a respectful distance from him now that he was clanned, or so Tukui had thought. “There’d better be a good reason to visit him.”
“Stop it. I heard from another of the full clans he might be able to give us some help.”
“You haven’t talked to him yourself?”
Yorso slowed to punch Tukui in the gut. He telegraphed his intentions, giving Tukui a chance to brace for it. It didn’t hurt…much. “I was told about the fight you had with Zevs, so don’t pass judgment on me. Unlike my short-tempered Dramok, I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Tukui growled but kept from offering a rebuke. For Tina’s sake, he’d see what Yorso was up to.
Pre-Order Now Available:
Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords
No comments:
Post a Comment