Kade by Tasha Black
Kade
Kade pulled the wing-steeds up in front of the cottage with the number 58 on the door.
It was smaller than he had expected, but the stucco exterior was neatly whitewashed and there was a tidy little garden in front.
Someone had painted the wooden fence that surrounded the house and garden a cheerful bright blue. But it was so low that it seemed like more of a suggestion than an actual barrier.
Beside him, Aurora sat perfectly still, looking out at the cottage.
Perhaps she had expected more as well.
“It’s small, but I’m sure it will have ample space for your needs,” he told her, leaping out of the coach with Lyra to give her a bit of space.
She hopped down too.
“Here, take the baby,” he said, handing her over. “I’m just going to release the steeds.”
He left her standing in the garden with Lyra, looking completely gobsmacked.
It would be good for her to take a minute to gather herself. Life on a frontier moon wouldn’t be rosy all the time. She was going to have to get used to compromise. He hoped that, given enough space and time, she would choose to do so with dignity.
When he returned, carrying the boxes of eggs and milk, she was talking softly to the baby.
Lyra observed Aurora with solemn eyes, as if she understood and agreed with whatever her new mother was saying.
Something about it made his chest ache with sweetness.
“Ready to go in?” he asked gruffly, determined not to get overly emotional over such a silly thing.
“Yes,” Aurora said. “I’ll get the door.”
“Key is under the mat,” he told her.
Her eyes widened slightly, but she bent to retrieve the keycard, then opened the door to the cottage.
For a moment, there was only the stillness of the dark interior.
Then the surfaces of the dim room seemed to come alive. His first thought was that it must be a trick of the light. But as his eyes adjusted, it was clear that small creatures were darting all over the place.
Something in the darkness let out a high-pitched shriek.
Aurora instinctively turned her back to the room to shelter Lyra, and Kade couldn’t help but feel a touch of pride at the protective instincts of his mate.
He touched his hand to the light sensor, revealing a disturbing scene.
Dozens of racoon-monkeys filled the room, their eyes flashing in the artificial light. They were on the sofa and the floor, hanging from the chandelier at the far end of the room over the small dining table, under which more monkeys scuttled about.
The room itself looked like it was covered in an inch or two of fresh snow.
It took a moment for Kade to realize it wasn’t snow.
The place had been set up with a stock of non-perishables they would need. The raccoon-monkeys had clearly gotten into their dry food stores. A winter’s worth of flour and ground meal was strewn across their living room floor in drifts.
The creature that had screamed must have been the leader. The others picked up the cry, shaking their paws at the intruders.
“What do we do?” Aurora asked.
“You and Lyra get out of here,” Kade said. “I’ll take care of this.”
“By yourself?” Aurora scoffed. “I don’t think so.”
“Just keep Lyra safe,” he hissed, placing the crates down and heading into the room.
If he could see two dozen animals, there were probably three times that number hiding in other parts of the cottage.
“Okay, critters, time to go,” Kade announced in his deepest voice.
He strode through the room and racoon-monkeys scattered before him. Once he reached the far side of the cottage, he opened the window.
Continuing into the kitchen, he saw that his suspicions had been correct, and the animals had destroyed all the dry food stuffs. Dried beans covered the floor so that it looked almost like the pebbly beach by the lake.
He managed to slip and slide over the mess to get to the back door and open it up. A raccoon-monkey stuck its head out of a cabinet and scolded him.
“Get out,” he told it firmly.
It shot out the back door without a look back.
“No,” Aurora shouted from the other room.
Kade ran for his mate and child, forgetting the beans on the floor.
He slipped and flew through the air, landing hard on his hip at the threshold to the living room.
The raccoon-monkeys had discovered the crate of eggs.
Some were smashing them against the wall and eating the contents.
Others were flinging them at Aurora, like gooey weapons.
Aurora’s beautiful face went stony.
“That’s it,” she growled and began stomping toward them.
The nearest monkey made a startled yipping sound and darted toward the open window.
Aurora began stomping slowly from the front door toward the back window, monkeys scrambling in her wake.
The strategy was effective, soon the little creatures were pouring out the back window in a furry waterfall.
When she reached the far wall, she turned back to him with a triumphant grin.
At just that moment, a raccoon-monkey emerged from the fireplace, covered in soot.
It let out an unholy shriek and flew at Kade.
Before it could reach him, something hit the wild animal with a splat and it fell to the ground, where it grumbled to itself before slinking out the front door.
Kade looked up to see that Aurora was now armed with eggs.
“Great shot,” he told her.
She looked down at the eggs in her hand and back at Kade.
The cottage was small and covered in flour and broken eggs, like a baking class gone very wrong.
They were exhausted, and darkness was coming.
Suddenly, Lyra began to laugh.
Aurora’s lovely face broke into a smile at the happy sound, filling Kade’s heart.
“You know, if we just pour the milk on the ground and set the house on fire, we’d have cake,” Aurora pointed out, and then laughed at her own joke until there were tears in her eyes.
Kade felt his own laughter bubbling up inside. In spite of the cleanup they had ahead of them, and the troubling lack of supplies, he was happy, really happy.
“I’m sorry the house is so small and so… messed up,” he told her. “I’m glad we can still laugh about it.”
“Seriously?” Aurora said.
“Of course,” he told her. “If we can laugh, we can adapt.”
“This is the nicest place I’ve ever lived,” she told him, serious now. “Even with the mess. I can’t believe my good luck, truly.”
He blinked at her, trying to take it in. “So when you were outside, just staring at the house…”
“On Terra-4 my people mostly live in tents and semi-structures,” she explained. “The creche is concrete block, and some of the apartment multiplexes are too. But they’re nothing like this house. It’s beautiful, not just practical. It even has a garden.”
Lyra squeaked and banged her head against Aurora’s shoulder.
“Oh, no,” Aurora said. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“She’s hungry,” Kade said with a gentle smile. “At least we still have milk.”
Aurora smiled at him, blue eyes twinkling, and he knew he was lost.
Whether she accepted him as her mate or not, he would follow her forever.
But how could he burden her with that knowledge, when the whole world was new and strange to her?