Chapter Seven
The sound of a sharp knock on the door startled Zuri and she turned away from watching Loralia and Eden. She looked around the room to make sure that all of the women were there, and then looked back toward the door. There was another hard, sharp rap on the door and she heard a deep but feminine voice come through the door toward them.
"It's Zsilvia."
Zuri crossed the room and opened the door to allow the Denynso woman in. With the exception of Samira, who was nearly as tall as she was, the Denynso women were the only females anywhere around that could rival Zuri in size. They were actually taller than she was and slightly larger, which was not something that Zuri was accustomed to. On Earth she was always made to feel extremely large and ungainly, particularly when compared to the other women who worked in the university. It had been the lingering feelings of discomfort about her size and how she compared to the other women that made her nearly walk away from the love of her mate, Ero. On Uoria, though, she felt like she fit in. In fact, it was the tiny, delicate-looking other human women who looked far more out of place that she and Samira did. Fortunately, they were never made to feel the shame and self-doubt that she had.
"Hi," Zuri said, "Is everything alright?"
Though the Denynso women were nice enough and all of the women spent time together occasionally, the women born into the tribe tended to be quieter and preferred to keep to themselves. It was unusual for one of them to show up at one of the human women's homes without there being a specific reason.
"Creia and Theia sent me to retrieve you."
"Is something wrong?" Zuri felt a sudden surge of panic. "Is there something wrong with the men? Did they hear from them?"
She didn't realize it until she was within a few inches of her that she had been advancing toward Zsilvia. She stopped and took a step back, trying to calm the suddenly frantic pounding of her heart.
"No," Zsilvia said, "They said nothing about the warriors. They didn't seem upset, but they did say that they would like for you to get to them as quickly as possible."
"Eden, do you feel up to going?" Zuri asked.
Eden shook her head.
"I think that I should stay here and get some more rest if that's ok."
"I'll let the king and queen know. I'm sure they won't mind."
"I'll stay here with Eden," Loralia offered, "I can't imagine they need to see me."
Zuri nodded and the other three women came toward her so that they could follow Zsilvia toward the meeting hall where the king and queen lived and held court. This kept them close to their people at all times, whether they were eating in the banquet hall or needed to speak with them in their meeting hall.
The four women followed closely behind Zsilvia as they made their way toward the meeting hall. Not for the first time since she had been on Uoria, Zuri longed for the convenience of the vehicles on Earth. While there certainly weren't as many individual vehicles as there had been in past generations, the availability of many different kinds of public transportation virtually everywhere made it easy to get anywhere you needed to go without having to resort to walking. This seemed especially important when even her long legs were having difficulty keeping up with the impressive stride of the Denynso woman leading their way. Zuri could only imagine how much more difficult it was for the smaller human women to keep themselves up to pace.
When they finally made it to the meeting hall Zuri noticed that again Creia and Theia were standing out on the front steps rather than waiting inside for the women to come to them when beckoned. They had eaten their meals at home rather than in the banquet hall since the men left, and this was the second time that the king and queen had greeted them from the front steps instead of inside. It was almost as if without the warriors Creia didn't have the heart to have anyone in the hall. Zuri sometimes had to remind herself that these two sweet and gentle people were not just the beloved monarchs of the Denynso compound. They were also the parents of many of the warriors. This ensured that they were suffering an extra level of pain and worry now that the men were gone.
"Hello," Zuri said as she approached the steps.
Creia looked down at her with his customary smile, but she could see how the worry was impacting him. He seemed worn and tired in a way that Zuri hadn't seen him before.
"Ah, Zuri," he said, coming down the first few steps to greet her, "Thank you for bringing her to me, Zsilvia." Zsilvia nodded and stepped to the side so that Creia and the women didn't have to look over her. "I know that there is a still a bit of time left, but I wanted you to get here early so that there was no rushing when the shuttle arrives."
"The shuttle?" Zuri asked. Creia's face darkened and it suddenly hit her. "The shuttle! That is coming today!"
"What's going on, Zuri?" Samira asked.
Zuri turned to her.
"The professor from the university is arriving today."
"I thought that the shuttle was still a couple of days off," Samira said.
Zuri shook her head.
"Creia told me last night that he got another communication confirming the arrival and that it would be a day earlier than anticipated. Apparently they are not using the same shuttle after the incident with the flight attendant, and the new one is going through testing for the university Design and Engineering program. It is faster and more efficient than the older ones."
"Apparently."
"I'm so sorry that I forgot," Zuri said, looking back at the king, "I didn't mean to." She stopped just short of telling him what was happening with the men. It didn't feel like the right time to include him in the situation. "Eden hasn't been feeling well."
The slight angry expression dissipated from his face only to be replaced by worry.
"Eden? Is she alright? Is the baby alright?"
"Everything is fine," Zuri reassured him, "We were visiting with Loralia and Eden started feeling strange and having a few pains so we brought her to the midwife. Adela examined her thoroughly and says that everything looks good."
"Does she think the baby will be coming soon?"
"She doesn't know. She says there is still no way to know whether she will carry to a Denynso term or a human term."
Creia nodded.
"At least she is well now. Is Loralia with her?"
"Yes. She stayed home just to be safe."
"That's good."
The king looked off into the distance for a moment and then back at Zuri.
"Sir."
Creia looked like he was about to say something, but Zsilvia's voice stopped him before the words could come out. Zuri watched him turn to the Denynso woman.
"Yes?"
Zsilvia pointed into the distance and Zuri followed her hand to see plumes of white smoke appearing over the crest at the edge of the compound.
"The shuttle's here," Zuri said.
Suddenly she was nervous. No one had told her which professor was coming, and she was worried that it might be one of the women with whom she hadn't gotten along very well while she was on Earth. Fortunately there weren't many of them, but she didn't feel prepared to not only deal with one of them for however long she decided to stay on Uoria participating in the exchange program that as of yet had scarcely gotten underway, but to also have to go through the explanations as to why she had submitted papers to take an indefinite leave of absence from the university and stayed on Uoria. She hadn't told a single person on Earth other than Samira what had happened between her and Ero, or why she was choosing to join the Denynso. It wasn't that she meant to hide it from anyone, or that she didn't want her former coworkers or anyone else to know, it was simply that she hadn't cared enough about their perceptions of her or her choices to share it with them.
"Since the warriors aren't here, I've told the shuttle commander that you will be greeting the professor," Creia said to Zuri.
"Me?"
"Yes. You are a fellow professor and a colleague from the university. It will be comforting to see a familiar face and to have some guidance."
Zuri didn't have a chance to respond before Creia climbed back up the stairs to Theia and they both walked back into the meeting hall, likely to take their places in their main throne room so that they could greet the new teacher they way they did all visitors from Earth. It was both a comforting and intimidating moment that Zuri remembered clearly from her arrival. Thrust in front of the king and queen just moments after meeting Ero, she had felt welcomed onto the blanket, but also somewhat scrutinized. After spending time with the Denynso she knew of the threats that they had faced and felt herself being just as wary of the newcomer as she assumed they had felt about her.