Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Dark!” Lili hissed at him, feeling her cheeks get hot. The Dark Twin’s voice carried and she wasn’t sure if f’loon and their spouse could hear him or not.
“Oh, sorry baby—but it’s true,” Dark said in a low voice. “Will you let Light taste you so he can see what I mean?”
“That’s not something you can ask!” Light protested. “Lilibet has to be in the mood—her emotions have to be just right for her to want one of us to taste her.”
“Huh…” Dark shook his head. “I don’t understand that. Ever since we met Lili, my emotions have been right for tasting her almost every single minute. Well, except when The Fury took over when she was being attacked.”
Lili couldn’t suppress a laugh.
“You and every other man in the universe,” she told him. “I don’t know a single guy who doesn’t have sex on the brain almost constantly.”
“I think about it too,” Light admitted. “I just don’t talk about it all the time,” he added, shooting his twin a significant look.
“Okay, sorry,” Dark muttered. “The emotions are hard enough to figure out, let alone knowing when you can say out loud what they make you feel!”
“It’s all right, Dark,” Lili reached out to pat him on one broad shoulder. “I understand there’s a steep learning curve when it comes to feelings. You two are both doing really well.”
“Are we?” Light asked anxiously. “Dark is right—sometimes it’s difficult to know what feelings you’re having and how to react to them.”
“You’re both doing better than a lot of human men who have had feelings all their lives,” Lili assured them. “Just keep doing what you’re doing—name your emotions and deal with them. And if you’re not sure about what you’re feeling, just ask me and I’ll try to help.”
“Well, right now I’m feeling—” Dark began. But just then, they finally reached the very top of the spiral staircase. As they stepped onto the landing, f’loon turned to face them.
“Welcome to the beginning of my collection,” they said softly. “Please come with me and allow me to show you the artwork of planet Alusian Ultra.”
19
LILI
The rest of the day was a blur of amazing, impressive, and sometimes completely incomprehensible art, Lili thought.
On one floor she saw a sculpture made entirely of multicolored leaves. It showed a landscape when viewed from one direction and an insectile, alien face when viewed from another vantage.
“The Slovians of Frattal Four are a race of sentient insects,” f’loon explained in their soft, androgynous voice. “They carefully grow and curate the leaves of the tookbas bush. Then they cut tiny notches in them with their mandibles and fit them together to form two artworks in one.”
On another floor everything was tiny. Each miniscule work of art was no bigger than the size of a grain of rice and all of them were on pedestals with a magnifier and a screen which projected what they looked like.
“The Whobubs of Chin’tura Velora are so small that one of their cities would fit in the palm of your hand,” f’loon told them. “Their works of art are actually communal efforts—each of these that you see here is as large to them as The Golden Tower we stand in is to us.”
They made their way down to another floor and Lili saw that the entire round viewing area was taken up with a single, central artwork. The work was made of many millions of colored dots of light, which all came together to form a beautiful alien face. It appeared to be female to her—at least, all three of its eyes had long lashes and both mouths had red lips—but of course it was hard to be for certain. A glittering crown sat atop the jeweled hair.
“This is Queen Loolah of Tragi’lad Vrex,” f’loon explained. “It took over a standard year to transport and reconfigure this portrait of her which is rendered by well over ten million tiny light projectors.”
On and on they went and it seemed to Lili that the art got more interesting as they slowly descended the tower. She wished with all her heart that she might be allowed to record or take pictures of some of the art, but f’loon had strictly forbidden it. They had promised, however, to send her a summary of everything she had viewed along with a picture, a short explanation, and the origin of each artwork. So she had to be content just to drink it all in.
Around midday they took a break for a quick meal which f’loon graciously provided. It wasn’t very good, unfortunately—or at least, it wasn’t much to Lili’s taste, though she tried to eat it to be polite.
What it seemed to be was a kind of sandwich, only the bread was two thick pieces of rubbery purple kelp. The filling was a filet of extremely chewy meat that leaked black ink when she bit into it. The ink had a bitter, unpleasant flavor and the rest of the sandwich had a distinctly fishy taste and smell. Luckily, there was a delicious, sweet nectar to wash the taste out of her mouth.