to do that just to make me happy.
“Galan?”
“Yes?”
“Will you tell me about your family?”
I stroked her back again. “It is not a happy story, my sadora.”
She glanced up at me before kissing my chest. “Mine wasn’t exactly a happy tale either. I want to know. Please tell me.”
I stared up at the ceiling, my fingers still trailing over Ellis’s spine. “My father was a farmer. His gallberry crops were some of the best in the province. The king purchased crops from my father for use in the castle. It is how I met Quill when we were boys. My father would often deliver the crops himself to the castle and the king always requested a meeting with him.”
I watched the beams of light from the setting keo flicker across the ceiling. “Quill’s father was a very… unique king. His father before him rarely met with the commoners or made public appearances, but King Jota did not shy away from his people. He would make many trips into the city just to talk to people, and he taught his sons to be the same way. It was Quill’s father who first started the tradition of allowing the Draax into the castle garden during the cold months so they could enjoy a bit of warmth and flowers, and both Quill’s brother and Quill continued the tradition.”
“The king has a brother?” Ellis said.
“He died a few years ago in a ship crash. Krey and I were first to arrive and we discovered King Quodia’s body. We had to tell Quill his brother had died,” I said. My stomach tightened and my eyes burned with unshed tears. Telling Quill his brother was dead had been the most difficult moment of my life and, even now, I could still feel the dread and the nausea at telling my best friend such horrible news.
As if sensing my discomfort, Ellis snuggled in closer. Her soft hand stroked my ribs and she kissed my chest. “I’m sorry, honey. That must have been awful for all three of you.”
“Yes.” I took a deep breath. “As a child, my father would bring me with him when he went to the castle. When the king saw that I was the same age as Quill, he introduced us. We became friends quickly. My mother said we were two peas in a pod.”
I smiled at Ellis. “Once she explained what the Earth saying meant, it described us accurately enough.”
“How did you meet Krey?” she said. “You’ve been friends with him since you were a boy as well, right?”
“Yes. But that’s a long story and perhaps one best left for another time,” I said.
“All right. Tell me more about your father.”
I closed my eyes for a few seconds. My tail thumped against the bed and Ellis kissed my chest again. “It’s okay, honey.”
“He had a gambling problem,” I said.
“I didn’t realize you had casinos here,” Ellis said.
I knew what she meant by casinos. I had been to a few on Earth, but I hadn’t enjoyed them nor had Quill and Krey. We’d learned to limit our visiting to bars and pubs. It was our best chance at meeting a female who would fuck us.
“We do not have casinos like on Earth,” I said, “and while we have card games like Earth does, we rarely bet on them. Our gambling is in the form of races and sporting events.”
“Ahh, like horse racing,” she said.
“Sort of. Although we race an animal called a Cassowary. They are small and hairless mammals who tunnel through the dirt at great speed. Going to Cassowary races is the second most popular pastime on Draax.”
“What’s the first?”
“Reso. It is a game similar to your basketball,” I said.
“So, your father gambled at the Cassowary races?” Ellis said.
“Yes. He used to go there every weekend, but as the addiction grew, so did his lies and the amount of money he spent. He started making larger bets and losing larger amounts of money. He hid what he was doing from my mother and while she suspected that he was not being entirely truthful, she had no idea how bad it had gotten.”
“How bad was it?” Ellis said.
I swallowed hard. “He started selling gallberries to Draax who would use it to bribe females on Earth to sleep with them.”
“Shit,” Ellis said. “He was a part of the black market?”
“Yes. He was caught after nearly a year. Earth military collaborates with Draax military to stop the selling and trading of juice outside of the agencies. My