“Me too,” I said. Something about the depth of Mari’s pain spoke to me. Whatever had happened, hadn’t been good. In a society that valued nonviolence, what had she faced as a result?
Mari blinked at me. “Can you cause earthquakes?”
“No.” I took a deep breath. “But I killed a guy who attacked me.”
Her orange eyes widened. “I killed someone, too,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to. But the building he was in collapsed.”
I leaned forward and captured her tormented gaze with my own. “None of this is our fault, Mari.” I willed myself to believe it. “We will learn to control what we have and then use it to help others.”
She waved a hand at the sheet I held. “But so much of what they are training us to do—it’s exactly the kind of thing my people work against.”
I groped for an answer. The fight training was something I’d wrestled with as well. I really only wanted to join the CAF to help others.
I took a deep breath and gave it a go. “Sometimes you have to know how to fight in order to protect others from having to do so.”
She worked through it. “Do you think I can do that? Can making the ground shake protect others?”
I considered her question carefully, because I really didn’t know the answer. So instead, I focused on what I believed.
“I think these people are the only ones who can teach us how to use what we have. What we do with it, will be up to us.”
Her gaze, bright with tears, locked with mine. And then slowly, she nodded.
“Now,” I said, rising. “I want to grab a shower before breakfast.”
“Break-fast?”
“First meal,” I amended.
She rose, too. I’d forgotten just how huge she really was—her head almost brushed the ceiling. “A shower sounds good,” she rumbled. “And then break-fast.”
As we headed for the door, I tried, and failed, to remember if any of the shower stalls I’d seen were big enough to accommodate somewhat gaseous pacifist ogres with a penchant for earthquakes...
My life just kept getting weirder and weirder.
* * *
The hall was filled with male bodies pushing and shoving each other on their way to the showers.
Fortunately, they granted Mari’s towering form a wary distance, which helped me out as well.
“G’day, Angel.” The deep voice emerged from somewhere over my head on my left. “You too, Trix.”
As Trix greeted him, my stupid heart immediately accelerated, and my brain bombarded me with steamy images from the previous night’s dream. It was just adream, I reminded myself, as I managed, “Morning, Matt.”
He straightened from petting Trix and offered me a grin, which threatened to undo every iota of my denial strategy. Thankfully, he’d pulled a tee shirt over that torso, although my imagination kept stripping it away. His gaze rose to Mari’s towering form. “See ya found yourself a bodyguard.”
I ripped my eyes away from him. “Matt, this is my roommate, Mari.”
“Greetings, Matt,” Mari rumbled, and presented him with her signature smile, showing her very huge, very square teeth.
“Strewth,”he responded.“You’re a corker. Puts my roommate to shame.”
Mari’s leathery forehead wrinkled.
“I think he means you are more awesomely impressive than his roommate,” I interpreted. Then I glanced at him. “That is what you said, isn’t it?”
He grinned. “Yeah, you’re bonza.”
