“Ladies, ladies,” the bald man said, ambling toward the tables. “Can I interest you in any of the lucky charms I’ve crafted from the finest dryaogony wood you can find in the galaxy?” He unfurled what appeared to be velvet with wooden figurines held in place by straps. “I’m a master carver and a shaman with great power.”
“Great power?” Treyjon said, watching his creature—a svenkar, he’d called it—make its way toward the cabinet. “You push buttons for a living.”
“Thus allowing me time to carve these figurines and imbue them with great power. Do any of you need luck this week? The skirlon is known to bring good fortune.” The big man opened his hand and gestured to draw attention to a carving vaguely resembling a porpoise. He looked like someone who should be pulping bad guys for a living—and maybe good guys too—not an artist or a shaman. Whatever a shaman looked like. “As is this fellow here. Or perhaps you want to attract a handsome man to you? I recommend the verillian stud in that case. Any of these fine charms can be placed on a necklace, ladies. Do you have anything of value you’d be interested in trading?”
“Not at this time,” Tala murmured.
Angela, watching the svenkar instead of this spiel, clapped when it put a meaty paw on the cabinet hiding the furry thing.
“I’ll try again later,” the big carver said. “You never know when you might get the urge to attract a handsome man.”
Tala snorted.
Angela quirked an eyebrow and looked at Treyjon again.
As he led the svenkar out of the room, after giving it a treat and a pat, Orion walked in.
Juanita grinned and jumped to her feet so quickly that she tripped on her chair and almost fell down.
“I believe she’s smitten,” Angela said.
“Or drunk,” Tala said.
“It’s possible. Who knows what she was doing in all the hours she was gone?”
Ignoring them, Juanita flung her arms around Orion and kissed him. It hadn’t been that long since they’d been parted, but she found she wanted nothing more than to go off with him again. Maybe Angela was right. Maybe she was smitten. Or in love.
Orion rumbled with approval, wrapping an arm around her back. “And here I didn’t think I’d get that kind of reaction until after I gave you your gift.”
“Gift?” Juanita looked down at his pants.
“That’s not it.” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Not this time.”
He pulled something out of a back pocket, a black box the size of her palm. “Where’s your little computer?”
“My phone?” Juanita dug it out of her own pocket. “Here, but the battery finally died. I’m out of luck until I can get home and charge it.”
“Not so.” Orion made a big show of turning it over, setting it on the table, and pressing the black box to the back of it.
A familiar doink sounded, the noise her phone made when it was connected to electricity.
“You found a way to charge it,” she said, gripping his forearm, beyond delighted. Now she could record her entire journey and every planet they stopped on. Her YouTube followers would be so excited.
“I asked Hierax to make me something. All I had to do was promise to spend the next week scrubbing things for him in engineering.”
“Oh, thank you.” Juanita kissed him again. “Maybe I can help you scrub.”
“I certainly hope so. I know how much cleaning excites you. Almost as much as trees do.”
“Trees?” Tala arched her eyebrows.
“I never would have guessed that Juanita has weird kinks,” Angela said.
Orion smiled at the ladies, then led Juanita away before she could decide if she wanted to respond to the comment. Judging by the twinkle in Orion’s eye, they were going to start cleaning right away.
THE END
Thanks for checking out Orion and Juanita’s story. The adventure continues in Book 2, Treyjon, when Angela finds out just how the mighty tracker trains those svenkars (hint: steaks may be involved).
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Orion: Star Guardians, Book 1 Page 24
