She wondered uneasily exactly what it was they were going to be tasting in the second trial, but she kept the thought to herself and finished up her clay version of fish and chips.
Rarev finished at about the same time and they both used the spigots to drip little bits of the colored liquid on to their clay creations. The big Monstrum considerately put Em’s in the microwave—no the intention-actualization machine, she corrected herself—first, after placing on one of the crystal plates which were stacked beside it.
This time she was ready for the blinding flash and when she took her food out, it was piping hot. Em took her food and sat back at her place, contemplating it.
“Is it all right?” Rarev asked, as he took his own food out of the silver and crystal machine and sat back down beside her.
“It…seems to have the right texture, anyway,” Em murmured. She poked the small filet of battered and deep-fried fish with one of her shiny crystal chopsticks. It sounded crispy when she dragged the needle-sharp tip of the stick over its surface. However, both her “fish” and her “chips” were dark purple. Why was that, she wondered?
“Is it supposed to be that color?” Rarev asked. His own food simply looked like a rare steak and smelled like one too, Em thought.
“Er…not exactly.” She shook her head. “I don’t know quite why it turned out this way.”
“What’s wrong with it?” he asked, frowning.
“Well…it’s not meant to be purple for one thing,” Em told him.
“The Rigellen attendant did say we had to concentrate hard on the food we intended it to be while molding it,” Rarev pointed out. “What were you thinking of as you made it?”
“I’m not sure. I…oh…” Em trailed off as her eyes caught the action across the table again. Tabuu and Torrid appeared to have forgotten all about eating anything at all. Their clay balls were out of the alien microwave thing and they looked a bit like blue truffles to Em. But instead of eating any, Lord Torrid was still engaged in sucking his wife’s breasts, all of which were leaking the purple fluid now.
“Ah.” Rarev seemed to understand at once. “Would you like some of my steak?” he asked her. “It might be a bit more, er, appetizing.”
“Er…” Em wasn’t sure if she wanted anything at all. The scene across the table had quite stolen her appetite. “I should be fine,” she said, shaking her head. “But thank you anyway.”
To her surprise, Rarev shook his head.
“Please let me feed you,” he growled softly. “I must see that you are nourished.”
“What? Why?” Em asked, raising her eyebrows. “I won’t starve to death—I promise,” she added, patting one well-padded hip.
He frowned.
“If you’re acting like you don’t need nourishment just because you’re an Elite with full curves, please don’t bother—we all need to eat. And the reason I want to feed you, is because a Monstrum Kindred provides for his mate. If we are going to have any hope of winning this contest, we need to start acting more like mates right now.”
Em felt taken aback.
“Well, er….all right, I suppose,” she said, smiling a little at his odd request to “nourish” her. “At least yours is the right color,” she added, nodding at his steak.
“Here you are.” Rarev had managed to saw off a piece of his steak with the sharp tip of his chopstick-like utensil and now he put it carefully onto her plate, making sure it didn’t touch the dark purple fish and chips.
Em picked it up with her own chopsticks and popped it into her mouth, making certain she didn’t stab herself with their needle-sharp tips.
To her surprise, the meat was quite good—it tasted like a cross between beef and venison. It was tender and juicy and seasoned perfectly—pretty much the best steak she’d ever had.
“Well?” Rarev raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“Mmm, delicious.” She nodded and smiled. “Thank you—it really is good. Your mum must have been an excellent cook.”
“She was.” Rarev sighed. “I wish she could have lived to see us now—finding a whole new universe to live in and a new planet to call brides from. It would have made her so happy—she was always so worried that I would die a Lone One.”
“A Lone One?” Em frowned. “What’s that?”
“A Monstrum warrior who is never able to call a bride,” Rarev explained. “You see, our universe was much smaller than your own and we had run out of planets where there were sentient species that we were compatible with. Out of desperation, some of the Monstrum mated with Wind Spirits from the Ommooloo worlds. But though they formed beautiful mental bonds and were able to share long, meaningful dreams together, one cannot ever touch a Wind Spirit physically, and so no children can be born of such a union.”