“Absolutely—I made enough for both of us,” little one said firmly. “Come on—you’re going tolovethese.”
She went over to my circular metal table and would have got onto her knees on the bench—which is how she has to sit because of her tiny stature—when I remembered something I had made her.
“Little one, wait,” I called, going to get the thick bolster I had put in the corner. It looked exactly like the one she’d sat on at the short, rather disastrous feast we’d had with Baron Vik’tor. When little one sat on it, it raised her to the right height at the table, so she didn’t have to sit on her knees.
“Oh, this is perfect! Thank you, Sir.” She smiled up at me gratefully as she settled on the bolster.
“You’re very welcome,” I said gravely. “I am only ashamed that it took the generosity of another to make me see what you needed. I should have made my ship more accessible to you weeks ago, when I first got you.”
“Well, you’re doing it now,” little one pointed out. “And besides, I’m almost used to everything being too big after all these weeks. Come on…” She motioned for me to sit down. “Let’s eat these while they’re still hot.”
I sat across from her and watched as she picked up one of the flat disks—the one with the melted yellow square on it—and took a bite.
“Well?” I asked anxiously. “How is it?”
Little one didn’t answer at once, but she didn’t need to—her expression told me everything I needed to know. Her eyes rolled up in her head and an expression of pure ecstasy crossed her face.
“Oh my God…sogood,”she moaned, when she swallowed the first bite.
I couldn’t help smiling at her reaction—the pure joy on her face was beautiful to see.
“So I take it the Matter Synthesizer finally got it right?” I asked, arching an eyebrow at her.
Little one nodded eagerly.
“Just like my mom used to make. Try it, Sir,” she added, looking up at me. “You’ll never want those nasty bland nutritional gel cubes again!”
Dubiously, I picked up one of the flat disks with the warm, gooey specks in it and brought it to my nose. It smelled sweet and almost nutty—much different from the nutritional gel, which had no smell at all.
“Am I supposed to just eat it with my hands like this?” I asked, frowning.
Little one shook her head.
“No, you’re supposed to have a fork to cut them with. But this works just fine.” She had rolled up the rest of her own disk into a cylinder and she took another big bite as some of the yellow stuff went dripping out the end.
I was glad there was no yellow goo on mine—it must be a topping that was sacred only to the first disk on the pile, I speculated. But I was well content to have the second disk without it. I rolled mine up as well, copying little one’s actions, and took a tentative bite.
The pancake had a soft, pillowy texture that shredded easily between my teeth and seemed almost to melt on my tongue. The shock-a-lot ships were more intensely sweet with an appealing hint of bitterness that I found I liked quite a lot.
“Well?” Little one looked at me anxiously as I swallowed.
“These are quite good,” I admitted, rather grudgingly. “Not nearly as nutritious as the nutritional gel cubes, but very tasty.”
“They’reperfect,”little one said dreamily, popping the last bite of the dripping cylinder into her mouth and licking her lush lips with her pink tongue.
“And this is the kind of food that will help you regain your curves?” I asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice and not quite managing. I was worried about my previously plump little pet—I didn’t like the way she had been melting away before my eyes.
“Absolutely.” Little one nodded firmly and picked up another disk from the stack to roll into a cylinder. “This kind of food willdefinitelybring back my curves.” She sighed. “Although I’ve really kind of enjoyed being thin for the first time in my life. I just wish everyone back home could see how good I look.”
“I’m starting to be able to see your skeleton beneath your skin,” I said, frowning. “If the ones you left back on your home planet could see you, they would probably think I’ve been starving you!”
She looked at me with wide eyes.
“No, they wouldn’t. They’d say, ‘Elli—you finally lost weight!’”
“You really can’t tell me your people expect females to be nothing but skin and bones?” I said, raising my eyebrows in disbelief.
Little one shook her head.