Chapter 13: 13 Venus
After the event where I saw the snake diplomat I continued to look around. I needed to get a feel of the layout. If something happened I needed to know my way around the ship. Case in point I was lost and hungry. I sighed as another door opened and walked in. I froze. The room was coated in black bodies and glowing eyes. The Navang.
"Mira? You in here?" I called out to her. Sure enough her feathered head popped out from between two black bodies. Her yellow eyes locked on me before she chirped and raced over. She was dark brown with black paws. Like most of her kind she sported a black beak. Her ancestors had been ravens, not eagles. There you are. She had grown in the last day since I had seen her. "They must be feeding you well," I said, smiling as I ran a hand over her black feathers.
Griffins needed a lot of food to reach full size. I could take a decade or two. Yet Griffins were prized for their abilities. They often chose a single member of the household to attach themselves to. They could tell if someone was lying and would call people out on it. They got big enough to ride but unlike dragons, the Griffen never out grew the household. Although wingless Griffens were recommended for those with smaller hallways.
She walked around around my legs, scent marking me as she did so. "Alright I am happy to see you well. Would you like some Heartpetals to share?" She began hopping and cooed. I laughed. I pulled a bowl from the stone and filled it with Heartpetals. I lit one of them with a match and watched the smoke begin. Heartpetal, is a type of catnip specially designed for Maned Griffins. Mira tended to sleep or laze about as long as it was in her system. I left her with her cat nip and walked out.
Once again needing to continue my journey to get back and find one of the males. I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to figure out food on my own even if I could find the room. I continued to wonder around until I caught the district smell of male. All the males. I followed the smell to a room a recognized well enough. A gym. Only this one sported five guys fighting programed attackers. The smell of them paired with the sight made me lock onto their well formed bodies.
Kylian was the leanest of the group and used it to narrowly miss the on coming hits. Sorrel and Misha used seer brute force. If they lost a weapon they had no problem switching to hands. Amiri and Dimatri fought back to back. Their movements in sync the same way my brothers were. Training room. Someone had said they trained as well. What I was used to seeing could not prepare me for what I was seeing now. My blood started to beat in tandem to the attacks. As much as I fought it a was a Bast. My bloodline was forged in war.
My body beat at me to go fight along side them. To bath in the blood of my enemies or die trying. It pressed me to order them as if they were my men to command. It was the same reason we danced. It was a kind of rhythm that called to us on a primal level. Dancing, fighting, fucking. The push and pull of every muscle in a fight so similar to the movement that came at the beat of a drum. The way warriors watched and reacted like partners matching one another in dance.
It was a beautiful display. One so few of my fellow females seemed to fully understand. I had asked them why they had found it appealing. Not a single one had mentioned the burning feeling in their blood. The desire to be so in tune with another being that you were not two but one. None of them seemed to feel the same need. To have a partner that would meet every expectation but never in the way you imagined. I wanted that so badly it hurt. To dance with someone who knew all my moves. To fight along someone I knew every thought to. To be with someone who surprised me despite that. Who would laugh at my antics and hold me when I complained it was cold.
I had not realized it until far to late that the fight was over and that all five males were very awear of my presence in the room. I looked back at them. 'I was looking for one of you,' I said. Clearly I felt the need to justify my being there. I was a Princess! I should not have to explain myself. Not over this. Yet, I had. The only time I felt secure in my own skin was among the soldiers. They at least had never questioned my rule. Not since I was a child.
'Which one of us were you looking for?' Kylian asked.
'I did not have anyone specific in mind. I just need someone to show me how to get food on my own. I am getting hungry and I do not know how to work your kitchen,' there that sounds more like a Princess. It sounded like Donna. How I hated Donna. Still she had two children already and would likely have a third on the way by the time they all made it back to Earth.
'Apologies Princess,' Dimatri said while walking up to me. 'Come let me see that you get food.'
'Thank you.' I followed him from the room. Just like last time his tail was tempting me to touch. This time it felt more deliberate. The way it swayed from side to side was a bit too exaggerated. I allowed myself to take it in hand. I followed at a faster pace to keep hold of his tail without pulling it but smiled the whole way. It was rare for anyone to humor me. My little quirks were often considered childish or unlady like. Some of them I was allowed due to my royal status. After all we were expected to lead our own armies if we needed to. We needed to know strategy and be well versed in politics.
We were supposed to be as much like any other common woman as we could be. Never mind that most common women had more since than her husband. That women handled expenses and sat in on meetings was proof enough. Any woman who could over hear a meeting in place had an opinion. Every woman was capable of saying a man to see things her way and doing as she lead him to do. Often without that man's conscience knowledge.
It was why I hated my eldest brother's wife. Donna was a noble woman who was far too meek to be anywhere near a throne. She couldn't even stand to watch the guys training. Seeing my Aunts and I train had sent her running to her rooms. The woman had fainted at dinner one night when a argument had broken out. What my brother saw in such I woman I would never know. How nothing had killed her at this point was shocking to me. She had no Griffen for protection.
Dimatri led me back to the Kitchen. I would be throughly lost come tomorrow. My sense of direction was fine on planet but apparently in space I was a lost cause. Mainly because every time I wondered around I either had no guide or allowed myself to be lost in my thoughts. Some times both reasons were true. 'Please sit, Princess. I will prepare a few more things for you to try,' Dimatri said. I bobbed my head in acknowledgement and sat on the cushioned bench.
'I must eat more often than your people,' I said. I felt guilty making them feed me. I might be putting a good dent in their food stores.
'Not necessarily. We tend to eat one big meal a sun cycle. Most of us eat as much as possible whenever possible. The five us try to keep it to one or two larger meals a day. We can go sun cycles without food without any trouble.' He continued picking food and getting bowls filled as he spoke.
'Oh... makes sense. Humans can go seven da- Sun cycles without food as long as we have water. Although ideally we eat three to four times a day. I hope we arrive before I cause us to need to ration food,' I said.
'Three to four times a sun cycle?' He was looking at me now. I blushed under the look he gave me.
'Males tend to eat bigger less frequent meals. Females have a cycle though. I will spend the next,' I paused to do the math. My last period had been almost three months ago. If my math was right two weeks until the next one. 'I will spend the next two weeks, fourteen sun cycles, eating more often to store up. Gave or take a few sun cycles.'
'So how much you eat varies?'
'Generally. Each person has different nutritional needs. Assuming we could get the amount required in a single sitting then we would only eat one meal. Females find that hard to do during certain times of our cycles though. There are days, sun cycles, where the very idea of eating makes us feel sick.'
'So we need to provide you a certain nutritional value a sun cycle. Something hard to do on Earth so you eat multiple meals to get it?'
'Yes.'
'We also need to keep your cycles in mind because what you need changes depending on where you are in that cycle?'
'Yes and no. Humans need the basic requirement of a certain amount of calories per sun cycle. The average person needs two thousand calories a sun cycle. Calories are a measurement of how much energy we can get from certain foods. Food can be high nutrition but low calorie. If we do not have the calories we will eat and sleep. We can go longer without our nutritional needs being met than we can without calories. In fact most meals that meet nutritional needs require us to eat more in order to get the calories we need.'
'And this cycle affects your needs?'
'It does.'
'So what do you need right now?'
'Foods I can store. Red meat would be best but I do not know if that is a thing for other Planets. Humans and many other Earth creatures require a steady diet of iron rich food. Iron is a mineral of our planet that can be consumed from plants and animals. It gives our blood the red color when it comes in contact with the oxygen in our air. From what I saw your blood is orange so I am not sure you have iron rich foods.
Foods that are good for storing are fatty foods. Which on Earth are plants. The plants on Earth produce nuts. Most nuts are half fat content. They also last a long time so they are convenient for trips. Do you have anything like that? High fat or has iron content?'
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone