35. Moon, Chime, and Blossom at Indigo Cloud

Moon and Chime were out on the big branch that curved over the biggest garden platform. It was late afternoon on the day after the Arbora had brought in a ground fruit harvest, so by common consent all work had drifted to a halt. Most of the court was outside, either up in the branches or playing down in the gardens and irrigation pools. Moon had done some fast circuits around the clearing with a few of the warriors and was contemplating a swim. 

Chime had just yawned and said, "You swim, I'll nap," when Blossom walked out along the branch.

She was in her scaled form, her foot claws easily gripping the bark in a way that reminded Moon the Arbora were native to the Reaches. She said, "Moon, can I talk to you in private?"

Surprised, Moon said, "Sure." 

As Blossom sat down, Chime lifted his brows at her. "It's something I can't hear?"

"In my capacity as a teacher," Blossom said, tilting her head to give Chime the full effect of her gaze. "If the consort wants to tell you later, that's his decision."

Moon had only occasionally seen female Arbora do the I said now expression that queens did all the time, but it was interesting just how effective it was. It also made him a little worried as to what this was about.

"All right, all right." Chime flipped his spines in reluctant surrender. "I'm going." He pointed to another branch. "I'm going over there." He got to his feet and did a half-fly half-hop down to the branch. He sat down, pointedly not looking at them.

Blossom sighed, then turned to Moon. "It's not anything serious, I just wanted this to be private because I didn't want to embarrass you. I don't think it's anything Chime cares about."

Moon settled more comfortably on the bark. "Uh, all right."

"It's about your spines, the way you talk with them."

"Oh." Moon felt the spines in question twitch with released tension. He knew exactly what she meant. "I know. It's not right, is it?"

"No." Blossom flicked her spines in sympathy. "I wasn't sure what to say, but... I didn't feel like I should just let it go. I'm a teacher and I would have been the one to help you with it when you were younger, if you'd grown up in the court."

"No, I mean..." It was something of a relief to talk about it. It had taken him a while to realize the movements he thought he was making were different from the rest of the court. "I understand it when you all do it."

Blossom nodded, adding a spine flick of agreement. "I think understanding would come pretty quickly, after being around so many different Raksura."

"But I never think about what I'm doing when I talk, if that makes sense."

"It does." Blossom looked thoughtful. "It seems to me like you knew it when you were a fledgling, but over the turns of being alone it...evolved. It didn't seem to affect your speech, though."

Moon tried to remember if he had ever had trouble understanding Stone's Raksuran. He didn't think he had, but maybe his own speech had changed a little during that long flight out of the east. And then when he had flown back there with Jade... "I don't know. But I was with Stone for a while before I got to the court."

Blossom's spines flicked. "That's right, that must have made a big difference."

But in that case Moon wondered why his spine movements hadn't changed to match. "So how bad is it?"

Blossom's spines moved in a negative. "It's not terrible. It's a bit like... The way Niran spoke Altanic. It's very different from how I learned it, but once I got used to it, I didn't have any trouble understanding."  She thought for a moment. "Let's see, do the motion for yes."

Moon moved his spines, finding it weirdly harder to do it intentionally than instinctively.

Blossom shifted around to reach over and adjust the tilt of Moon's spine. "Like this."

Moon tried to repeat the motion. "That feels odd."

"Really?" Blossom felt the base of the spine. "You have some old scar tissue there. Huh, I wonder if that's actually the problem. Or part of the problem."

Chime landed on the branch again. "All right, I have to know! What are you doing? What's wrong?"

"We're working on my spines," Moon explained, distracted by Blossom pressing on the base of various spines. He could feel the knots of scar tissue, but it didn't hurt. It actually felt good.  "I don't move them right."

"Oh, that." Chime subsided and plopped down to sit beside Blossom. "Yes, that is a problem."

Moon glared at him.  Chime clarified, "It's not much of a problem. You're so beautiful, I don't think anyone cares."

Moon's head tilted.  "What?" Chime demanded.  "That's a compliment!"