Rafe’s eyes crawled open, and he looked around blearily. It had been a long night of partying and he wasn’t really ready to be fully awake yet. As he lay drowsing in his comfy bed, he found himself smiling as he thought about some of last night’s activities.
He was thoroughly enjoying life with the Aerisens. Not only did they know how to party, they let him sleep as long as he wanted to, and they never gave him any chores to do. In fact, if he didn’t feel like getting out of bed to find food, he could always convince several of the Aerisens to fetch him something. There were always a handful of ladies hanging around, and they were more than willing to do whatever it took to make him happy.
Life had never been so good. Occasionally, he would remember about that pesky chore that Joelnar wanted him to do. But Joelnar was off on his quest, and as far as Rafe was concerned there was no hurry. He’d worry about it later, at least that’s what he kept telling himself whenever he thought about that pesky little chore at all.
He rolled over onto his stomach, which grumbled. Ignoring it, he glanced at the doorway and saw that it was nearing half-day. Giving a half grunt, he thought, It’s almost time for the start of today’s games.
Rafe had never seen a group so happy to learn about all the different games that he knew. It was as if the Aerisens and he were made for each other. Today there were several rounds of races—stripes versus dots, females versus males, and the ever popular, hoppers versus croakers. Afterwards, there were contests using the pasteboards and throwing cubes.
The Aerisens were so into the games that they had taken to inventing their own. Once they understood the different concepts behind the various games, they had become very creative. They had created a type of betting game using the leaves of the snore tree—the leaves of the male trees released a sap that actually made you fall asleep, so if you got stuck with one of those leaves, you could lose the whole game. It was very challenging, and could become quite hilarious when played while drinking the Aerisens’ version of ale—made from the nectar of the dewsberries, it was very potent drink.
Yes, he and the Aerisens were definitely made for each other. He would have to remember to thank Joelnar for introducing them.
The world shook, and Rafe found himself lying on the floor of the modified tree house in which he had taken up residence. That was a nasty one, he thought, as he lazily got back up and sat on the edge of the bed.
He wasn’t happy about the constant shakings that occurred in this land, but it was a small price to pay for all the fun he was having. He had heard some of the Aerisens buzzing about how the shakings had started to become much more frequent. But then others said it was just their imaginations, and things were just fine.
Rafe was inclined to agree with the latter group, but just lately he had begun to wonder if he might be wrong. Sometimes it did seem as if he was being tossed about a bit more than he had been when he first arrived. He was deciding whether to go back to bed or get up and start his day, when the tree house shook again. It shook much more lightly this time—more of a shudder than a shake. The Aerisens called these secondary shakings shivers, because they said it seemed as if the world shook, and then continued to shiver for a few moments afterwards.
Smiling at their inventiveness, he stood and stretched. He supposed that if he wanted to get something to eat before the first races of the day he would have to get moving.
