Kat had never been to Europe but she’d seen plenty of docu-dramas about it on TV. Now, looking at the narrow, crooked streets and tall, leaning buildings of the Twin Moon’s settlement, she couldn’t help thinking that it looked a lot like a quaint European town. It seemed to have an old world charm that was lacking in her home town of Tampa.
There were some differences, of course. Instead of being whitewashed, the buildings were made of some pinkish-gold stone and the streets weren’t paved with cobblestones. In fact, they seemed to have some kind of short pink and green vegetation growing in them—an idea that was reinforced when she saw several Take-mes grazing on the edge of the road. The two-headed animals were a pain to ride but if she remembered correctly, Liv had told her that they were native to Twin Moons. Although why anyone would want to domesticate something that looked like the push-me/pull-you from the Doctor Dolittle books was beyond Kat.
Far beyond the quaint, crooked houses she saw something that looked like a vast sheet of undulating gold. It took her a moment to realize it was water—an ocean in fact. An ocean of golden water. Beautiful… The sight took Kat’s breath away. There were small wooden boats with red and blue sails rocking on the glassy, gold surface of the water and people walking up and down the docks. Despite her fair skin, she’d always loved a day at the beach. She made a mental note to get Lock to take her as soon as possible.
Dragging her eyes from the enticing sight of the seashore, Kat looked down at the street outside her window and saw vendors selling some kind of meat on a stick and others selling fruit or bread. Wonder what that long purple looking thing is? she thought, stepping closer to the window for a better look. Was it a fruit? Some kind of Twin Moons pastry? Whatever it was, it was shaped like a banana but as large as a watermelon. Just the thought of ripe, juicy melon made Kat’s mouth water and she realized for the first time in ages that she was actually hungry.
She was just about to look around for some clothes so she could go find something to eat, when the vendor selling the purple banana thing looked up and saw her. He shaded his eyes and then a broad grin broke over his face as he waved at her. He nudged the vendor beside him and he looked up and waved as well.
Smiling, Kat waved back. What nice people. I wonder if it’s some kind of custom to greet newcomers even if you don’t know them? A handful more of the vendors and a few shoppers were waving at her now and she felt she had to wave back in order to be polite. She held her sheet firmly in place for modesty’s sake and waved until her arm was sore. She started to wonder how long the welcome ritual lasted.
“Okay, people,” she said under her breath when her stomach started growling and her arm felt like it was going to fall off. “I don’t mean to be rude but I have to get going and find something to eat before I fall over.” Nodding and smiling, she backed away from the window and went to find something to wear.
There was a long, low box in one corner of the room that could double as a bench if you had really short legs. Kat opened it up and found a green shirt with a blue and pink pattern depicted in short, shiny feathers. “Very fancy,” she murmured, picking it up. It was obviously made for a very large man—probably it was some kind of Twin Kindred dress clothing. She looked around but didn’t see any pants to match it or any other clothing options. Looks like it’s this or the sheet. Shrugging, Kat put on the shirt, which fell almost to her knees. Well, at least she was decent, unless the Twin Moons inhabitants frowned on women showing their bare legs. In which case, too bad. She was hungry.
Rolling up the sleeves, she made her way out of the bedroom and down a long hallway with the same green wooden floor. There was a spiral staircase on the far end of the corridor which led directly down into a sunny food prep area. All the standard Kindred appliances were there—the glass-front refrigerator and the Kindred stove called a wave. Liv had showed her how to use it, but Kat was still afraid she might burn some fingers off if she messed around with the alien appliance. Then she noticed the kitchen was occupied.
A tall, slender woman with light brown hair was standing in front of the sink. She was wearing a pink toga-looking garment and washing some juicy blue-green fruit about the size of large grapes. Kat had eaten those before—they were twin fruit. You couldn’t eat the outside though—it was bitter and sour. You pealed the succulent looking outer flesh off and ate the nut inside which tasted kind of like peaches and pecans mixed together. The woman appeared to be engrossed in her task and hadn’t heard Kat come down the stairs.