2008 Gren Drake
The small cafe was situated just to the side of the hotel's lobby. The border between the two was lined with short potted trees, that created a division despite not blocking someone from seeing in or out. The cafe itself had only a dozen small round tables, each perhaps suitable for four, at least if one didn't mind being cramped, but with spaces between large enough that no customer would have to bump into another.
Only one of the small tables was occupied; Angie sat with her back to one of the pillars that were scattered about the lobby. She stared despondently at the walls as she picked at the salad she had ordered. Along with the barely touched salad was a paper cup still full with coffee. It wasn't very hot anymore, but that hardly mattered; it wasn't like she had been drinking it.
It was only her second day staying in the hotel and already it seemed as if she would go out of her mind. A paperback sat on the table, but at least so far the book was no better than staring at the walls.
She needed a vacation. Not from her job (her employer was shut down for the season), but from her life. It had been too many years of the same thing; she needed something that would add spice.
She sighed, then picked up the book once more. With luck, it would get better further on, but she held little hope of that.
"Pardon," a voice said. The accent wasn't local, nor could she immediately place it. She looked up from the book, then nearly dropped it. The speaker was one of the sakin, a species of reptilian bipeds-sometimes referred to as lizards. He didn't look particularly lizard-like to Angie, though. Angie had seen sakin on occasion of television, or sometimes even in town at a distance, but she had never seen one up close. He had long ears on the back of his head, the tips of which seemed to twitch as she watched. His hands had small black claws that were obviously filed down. Despite having always heard that sakin smelt bad, the specimen before her didn't seem to have any noticeable odor.
Angie guessed that the sakin was male; she knew of no real way to tell, but the series of red spots on his shoulders were present on males more than females.
His chest was wrapped in a leather harness that concealed nothing. Several bags were hung from it, suggesting it was present more for its pragmatic value than anything. A tight cloth band was wrapped around the top of his stomach, and this had a few wide pockets in it as well.
Most of the sakin on television either wore trousers specially designed to accommodate their thick tails or various styles of loincloths. The one in front of her wore something that looked like nothing so much as a leather skirt wrapped around his waist. She supposed it did accommodate his tail.
He stood a couple of feet back from the table, holding a plate of chicken wings and a cup of steaming coffee.
"Hello," she replied.
"Would you mind if I joined you? There is no shortage of tables free, but some company would be nice." He was being a lot more polite than she had heard sakin were. Mind, from what the media said one was lead to expect callous lechers who would spit on politeness, so she had rather expected they were exaggerating.
"Sure."
The sakin set the plate and cup on the table. "I'm Nzin."
"Angie." They shook hands and the sakin sat down.
"Enjoying your book?" he gestured at the novel she set onto the table once more.
"Not really. I haven't been able to get into it so far, but I keep hoping it'll get better."
"I wouldn't count on it. I read it on the train last week."
"The train? Were did you go?"
The sakin barked (the word didn't really describe the sound, but Angie could think of nothing better) and his tail swished gently for a bit as he spoke. "Here! I come from the FASS." He picked up one of the wings, tossed it in his mouth and swallowed it whole. Angie could see the lump it made in his throat as it went down.
"I should have guessed; it's not like there are a lot of your kind here."
"I'm here for a month or so; my employer is considering opening a branch here."
Angie wasn't really sure how to respond; she didn't want to be unfriendly, but she wasn't sure having large numbers of sakin move into the area was a good idea either. "Good luck," she said finally. "You don't have to work today?" It was a thursday, a bit past one in the afternoon.
"I did," he said, and he swallowed another of the wings. "I'm on half days until I get used to the scheduling you use here. I'm finished for the day."
"What's wrong with the schedule?"
"You keep your waking hours bunched together; in the FASS one works twilight ris-, ah, morning and evening."
"I can't imagine how you stand it. Having to go in to work more than once a day!"
"So what are you doing here?" He tossed another wing into his mouth after he spoke.
"My home's being fumigated. I'm stuck here for a week or so." She wasn't sure she should have told a strange sakin were she was living for the week, but she supposed she could always change hotels.
"Fumigated? Ah... So you had an insect problem?" His tail swished gently a couple of times as he continued. "It is funny that both of us are staying in a tourist-place, but neither of us are on vacation. Have you finished your day already as well?"
Angie tried to remember what she could about sakin body-language, but only drew a blank. "No," she said. "My employer is strictly seasonal. I'm off for a couple of months this time of year." She smiled at her table companion and watched him eat another of the wings.
"Another new schedule," he said. "I had not heard of seasonal work. There is not much in the way of seasons in the FASS."
"Must be nice having summer all the time. I hate winter, myself."
The sakin nodded, and Angie noticed that the end of his ears drooped slightly and his tail stilled. "It is deadly," he said. "If my company does expand here, I would not be surprised if they hired your kind for at least part of the year. There is no point in killing employees to maintain a traditional schedule."
"Its not that bad!" This wasn't the frozen north; many winters it didn't even snow.
"You're human. My kind are cold-blooded; what is unpleasant for you is deadly for us." He glanced at his watch. "There's still a couple of hours or so. If you don't have anything planned, would you like a have a drink?" His ears perked up as he spoke, and one eye was focused on her.
"It seems like it'd be a bit early; A couple hours until what?"
"Until twilight fall-oh. Right. Sorry, I'm still not accustomed to the way you track time." His ears dropped slightly and his tail was tucked under his chair. "I really do need to get a local watch."
Angie shrugged. It was rather early, but she had nothing else planned for the day. It'd certainly be better than the book she was reading. "Sure."
His ears perked up and his tail started swishing continuously. "If you tell me what you want, I'll pick up both our drinks."
"Some rye and cola if they've got it, thank you," she said. He stood and walked over to the mini-bar in the cafe. She watched his backside as he did, the swaying of his tail surprising appealing and almost hypnotic. She turned her eyes back to the table as he returned, not wanting it to look like she was staring at his crotch. She didn't want to seem sex-starved; indeed, the idea of having sex with this Nzin was vaguely (if nonspecifically) unpleasant. She wasn't one of the restrictionists to say such things should be limited to one's own species, the idea just seemed too strange.
