Chapter 59

At the end of the day Katherine and her self appointed guardian, Sarah had not rejoined them.

When Roger glanced over at Ayesha to gauge her reaction, she seemed perfectly fine with Katherine's absence, although Phillip did occasionally steal a glance at his wrist watch and mutter to himself, "Where is that girl?"

To which Ayesha replied soothingly, "That girl, as you put it, is likely having a wonderful time with a handsome young man who may become her husband. I for one, approve of him, he will be good for her."

They had made their way back to their respective vehicles and were loading up when Katherine and her new friend, showed up with a breathless Sarah in tow.

Katherine cried out as they rapidly approached, "Sorry, I'm late! Tom and I were having so much fun, we lost track of time."

Sarah was trotting behind them and she gasped, "I can't be this outta shape? I could hardly keep up with you two!"

Tom shrugged and replied, "No, you're not that out of shape, we were hustling it to get back in time. You actually did pretty good, for a civilian."

Sarah rolled her eyes and muttered, "Glad you approve!"

Tom and Katherine smiled at each other shyly and he said, "I had the best time with you today, thank you for joining me!"

Katherine flushed slightly and murmured in reply, "So did I, and you're welcome."

Taking both her hands in his, he asked politely, "May I see you again?"

Katherine smiled at him, her amber eyes seeming to glow in her happiness and she replied,"Yes, you may, I would like that very much!"

Tom smiled, "Tomorrow perhaps?"

Katherine flushed, "Tomorrow would be wonderful. My place?"

Tom grinned, "Your place sounds nice, though I'll need a map or something to find it."

Roger smiled to himself as Phillip glanced at Ayesha and when she nodded her assent he said, "I can help with that young man, wait right here!"

Phillip reached into his van's glove box and pulled out a folded up map and some keys.

Presenting them to Tom, he said,"You're a soldier, you'll know how to use this and these keys are to the access gates. Be sure to lock them back up afterwards."

Tom grinned at Phillip and said, "Thank you, sir!" as he took the proffered items.

Turning to Katherine once more, Tom asked, "What time should I be there?"

Katherine was flushing in her new found shyness until Ayesha said, in a throaty purr, "We have breakfast at eight, don't be late."

Roger stifled a grin and Tom replied brightly, "Eight o'clock it is, I'll be there!"

And with that, he bowed slightly towards Katherine and trotted off to find his truck.

Katherine looked at her mother and said in a small voice, "Is this how it was for you when you met dad? I've talked to plenty of nice men since I came here, but none of them ever made me feel like this...

"This feeling of needing to wrap myself around him before I sink my fangs into his throat to make him mine and me to become his."

Katherine hugged herself and looked over at her older sisters with their husbands and their families with envy.

Ayesha slipped her arms around her third child and murmured in her ear before Katherine slipped her own arms around her mother and they held each other for a long moment before they separated and slipped into Phillip's van.

As Roger and Freya rode in the back of the big van being driven by Mia, Roger was playing with the twins while Freya mostly looked out the window at the scenery.

Mia looked up at the rear view mirror and said to him, "What did you think of Katherine's new friend?"

Roger could only shrug and comment, "He seems like an upstanding young man. Ayesha approves of him and Katherine's...Well, she's got it bad, if you know what I mean."

Mia smiled knowingly and nodded in agreement.

Roger thought a few moments and asked,"Assuming things happen between them and it looks pretty likely that they will. How will Katherine deal with the likelihood that Tom will be sent overseas?"

Without taking her amber eyes off the road, Mia replied."I'm not sure to be honest, I was pretty clingy at first, but then I had to deal with George being sent overseas by the museum now and again. Admittedly, I wasn't too happy about it, but it's what George does, he has a knack for finding things and the museum utilizes that knack. I've learned to adjust."

There was a pause when Sophie slithered over her seat and coiled up in Roger's lap to snuggle against him.

Roger smiled to himself and said, "If Tom and Katherine do become a couple, the Army's gonna find itself with the most unusual dependent spouse in its history, to say nothing of its medical care system."

He grinned, "That doctor of yours, what's her name again? She's the world's only lamia specialist and that nurse we met the last time we were here."

Mia chuckled and said, "Her name is Tanja Sims, that's Doctor Tanja Sims and our nurse is Roberta Johnson RN and yes, they are still my, well, our primary care providers and Sarah Thompson is also pretty familiar with our needs as well."

Roger smiled and said, "We're pretty low maintenance actually. Freya's physiology is nearly identical with human norms, except for the density of her bones and musculature. Only a DNA test would reveal that she is a demi human, that and her size."

He glanced over at his young companion, she was fast asleep with her head cushioned by a pillow she had found in the van.

In her lap was Sophie's twin sister Maria, also fast asleep.

George was likewise, all tuckered out with his head cushioned by a similar pillow.

When it came time to exit the highway, the two 'sleeping beauties' woke up and looked around sleepily.

"We're here already?" Asked George as he blinked the sleepy dust from his eyes.

"Not yet dear, we're just leaving the highway, go back to sleep, Roger can deal with the gates if necessary." replied Mia as she maneuvered the van onto the dusty, unpaved road.

Roger cleared his throat noisily and said, "Sophie's laid claim to my lap, can't help you there!"

George chuckled and quipped, "She's in her 'happy place' do not disturb!"

He turned and looked back to see Roger with a young lamia coiled up in his lap.

He grinned at Mia and said, "He's not goin' anywhere, Sophie has him pinned."

Freya just rolled her bright blue eyes at the adults being silly again and smiled at the sleeping form of Maria coiled up in her lap.

She was trapped too, by a tiny lamia with weapons grade cuteness in her arsenal.

Freya now understood why the little ones flocked to Roger, they sensed his inner teddy bear and ignored his rough exterior.

Briefly, she wondered how Sasha and Dena were getting along with Anita and made a mental note to call or text her once they got back to the house.

There were brief interludes when they halted at a gate, George then quickly hopped out, unlocked the gate and left it open for the others close behind them.

Brad would then lock it back up again once he pulled through.

When they crested the gentle rise just before they crossed the wide playa below the house, Freya's inner pilot thought, "I think I could do this!" And she mentally pictured a dusty airstrip with a fluttering wind sock and a large fire extinguisher next to it and her bringing in the bulky Martin Mariner for a landing.

Mia brought their van to a halt outside the house and said brightly, "We're here, mom's taxi service has delivered once again!"

Roger and Freya carefully exited the van so as not to wake their sleeping charges.

The youngsters had to weigh over 80 pounds now at four years old and some 14 and a half feet in length, they were a handful, the sleeping lamia twins.

Phillip drove past on his way down to the houses that had been built for the lamia family with Brad and Rosalind not far behind in their own van.

Sophie by this time was awake and wanted down, so Roger set her down and she sinuated up to Mia asking, "Mommy? What's for dinner?"

She was quickly joined by Maria and the two followed Mia into the house as she was saying, "We, are eating left overs, we made a lot of food yesterday and have plenty left over, and I'm not wasting any of it!"

George grinned at Roger, "The queen has spoken, left overs it is!"

Roger merely shrugged and remarked, "Nothing wrong with left overs, we eat them all the time at our house. Sometimes we call them re`chauffe`to make them sound more elegant!"

That evening after supper, they were sitting outside in the driveway looking up at the stars when Freya remarked, "It doesnae look too different frae me haem in Canada, oanly th' pole star is lower in the sky."

Roger commented in reply, "That's because we're still in the northern hemisphere only we're further south, so Polaris isn't as high in the sky."

Glancing over at his young companion, "If we ever go south of the equator like say, to Australia, the sky down there looks completely different."

He grinned, "We'll have to go down there sometime, I'm sure the museum will send me down there eventually. And I'll take you with me, in fact, I'll insist on taking you with me."

While Freya remained silent, she still flushed at the suggestion and thankfully, the darkness hid her reddened cheeks.

"In the meantime, " He continued, "When we get back, we can visit the planetarium at Portland U., I'm sure they'll be glad to show you the southern sky with their planetarium projector."

Freya smiled and this time she said gaily, "'At doesnae mean ye can gae back oan yoor word abit takin' me doon south sometime!"

Roger laughed and said, "I wouldn't dream of it!"

A few minutes later, Freya remarked,"Th' hoose is affa quiet, did aw th' fowk gang doon tae Phillip an' Ayesha's?"

Roger straightened up and looked around a bit then replied, "Yes, it seems Katherine really fell for that guy she met today and he's coming to have breakfast with her tomorrow. Right now they're probably going over the house with a fine tooth comb, hoping to make a good impression on him tomorrow."

"Whit d'ye think'll happen?"

Roger smiled and replied, "If all goes well, they'll get together and she'll give him her wedding bite along with her purity. Kinda like what happened with George and Mia, only George wasn't in the military and Tom, is.

"They'll have to get a marriage license and have a ceremony even though they will have consummated their marriage according to lamian customs. The Army will need some sort of paperwork before they'll recognize their marriage."

George and his family had not returned by the time Roger and Freya got ready for bed.

He looked up at his towering young companion as she stood beside his bed and motioned for him to scootch over for her.

Like him, she wore only her panties as she lay down beside him with her feet hanging off the end of the bed.

At well over seven feet tall, Freya lived in a world peopled by midgets, and it would only get worse as she grew to adulthood and her full height.

Only among her own people was she of average height, but they were all up in Canada.

Freya smiled at him as he turned out the bedside lamp.

In the ensuing gloom he felt her long, lithe arms embracing him and he snuggled against her swelling bosom.

In the dim light, her velvet lips pressed gently against his for a few moments, then they simply held each other until sleep overcame them.

The next morning the house was in a low uproar.

Mia, in full scurryfunge mode, slithered about directing George to do this and move that, while at the same time keeping an eye on the mischievous twins.

Roger and Freya blinked awake while Mia was almost screeching at the twins about not getting in the way while daddy was carrying something heavy.

Roger smiled at Freya and declared, "This sounds like a job for "Unca Roger, strange relative from another world!"

Freya rolled her eyes as they disentangled their limbs and he slipped into the guest bathroom to wash up.

Freya herself laid out her own outfit for the day.

She and her friends had discussed going hiking with the possibility of going skinny dipping on the agenda.

She laid out her khaki cargo pants and long sleeved safari shirt.

Her big hat, a pair of thick socks and her boots completed the ensemble.

When Roger emerged from the bathroom with a towel tied around his hips, Freya felt almost a pang of disappointment.

While he had seen her in the altogether many times, she had only seen glimpses of him in a likewise manner.

He was the one being modest, not her, she had grown up bathing with her parents and to her, nudity was nothing to be ashamed of.

She stepped into the shower and began scrubbing away the sleepiness from her brain and her body.

Roger meanwhile, got dressed and gulped down a quick breakfast complete with OJ and coffee.

Thusly fortified, he entered the fray.

The twins spotted him as he entered the family room and with with cries of "Unca Roger! Unca Roger!" they happily glomped onto him and he soon resembled an explorer beset by two large pythons grimly determined to coil around him.

Mia looked at him with pleading eyes and he said to his serpentine nieces, "Let's go outside where we can have some fun!"

They happily agreed and walking carefully so as not to lose his balance, Roger took his rambunctious cargo outside and out of their mother's hair.

Once outside, the girls wanted down and after setting them down, they each took a hand and began by leading him to see Old Gomez.

The huge Gila Monster was sunning himself on his favorite flat rock and at peace with the world.

The trio paused to admire the big lizard as he warmed up for the day, then Sophie looked up at Roger and said, " He likes you because we like you, you are a friend to our kind."

Roger smiled at her and said, "He told you that, did he? That's nice of him, I like him too."

Sophie elaborated with utter sincerity, "He told me in my mind, he said that after he tasted you two days ago."

He smiled at her sincerity and made a note to ask Ayesha about Sophie's remarks when he had a chance.

Leaving Old Gomez to his musings, they went to a nearby tortoise burrow to see how its tenant was doing.

The elderly tortoise had emerged and was breakfasting on some tender vegetation outside its burrow.

Her breakfast was interrupted briefly when Maria slithered forward and gave her a handful of raisins for her to enjoy.

Maria grinned at him and said brightly, "Raisins are her favorite when we can't give her any grapes, she really likes grapes!"

Leaving the elderly tortoise to her meal, the twins led him past a large cholla cactus while saying, "Careful with those, they can jump! Daddy got too close to one and some of it stuck to him. Daddy used a lot of bad words that day!"

Roger chuckled at the image of George struggling to remove the bits of cholla clinging to his person.

He smiled at his tiny guides and said, "Thanks for the warning, I'll make sure to be careful around them!"

They paused in their guided tour to watch as an unfamiliar Toyota pickup truck approached the house.

Roger smiled as he recognized the driver.

Tom Threepersons was right on time.

Tom waved at Roger and the twins as he drove past and Roger waved back.

The poor guy had no idea of what was about to happen next and Roger was not about to spoil it for him!