733
Views
5.0
Rating
Welcome to the third part of my Rags to Riches Challenge, Catch a Falling Star. When we left Lhuwhon he'd managed to build himself a snug house and gotten himself a pet dog, Orela. Orela wasn't much of a conversationalist, though, so he was finding himself missing sentient companionship more and more...
He sighed and scratched Orela's head - he was lonely.
"You fill the void pretty well, Girl, but you don't talk back," he said, and Orela barked.
"I know...you do after a fashion," he agreed. It wasn't the same, though. He still had his garden - that took up a chunk of his time...as did going to the farmer's market to sell his produce. even now that he was a partner in the firm selling the extra vegetables and fruit provided a nice supplement to his income. Gardening was reasonably mindless though - he needed something to engage his brain.
He'd recently been promoted to partner (although he still caught the carpool - he never had learned how to drive) and the pay raise that accompanied it got him to thinking...One of the things he didn't really take into account in his designs was decoration. He generally left that to the designers His home world had a...well, on this world they called it "spartan" style. On his own world, aescetic was probably more like it. Minimalist, if one was feeling generous, so he didn't know much about art, only what little he'd studied in his drafting classes.
So he began researching the different forms of art. He drew good sketches when he was designing buildings, but he knew he'd never be a great artist. Honestly, he was doing it as much to pass the time as anything, but at least it did have that going for it.
$20,289 He quickly discovered he had no talent for anything but drawing, so he stuck to that. He did enjoy the other forms, though - sculpture especially. He spent a fair amount of time going to the museums in Tierra and in the surrounding areas. It was very interesting to see what people had managed to wrest from lifeless blocks of wood, stone, metal, concrete, even ice.
It was during a random web browsing session that a particular piece caught his eye. It was a lovely sculpture...and local...and for sale! He quickly noted down the information and went to go have a look - wouldn't do to buy it without actually seeing it, after all. In the end...he just had to have it. It was a statue of a mythological figure, apparently - an earth mother, pouring out life from the urn on her head. It actually reached almost to the roof of his house....but he bought it anyway. When she was installed he spent some time putting some birds of paradise flowers and some low shrubs around her, to showcase her to best effect. By the time she was bought and installed it took most of his ready cash....but that was all right. She was beautiful, and what was money for, after all, if not to spend?
He was surprised to get a phone call from the gallery owner a few days later. Apparently the artist was interested in seeing where her statue had gone - would he be willing to contact her?
Lhuwhon was very intrested in meeting the person who had created the lovely work of art, so he called her. Her name was Bettina, and she was surprised to find out that her statue was gracing a private home.
"I had thought a building lobby..." she said when he told her. "See that, I can," Lhuwhon said, mentally cursing his accent...no matter how long he spoke this language, he never thought he would get the hang of it...it was so...backward. But nothing for it but to forge ahead.
"An architect, I am...lovely it would be in such a setting. But have her I had to, so bought her myself, I did," he said, and hoped she would not be put off by his accent. It was worse when it was someone he didn't know well.
"You're an architect?" she said, apparently able to understand him just fine.
"I am," Lhuwhon responded.
"Well, I'm glad she ended up in such appreciative hands...this might be awfully forward of me, but...might I see her in her final setting?"
Lhuwhon hesitated...but the gallery owner had said that Bettina was a perfectly normal young woman...so...why not?
"Glad I would be for you to see her," Lhuwhon said, and they made arrangements for her to come by the next day.
"She's beautiful here..." Bettina said. "Beautiful anywhere, she would be," Lhuwhon answered. He was beginning to lose his nervousness around this human woman, for which he was thankful. She seemed not to mind that he wasn't human, himself, which also helped.
"May I see the rest of the house?" she asked, and he gladly agreed.
"It's a lovely little house - did you design it?"
"I did...much smaller it was...but time to expand, I have had."
"Not all that much - you can't be much older than I...oh, who is this?" Bettina said, distracted by Orela.
"This is Orela, Orela, Bettina, this is - friend, she is," Lhuwhon said as Bettina knelt to pet her.
"She's beautiful!"
"Stray, she was, once. Someone's dog, she must have been, but find them I could not."
"Well, their loss was your gain," Bettina said, giving Orela a last stroke before standing up. "Dinner time, it is...would you like to stay?" Lhuwhon asked, taking the chance. She was a very attractive woman, for a human...and humans were his only choice these days, after all. She wasn't giving off the pheromonal signals that a Sthlia woman would, of course, but he was attracted nonetheless.
He was therefore very glad when she accepted his invitation, and she ended up keeping Orela occupied while he prepared dinner. Lhuwhon debated telling Bettina the truth about his origin, but in the end, he just couldn't do it. He couldn't be sure how she would react...so he let her continue to think he was Fey. She asked about his people, and he told her some truth there - that his kind was nearly extinct on this world (he was the only one he knew of, after all!) and that females were rare for his kind in any case. She seemed pleased to hear that he was unattached - she made rather a point of saying that she herself was single as well.
After dinner they went back out to look at the statue some more. "I just can't believe how good she looks here - I...wasn't sure she would ever sell," Bettina said.
"Oh?" Lhuwhon asked.
"She is..."
"A self-portrait, she is," Lhuwhon said.
"Yes! So I did managed to do it right!" she said, smiling at Lhuwhon and stepping closer.
"You did. Saw it immediately I did. Lovely, she is, and lovely are you."
Bettina stepped close then slipper her arms around Lhuwhon.
"I'm glad you bought her. I'm glad such an exotic, handsome man is going to be the one who looks after her," Bettina said, then leaned forward and kissed him. Lhuwhon was surprised, but pleased, when she did. He hadn't ever kissed a woman before, but he quickly decided that he liked it a great deal. It was more intimate than he could ever remember being with another person, and the fact that she was human...well, that didn't matter. It was good, actually - humans were his only choice now, after all. When her blue eyes looked into his black ones and she asked him where his bedroom was, he gladly led the way. "You haven't done this before, have you?" she asked softly.
"No...obvious, it is?" he responded.
"Not really, but you said femailes of your kind were rare...." Bettina said as she pulled his jacket from his shoulders.
"That I did," he responded, with a smile.
------
He made a concerned sound in his throat when he found an odd depression on her stomach. "Grievous wound, this must have been, to leave such a scar," he said, caressing her stomach.
"What? Oh, don't be silly, that's my navel, everyone has...wait, you don't have one!" she exclaimed, then ran her hand down his stomach, probing for the navel that just wasn't there.
"Unknown, this is, among my kind," he said, touching the odd depression - navel - again.
"I wonder what else is different?" Bettina said, then grinned at him. Finding out was a pleasure all its own. Afterwards they both drifted off to sleep - she had smiled and nodded when he'd sleepily asked her to stay. It was a bit odd having another person in his bed...but it was a pleasant oddness. She snored a lot less than Orela did, for one. After things quieted down in the bedroom Orela padded in to take her normal spot on the bed.
She looked up at the bed hopefully, but seeing that it was full she sighed and padded over to her basket. Her person seemed to like the new person. That was fine - the new person was nice, and it meant more pack members. If it meant that she had to sleep in the basket now...well, that was ok. It was a nice basket.
$16,052
So ends part three of this rags to riches challenge. Lhuwhon continues to spend his money on nice things...but this time it led to something more than just a nice statue in his back yard! Will Bettina help him in his quest, or will having a girlfriend make him spend even more money?
Thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting - I do apologize for the time between chapters. I will do better with the rest of this tale, I hope.
Moderator actions:
Unpublish
Report this Story:
If you find a problem with this story or wish to report inappropriate content, click here
Add a Comment
Note: Please report any offensive comments so we can remove them. Use of bad language, unsuitable links or flaming will result in deletion of your account - regardless of your membership status.
16 Comment(s) posted so far
On Sep 18, 2008 lilyjul96 wrote:
Nice
On Sep 18, 2008 fizz bomb wrote:
Awwwwwwwwww I love his accent, very JaJa Binks (sp)
looking forward to part 4
On Sep 18, 2008 LaurieR wrote:
I was pleased to see another chapter. Congrats on the front page! I will be watching for part 4!
On Sep 18, 2008 PollyPlummer wrote:
I'm glad you continued it, I had started to fear you wouldn't
. Good part, as all of them 
On Sep 18, 2008 Cheena wrote:
good story =) I really had to laugh when he mentioned Bettina's depression in her stomach
On Sep 18, 2008 drewsoltesz wrote:
Very entertaining Deagh! He talks like Yoda, yet looks like Mr. Spock, look forward to more!!
On Sep 18, 2008 finsgirlie wrote:
this is so cute!!! even the doggy is pretty content!!
On Sep 18, 2008 mini me3393 wrote:
This story is still going great! I love his accent, and it's great that he's found someone to spend time with. You should get a friend for Orela.
Haha...keep up the great work!
On Sep 18, 2008 wrote:
love this part, im awaiting the next!
On Sep 19, 2008 SnowiJingleBells wrote:
On Sep 19, 2008 cutedazy wrote:
nice!
On Sep 19, 2008 SuperStar94 wrote:
Great part - I'm glad he has found someone
On Sep 19, 2008 Little Cloud wrote:
OMG! I loved it!!! Can't wait for the next part!!!
On Sep 21, 2008 joker52455 wrote:
weirdest chapter but still
*musical note* Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket/ Never let it fade away/Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket/ Save it for a rainy day *musical note*
On Sep 25, 2008 rockysgirl wrote:
Coming back to read it a second time, I realized I never commented before..
But I, too, like his accent. Very Yoda-esque. Hehe. And also I'm glad he's found someone to spend some time with. Bettina seems very sweet. 
On Dec 6, 2008 wrote: