"You've been back for weeks now. Are you ever going to tell me about your little misadventure with the time flux?" Death cocked his skull to one side and watched the tips of Chronos' ears turn pink. That happened every time he brought the subject up.
"Well?"
Chronos sighed, although he had a dreamy smile on his face.
"I told you, I ended up on a planet 3,000 light years from here. I'm not even sure what year I was in."
"Yes and that's all you've told me. I want details, my friend. I can tell you had a good time." Death lobbed a peanut in the air and missed. It ended up buried in the green shag carpet somewhere. And people called him anachronistic.
"All right." Chronos settled deeper into the sofa cushions. "The planet was inhabited by cat women—well, they were women but with long tails and pointy ears. And they had stripes of fur in, ah, strategic places."
"Go on," Death encouraged when Chronos stopped talking. His ears were a lovely shade of scarlet now.
"Well, they hadn't ever seen a man before. The way their tails wrap around—"
"No men? How do they—"
"I don't know."
"Well, did you—"
"Yes, but it was a matter of cultural exchange."
"And how many times did you have to exchange your culture?" Death's jaw dropped in a laugh as Chronos hugged a pillow to his mid-section.
"I didn't want to seem rude, you know. They were all very curious about me. I was Earth's ambassador, so to speak."
"When in Athens…?"
"Exactly."
©2010 Laura Eno
