Free Shadow World by A. C. Crispin, Jannean Elliot

out here. Feel free to observe." His grin got lost in another huge yawn, and in spite of feeling like a prize specimen about to stretch out on a lab slide, Mark slid back down on the couch. "What will you do all night?"
    "Think and remember, of course."
    "Of course," echoed Mark wearily. "Have fun. And listen, wake me if you need me."
    "Hin will not need Mark," said the Elpind serenely.
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    Shutting his eyes, Mark rolled onto his stomach, instinctively seeking his favorite sleeping position. He'd been so busy ever since the Tapping that he'd had no time to dwell on his problems, but now his depression returned like an unwelcome visitor. Tired as he was, the image of Sulinda formed behind his closed eyelids.
    He'd spotted her in the crowd that surrounded him after the Tapping, buzzing with congratulations and curiosity. Leaving Eerin to Cara and Rob for a moment, Mark beckoned to Sulinda and the two of them went down the steps to the backstage area and found a private nook. "Congratulations," she murmured, and leaned forward to give him a quick kiss. But Mark didn't let her get away with that--instead he put his arms around her and returned her kiss like a starving man finally set before food. He felt guilty as hell for doing it, but he'd missed her so much during these last two weeks!
    The young man shifted uneasily, remembering how Sulinda's eyes shone when he finally raised his head, how she nestled close to him. "It's been a long time," she whispered, and her dark eyes said, "I want you back."
    It was then that Mark had told her he was dropping out of school. He watched her face change, felt her step back, out of his arms, knowing that Su now understood, as he did, that his leaving the Academy meant it was really over between them. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it," he said, referring to the kiss, "but, SuSu ... I couldn't help it. I still care."
    "I care about you, too," she admitted, "but under these circumstances, I don't think we'd better see each other again."
    "Maybe we could talk ..." he began, but her hair rippled like an ebony wave as she shook her head no. "There's nothing for us to talk about. It's over, and you don't want to listen to me tell you what a mistake you're making--leaving StarBridge, I mean. Good-bye, Mark."
    He sighed softly against the couch cushion. She's right, it's over ... but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. He knew he'd respect her wish not to see him again. Today's slip had been too painful to risk a repetition. He could hear Eerin moving about the room. Since I can't sleep, I ought to get up and talk to hin again, he thought fuzzily. I'll just rest my eyes for another minute ... just a few seconds, that's all ...
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    * * *
Ri-El Eerin, The Part of Enduring Life known as Eerin, moved about the small room, flexing hin's long, narrow feet. Hin missed the cool softness of grass, the damp firmness of soil, the rough textures of the wide tree roots that laced the paths of hin's mountain home. Here the surfaces beneath hin's feet were all smooth and hard and cold or else blandly soft-- "carpet" was the English word, hin recalled--so that one could not know the true texture of the floor it hid.
    Lieor, hin's sibling, had been envious when Eerin had left, but now Eerin knew that Lieor would have been miserable out here, away from the fields, forests, and streams hin loved so well. Lieor would have felt as rootless and dead as one of hin's sestel plants ruthlessly torn from the ground.
    Eerin had learned on the long journey to StarBridge that to think too often of home was to make hinself sad; deliberately, hin switched back to the present. Is it safe to turn and look at Mark yet? Eerin wondered.
    Hin knew that it often took humans several minutes to enter this strange state called "sleep." In spite of Mark's invitation to watch, Eerin feared it might be impolite to do so during the transition phase. Transitions on Elseemar were special times in the lifecycle and reserved for the family. It