TWENTY-ONE

- kuvier -

My thumbs make gentle circles against Sedona's thigh, as she giggles along with the conversation. We all sit around the fire, having finished dinner. In the time since the others have hatched from their eggs—or pods, as Sedona told me they are called—I have found myself by this fire, surrounded by females, a great many times.

The females enjoy spending most of their time together around this fire. They gather here before and after meals, while sewing or helping prepare meat—they seem to rarely wish to be alone. This is an odd thing to me. Besides clan celebrations, such as births, deaths, or mating, Lieq are not companionable like this. We do not seek each other out to share stories and jokes.

Sedona gives a small yawn, stopping her sewing to cover her mouth. As she shifts in my lap, I do my best to ignore the warmth of her pressed to me. I find myself struggling with my composure a lot lately. Having learned what she looks like coming undone around me, how the clench of her cunt feels around my finger, it is hard not to find my mind straying to that pretty place between her legs. But, it is not the time for that.

"There is but one eye open," I murmur under the droll of conversation around us. "Do you want to sleep now?" She cocks her head, processing my words.

"One eye? Did I misunderstand you?"

"No?" I do not think I was unclear. I gesture outside. "There is only one eye open. We may sleep freely if you wish."

"Oh!" she exclaims, popping her forehead. "Duh, the suns."

"Yes, the suns." I had forgotten that is what she calls the Great Mother's eyes in her language.

"Why do you call the suns eyes?" I do not understand why she is confused. Would she not know this, having fallen from Great Mother herself?

"The Great Mother has three eyes that watch over us," I explain slowly. "They see all, even that which is hidden."

"What about when it gets dark?" She pauses and ponders for a moment. "Does it ever get completely dark?"

"During the dark season, yes. That is when the Great Mother sleeps," I answer, though I grow more perplexed. "It is when the most danger occurs because She is not there to watch over us."

"Oh, wow," she hums, "that's really interesting, honestly."

My puzzlement grows and I tilt her in my lap slightly to get a good look at her face. "There are many things you do not know to have come from the Great Mother."

"Well, where I came from is…complicated." She winces and briefly looks at the female with ringlet curls, the one who has the name that is difficult for me to pronounce. Sedona must be considering getting the female to translate, but I steal back her attention. We can have the conversation alone. I can simplify my words.

"So are your people not of the Great Mother? Do they not come from the sky?" The thought is preposterous. I saw her fall from the sky myself, but she knows so little about the world the Great Mother made. If she was of the Great Mother, if she was a Great Child, she would know these things.

"Would it make you upset if I said not exactly?" she whispers the question, almost dejected.

"No, I was meant to find you," I assure her immediately, comfortingly nudging her neck with my nose. "Wherever you are from, She has given you to me, and that is all that I need know."

Her body relaxes against me once more.

"We did fall from the sky, but we are not from the sky. We come from a different planet." The last word she says in her language, and I do not recognize it.

"What is this ‘planet?'" She thinks for a moment about how to explain it.

"Like here. This whole world is your planet. The place where everything around you lives."

"Ah, Atiqarii, you mean?"

"Yes! Atiqarii is your planet. Ours is called Earth." This thought is astounding to me. There are more worlds than just Atiqarii. I cannot fathom it.

"Is Atiqarii very different from this Ert?"

" Earth . But yes, very much different. The weather is mixed up for one. Some places are cold like this, but other places are warm and can grow lots of plants. There are some places so hot almost nothing grows. The mountains are definitely not red," she continues, stating more differences that I cannot picture. "There's also a lot more people. Probably more people than you could even imagine."

I reel back at this. "You have multiple clans?"

"Yeah, pretty much." She leans back into me, laying her head back against my shoulder. "We have hundreds and hundreds of different clans. Like all of us women, we are all human, but we are all from different, uh, clans."

I softly repeat the word ‘human' a few times. "You are human as I am Lieq?"

"I think? Are there no clans other than the Lieq?"

"We used to have many clans," I tell her, my hands absently stroking her exposed skin. "They have all died away."

"Did you ever meet any of them?" I grab his cheeks and softly shake his head. "Do you know if they looked like you?"

"They lived before my time." It is a sadness that I feel at times, knowing that Lieq are the last of the Great Mother's intelligent creations. The tales passed down from generations describe a time where there were once many clans. A time where we fought and battled, yes, but also married into new families, traded, and helped each other survive. Being the last clan left makes survival harder and lonelier.

"Well, then, yes, you are Lieq as I am human." The word human plays over in my head. I have known that there are differences between us, but to have a name for what she is feels important. My Sedona is human. I look at the other human females introspectively.

She is the most beautiful human to exist, of this I am certain.