Chapter 21

Sophie

Wav'aii was beautiful! Flying over it on the landing shuttle, heading for Serval's commu, Sophie bounced eagerly in the seat as she looked out the wide window. No small airplane style oval for them here. She got a large, proper window that let her see the unusual landscape that passed rapidly below.

The ocean was so vibrant and bright. Serval said it wasn't particularly deep – at least as far as oceans went. Deep enough to host cities, but not so deep that it could be compared to the abyssal oceans on Earth, so there were few places that got very dark. And the water was so clear! There were spots that she could look right down and see coral, reefs, and what she quickly realized were buildings. They were bubbles, round in the same style as Serval's ship, and either were out on their own or were grouped together in clusters. Some were on the surface, but others were down below. And they weren't small either. There were big community buildings that told her the water must be much deeper than its clarity deceived her eyes into thinking.

"Your people don't live exclusively underwater, right?" She asked, a bit concerned now, as she looked to Serval, surprised to see him staring at her. Watching her watch his world.

"Usually only when Haka Mai'ra is overhead. The deep dwellings have air in them though. I cannot breathe water any more than you can, lov'alel, I just hold my breath for longer. Don't fear the water. You will get comfortable in it. And I won't let you swim alone."

She sent him a grateful smile before turning back to the window, not wanting to miss the alien world passing underneath her. Compared to the varying shades and colors of black of Holivair, this place was a technicolor dream.

The coral that made up the ground had been worn smooth and flat by generations of waves and wind and feet, but the range of magenta and purple and pink made her smile as the small pieces of land passed them by. Most of it was small strips of land, like sandbar islands, but there were some that were truly impressive in size.

"All of this is fossilized coral?" She asked as they passed over a particularly large sheet. So wide, there were more bubble buildings here, built around little ponds and lakes just as bright and vibrant as the ocean.

"Our planet is predominantly covered in it," Serval said. "It's very thick. I think there are a couple places in the ocean, very deep places, that it doesn't reach, but otherwise yes, it's nearly everywhere."

"And what about the creature that made it? Coral is made from living creatures, right?"

He nodded once. "It was an ancient creature that built the coral from the sides out. It went up a bit too, but mostly it tried to expand laterally. It was highly prolific and extremely durable. Until it outgrew itself. It dominated the ocean millions of years ago, but eventually it ran out of places to grow, and it died because of it. All that's left are the coral skeletons left behind that my people evolved to live upon in its wake."

"Wow," she breathed, staring at the hundreds, thousands of islands passing them by. All of that had been created by some ancient creature that eventually killed itself simply by existing. It must have done a lot of damage in its life, the ultimate invasive species, before its own invasive tendency eventually led to its own downfall.

And on its ancient, petrified skeleton, a new world was built. It was incredible.

The shuttle began to slow, giving her a better view of everything below, until it turned, coming to a hovering halt, lowering onto a landing pad. Their destination. Serval stiffened but she beamed because there were a bunch of people waiting for them.

The males all had white skin and colorful olules. The females were their opposite, all colorful skin with pale, white olules. Most embarrassingly, they were naked.

Sophie's face burned as she realized that no one was wearing clothes. At least, not fabric. Males and females alike were wearing beaded skirts, made of a variety of colors, patterns, and lengths. But no one covered their chest except for varying lengths of beaded jewelry. Their olules were all unbound, wiggling free in the air as they waved and called out – their voices completely deadened within the shuttle.

His family. All come out to see him return.

With his mate in tow.

She whipped her head around. Serval's jaw was tight. He looked uncomfortable. Seeing them in their beaded clothes, it really hit her how different he was in his black slacks and shirt. A fish out of water pretending to be a man.

"Let's get it over with," he said, standing and offering her a hand.

Sophie wasn't nervous at all as she took it, letting him lead her out. She loved meeting new people, and she could tell by the smiles on their welcoming faces that they were all eager to meet her – even if their teeth were all sharp and pointy. Her hands itched for her camera, but she had deliberately not brought it with her. She didn't want to record anyone without their permission.

The door opened, and their loud cries came rushing in. Serval stood stiff as he walked down the gangplank. But he had barely hit the stony, magenta ground before a female let out a shriek of delight and ran at him. Sophie caught sight of her navy blue skin and white olules as she threw her arms around Serval, beaming, tears in her eyes, as she clutched him.

"You're home! You huge ivai! Why have you been avoiding me!?" She demanded to know, stepping back. She was a near perfect miniature, younger version of Ellow, who was closing the distance with her hot pink mate Woll in tow – more sedate but no less excited.

"I wasn't avoiding you," Serval tried to say, but the female who could only be his younger sister was picking at his clothes.

"Look at you. All alienified! You too good for proper beads these days?"

Sophie was smothering her laughter as Serval sent a long suffering look over her head, ignoring her as she continued to nitpick at his stuffy appearance, from his bound olules to his filed claws to his shoes – "Really?! Shoes!? What are you, an iliwaia?"

Sophie had no idea what that meant, but she could already tell that she was calling him out for completely ignoring his cultural roots. Her mother did it too.

Before she could interject to save him, Ellow and Woll came to a halt in front of them. But they were staring only at her. Ellow with a wide grin, Woll with a calm smile.

"Sophie," Ellow greeted. "Oh, spirits! You're even prettier in person! Look at her, Woll. She's like a little doll."

Sophie smiled, unable to take offense to the description as Woll nodded, saying, "I think she can hear you, uwale."

Ellow made a face. "Of course. I'm sorry, Sophie. I just never thought the day my son would bring home a mate would come. Especially since he's never home to meet an allowee female. Oh, not that I'm upset you're not allowee! We're just happy he has anyone."

Serval grumbled, his sister still hanging off his side, now staring at Sophie with a wide open mouth, unconcealed lust in her eyes.

"You all act like I'm so terrible a choice," he said.

"He is," his sister, Valorei assured Sophie quickly. "He's obnoxious, he swims weird, and he played with his olules even in his teens."

"I did not!" Serval gave her an affronted look.

"You should leave him for me," she continued, winking. "I play with things other than my olules."

Serval hissed something Sophie didn't quite understand as he pushed her away in favor of coming to Sophie's side as she choked on her laughter. He grabbed onto her waist, clutching her to him as his sister laughed.

"I did not play with my olules into my teens," he said, like that was the worst thing she'd said. "And you stay away from my mate."

"Valorei," Ellow gave her daughter a look. "Go make sure their room is ready."

"We checked it like five times."

"Check it again." Ellow's voice did that deep, firm thing that moms somehow perfected. Valorei didn't argue any further as she turned to do as she was asked. Ellow beamed back at Sophie. "Come, let's introduce you to the rest of the family. Everyone is so excited to meet you!"

She wasn't kidding.

Sophie was quickly enveloped in a storm of happy, excited allowee. She met Serval's aunt – who behaved just like his mother – and their uncle who looked like he was just happy to be there and didn't have a thought in his head. His cousins were a group of big, muscular males that worked on the family ovili farm, which required a lot of heavy lifting and swimming. All of them posed for her and offered to steal her from Serval, which just made Serval grumpy and hang onto her harder. Sophie could only laugh, because she sensed their playfulness.

Besides his blood relatives, there were also five other families that shared their commu. And Sophie met practically all of them. She quickly forgot names and faces as they were paraded in front of her, all of them grabbing her hand warmly, smiling so wide with their sharky teeth. However, no one hugged her, and she couldn't help but notice that, when they approached, their olules all began to point backwards, like they were standing in a strong wind.

No one wanted them to touch her with them, she realized. And it was only her. When they were around the others, they didn't seem to care. Sometimes, their olules just reached out and touched an arm or a shoulder without seeming to notice. No one really wrapped their olules together, but they also didn't seem to mind them brushing against each other.

They didn't want to sting her. They knew their olules could be hurtful to people who weren't allowee and they were trying to be considerate. Sophie didn't know if all allowee stings would be okay for her or if it was just Serval, so she let it happen without comment.

She noticed as she met more people that the older a person, the longer their olules. When she met the elders of the commu, their oldest member had olules that reached all the way to her calves. They never stopped growing but couldn't be cut because they were sensitive like fingers.

And when she met the youngest members of the commu, little babies cradled in their father's arms, they looked totally bald. Meanwhile, the kids running around between people's legs had nubs or short stubs wiggling upright in the air.

The young ones didn't have the color differentiation that the adults did. They were the same shade all over their body, from their olules to their toes, which seemed to be a color between the dark and light color their skin would eventually become. It was also impossible for her to differentiate their gender just from looking – which was really impressive since a few were naked. She just kind of thought they all happened to be girls until one was called a he.

The surprise must have shown on her face, because Serval chuckled as he walked her away from his latest batch of friends.

"Rei are not sexually dimorphic, but he's already declared his gender."

"Huh?" She looked at him, confused.

"We're born rather genderless," he said, smiling at the rei running around. "We have the capacity to become either. Our gender manifests in puberty. He doesn't have any external signs yet, but the rei usually know before we do what they'll become."

"That's… so… cool!" She laughed, grabbing onto him.

He chuckled. "It's rather rare in the universe, true. When our external genitalia manifest, we have a beading ceremony, where we're given our first beaded skirt, based on our gender."

"You can't take a DNA test or something to figure it out before then?"

"No, I told you. We can become either. Our genetics isn't split into male or female. We carry the capacity for both. It's rather random which one you'll get, though I believe it's based partially on how many of the other gender are around you growing up. If you are raised around a bunch of males, it's more likely you'll manifest as female, and so on."

She looked around at his predominantly male cousins. "So, I should expect girls from you."

"If the gender is determined our way, yes. Unless they spend more time with my sister. But even then, it's not fully guaranteed what you'll get," he said, running his hand down her hip. "It will be interesting to see how they emerge, combining our two genetics, but I will adore our rei regardless of how they manifest."

Sophie smiled at him but didn't get to say anything else because at that moment dinner was called and everyone began moving inside.

The piece of land Serval's commu lived on was shaped like a crescent moon, a big one, with the bay of their island forming the ovili farm they harvested. Their homes were built both on land and underwater around the rest of the edge of the moon. One large building at the bottom curve of the moon served as a communal area where food was served for everyone or where the clan could gather and enjoy time together.

And in the middle of the moon, speckled throughout, were the nesting pools.

Sophie knew immediately what they were, even before being told. They were little ponds ranging from the size of a kiddie pool to the largest, central pool that was the size of a regular swimming pool. They were cut off from the ocean, and the area around them was carefully carved into sitting and lounging areas that had been worn completely smooth by time.

But what really set them apart was the glowing.

All the pools glowed, shining bright, silvery blue, even in the afternoon sunlight. They were clear, allowing her to see straight to the bottom, but they were illuminated with their own glow. Not speckled like there was phytoplankton in the water. The water itself glowed like it was radioactive.

Paths made of seashells, worn smooth by generations of feet, wound through the pools in soft, gentle curves. No path was straight, because to make a straight path would have meant needing to cut through a nesting pool, and Serval already told her they would never do that.

They passed close to one that, while not very deep, was wide enough to fit four comfortably. She stared into it as they passed, the family ahead and behind her and Serval, chatting happily. They had been around the nesting pools all their life; it wasn't anything special to them.

"It's the wii."

She turned at Serval's words, looking at him. "The wii?"

"The glow." He smiled at the pools. "The glow means the wii are healthy and they're thriving. When they're wet like that, they glow."

"Oh…" She breathed, turning back, staring in amazement.

"The big one is where we host our mating and coming of age ceremonies," Serval said, pointing. "That one over there is where the young play. That one is where the young are given their first beads. And that one is the birthing pool."

They didn't pass close enough for her to see what was in the birthing pool, but she definitely saw something moving around under the surface.

"Those are the rei," Serval said as one of the males broke off to go to the edge of the pool. He knelt down and dipped his hands into the water. Something splashed as though playing with him. "The newborns are too young to be exposed to the air."

"I thought you guys couldn't breathe in water."

"We can't. They have to swim to the surface frequently to breathe, but they can't leave the pool. Someone is almost always by the rei pool, making sure they're all swimming up frequently enough."

"Is it just me, or are the males the ones who seem to be the baby-… I mean, the rei caretakers."

Serval nodded. "Females birth the young, and they feed them. But males are the primary caretakers. Traditionally, of course. There's no hard rule."

Sophie made a thoughtful sound as they passed the last of the pools and reached the short steps that led into the communal area. It was a very simple place, a roof on columns built on a deck that stretched out over the water. There was a square in the middle cut out completely, letting people jump into the ocean, and there seemed to be something down there, but on top of the deck were tables and benches and an outdoor kitchen that was currently busy with multiple people who were preparing large trays of food for the long banquet table.

Something absolutely delectable titillated her senses, making her tilt her head back, sniffing at the air, trying to catch the scent.

"What… What is that?" She asked, eyes closed, trying to define the fragrance but not having the right words to describe it.

Serval chuckled. "That's ovili."

Sophie sniffed more as he directed her to a bench in the middle of the long, ‘U' shaped table everyone was finding seats at wherever they wanted. They were all chatting, blending together in a wild mash of people. Serval sat at one side of her, Ellow on the other, while Valorei quickly threw herself down across from them, beaming at her and Serval.

The table was already laden with food. Nothing that she recognized, but there were lots of plates and platters. All of it smelled spicy. Mouthwatering. There was something that looked like seaweed salad, dark green and slimy like nopales. A seriously huge fish, roasted and steamed and wrapped in more seaweed, was spread out like a roasted pig. Small bowls of oils in different colors – black, red, green, yellow – were set out for dipping. Something crispy and fried, like little tortilla chips but thicker, were set out around a dense bowl of something fluffy and purple speckled with yellow.

No one was touching any of the food yet, so she didn't either. She wasn't sure what they were waiting for, but Serval served her something out of a dark pitcher into an equally dark glass.

"Dark wine," he said. "It's aged at the bottom of the sea, never seeing the light. It gives it a strong flavor."

He called it wine, but it burned like whiskey. It didn't have a briny taste, like she would expect from something submerged in water, but instead was rich and almost creamy, spiced like eggnog, but it was a heat kind of spice. It was good, but she just sipped at it as everyone still in the kitchen came walking in, all of them bearing trays.

Woll was among them. He came up to her and picked up a small bowl, only big enough to fit in the palm of one hand. He set it in front of her with a smile before serving another bowl to Ellow, then Serval, then the others, down the line. Everyone was getting the little bowls.

And in the bowls…

Sophie took in a deep breath, because that was the elusive fragrance she had detected before. She didn't know how to describe it. The scent wasn't earthy or floral or savory or sweet. It was just… ovili. Not salty or briny, despite looking like oysters out of their shell, fried up and doused in chili oil. But unlike the rest of the food, it didn't smell spicy. She really couldn't think of anything it smelled like, and describing it seemed difficult somehow.

"First bite is yours," Ellow said, whispering to her softly.

Sophie was distracted from ovili to find everyone staring at her. She smiled before looking for some kind of fork or something, but when she saw none, she glanced at Serval. He mimed picking up the food with his fingers.

Salivating, starving for this new, unknown food, she obligingly picked up one of the small pieces and pushed it past her lips.

Her eyes widened as she chewed, and the flavor overwhelmed her. The rest of the commu laughed at the expression on her face, at the way she reacted, eyes rolling back, covering her mouth as though there might be a chance someone might take it from her.

It was so good. Like what she imagined sunlight tasted like – if one could taste a concept. Bright and airy, not really sparkling but definitely glowing somehow. There was a hint of spice in it, but it wasn't painful on the tongue. It was just… ovili.

"Aye, dio," she groaned, looking at Serval. "Are you kidding me, right now?"

He laughed. "Good, right?"

"That is like eating nostalgia and happiness. What even is that?"

"It's a toxin the ovili produce," he explained, picking up one for himself. "Absolutely lethal when it's harvested fresh, but when it's cooked properly, it's unspeakably delicious."

She almost regretted eating this at the beginning of the meal. It wasn't sweet, but this kind of thing definitely qualified as a dessert.

But she understood why very quickly. When she nearly grabbed another one, Serval stopped her and encouraged her to eat something else. He served her up a slice of fish and, though it smelled amazing, it was nothing compared to the ovili.

Then she tasted it. And the aftertaste of the ovili was still on her tongue, and it spread into the fish, enhancing its flavors, making it better. When she broke off a piece to dip it into one of the spicy sauces, it somehow got even better.

The small bites of ovili were meant to be eaten throughout the meal, elevating everything just for sharing space on her tongue. She had never regretted being full more. She wished she had a bigger stomach so she could eat more.

No wonder his family was doing so well, despite the relatively small size of their farm. These things must sell for astronomical prices. Even when she couldn't push another bite past her lips, she wanted to keep eating.

If this was how his family ate all the time, she never wanted to leave.