Book One: Onnu and Pannu

Pop Pea

She was supposed to ask Him something, only she'd forgotten what.
   Onnu floated Above, trying to remember what she was supposed to ask Him. :Oh, right! Do we count travel time in the fortnight I am allotted? I wasn't sure whether to put a hash mark down for the night before the eggs hatched.:
   She thought it was important, but He didn't seem to. She was given the impression that she had the correct number of marks on the wall, but the Presence wasn't fully invested in what she was saying. She assumed it was Tribulations, but that was none of her business.
   Guess I shouldn't bother Him with this whole Trey business, then, she thought.
   She thought wrong.
   :Well, what am I supposed to do? He looks at me like a dog eyeing bacon, and we're doing all this stuff together that looks like couple stuff, but it's not, and how do I let him down gently? Yes, I need to let him down! Why wouldn't I? I live with another guy, for Pete's sake!:
   Information buffeted her mind, but it was already there. She didn't see why it was being thrown at her again.
   :Yeah, I know eventually that could happen, but... Okay, but... But he's the Wanderer. He won't settle anywhere, so why..? I understand keeping the option open for potential replacements, but he's so... intense. It makes me uncomfortable. 'Supposed to be' intense is great for You, but I'm afraid he'll blow his stack. You know I don't like confrontation, and it feels like one is brewing. I'll go to leave, he'll look at whichever egg I put in there like Gollum, and then he won't move on until... I dunno, 'cause when it hatches, he could get attached, and those eggs won't hatch ready to f... They what? Oh... I guess that's why they're so big, huh? I did think that the one egg looked as big as Marla... But You said that egg was for the little kin. He can't just take it with him when... Ah, I see. But then he'll have to come back to... Okay, You're the boss.:
   When she got back, Trey was dancing in place. He launched out of the Hold as soon as she cleared the opening.
   "Sorry, did he have to pee?" she asked the Hold in general.
   "We told him he could go, but he wouldn't leave until you came back." The dwarf looked offended that Trey didn't think they could fend for themselves long enough for a potty break.
   Onnu chuckled. "He's a bit protective, I guess. It's new for him. Give it time; he'll come around." 
   They weren't babies. She knew that. It would take him time to learn that they could be self-sufficient, with the proper toolset. Perhaps she should tell him as much, when he returned.
   Trey returned much relieved.
   "We've got a watch set, you know. I think they could have survived alone in the Hold for a few minutes," she said mildly. "Had you been outside the Hold, I would've understood your caution, but they know the drill by now."
   He ducked his head. "I dunno, I never had kids before."
   "They aren't kids," she reminded him.
   "Well no, but they're just as helpless--"
   "I bagged lunch for ten people today, dude," said one of the giants.
   "I've got most of a grass outfit done," said an elf.
   "I think I accidentally made popcorn," said an ogre, with what sounded like defeat.
   Every head in earshot swung her way.
   "What?" she asked, suddenly shy.
   "Show me," Onnu said, scooting closer as room permitted.
   "What" she said again.
   "No, really. Show me. We don't have popcorn on Tupino. Can you replicate the process?"
   The ogress perked up. Her ears widened when she grinned ear to ear. "Yeah! I was trying to toast these little things, I dunno what they are--"
   The dragoness burst into laughter. The smaller woman's ears drooped.
   "No, no, it's not bad. We've just been using that to make tea. Nobody thought to try toasting it. I have got to pass that on!" She held up a talon and passed it on to Dwayne, who immediately sent one of his kin to search for the little herb-looking seed things they'd been calling  pea herbs, but would forever after be called poptea.
   Still chuckling, she informed the ogress of the name change, and its transmission to another world. The ogre just stared at her, agape. She couldn't believe she'd just discovered something that people who'd been in the Verse for years hadn't done.
   "See? That's why we don't tell you what to do with things, we just tell you what's been found useful. If I'd told you that we use that for tea, the Fortnight Worlds would not, now, have popcorn. Actually..." She squinted. "That's not corn, so much as, like, a pea. Guess that's pop pea, then."
   "Hey! Let's call you Poppy!" a gargoyle cheered.
   Onnu didn't stop the naming. They'd more or less learned what they could from the little kin, with small things here and there perhaps rattling around. Besides, every day in the Fortnight Worlds faded Erdewaz a little more, so she didn't think it mattered much. What she'd discovered was by accident, and that was going to happen anyway, as they lived and experimented with what they had.
   Onnu wanted to tell Tupino, but the only blood kin she had there were the hatchlings. Did she dare try?
   She dared.