Star Side

Chapter 63

At the end of three weeks of arriving on Vetas, Gilrack's mother, Shatit, came to pretty me up for meeting the family. I didn't want to go, but apparently the people in general were getting rather itchy that their next chief had brought back a supposed 'heavenly being' which were about as real to Gilrack's people as fairies were to us. I had enjoyed my little hermit haven in the crystal den with my paints and my books too long. They still gave me the option to refuse, but I had already admitted to myself that perhaps it wasn't entirely healthy or normal for the first human to come to an alien civilization to hole up in a room underground for weeks on end rather than, you know, commune with the natives. Or at least explore. But I never claimed I was the most socially healthy.

Of course, since I still hadn't managed to figure out how to block my mind waves, both his parents and Gilrack picked up on that.

"It's completely normal for a nesting mother to want to stay in her nest," said his father to the confusion of his wife.

"Do your kind...not care for their eggs?" asked his mother.

"They birth live young," said Gilrack, with an edge of irritation. "I told you this."

"No you didn't. I'd remember something that important, especially since she has not birthed live young like some chikeket."

Gilrack did not appreciate me being compared to whatever a chikeket was, even hypothetically, which made his spines rustle and his tail curl in a way that offended his mother, which in turn started a sharp argument of clicks and grunts. Horack sighed heavily and looked at me in such a human way, as though to say "What can you do?" that prickles ran up my spine to end in a small smile on my face.

Whether it was normal or not, I knew I couldn't hide up here forever. Not to mention they were being very kind to let me use the royal nest and including me in the family. The least I could do was try to alleviate some anxieties by proving I wasn't some thin-aired, hypothermia fed hallucination on Gilrack's part. Or some horribly mutated one of their kind that was just assumed to be a 'heavenly being.'

Thus, today came, with Shatit's claws weaving my hair into intricate swirls head in place by carved, jeweled beads. She chittered to me about her children and their spouses and children, which went a long way in calming my unease. Gilrack watched from the nest where he cuddled the eggs hidden well beneath his wings and pillows. Occasionally I'd get a whisp of his mind waves that were probably directed to his mother, mostly exasperation and irritation, but occasionally a faint, sunshine warm fondness.

Twenty-four siblings. And their spouses. And their kids. Holy mother-load, I wish I had some paper to write down all these names. Or my best sounded out approximation of their names. Wait—

"Gilrack, could you give me my tablet?"

He slithered out from around the eggs to do so before returning to them. I could feel his mother's wide-eyed stare as I turned on the screen and flicked through to the notepad app.

"I...I have seen that before..." she said cautiously.

"Oh, this is just one of the tools of my kind. It just holds information." I flicked through some of my old notes, showing her the words. "See?"

"That is your written language?" She leaned over my shoulder. "All held in this...square of crystal?"

Close enough. It was some amalgamation of glass and liquid crystal. When it was turned off it looked like a black square of glass. "Yep. We use, uh..." I cursed inwardly. Dark alien language. I didn't even know the word for lightening. "Gilrack?"

I felt a trickle of his amusement as he gave me his learned, human shrug. He'd enjoyed using that expression once he learned it.

"I told you, mother, her people are highly intelligent. This is but one of their complex tools." His people didn't have a word for 'machines.' Complex tools was close enough, though.