Chapter Twenty-Five

I don’t think it was ever her intent to give me evidence in the scientific sense that ‘hugs are not aggressive’ or at least not ‘always’ aggressive. But I do think she wanted me to know it was all right to give as much as receive. Zenti beliefs on ‘take and take’ were barely an exchange, and never an exchange of equals. Their trading practices involved giving just enough for the other side of what passed for a ‘bargain’ to pretend they were doing the plundering rather than being plundered.

Notably, the Zenti secured advanced spaceflight over two hundred years before humanity, but their technology grew stagnant, and their society thrived only because the typical response of most races to danger was flight rather than fight. Races like mine that had a subpopulation of aggressors that made up a vigorous military were the only real check on their plundering ways until humans took to space and responded to Zenti aggression with what came to be identified as a hallmark of mankind.

Overkill.

But as Fauve accepted my hug and we shared the warmth of an unimaginable affection, I was reminded of a story out of human mythology.

Two males were suckled by a shewolf, Romulus and Remus, and the two brothers went on to build a city, Romulus would strike down Remus in a fight over whether the city should have a wall or not, and with the death of his brother, Romulus got his way. My professor warned us early on to study humans, study their stories, even their fictional ones. Or as he put it, especially their fictional ones.

Wolves are defensive creatures, and from what I knew of what became the ‘Roman Empire’ they always insisted that they were ‘defending’ themselves from some injustice. Notably this was not always true, but their self perception was that they were defending themselves all the way into being an Empire.

Fauve’s desire to receive as much as to give was in my view, closely tied to their innate defensiveness as a species, though they rose to become apex predators, many of their ancestor species were essentially scavenging prey animals that were far from the fierce killers that now dominate the human’s little blue dot.

The ‘give and take’ approach to affection is, I believed, tied to their sense of everything else, their physical security as much as their mental, and their cooperative nature. While they do have a long history of plunder, because they are so very predatory, every conqueror who endures for any length of time must get ‘buy in’ from the conquered population to some degree.

You must give something even to those you take something from, and it has to matter to them. Perhaps that is a great deal to conclude from a single hug, but there is more.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Rebecca and William always struck me as a team, the same seemed true with Percival and Teresa, and from what Byron said, the same was true of their military. Notably, even his bonding with Boatswain was rooted in their shared teamwork and experience.

Not long after that however, the pot was empty and the chips were gone, and I said, “I really do have to get at least some sleep, I have my first day tomorrow. Plus I’m going to start classes soon.”

“Sure thing. Big dummy.” Fauve said it with such sweetness and affection that the insult wasn’t an insult, “Don’t worry me like that again, okay? And don’t worry, you’ll come up with something, I’m sure of it.” She said and rose up to her tiptoes to scratch the top of my head again.

My tail wagged, and I agreed, “Sure, sure. I’ll do my best, I promise.” I said, that much was a promise I could definitely make at least.

There was a noise of thunder outside, and we reflexively looked up at the ceiling before turning our eyes toward the window instead, the noise of rain began, and it started to come down, hard. “I’ll go tell them to come in, they can crash in the living room.” Fauve suggested, “You can go on to bed.”

I nodded, but I didn’t do as she suggested, I did head for the stairs, but ‘everything is research’ so I waited there just out of view while Fauve opened the door, thanks to my sharp vision and Fauve’s slight build I could see that Boatswain and Byron were rushing up the stairs already to take advantage of the overhang on the porch. The swinging bench outside was creaking as the wind began to billow and batter it back and forth, and when the lightning cracked across the gap from earth to sky I could see that the two were already thoroughly drenched.

Earth weather is unpredictable, especially in the Kentucky place, heavy rains could come almost out of nowhere. “Yeah, let me get you some blankets. Just use the towels in the bathroom to dry off.” I heard Fauve say as the drenched giants turned sideways to enter at the same time behind her when she came in.

As this is a belated edition, I will add that since that observation I have written two books just on the subject of human impromptu hospitality and its connection to weather and danger, and their capacity for thoughtful assistance being nearly instantaneous. I will quote only two passages drawn from human sources, ‘For the men of Wu and the men of Yueh are enemies; yet if they are crossing a river in the same boat and are caught by a storm, they will come to each other's assistance just as the left hand helps the right.’ and another, a saying out of a place called Mongolia goes, ‘Happy is he whom guests frequent, joyful is he at whose door guests’ horses are always tethered.’ Hospitality is central to human social dynamics, so much so that it is said that enemies will share a tent in peace in a storm.

The human world is dangerous, but this very fact of its danger has created a people who are capable of caring about even strangers as if they were their own closest family.

Whether it be a giant of a human soldier, or a lone dlamisan student who now… just didn’t want to leave.

I went to bed rather than intrude further, more determined than ever that I would find an answer, a way, something to justify the years of experience I longed to have, even if I was being a little selfish about it.