PART II - SOCIAL EDUCATION
“Fine, I gotta do the thing,” Callie groaned again. “How is it done?”
“Someone on the staff will come to assist. We just need to follow their instructions.”
“Tell me this, then, Vanis. Let’s pretend I find one of these things on the front steps tomorrow. What then?”
“Well first, you have to catch it,” Vanis said.
“But it’s just a caterpillar, you said. How can it escape?”
“It jumps. Up to several meters in fact,” Lena said.
“Ahh,” Callie said, “As tiny as they are, and with camouflage ability, I bet they’d be easy to lose.”
“Exactly,” Lena said. “All the more reason worm hunting is done by professionals. Imagine you finally find your quarry, which is smaller than your finger, and then it leaps meters away from you, multiple times in fact. Good luck chasing it down.”
“Nice survival mechanic,” Callie said, “especially combined with their hiding ability.”
“I would not want to chase one down,” Xin said. “I believe I would get too angry every time it jumped from my grasp.”
“Hence why there are professionals with specific hunting skills,” Lena said. “I knew a worm hunter, well I suppose I still know him, just from my past life. He’s been a hunter for about four years and has only found three of the little things. And all of them were basic classes, none of them advanced. He still hunts them, though, looking for that big score. I think he just likes wandering the countryside, and it gives him an excuse.”
“When I was a boy, I idealized becoming a Worm Hunter myself,” Vanis said. “I devoured countless adventure stories about the great Worm Hunter Norphis, hence why I have a passing knowledge of them. Of course, as the Prince, it was never going to happen. But when you’re nine, you have a different perspective.”
“When I was a little girl, I just wanted to go to Hogwarts,” Callie said. “But alas I was just a muggle and the owl never brought my letter.”
“Muggle?” Tazrok asked.
“It’s someone that isn’t a Wizard, or doesn’t have any magic abilities. And Hogwarts is a special training school for young Wizards.”
“You have Wizards in your world?” Vanis said. “And a training academy?”
“No,” Callie said sadly, “It’s just make believe. But it was a big part of my childhood, and when I was little I couldn't wait to get invited to attend.”
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“Ahh, I see. Is there any magic in your world at all?” Vanis asked.
“Nah,” Callie said sadly. “No real magic, anyway.”
“A shame. Well, some time I would still like to know more about this … academy.”
“Sure, Vanis, I could tell you all some time.” Callie’s head got lost in itself thinking more about the stories and make-believe places of home. Would she ever even make it back home?
“Are you alright, Callie?” Lena asked. “You have an odd ook on your face.”
“Just … thinking about home.” Not yet, Callie, you promised!
“I’m sorry. This has to be so hard. Today has been so chaotic for you.”
“Little One strong. But friends help if need.”
Callie smiled. “Thanks Tazrok. Thanks again, all of you.” She brushed a tear that was threatening to form out of her eyes. “Ok, back to brain-inhabiting slugs. They must reproduce. Will I have to worry about babies occasionally leaking out of my head?”
“I hope not,” Vanis said with a laugh. “As I recall, when a Symbiote is being hosted, their reproduction is dormant. In the wild, though, they reproduce sporadically by growing their offspring on their armored shell. Asexually, as I understand. When large enough, the offspring drop off and go their separate way.”
“Well it’s a relief I won’t have a family of them living in my head, at least.”
“I agree. It was a concern I had as well,” Xin said.
“Hey, that reminds me of something you said, Xin,” Callie said. “And if this is too personal, I’m apologizing in advance. When you were asked why Juniper didn’t affect you, you said it was because she wasn’t part male. What did you mean by that?” She then added, “I hope it was okay to ask that.”
“It is a little awkward, but I know this is all new to you, so I will share. The Lizardkin and a few other Beastkins have both male and female reproductive parts. However, as we are all able to bear young, Lizardkin consider all of our kind to be female.”
“Oh, really interesting! So are you able …”
Xin laughed, “I know what you will ask. No, we cannot get ourselves pregnant. We must mate with another, but it could be possible we both bear young from that mating if we wished.”
“What other Beastkins are like that?”
“The Lamia for sure, and the Naga, and I believe the Salamanders. Some other amphibian variants as well, maybe all of them in fact. I’m not really sure as I have actually never known one, only met a Salamander briefly. I do know that the Salamanders use gender-neutral terminology, however.”
“We have a Fire Salamander in my Ranger class. That would be Salamander…kin? Is that right? Jesca told me some Beastkin history, so I want to make sure I get it right. And the Lamia are snake variants, right?”
“Yes. As are the Naga. Although you must never …” Xin started to warn.
“Never call them Snakes. Jesca warned me of that, too. ”
“Good. It is considered a great insult to them.”
“When I was a boy,” Vanis reminisced , “around eight years old, we had a delegation of Naga visit and I made the mistake of referring to them as ‘snake people’. It was not well received and my father made me personally go and apologize to each member of the visiting group. I never made that mistake again.”
“That was good of your father to make you do that,” Xin said. “It was a very bad thing to say to them.”
“Oh yes. It actually taught me some much needed humility at that age. Many years later, I sought out the head of that delegation so that I could apologize to her again as an adult. Forcing a child to do something like that doesn’t make for a sincere apology, and I wanted to correct that.”
“Oh, that’s kinda nice,” Callie said. Then she blew out her lips. “There’s a lot of social customs I’m going to have to learn, aren’t there.”
“Yes, but we’ll teach you,” Lena said.