Chapter 3: Violet
Joseph had found himself rather comfortable in the humble cave after the past few days, save a few bruises on his butt from sitting on the stone floor. The underlying reason was simple: Humans pack bonded. This was a well enough known identifier of his species that even being the only one upon the cruise ship, he was treated pretty amicably by everyone he talked to aboard. It looked like everyone didn’t want to find out which other races he had befriended enough to stand up for him if they were to openly antagonize him, so most everyone decided to be neutral at worst. He appreciated the assumption as he hadn’t really gotten close enough to any passengers to stick up for him if things went south.
A few exceptions only stemmed by either failed flirtation or perceived perverseness due to severe cultural clashes. Having a 10-foot Minotaur try to skewer you for asking his girlfriend when the next tour was is something you only ever want to experience exactly zero times. Three was certainly enough. Only one of which was an actual attempt at courtship.
Horrible flirtation aside, he had found himself rather liking his new menagerie of company. Mama Mantis had been kind enough to replace his bandages with lightly spit covered healroot and even show him that the rock food he had recently declared the greatest food to ever be discovered was actually some animal of some description. Given that he was being medically treated on his open wounds, he wasn’t about to complain if said treatment was dubiously sanitary and nothing had gotten infected yet, so maybe the spit was helping the process?
The rocks being alive was something that had briefly surprised him before he issued a small apology to geologists everywhere but included a small reminder that he would still never fully trust them. The discovery arrived by noticing one try to scooch away from the fire by contracting and expanding much like a worm would when it was placed next to the fire. The aspiring escapee being returned to its fate only once before it stopped offering resistance due to either acceptance of circumstance or finally perishing to the heat.
The other member of their rag-tag group of cave dwellers was a smaller Mantis that looked shockingly different from its parent. A brighter almost royal purple colouring that seemed to shift when it moved and a body sporting much wider leg segments giving an impression of a beautifully blooming flower as well as a solid wall when the legs were brought together. It also only came up to about armpit height, implying it was still pretty far from maturation. He noticed that the chitin was bolstered by an almost clear-coat quality additional layer, the apparent reason that the color shifted in the light. Possibly to help better protect it during its development until it was sufficiently large enough to properly defend itself. It could also have been a different species of the same race, but Mama Mantis treated it about as motherly as he would expect a creature that he had no information on to. Luckily for his prerequisites of companionship, neither possessed too many limbs nor sounded like an over pitched air horn blasting into his ear.
Instead, they took to communicating in mostly clicks and fairly diverse gestures that he couldn’t reliably pick apart from one another. Likely both visual and verbal communication was heavily supplemented by each other, making it necessary to be looking at least generally in the direction of the one trying to convey something of importance. Not being native in the language of massive insects however had left most of this to speculation as he observed the two interacting between sleeping and making up for the extended fasting forced upon him. His leg being still out of commission left him with little else to do than watch the mother-child pair. He had amused himself somewhat by assigning the dance like communications overly dramatic lines, narrating a theatrical conversation over the likely mundane ones being held by his hosts.
With their latest subdued dance party completed, the smaller Mantis joined him against the wall he was propped up against. It settled itself down to watch as Mama Mantis used the flat of her blade to strike a chuck of stone, creating sparks that lit the shaved wood rather easily. The motions were slow but powerful as the strike chipped off more of the likely iron rich rock. A basic lean-to styled wood arrangement fed the flame as it was gingerly placed into the opening left at the base of the indented cave floor serving as our fireplace. Watching a large insect fell a tree, trim it, then start segmenting and quartering it without power tools or heavy equipment certainly gave him healthy respect for the natural weapons it was born with.
Once more it made him very thankful that the wounds across his palms that he had suffered from it were sustained in the act of dragging him out of the water and not in any aggressive capacity. He very much doubted he would either be standing, or be in possession of legs to stand on, once those scythes had made their pass.
He was dragged out of his thoughts as an almost feline purr originated from the purple insect that he found himself absentmindedly petting along its vertical back. Instead of feeling cold to the touch or tough, it felt pleasantly warm and had a soft give to it when pressed lightly. A texture of snake skin was mixed with the overall smoothness of the shell in stripes, making it very satisfying to the touch. It was different from the older Mantis whose shell was much more in line with shells he was acquainted with since the child’s shared the patterned texture even on the chitin.
Stopping to consider if this purring actually held more in common with a rattle snake’s rattling, he looked for confirmation from Mama Mantis, who didn’t seem to think that her child was being interacted with in any offensive way. Satisfied that he wasn’t likely to be liberated from any essential appendages, he returned to gently stroking his proximity partner as Mama returned to her activity.
The daily life in the cave was surprisingly event filled. Although his first day under their care had mostly revolved around treatment of a few scratches he sustained during his diving experiment, it was reassuring that his hosts did indeed have something akin to hobbies.
Mama Mantis often grabbed logs of wood that hadn’t been quartered and used her blades to sculpt them when there wasn’t anything else of importance to do. Given how this place could compete with the Amazon Rain Forest for its moniker, that was often. At first it seemed like a very amateur result as the first few hours were rough and didn’t really resemble anything he could identify, but that seemed to be mostly an outlining phase as further time went into defining the surface. Eventually it looked a lot like an ambassador class ship that the Union used for diplomatic envoys, down to the quite ugly ship plating.
Satisfied with her work, it was cast into the fire while she reached for a new log to work on. This time going for a more spherical project. The small Mantis was at first rather cautious of him, often staying out of arms reach. After about three days it became much more friendly, seemingly in response to him having a freer range of motion as he healed the sore joints and muscles he had strained. Maybe it didn’t want to disturb the patient? It started with handing him its own attempts of art. Much less refined than its mother, but also much more recognizable. Various plants and small snippets of noticeable landscape, things that were much easier and required less practised precision. He was somewhat confused but happy to display them near his sleeping area. The set of sculptures were rotated out every so often as a marginally more refined version took their place while he slept.
Sometimes he would wake in the middle of the longer nights and find that the child had made its way to him, splayed across the ground soaking in his ambient heat. Those nights he would doze off slightly more soundly, enjoying what wind it blocked. The soft chittered purr as it slept calming any anxiety he once held about the two. They were developing a kind of trust, and that was something Joseph had missed for a long time.
The most recent development around the cave was that Mama has started leaving her child with him, once he could limp short distances and helped stoke the fire. Occasionally Mama would return with foliage on her in spots she couldn’t reach, to which he happily relieved her of the accidental cargo. Mostly she returned with food, wood, and folded leaves with clean water from some source not nearby. After some pantomiming he requested her to bring back some assorted vines and leaves, to which he fashioned a rudimentary saddle bag for her so that she wouldn’t need to make so many trips. The gift was well received, returned by her leaning on him, purring softly in thanks. The sound being what he imagined a cat from the Alien franchise would sound like.
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Other than that, they developed some simpler games to pass the time. Checkers was easy enough to replicate and only took a few tries until everyone had grasped the rules. He won the first few matches quite handily but Mama had eventually become unstoppable, only losing to her child when it started getting frustrated at the ever-growing losing streak. The development solidified in his mind the familial relationship the two exhibited.
The hand-soccer game was entirely dominated by the little one. Mama couldn’t keep up with her energy and he couldn’t shift from a sitting position to reap the benefit of increased motion he would gain from being on his knees, though that wouldn’t make much difference. The child had reflexes he could never hope to surpass without his beloved stimulant of choice and a warm up. The woven ball of wood fibres never crossing the impenetrable wall of youth, its reach easily covering the arbitrary goalposts that they set up. He might have stood a better chance if the cave was larger.
Sleeping often meant they ended up resting some part or another near him, but they never seemed to mind when he cuddled into them in his sleep. More than once he found that he had kept Mama from going about her day, holding a leg or two hostage while he was out. Maybe he was just warm or they could tell he wasn’t doing it on purpose. Still, it would be nicer if they could arrange somewhere more accommodating.
He should bring them back to his pod once his leg was better. It was a larger space for the three of them than the cave had to offer and was far better insulated. You could probably fit three or four caves in his room, a perk of the ticket he had. There might be medical supplies they could utilize there in future and the water wouldn’t taste like either city water nor the pool after a kindergarten field trip. Plus, there was basically an all you can eat buffet of rock worms around the area so food would be a low priority for quite a while. He was half way through planning how he was going to tell them all this and get them to come along when his stomach gurgled, letting him know it had been a little while since the last rock had been tossed on a fire. A small wiggled protest to his right informed him that he had stopped stroking the purple insect. Resuming the petting through a light chuckle, he smiled and watched it shuffle to get more comfortable.
He had grown somewhat attached to his rumbling arm rest. It had been the one to hand him his rock worms when they were done cooking and only started eating itself once it was certain he had started. It even let him use it as a crutch on occasion when his leg wasn’t up to supporting his weight. It seemed to at least partly understand he had injured himself beyond the cuts on his hands and acted to be of assistance when possible. In exchange he offered his company and helped maintain the fire when it got a bit cold.
Though his hours of movie plot summaries and re-telling of books may have well just been white noise to it, it always seemed to listen to him with some form of wonderment. He even let it try its hand at patching up his palms for practice, though the result was always very sloppy. We all start somewhere, and if it felt useful in the situation by him allowing himself to be a practice dummy, then he was happy to oblige. Even if it had to be scrapped and redone by Mama when she seen the result.
The matriarch of the cave perked up upon hearing his stomach and reached for the storage space for the stone food alternatives, a somewhat deep crevasse near the wall he had carved out to help alleviate the space issue somewhat, only to seem unhappy with its findings. Mama looked to the wood stock pile and repeated the unhappy shifting. Joseph figured the wood would last them through the night if they didn’t need to prepare more rock worms, but otherwise would need a few more to be on the safe side assuming Mama wasn’t done with her latest art project. If absolutely needed he could gather some rock worms or crack off branches near the cave but it would take him a while to transport them in any meaningful volume without risking his ankle getting worse, though he got the feeling that Mama wouldn’t be happy if he reset his healing over something it could she could likely do better and faster.
A point he wouldn’t really have the chance to contest as she rose from her sitting position faster than he could wonder how to politely race past her with a slight limp. A small sigh escaped his lips as he resigned his temporary fate as a dependent. He was mostly healed up from the sprain, but he conceded that any heavy work right now would put him back on crutches. He made a show of leaning back against the wall of the cave, signalling that he would forfeit to her for now.
Satisfied that he wasn’t going to make a break for it in an attempt to be less of a burden on her, Mama Mantis left the cave after a brief click session and interpretive dance with her child, somewhat hampered by the latter remaining comfortably resting next to him. Likely off to source more rock-worms to cook or stock up on wood, whichever of the two was unsatisfactory, she made her way out into the surrounding forest. Luckily, water had been taken care of by the structure of the cave allowing somewhat fresh rainwater to settle into a depression on the floor after yesterday's regular rain storm. Not the best water basin but didn’t taste much different from most tap water back on Earth. If the rain here came with fluoride pre-mixed it still wouldn’t be more alarming than the living geographical features, something he will return to so as to test if the boulders responsible for saving his life momentarily before placing him at the mercy of the pond were included in the new logic inserted into his head. Now, if he was going to thank them or end them was still very much up for debate.
The small Mantis fidgeted slightly once the Mama had left the area, leaning slightly more into him. The warm carapace bleeding its heat into him. He laughed softly and softly patted the child. “it’s okay, kid. Mom's just off to get us something to eat if I had to guess.” He explained gently. “Speaking of kid; I should probably think of a name for you. Looks like I've been here a week or so and I still don’t have anything for you. Any suggestions?”
The Mantis stopped fidgeting at the sound of his voice, calming the nervous motions. It faced him slightly more head on, a soft tilt of the head giving her the appearance of a puppy. Despite the apparent attention he had gained, all he got in response was some soft clicks. “How about I run some names by you, and you pick your favourite?” He offered through his own amusement at the similarities.
More clicks were returned, some sharper in tone than others but nothing resembling a pattern he could discern. Taking that as at least consent to the proposal, he hummed to himself while considering his options. “Well, you bear a striking resemblance to an Orchid Mantis back on Earth, ignoring the spider-centaur part, so I think a flower theme would be appropriate.” He mused aloud. “Rose, Lilly, Venus. That one also is the name of a planet near Earth.” He decided to omit the “fly trap” part.
The Mantis remained silent throughout the names, leaving him to wonder how much exactly it understood. The two understood simple gestures he made when he expressed his hunger or thirst and didn’t mind his touchy habits when he slept. They grasped games, art, and the value of pockets. Add that to their use of any medical treatment, he wouldn’t be surprised if they were far more than smart locals and were other members on the galactic stage.
He vaguely remembered the droning text to speech voice mentioning that the planet had a pretty undeveloped surface, with only a few research posts constructed. Were they live-in staff that had gotten separated? He had never seen their kind on the ship nor in any comprehensive list of known races that his brother had made him pull late nights for before the trip, but he also forgot most of those. Were they a newly uplifted race? If that was the case, he couldn’t think of why they would be here camping out in a cave. He doubted it was their home as it was still mostly unmodified except for some quality-of-life improvements he had contributed.
They were obviously nice enough people. Hell, they saved an absolute stranger and even housed him while he recovered. They even knew he wasn’t healed enough to contribute yet, if they even expected that of him at all. A lifestyle he would have quickly fallen in love with were it not for his desire to repay them for the kindness they have expressed towards him. Putting himself back on task, He glanced around the surroundings, trying to jog his memory of every plant name he could remember.
“Caladium, daffodil, daphne, hydrangea...” the names were all met with no reaction of his friend. He let his mind wander some more, memories of visits to off-world greenhouses as a child being sifted through to hopefully find something he could actually pronounce.
His eye was drawn to the light dancing over his comfortably warm armrest of a companion, the orange light reflecting and diffusing over the pearlescent chitin that coated it. The tints and shades shifting the base color underneath in an almost hypnotic array of colours and hues, mostly settling on purples and... “Violet...”
The purring in response to his mumbling refocused him. “You like Violet?” He asked, the Mantis purred in what he considered a fair affirmative. “Violet is a known name amongst humans for our females, but given how much of a mommy’s girl you are I guess it’s safe to say that still fits the bill.” He struggled to finish the sentence before chuckling as the mantis started rock side to side lightly in a grounded version of the happy dance he only witnessed when her mother returned with more rock worms. He returned to petting the excited kid before watching the fire, occasionally using his free hand to toss on more splits of rubber wood. “I like the name too, Violet.”
Satisfied with her new name, Violet settled back into him before raising to greet Mama as she made her way back with a few logs of wood and a few rock-worms. Some excited dancing was exchanged as Mama stored away the items, her child bouncing and chittering. Mama drew her attention to him after removing her saddle bags, plopping herself down to his left. She didn’t make much of a habit of sitting next to him but the calm demeanour told him that this wasn’t anything to fret about. Violet quickly took up his right side as she laid down some wood within reach and set some rock-worms to cook.
As night took over, he took it upon himself to provide some entertainment. He regaled them the tale of Romeo & Juliet, as well as a few other famous plays as he thought of them. His third story was interrupted by both Mama and Violet leaning much heavier on him. Long, deep breaths showing they had fallen asleep. Smiling at the two he lowered them down softly into the sleeping positions he had seen them take on their own. lying between them, basking in the mutual heat, he felt like he was exactly where he should be. A smile formed on his face as he drifted off for the night, far more comfortable than he had any right to be in a cave.