Aleph took a breath then began.

“So, me and Omega were out in the paddy fields and I was carrying the seedlings in a big pile, It was huge! My arms were full and I kept dropping them”

Omega interjected with an exasperated tone.

“I told her to just carry a few of them but she wanted to prove how strong and big she was...”

“Shush! I’m the one telling the story, you wasted yours on making Pylo cry!”

Pylo pouted, she LIKED omega’s story! It made her cry because it was GOOD. This one that aleph was telling was very different. She wondered where it was going.

“So anyway! Little me, like yay high”

Aleph helpfully straightened herself out and put a hand a bit ways down her leg from the hip.

“Uh, when I was standing then I was as tall as from my toes”

She wiggled her little phalanges.

“To here”

She slapped her thigh.

“Ah I see”

Pylo didn't really see, she didn't really understand at all what was supposed to be going on in the story at all.

Aleph stared at Pylo a bit then shook her head and continued.

“So anyway picture little Aleph, trundling along in the paddies, water up to her knees, burdened up with a pile of noodle grass seedlings so high she couldn't even see where she was going”

Pylo tilted her head to the side, how would the water stay at her knees? Wouldn't it drift away? Or perhaps splash?

Maybe there was a mucus layer that held it down? But then if that was the case how or why was Aleph the larva able to step through it?

And why would she carry the seedlings around? Did they need to stay close to her for warmth? Maybe they would wriggle away and escape without her? Pylo was not even sure what she was supposed to picture as the seedlings. Were they like pylo’s baby sister when she hatched? Were they like the ‘tree stalks’ in the Drive baffles around them?

Pylo was not understanding this story at all and was having a lot of problems picturing it. But she didn't want to admit that. Not when everyone else seemed to be able to follow along. So she just watched aleph’s brain to try and follow what was going on that way.

“So I’m going along yelling proud as can be about how I’m helping. And then Omega... Oh yeah she was back from the university for harvest I think? Anyway so that’s why she was there and so she was calling for some more seedlings to plant in the paddie...”

Aleph was starting to giggle. Pylo presumed it was because something funny was going to happen and got ready to catch the joke. Catching jokes was something she always enjoyed doing, it was a fun game her sisters had often played, telling weird and strange jokes to see who could catch them and toss back a counter.

Her aftmost limbs wiggling and coiling up as if ready to launch her into a pounce.

Anticipation for the funny priming in her cavities.

“So little me comes running fast as she can be, but unable to see mind you, and Omega is bent over planting seedlings, when I just run right into her butt with a bunch of muddy plants and knock her over...”

Pylo tilted her head, she really was not following how that could have happened... shouldn't Omega have sailed straight forward?

“But I was really booking it, so she didn't just splash into the water, I’d actually knocked her hard enough she ended up doing a handstand when she landed on the edge of the paddie. Was super cool totally typical Omega!”

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

Omega was covering her face for some reason.

“But then the paddie wall collapsed and she fell down the hill and ended up rolling all the way down into the valley, by the end I think she was more of like a giant soppy mud ball... Everyone ended up yelling at her for messing up the crops... They called her boggart-ball for YEARS after that!”

Pylo had missed the joke she could see it in Aleph’s head. She had been too distracted by trying to figure out the intricacies of the story’s events that she had missed it. Her sisters would have teased her mercilessly for fumbling on a humor reception this badly.

Omega groaned as Aleph fell over and started laughing, Quarti also chuckled good naturedly but apparently the only one that found it particularly funny was Aleph.

That actually made pylo feel a little bit better. Maybe it was just not a good joke if even the other Flatlanders didn't catch it.

Omega chimed in.

“I had to pay for the water we lost that day Aleph... and I actually covered for your mistake, that was a pretty serious thing you did there and you could have ended up getting really badly punished if I hadn't stood up for you”

Aleph stopped laughing.

“Wait what? You did? But you complained to me for the rest of the plantings about how they wouldn't punish me because I was a kid and just laughed at you”

“Well yeah I complained to you. And they didn't punish you because you were a kid! But I was the one who argued that, they wanted to try you like a second or third generation incarnate, I argued you were a fresh soul and shamed the lot of the ‘elders’ with the bullshit they did their first time around. When I sat where they did... And they did laugh at me for that”

Aleph was leaking water all over her face very suddenly, but she didn't seem precisely upset. So Pylo just waited as Omega continued.

“You didn't mean anything by it Aleph. Accidents and enthusiasm happen, No point in beating that wonder out of you before it’s had time to take root. Besides you practically worshiped me as it was back then... I didn't want to add anymore to that. Isn't healthy... So I complained and let you see that I can be petty and grumpy and that I wasn't any BETTER then you just because I’ve been born a few more times... too many people think that way”

Pylo felt like she should speak. Maybe it would lighten the heaviness.

“To be perfectly honest I have no idea what was going on in that story at all... Why did you carry all of those ‘seedlings’ with you so it blocked your view instead of tossing them in a coasting path? Why did the water stay down at your feet and not get splashed up into the air? Why did she fall down the hill? Why didn't she just bounce up into the air? What is Noodle Grass?! I have so many questions!”

Omega started laughing and lightly tumbling over herself in one side of the orb.

Aleph pouted.

“Okay... Okay I forgot we were telling stories to an alien... laugh it up”

Omega shook her head and continued laughing. Pylo was glad it wasn't at her but it was kind of mean.

Quarti once more helpfully clarified for her.

“The story took place on Terra beautiful Pylo... On Terra we have gravity”

Pylo tilts her head to one side to stare at Quarti.

“What’s Gravity?”

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