Pylo was so glad to get to the eating of things. She did a passing consideration of the food items confirming that none of the compounds in the various foods were on the definitely bad substance list provided by the Terran documentation.

And having been burned by that before she also did a rather extensive census on the Terrans and their various internal ecosystems to look for anything particularly toxic or disagreeable as far as their own biology could interpret about the various snacks available.

With a momentary sigh and internal but unexpressed flinch of disgust Pylo even passed her results over to ▙◀ for them to do some kind of magical deductions on it in case she was missing something.

Surprisingly it actually took a second and then third ping to actually draw enough of the micro-polity’s attention to actually answer properly!

“Yes, Apologies Ship Mistress. These should all be safe as long as no one overrides their satiation or pain responses.”

With that settled Pylo could finally relax.

She sampled a few of the snacks provided. They were nice. More common fare and less opulent then most of her other visits.

And not just in that way that common fare and foodstuffs sometimes were flipped and inverted into the height of cultural fine cuisine that happened every once in a while.

This was genuine hearty food as made by the majority of the cooking traditions of the less rarified hierarchy of The People’s society. Made just refined and well enough to send a message of status and masterful skill but also emphasizing the common heritage all of the people truly shared.

It was borne of the needs and restrictions imposed for Terran frailties. But Pylo was pleased that it had been utilized well to help strengthen the bonds between the many different segments of The People’s Society.

Tradition could use to have a bit of a mild immunization event like that.

She was getting a little bit too overly partitioned and that was liable to lead to allergies if it went on for too long.

Conversation washes over her as she idly digests the appetizers and the different cues and heritages within.

It was all quite pleasant and normal until suddenly and without warning Aleph gives a yelp of pain.

The cause is momentarily lost on Pylo, while she tries to trace back the depth of pain signals, the memory and the full scope of experiences running through the youngest Terran’s brain and limbic system ▙◀ is already grabbing the small organism that had apparently taken a bite out of Aleph.

The silly thing had apparently mistaken her for a pile of decaying refuse.

It took Pylo a few moments longer to confirm that there had been no permanent harm done. There was a mild abrasion and a few punctures to her skin that was already clotting well.

Her immune system was already heartily and viciously arraying itself against what few interlopers had settled into her tissue.

It was mostly organisms that normally lived on terran skin in the first place. What local microbes that had unfortunately ended up inside the threshing machine of the Terran body were already dying from incorrect acidity.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

However the fact the bite had happened in the first place was confusing.

Normally the terrans were as good as ▙◀ about that kind of thing. This required some intervention, maybe she was sick in some ill to define way. It would be just like Aleph to have something go wrong in a totally unexpected way from the other two.

“Why did you let the scorb bite you? It spent quite a while a while prodding your hand before it decided you were food.”

Aleph sucked at the webbing between her thumb and index finger where her blood had been beading from the few punctures of the bite.

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“I thought it was some kind of pet. Or maybe part of the feast? It was nuzzling at me in a pretty cute way.”

That drew a baffled expression from the Clerk and ▙◀.

Pylo had to follow the train of thought back and forth through Aleph’s head a few times before finally spotting the error.

“But... we are in a Wilderness.”

Aleph waved around herself.

“Ya sure I know this big giant wood is a huge scary place but... I thought that-”

The Hospitilator was contemplating honorable suicide for the lapse in defending Pylo’s guest which she forestalled with a brush of meaning in the deep speech of touch.

“Do not worry. The terrans are fragile creatures. They hale from the sheltered flesh of a great sun circler. They do not understand.”

Mirroring her private communication of comfort and forestalled self destruction were ▙◀’s own words.

Spoken aloud so all parties could hear the micro polity.

“The People are never in any of their places far from a profundity of wilderness that as I have said before in our lessons is greater then the most isolated and feral places I have a record of for Terra.”

Aleph considered the circular even punctures of her skin where the scorb had briefly tried to catch in her skin. It had not even managed to start carving out a bite proper before realizing it’s mistake and disengaging from the mobile flesh.

The poor thing was actually quite distraught, it had been caught in ▙◀’s grasper and was in its simple way quite certain it had somehow fallen for a cleverly baited trap with false food.

Pylo huffed very softly. More for the terran’s benefit then a need to cycle for heat regulation and bade that ▙◀ release the poor thing so it can flee and find actual detritus to clean up.

“So... That was like... a bug bite back home? Or what?”

Aleph was watchful now for another Scorb even as she took what to the People were absolutely tiny little nibbles of all the various snack foods. Pylo was glad that the comparatively tiny appetites of the Terrans were already being taken in stride by the Hospitilator.

Honestly, a single of the bite sized hearts was probably more food then any of them could possibly finish alone, never mind the rest of the food that was presented and the further dishes on the way.

She gave Quarti a nudge of a payload to find her own way to explain to her fellow terrans that they were not obligated or expected to even finish any of the dishes they sampled.

Pylo found the apt metaphor to answer the youngest Terran after a moment.

“Actually no. That scorb actually thought you were made of rotten refuse or other detritus. None of the local parasites even think you smell like food.”

Omega was surprised by that and Quarti naturally found being compared to ‘garbage’ quite funny.

The middle-aged of the Terrans spoke up after swallowing her own latest bite.

“Wait... but then how can we even eat this food here? If we are that different.”

Pylo sampled a few of the appropriately nearby globes of water finishers as a subtle cue she’d at least like to have her next course prepared and brought forth.

“It’s not that you are different, it is that all of you are quite nutrient poor in what most of the parasites would actually be trying to get from The People for example.”

She mused on a moment before offering Omega a smile.

“You are somewhere between already filtered and digested food stuff and the tantalizing but otherwise sparse calories of several flowers and fruits found elsewhere in the forest. But with a hint of signs that you are already slightly decomposed thanks to some markers from your familial similarity to putrefaction species found near here.”

That of course made Quarti laugh even harder.

Aleph however frowned and looked around before asking gently.

“Uh... We arn’t like spoiling anyone’s appetite from being so... smelly. Are we?”

Squidgie just burst into laughter and proceeded to explain to Aleph how the unique bouquet of Terran was already being discussed as an inspiration for several new perfumes and possible food seasonings.

That potential disaster resolved Pylo turned her attention back to the next course.

There were a few local flora she wanted to pick up some contracts with that usually made it onto the feast table that were quite entertaining genomically.