Memory transcription subject: Elva, Human Integration Host.
Date [standardized human time]: August 29th, 2136. Midday
"... elva?"
Oh by the sun she's alive! "Yes, Maeve! Yes! I'm here!"
Another sigh, another shudder… but, laughter?
"You said my name! I'm really glad." Another deep breath, "Listen, Elva: my arm is shattered, and I've lost a lot of blood." Another breath; too deep, too fast! Maeve was panicking! "I'm… I'm going into shock. I-It's ok, this is a n…natural human r-response, but it's really important that I d-don't fall asleep." Maeve still shuddered between each breath, "I need you to keep me awake any way you can; yell at me, bite me, claw me, w-w-whatever it takes, I-I cannot fall asleep until this passes, o-ok?"
I felt my own panic building, but I had to buy time for Alvi to get back! I took a bundle of the black cloth and pressed it against the wound while she held the arm against her chest. "Alright! Uh… wh-why don't you tell me about this 'shock'?"
Maeve's breathing bobbed my whole body, despite putting all my weight into the improvised compress; I couldn't see her through the fabric, but her pain was evident. "Uh, well… A-All creatures on earth respond to threats in different ways, and ssssome of them are pretty novel. But they all break down to Fight, Flight, or Fffffreeze. Individuals have their own p-p-personalities and tend t-toward one or the other, but Humans as a whole are more Fight, and our biology developed to mmmm-maximize that."
Maeve started to squirm and kick beneath me, whimpering through her pain, "Oh god, it hurts. It hurts so bad, Elva."
I could feel my own tears pull from the corner of my eyes, "I-I know child. It will be ok. How do humans fight?" I had to keep her talking!
Maeve fought sobs pressing at her throat, forcing her next thoughts through her pain. "W-W-We create an aaaa-abundance of Adrenaline; our b-body gets flooded with the stuff. It pushes our heart, and kills our pain re-response. Expands our blood vessels and puts our lungs into… overdrive. More oxygen, more… n-nutrients, everywhere, faster. The extra bloodflow in the b-brain even has the effect of boosting our fff-fine perception, causing time to appear sssslower to us, and increasing our… reaction time."
Even through the cloth, I could see her muscles binding and clenching, racked with pain. "Mmmm! Fuck! Fu- Fu… Nnngh!" Several shallow breaths before she could push through another thought. "Mmm-But the adrenaline is…metabolized qu-quickly, and when the th-th-threat is gone, it stopssss being produced." Several short breaths, her panic was coming back. "P-Pain… comes flooding back. But the b-body still needssss all the oxygen and nutrients that it was g-getting while hopped up. But without the adrenaline, and made… worse by b-blood loss, the body starves and goes into sh-shock. I need to keep bloodflow going, and I need to ssstay awake because if I fall asleep, if my heart rate drops…"
A tear rolled down her cheek. "I… I… I don't want to die, Elva. I don't want to leave..."
A distant roll of thunder from behind us. "It will be fine, child, it will be fine. Alvi is getting help. Just hold on." I could hear a ship bearing down on us, while sticky warmth pooled between my fingers.
"I miss my Mom. I never -- I didn't --"
"Shh. Shh. It's ok." As roaring engines surrounded us.
"I'm here."
---
Memory transcription subject: Valek, Human Integration Host.
Date [standardized human time]: August 29th, 2136. Midday
"--your report said you 'had a tense welcome', could you expand on that?"
I should have known my report would prompt a follow up, but I wasn't expecting a human! I guess it wasn't just Maeve who had a knack for seeing through the wool. I didn't tell them everything, I'm not that dim, but you can only polish a turd so much.
"My parents met us at the door and, I'll admit, introductions could have been better. We were all tired and they were… unfamiliar, so things got a little…"
"... tense. Right.” Sam was unimpressed, “Is this going to be a problem?"
"No, no, of course not! It's cold winds, I won't lie, but we've had two really positive breakthroughs! My folks have barely known her a claw, not counting sleep. They'll come around, and sooner tha-"
KRAK-Ow
I nearly snapped my pad in half as the plasma fire echoed through the den.
"... No… No no no No!"
Sam was yelling something, but I only dropped my pad where it lay, and launched myself from my seat to bolt out the door. I just crested the hill to see my fath-
KRAK-Ow
MY FATHER USING THE FARM AS A FIRING RANGE!
"What the Brahking Stars are you doing?!" I made to dive for the barrel, shimmering with fresh heat.
"They've got the girls pinned!!" Leksi bellowed through panic and his ringing ears, aborting my spring. "I got one of the beasts!!! But they're slipp- Oh, Stars! Elva's in the open!!!"
A piercing shriek drifted over from the treeline, and my blood ran cold as I realized it wasn't Venlil. Dad's fur flared and fluffed as he muttered, "... it saved her…"
Something seemed to catch his sight, "Oh, no you don't…!"
KRAK-Ow
Ozone assaulted my senses as a wave of superheated discharge nearly singed my outer wool. My father seemed to yell something, "Gotcha!", if I saw his tail right, though my ringing ears couldn't catch exactly what it was. My mind still a ringing haze of the everything, I stumbled down the hill, and started to run when I found my balance.
My legs burning and my heart pounding, I found Alvi standing in the row, shivering; her tail was desperately cinched around her thighs, and her ears were pressed flat against the back of her head, indenting the wool of her scruff as her arms hugged her chest.
"Alvi!!" Her ears snapped up as she turned her good eye to me,
"VALEK!!" She screamed as she ran headlong into me, "I tried to get help, but I heard something in the brush and froze! I froze again like-"
I pressed her snout against mine, and whistled a low lullaby, letting the reverberations quiet the maelstrom. "It's alright, starlight. You're not alone now. Breathe. You're safe." I used my paws to brush away her fright, and rubbed the tears from her eyes. I took Alvi's paw and we ran together back to Maeve, as shuttle engines roared past us.
---
Memory transcription subject: Elva, Human Integration Host.
Date [standardized human time]: August 30th, 2136. Late morning
“It’s so… square. Will that even hold up in Galetime?”
“Eeeh, they barely have the framing up; maybe it’ll be more breeze-ready when it’s finished.”
Leksi and I sat in the sun on the Hill, enjoying our SunBreeze while we watched the construction of Maeve’s guest room. It sat detached from the Hill, itself nearly as tall as the whole burrow; I wondered why a human needed so much space. Though I suppose Maeve did crouch a lot when she was here…
“Is it strange I wished they built it attached to ours?” I chuckled to my husband.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“It is very strange. But that’s why I love you. If not for all of your ‘strange’ I would still be just a farmhand.”
… a long moment, punctuated by quiet sipping…
“I don’t like this Elva.”
“I know dear. Everything is moving so fast… the world is changing around us.” I reached my tail under the lounge to entwine with his, taking his paw in mine as I did so. “Hearing about all this nonsense in the cities… it felt so far away. I didn’t think… change… would find us here.”
“I remember the first time we saw a Yotul.” Our tails rocked happily between us as Leksi recollected in good humor, “Poor thing was ecstatic to finally find something familiar in our little Grove. I should’a been kinder to him…”
“You two warmed up eventually. And now he makes the best Firefruit Wine on the Wayward Side!”
“Only because he uses our starberries to sweeten it!” He tipped his glass to me, “That reminds me… we're gonna to have to tell him we will be short this harvest…” His ears fell as the happy memory soured.
“It will be fine, sunflower. It will be hard, but we will figure it out.”
We were just draining our glasses when, “They’re back!” I cheerfully lept from my seat, bounding down the hill to the main gate. Maeve’s arm was wrapped in a CinchSplint; it looked like it had already cured, so she will be wearing that for a while. She was also sporting a new headdress, a mirrored visor set atop a new fabric covering the top of her head. I wonder why she never leaves that uncovered?
Valek was at her side, Maeve’s arm draped around his shoulder, walking in step together. Alvi stepped in front of me as I approached, my tail flashed concern, which Alvi met with assurance. “Maeve’s ok, she’s just still a little loopy from the meds.”
“Hiiii there little stormcloud! I rrrreally like your slotsssss.” The translator had a hard time with that one, but I was glad to see Maeve in high spirits; even if it were because of high ‘spirits’.
I giggled my response, “Yes child, I quite like my ‘slots’ too! Come on, let's get you inside.”
Leksi met us at the door and welcomed us in, an enthusiastic ‘Welcome Home’ singing from his tail. Maeve and Valek sunk into the couch, Maeve’s head flopping back and forth with the movement, Leksi and Alvi took their seats while I prepared some juice; that slur told me some hydration was in order.
“You guys have such a coooool house! It’s like if Bag End was filled with The Burrow.” Maeve tried to laugh, but sounded to suck in her entire nose, “Oh, god, I’m such a nerd.” At which she giggled to herself.
“So, heh, they gave her the good stuff I see.” Leksi sat chuckling at the poor girl.
Valek replied tiredly, clearly the girl exhausted his humor at that point, “Yeah… the surgery went well, but they needed to take each bone individually and get it lined up where it needed to be. Over 80 pieces, and they didn't even get them all. The human doctors said the rest will be absorbed into the body eventually. And apparently, the fur on those things is some kind of powerful irritant, the doctor likened it to Fiberglass, whatever that is. The humans were very thankful for our technology; they said she would have lost the arm without it.”
A deep rattling growl thundered from Maeve, causing Leksi to reach for his hip while I nearly dropped the drinks. Valek stepped between Leksi and Maeve, yelling, “Woah Woah Woah… it’s alright! It’s ok! She does this sometimes when she sleeps. C’mon Alvi, help me lay her down.”
The growling stopped and stuttered while the pair did their work; myself beaming with pride at the care my son was showing. “She said it’s called Snoring. It’s apparently really common among humans, something about the nose getting in the way of breathing.”
“Weird…” I breathed, unbelieving.
Valek chuckled good-naturedly, “Yeah… she’s not normally this bad, I think it’s something to do with the meds.”
“You look tired sweetie… why don’t you go to bed?”
“Oh, no I don’t want to leave her alone. And now she’s down I don’t think we will be able to move her. I can nap out here, it’s fine.”
“She won’t be alone. You and Alvi get some sleep, Leksi and I can watch her.” Valek stiffened and his ear focused on me, while Leksi flashed confusion.
“We’ll be fine! What’s the worst one drugged up human can do??”
---
Date [standardized human time]: August 30th, 2136. Early Evening
I was just finishing a problematic tie in my newest Vialthi when Maeve first stirred. She had been breathing evenly, but now took a long deep breath, as if welcoming life to her waking.
"Hello, Maeve." The girl started at my words, almost looking to confront me, but her body relaxed as quickly as it tensed. She kept her back to me as she spoke.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you Elva."
"You didn't child; in fact I believe I scared you. What a funny time we live in… where a predator is afraid of prey." I set my lines on the pincushion and set it aside. "But I have seen a Predator, and I have seen you. You are many things Maeve, but you are not a Predator."
The tight ball of human curled tighter.
"You want to know something? We have been having problems with these droids for weeks. Before yesterday, we would just use one of the others; it would fetch it and take it in the garage so I could fix it. That droid out there… That was our last one. We had nothing and no one left to retrieve it."
My ears fell and my blood ran cold as I allowed the thought I've kept buried to surface.
"Whether or not you came… that droid would have gone down, just the same. And if you weren't here… Leksi and I… we would have gone…" my voice broke as I saw the black pinpricks in the treeline. "Gone to get that droid, without any idea what was waiting for us."
My vision blurred with tears as I stood from my craft chair and walked to the couch. "I'm sorry Maeve, that you got hurt. But if I'm honest with myself, if you weren't there…" my voice caught in my throat as I struggled to get the words out.
"I was there Elva. What could have happened doesn't matter because what did happen is: we all got back ok. Well, mostly ok." Maeve rolled over onto her back to look at the ceiling, her rigid cast held tight against her torso. "Ya know I've broken a few bones before; human kids play rough, it's basically unavoidable. But what you guys can do… I would be laid up in that hospital for weeks if I were still on Earth, but you guys got me patched up and healing in less than a day!"
Maeve's voice had taken on a lighter tone, "And with the supplements they gave me, I should have full use in a couple weeks!!"
Looking at the ceiling, she seemed to take note of something, "What's that on the wall? Looks like a scarf?" She used her good arm to point at the Vyalkit running the border of the den.
"That's our Vyalkit. Fifty-three generations. Fifty-three promises of love, Fifty-three new families." I said, with no small amount of pride. “Our family has one of the oldest: my ancestors started it before first contact. There's mine and Leksi's, on the end by the stairs."
Maeve got up from her seat, but staggered and swayed before sitting back down. I moved to the side of her good arm, and she tried again, using my shoulder as support. She was… heavy. A heavy presence beside me, a heavy weight on my shoulder… but it felt… safe. Like a good roof on a stormy night. I thought back to that day, huddled under her, and remembered the heavy weight then. It was like a great beast looming - no - shielding us. I could not fathom, in that moment with her walking beside me, how I ever thought she was a danger to us.
We stood under mine and Leksi's weave. His white wool held our vows, while my black scribed them; I remembered gathering that specifically from above my heart. Leksi's black stripe bordered our Vyal, while my black embraced and weaved with his, fading into my white spots at the edges.
We sat for a moment. Maeve took in every detail, while I reminded myself what every stitch and tie meant. "Are these your vows?" - "Yes." - "... it's beautiful." Maeve raised a hand to touch it, but pulled away, continuing to look. "You called it a Vyalkit?"
"Yes, Vyalkit." As we moved to my mother's. She kept with the tradition, but she always had a more modern mind. Which I am thankful for, truely, for if not for her I wouldn't have gone to University. Leksi knows how to farm, no denying that, but he would still be using hoes and tillers without me.
"FFFFF… VVVV… SSSL… HHHS" a slight whistle escaped her with that. "HHSS-" Stronger then.
"Vyal… kit" I stressed my sounds as best I could.
She got the first sound, though the tone was off, "Al… K… K… T… Q… " the hard sound fell further down her throat, "Qit."
"Hhssal… qit… Valkit. Valkit?"
My tail flashed glee, "You've got it! The Vy sound has an upward shift. Vy-" as my whistle shifted up a half-step, "but that will come with practice."
"What does it mean? Normally the translator helps me to understand intuitively, but the only sense I get is 'good' and 'old'." We moved to the next in line, my Grandmother's. She was the one who taught me the old script, with help from my mom.
"This…" I pointed to the Vyalkit as a whole, "is a Kit. It is an heirloom of woven tail- and paw-wraps. These…" I pointed at the bordered vows on my now Great-grandmother's wrap. She loved the family history, so she had Baltiv make additional vows to the family itself, woven outside the Vyal. "Are Vyala. They are… it's hard to describe. They are promises you make to someone, and to yourself, together. They bind you to someone in purpose and in self. A Vyal is a symbol that shows you are now one person, one love, one being, living and growing as one."
"A Vyalkit, is a Kit of Vyala."
Maeve didn't speak, and only breathed slightly… if I didn't know better I'd almost say she was trying very hard not to breathe. "Humans have our own rituals, but nothing like this; not that I know of. We have objects, which we pass down as reminders of our history. The most common are Rings, to symbolize being bound to each other, 'until death do us part'." My ears and tail flashed concern at that, which I hoped Maeve didn't notice. "Marriage has a very complicated history for humans, largely because it is something nearly every culture invented themselves, and almost entirely differently. In broad terms, Marriage is a promise to love one person, without condition, and to support that person, without hesitation. Life is hard, and humans can't face it alone. A marriage is a public declaration that 'this person will never be alone, because I will be there'."
My heart filled, learning that humans have this concept. Maybe Valek was right: just like us, in all the ways that matter.
"Thank you, Elva, for sharing this with me. It's… it's really beautiful. It is incredible that you surround your home with love, both symbolically with your… HHSS… HHSSS. HHSSSY! Valki- mm, no, VVVyalkit! Vyalkit!" The girl hopped with joy beside me, nearly losing her balance before I set her right. My ears flapped joy and my tail pride. "... and literally. I saw your fear, but through it I saw how much Leksi loves you, and you him. You have a wonderful family, Elva."
"And I couldn't be happier, for Valek to bring you to us."
I pulled Maeve's hand for her to kneel. I took her head in my hands and briefly groomed the space above her eyes, before placing my snout where I groomed.
"Welcome to the Berrypatch, Maeve."