Memory transcription subject: Valek

Date [standardized human time]: Sept 16th, 2136. Start of 5th Claw.

“...Call it a ‘girl’s weekend’; we can braid our hair and talk about boys!”

I couldn’t quiet the bursting laugh that escaped me; I hadn’t intended to envision Maeve braiding Alvi’s wool, least not ‘till a vyalkit was in the dawn! I finished drying my crown and tossed the towel back onto the kitchen counter as I started up the stairs.

“I need to take a bath before I start presenting, you two have fun out there!”

In the corner of my eye I could see my Star blooming a steadily deeper shade of gold, while my Sun was nearly shone behind a wide delighted grin as I reached the landing and closed the door, thinking to myself that I ought to tell Maeve the significance of braiding in Venlil courtship. My lop-sided gait slowed my trek to the washroom while I tried to shake out the dull throbbing in my groin that twitched my tail uncooperatively; I was damn lucky my parents weren’t awake, I hadn’t been this bad since I was still in finishing school!

I stepped into the washroom and locked the door behind me, turned the tap to fill the wide and shallow basin of a bathtub, and arrayed my preference of brushes, soaps, and oils. I wasn’t due for a bath for a while yet, even if the hotel bath left much to be desired, hygienically, but if I’m getting this bad then Alvi must be shedding something awful; even with her gone I’d be right back where I started with the taste of her all over me.

I sighed a whistle, Back then… It’s like It was another life… scorch it, just last harvest was like another life! A new species… a new friend… I thought of Alvi, of my pads sinking into her wool and brushing against her skin…

I flap my ears vigorously to bat away the intrusive - though not unwelcome - thought and shut off the tub, quickly stepping into the i-i-i-IIIYE Speh that’s cold!! My every muscle tenses as I dig my claws into the ancient wooden tub, lowering myself into the frigid water by naught but force of will and gravity.

It did, thankfully, have the intended effect of dousing the fire under my skin. After several moments of breathing through the sharp discomfort, I finally reached out a shivering paw to the first of our cleaners, pouring a good pawful or two into the water and mixing it in. Almost immediately I could feel the water lose its tension and fall into my wool which I immediately started scrubbing. I worked to loosen stubborn tangles and knots, making sure to coat every fiber I could reach with Mom’s organic pheromone-neutralizing wash along with my own fortifying oils while thoughts and memory started to seep in, no longer held at bay by distraction and company.

The room around me silently bellowed its age. These floors were laid with tile that my Great Uncle paw-cut and mortared after the hardwood slats had finally rotted to hazard. The walls were paneled with sap-steeped dayside arbors that have since become illegal to harvest, due to their slow growth and therefore replacement. Everything about this room, how much of it pre-dated First Contact? We, the Venlil, had been part of the Federation for nearly a millennium, what could even survive that? If… even if they had never found us, how much of this room could be that old? How much of my history could be leftover after just the march of time, much less Federation interference?

Maeve had spoken many times of her people’s history; they knew how they discovered farming, and language! They have books - real, physical things! - older than the entire federation, that they somehow can still read just as their ancestors did with layer upon layer of protection, all in a desperate attempt to prolong the eternity of the written word. I knew… I thought I knew something of my people from before First Contact, stories passed down from ear to ear in the Grove, and some carried on winds of changing lives from around Venlil Prime.

But I saw back in the museum there was evidence enough that the Federation lied about our history, though I didn’t know how much. And I wasn’t sure I ever would. But whatever they did, they put themselves in the light, and us in the dark. Was it just farming, just First Contact? How much did they change?

I needed to know.

I came back to the present, and realized the mess loosened from my wool had sunk to become a layer of silt on the floor of the tub, while what little fortifying oil that didn't make it to my coat floated a layer of film on the water’s surface. I had forgotten to finish my wash routine, and quickly got back to work; without someone to help, I had to retrieve the scrubbing panel for my back. I braced it against the tub’s wall and leaned against it, shifting my body in wide circles alternating side-to-side with up-and-down. Once I was satisfied that I had cleaned every part of me I could reach without assistance, I drained the tub and grabbed the rinsing nozzle. Now fully clean, I got out of the tub and, dripping across the tile, found the drying seat and set to work with the corded wool-dryer. Papa told me when I was a pup that, before First Contact brought electricity with them, the Venlil used to do this with a bellows attached to a central wood furnace; I thought it was ridiculous even then, but now armed with new knowledge the notion gave me a hearty chuff!

Maybe Keneles would have something. As big as that library was, I would hope that he kept something authentically pre-contact. I reached for my naked shoulder and realized I left my pad downstairs; I still needed to clean up from our meal, so just as well. I grabbed a bottle of shower-formula shampoo/neutralizer 2-in-1 before making my way downstairs, careful not to wake my parents so early in their sleep claw. The girls were long gone by the time I made it back to the kitchen; apparently in a hurry, as it seemed they didn’t take any food. I gathered our services and rinsed them, dried them, and put them away, but my mind was somewhere else.

What would I find? What was I hoping for? How would I prove that it’s authentic? There has to be something, you can’t change history on this scale without missing something; a thousand years is a long time, but VP is a big planet! Could there be anything left? What would it look like?

My mind bolted a lightyear a minute, the idle cleaning barely a whisper in the background of my bounding questions. I thought about the Stonebuilder Tapestry as I raided the fridge of supplies for Alvi. I thought of my Dad’s Great-grandfather's infatuation with Parnekselious as I set the tote in the den and messaged Maeve, followed by a quick response that she was busy but will collect it later. I thought about tools that don’t sit well in our paws, and forbidden readings. I thought of how angry I felt, because of what the Federation was hiding from us, and because of Keneles refusing to give me the chance to do something about it.

Instead, he asked me to learn more about the humans; to sit and wait for the right moment, and prepare for whatever that moment could be. But how could I learn anything when I didn’t even know what I didn’t knoooo-Oh, hello!

While passing the long circular couch, I saw a white book with a picture of an… unbelievably muscled human holding a great jagged piece of yellow metal; this must be the book Maeve had brought in to show us! My task immediately forgotten, I sat on the couch and flipped past the cover. The first several pages were nearly blank, carrying only what I assumed were titles, sources, and acknowledgments, if they were in any way similar to more familiar literature. But I gasped when I opened the first decorated page; Maeve had mentioned they had art, but this was like nothing I had seen! At first it looked like a mess of color splashed across the page in greens and blues, surrounding a radiant supernova of golden light, that… hold on…

I think that’s a river!

The familiar ribbon of blue was my cipher key as I made more and more sense of the scene before me. There were whole herds of humans! Climbing and falling and draping over each with little more than a curtain to cover themselves. But they were separate? Most were on the ground, a few by the water, but many seemed to be laying on clouds? These cloud-people were paler, less defined, like they were themselves made of those clouds. At the top of the picture though, in pride of place in the center of the supernova was one human, cloud-colored like the rest but in sharp relief, looking down at the herd below…

Just like Solgalick is shown looking down at his faithful.

“Wow.” I sighed, and flipped the page. And another. And another. Dense blocks of the humans’ squarish script interspersed with images, some sharing a style like the cover but most were a wide variety of art ranging from the almost-real sun picture from earlier, to simple wall paintings, to massive statues of humans and predators and things entirely other!

It seemed the book was sectioned by theme, maybe culture? The first section seemed to be the same as that first picture with very human people wrapped in simple cloth and as I reached the end I saw that yellow-metal-brandishing human from the cover. I was fascinated by the pictures I saw and how they seemed to be snapshots of stories, but it was all idle curiosity until I saw something I didn’t expect. This section had very little modern art in the style of the cover, but instead seemed to be almost entirely photographs of carved walls and painted manuscripts, one of which featured something I couldn’t readily believe.

A depiction of Humans, with Federation heads!

Th-That’s a Duerten! A-And that’s a Yulpa! And an Arxur?! How?!

I frantically grabbed my pad and pulled up the visual translator, quickly reading the Yulpa entry attached to the photograph, “Anubis is the Ancient Egyptian god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld in Ancient Egyptian religion; usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. Anubis assumed several roles, such as being credited with the invention of embalming, and for weighing the soul’s heart to determine their place in the afterlife.”

So it's not a Yulpa, but some Earth animal; Maeve mentioned Venlil's similarity to ‘sheep' and ‘rabbit’, was this another coincidence?

Hold on, humans believe in souls too?

I read on, “As with many Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed many roles; one such being the 'Guardian of the Scales’ [Fig 2.1]. This critical scene depicting the weighing of the heart, discovered in the Book of the Dead, shows Anubis performing a measurement that determined whether the person was worthy of entering Duat, what they believed to be the underworld. This scene depicted Anubis weighing the heart of the deceased against Ma'at, often represented as an ostrich feather, to decide the fate of the soul. This trial was witnessed and recorded by Thoth, here depicted as a man with the head of an ibis. Souls heavier than the feather would be devoured by Ammit, here depicted as a hound with a crocodile head, while souls lighter than the feather would ascend to a heavenly existence."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

I was awestruck. True, Ammit eating the heart was a uniquely predatory if prescient take, but everything else… this could have been any one of our religions! My own family followed the Sun and Stars, believing that when we died, we left the Day and joined the Night as a star!

I madly wove a trail through the dense book for the better part of a claw, reading through my pad's translator as I absorbed stories of boats sailing through oceans of stars, of crafty mountains and jealous winds. I found Solgalick in their story of Prometheus, gifting man fire just as Solgalick taught the Venlil time, and our Three Tenets would fit right in beside their Buddhism! I was admiring their historic woven tapestries, amazed by the stylistic similarities with our Stonebuilder Tapestry when my pad chimed in my shoulder-pack.

> Taking a break between episodes, is this a good time to get the thing?

>

> Great time! Stay safe out there.

>

> See you soon :*

I lept to my feet and double checked what else Alvi may need and, just as I was loading a few finishing touches into the tote, what sounded like a starship engine roared from our front door! The heavy wooden door was slowly pulled open and Maeve slid through; the storm outside slammed it closed behind her, muffling the deafening howl around us. She flipped her gale-tangled curls behind her and my heart leapt to see her brilliant green eyes find me again! Her lips parted in a wide smile, “Hey cutie, come here often?”

She laughed when I playfully admonished her by splaying my ears, before all but running to me and though I wanted to run to her…

But I stepped back, signaling >Stop. Wait.< with everything from ear to claw. She stopped, and I stepped back again, making some distance between us, “Parents are going to wake up any moment, and with Alvi’s taste on you…”

Sun, Stars, and everything between them, I love it when she flushes that delightful eltavi-red!

She took her own pace backward and cleared her throat, “You said you had some snacks packed?” I affirmed and motioned to the crate just inside the den. As she got closer, she noticed the book I had left on the couch, “Want me to take that too?”

>No.< “I was just reading that, actually! I had no idea you had so many different beliefs, how do you keep them all straight?”

“Lots of record keeping, and even then with… debatable success. This book actually notes very few of our active faiths, just the big four; everything else is much older, and not actively practiced. Were there any that caught your eye?”

I hear pawsteps above me as I’m about to answer. I look at the book between us and see it is open to a full-page mural of a many-armed, many-faced human wreathed in fire, hands dripping with humanity’s red red blood…

We shared a look, “Maybe another time?” -- “Raincheck. Shiva might be a bit much for Leksi.”

In a flash, Maeve heaved herself and the crate through the wind-locked door which slammed closed the moment the crate was clear. I bolted to the couch and snapped the book closed, running to hide it in the bookcase behind three dictionaries and an outdated almanac before I called up the stairs, “Hi Mom, hi Dad! Rest well?”

A long low yawn announced Dad’s arrival as his first steps came into view, “Better’n we have in paws! How’d you and the girls do in the village?”

“Really great!” I answered with happily perked ears, resuming my interrupted tidying of the den, “Maeve kept the litter distracted with a story while everyone finished prepping for galetime. The farm’s locked down along with the rest of the village, so I hope you’ve stocked up.”

Mom looked around the den when she reached the bottom of the stairs, “Where are the girls?”

“Alvi’s on her cycle, so they’re staying out in the apartment. Maeve will be taking care of her for the Night.”

Mom winced sympathetically at hearing of Alvi’s plight, “Poor dear, have they got everything they need out there?”

“I packed a whole crate for her, Maeve just collected it before you came down. Also packed your 2-in-1 neutralizer, Mom; hope you don’t mind?”

Mom shrugged in the Venlil way as Dad beamed at me, “Sounds like we raised you right, son! So did you include us in your planning?”

I excitedly padded to the tall games cabinet by the stairs, pulling out a hefty well-worn box of cards and erasable playmats, “I was thinking a game of Philosopher?”

“And let Elva drag us by the scruff again?” Dad chuffed ruefully as Mom papped him with her tail.

I had already started shuffling scratch cards at the living room table, “C’mon we’ve gotta win eventually, right? Get your boards and make sure your markers work.”

[Advance Transcript by Time Unit: 1 Hour]

I stared at the cards in my paw, trying to mentally piece them together with what was left on the table; Dad was taking his time, thankfully, giving me plenty to plan with. Mom had been stampeding right over us, having already finished her round with ‘Growing Herd’ while I was still struggling with ‘Educate’.

“You’re going a little wall-eyed there, sweetie. Not finding what you need?” Mom asked coyly as she teased Dad about his languid pace while I stared at the ‘si’ card in the center pile, praying Dad wouldn’t take it.

“I’ll get there when I get there,” he grumbled, before drawing a mover and replacing it with a ‘va’. I tried to hide my sigh of relief as I drew the ‘si’ card and marked my board, finishing ‘Educate’ with a flourish and drawing from the deck to refill.

Mom, however, started to sway her tail smugly. “‘Educate’! Good choice, plenty of ways to grow it…” Her tail drew my attention to the down-tone in the third reveal pile. I knew that it would modify mine to ‘Educate Youth’; I was going to use my ‘ta’ to make it past-tense, but those extra points from adding a timed subject were awfully tempting…

Dad, however, picked up the down-tone and quickly added it to his board for a simple ‘Before When’ then redrew his paw, “Stars, at least I’m on the board now. You thought about going back to Uni, son? Should be a break-harvest after this night; give you plenty of time to study.”

I played my ‘ta’ card to finish ‘Educated’, tallied my points and erased my board, then discarded my paw to pass the round, “Pass. I dunno, maybe? Honestly the Library has been both welcoming and informative, I think I might see if I can pluck a job there.”

Mom leaned over, pretending to look at Dad’s paw, to which he leaned back and flattened his ears. She whistled playfully, “Oh, really? Anything in particular about this ‘library’ that’s caught your fancy?”

My ears fell for a split-second as I thought of the ring of linked metal Keneles showed me, “Uhh- getting to learn at my own pace is definitely a plus! And it is nice to get out of the exterminator pipeline; HPU has always been a bit more… vocational than I liked. I think I like the learning part more, and maybe even teaching.”

“That’s great son!” Dad all but cheered as he erased his board and redealt for the new round, “I think something in the college would be great for you! You’d be welcome here in the Burrow every break-harvest, if ya fancy.”

Dad took his turn as he had the lowest-value word last round, leaving me a good pick for what I had been dealt, “Thank you, it’s nice to be home. The city’s got its charms, but it never really felt like… like Me, ya know?”

I already have the marks for ‘Big Process’, and that ‘vol’ could make it ‘Machine’. But if I could get an up-tone and ‘ven’ for ‘For People’ that’d give me ‘Federation’, which would put me over Mom…

I took a risk and drew from the deck, prompting mom to immediately play ‘Join’ from her paw and let Dad know it was his turn again - to his great and grumbly annoyance. Mom and I talked while he considered his options, “I do know, dear. I do. I’m eternally grateful for what I learned and was able to bring back to the Berrypatch, not least of all for meeting the new picker Papa hired on,” Dad huffed as mom playfully brushed him with her tail, “But I missed the forest, and the village.”

I drew from the deck again, and tried to still my tail when it was the ‘ven’ I needed; just needed the up-tone, now. Mom was up again, playing a 2nd scratch to make ‘Weave’, “Speaking of the village, how is Alvi liking the Grove?”

“Oh, she loves it!” I answered excitedly, “Every time we go out she’s all wags and whistles. She and Maeve love to tease each other, almost as much as they love to tease me! You should have seen her dancing around the Gravity Arcade after she stomped me in Tower Tipper, it was…”

Fantastic. Adorable. Incredible.

I sighed, “The way she hops when she’s excited, and the way they laugh together at the tiniest things…” My voice failed to keep up with my thoughts, halting entirely with a gleaming galaxy of my Starlight on the tip of my tongue.

Dad’s ears dipped in my direction, and his voice was soft and smooth, “They mean a lot to you, don’t they?”

The fire in my chest burned like the bloom on my face, “Yeah…”

I couldn’t keep this secret anymore. Didn’t even matter whether or not they would figure it out, I didn’t care, I had to tell someone, everyone, what they meant to me! “Hey… um. Mom? Dad? We-”

… But maybe some discretion would be prudent, “Alvi and I are-” Mom lit up like a solar flare while Dad laid his paw down and focused on me, “Alvi would like to… to stay with us… With me. I would like her to stay. With me.”

Mom was positively glowing! Dad though…

“I knew it! I knew it! From the moment you brought her home!” Mom’s shrill whistle cut off my thoughts and collected both of our attentions, “You can use our shears, love! Their edge is just as good as the paw Leksi gathered my-”

I kept my tail behind me, trying to hide my embarrassment, “Mom, it’s fine, we only realized a few paws ago! It’s still fresh, and we want to take it kinda slow. Alvi deserves as much.”

“You pups, what are you waiting for?!” Mom hopped up and quickly padded to her carved keepsake chest in the corner, carefully slamming the lamp it was under atop a different table. “The Berrypatch has got plenty of room, and we still have the warren just off the kitchen, lots of wall to cover-”

I opened my mouth to protest but Dad harvested my attention, signing >Wait. Let her run.<. I settled in my seat on the floor while we both watched Mom half submerged in the open chest, rooting for what I could only assume were her wedding shears, “I’m so glad to have a herd back in the den, again; I miss when the whole flock would come around! Massi’s have all scattered across the Federation and I’ve not heard bleat or bellow from my sisters since before the last Farsul Council confirmation!”

“You know, dear, I think you might have left the shears upstairs. Remember when we freshened up for Market, last harvest?” Dad offered from his seat across from me.

“Of course! Why didn’t you say so sooner?!” Mom exclaimed as she all but launched herself off the chest and up the stairs.

Dad chuffed as he watched her go, the light of love in his eyes and on his tail, “That should keep her busy for a moment.”

We both breathed in the quiet, taking the moment of peace as the gift it was; Dad was the first to speak, “You said Alvi started her cycle? Have you…?”

I startled at the reminder, tripping over my over-quick response, “No! No. We… It went to our heads earlier, but nothing happened.”

His ears dipped approvingly, “Good. Good. I think it's great that you're going slow, son; there's plenty of time for that.You said Maeve’s going to take care of her? Does she know what she’s getting into?”

I shrugged while signing >She’ll be ok.< as I started to pack up the game, knowing Mom will be far too distracted now to play, “We’ve talked about it. She might not have the whole picture, but she wants to help, so…” I let the sentence finish itself.

“You’ve ‘talked about’ the venlil cycle? How’d that come up?” He asked; I only now noticed how intently he was focused on me.

I strained to calm my ears and tail, “We… promised each other we’d answer any question. She asks a lot of questions.”

“Hm.”

My heart hammered in the silence between us as I struggled with what to say. Should I tell him? He and Maeve seemed fast friends, but would this be too far? He could kick us out, could tell the UN! They’d separate us for sure! What should I do? What should I do?!

Dad heaved a sigh, and asked, “She’s treating you alright?”

The sudden return to the present set me rather taken aback, “Well, yeah! Alvi’s grea-”

“No, son. Not-” He stopped short when we heard Mom’s excited pawsteps racing down the stairs, forcing his ears and tail to jovial attention along with himself as he left the table and talked to Mom. I was too stunned to move, my eyes and ears locked onto where Dad had sat as I struggled to navigate the maze of questions in my mind.

They were talking about the ancient timber-bound photo album in her paws, but I couldn’t hear them. At least, not their words. What I heard, was the music in Mom’s laugh, and Dad’s rhythmic ribbing harmonizing as they played off of one another. I saw his eyes find hers, and at every moment they met, I saw it: a spark, a warmth, a bond, that called to her with a silent song that was so beautifully familiar.

He had it too, this rhythm in our chests that dances the tune of another. He found his step with Elva.

And I hoped he could hear the harmony we sing together.