Page 55 of Mated on Live

The coral that made up the ground had been worn smooth and flat by generations of waves and wind and feet, but the range of magenta and purple and pink made her smile as the small pieces of land passed them by. Most of it was small strips of land, like sandbar islands, but there were some that were truly impressive in size.

“All of this is fossilized coral?” She asked as they passed over a particularly large sheet. So wide, there were more bubble buildings here, built around little ponds and lakes just as bright and vibrant as the ocean.

“Our planet is predominantly covered in it,” Serval said. “It’s very thick. I think there are a couple places in the ocean, very deep places, that it doesn’t reach, but otherwise yes, it’s nearly everywhere.”

“And what about the creature that made it? Coral is made from living creatures, right?”

He nodded once. “It was an ancient creature that built the coral from the sides out. It went up a bit too, but mostly it tried to expand laterally. It was highly prolific and extremely durable. Until it outgrew itself. It dominated the ocean millions of years ago, but eventually it ran out of places to grow, and it died because of it. All that’s left are the coral skeletons left behind that my people evolved to live upon in its wake.”

“Wow,” she breathed, staring at the hundreds, thousands of islands passing them by. All of that had been created by some ancient creature that eventually killed itself simply by existing. It must have done a lot of damage in its life, the ultimate invasive species, before its own invasive tendency eventually led to its own downfall.

And on its ancient, petrified skeleton, a new world was built. It was incredible.

The shuttle began to slow, giving her a better view of everything below, until it turned, coming to a hovering halt, lowering onto a landing pad. Their destination. Serval stiffened but she beamed because there were a bunch of people waiting for them.

The males all had white skin and colorful olules. The females were their opposite, all colorful skin with pale, white olules. Most embarrassingly, they were naked.

Sophie’s face burned as she realized that no one was wearing clothes. At least, not fabric. Males and females alike were wearing beaded skirts, made of a variety of colors, patterns, and lengths. But no one covered their chest except for varying lengths of beaded jewelry. Their olules were all unbound, wiggling free in the air as they waved and called out – their voices completely deadened within the shuttle.

His family. All come out to see him return.

With his mate in tow.

She whipped her head around. Serval’s jaw was tight. He looked uncomfortable. Seeing them in their beaded clothes, it really hit her how different he was in his black slacks and shirt. A fish out of water pretending to be a man.

“Let’s get it over with,” he said, standing and offering her a hand.

Sophie wasn’t nervous at all as she took it, letting him lead her out. She loved meeting new people, and she could tell by the smiles on their welcoming faces that they were all eager to meet her – even if their teeth were all sharp and pointy. Her hands itched for her camera, but she had deliberately not brought it with her. She didn’t want to record anyone without their permission.

The door opened, and their loud cries came rushing in. Serval stood stiff as he walked down the gangplank. But he had barely hit the stony, magenta ground before a female let out a shriek of delight and ran at him. Sophie caught sight of her navy blue skin and white olules as she threw her arms around Serval, beaming, tears in her eyes, as she clutched him.

“You’re home! You huge ivai! Why have you been avoiding me!?” She demanded to know, stepping back. She was a near perfect miniature, younger version of Ellow, who was closing the distance with her hot pink mate Woll in tow – more sedate but no less excited.

“I wasn’t avoiding you,” Serval tried to say, but the female who could only be his younger sister was picking at his clothes.

“Look at you. All alienified! You too good for proper beads these days?”

Sophie was smothering her laughter as Serval sent a long suffering look over her head, ignoring her as she continued to nitpick at his stuffy appearance, from his bound olules to his filed claws to his shoes – “Really?! Shoes!? What are you, an iliwaia?”

Sophie had no idea what that meant, but she could already tell that she was calling him out for completely ignoring his cultural roots. Her mother did it too.

Before she could interject to save him, Ellow and Woll came to a halt in front of them. But they were staring only at her. Ellow with a wide grin, Woll with a calm smile.

“Sophie,” Ellow greeted. “Oh, spirits! You’re even prettier in person! Look at her, Woll. She’s like a little doll.”

Sophie smiled, unable to take offense to the description as Woll nodded, saying, “I think she can hear you, uwale.”

Ellow made a face. “Of course. I’m sorry, Sophie. I just never thought the day my son would bring home a mate would come. Especially since he’s never home to meet an allowee female. Oh, not that I’m upset you’re not allowee! We’re just happy he has anyone.”

Serval grumbled, his sister still hanging off his side, now staring at Sophie with a wide open mouth, unconcealed lust in her eyes.

“You all act like I’m so terrible a choice,” he said.

“He is,” his sister, Valorei assured Sophie quickly. “He’s obnoxious, he swims weird, and he played with his olules even in his teens.”

“I did not!” Serval gave her an affronted look.

“You should leave him for me,” she continued, winking. “I play with things other than my olules.”

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