Page 65 of Mated on Live

Serval ate with the others, but he was so focused on Sophie, he might as well have just eaten sand. He didn’t taste anything as she talked with the others, learning about ovili farming.

Since his home planet didn’t have seasons, there were few creatures on Wav’aii that spawned or mated at specific times of year – and those that did usually were bound by migration patterns, not weather changes. The ovili were no exception. They spawned and grew however they pleased, and half the difficulty of harvesting them was knowing when they were ready.

Harvested too soon, and the ovili would be bitter and the effects nonexistent. Harvested too late, and their poison couldn’t be cooked out without burning the meat and eating them might cause harm. But they all grew at different speeds depending on sunlight and temperature and salinity. So, it was an art to only bring up perfectly right ones, deciding which ones to let get too old so they could breed, and culling the sick ones.

They fed their ovili, seeded the nursery beds when one was ready to spawn, protected them from predators and disease, and made sure the beds were still strong and nutritious for them. It was a lot of work, but it was monotonous and simple.

Serval had been doing it since he was old enough to swim after his father – longer than he could actually remember. It was boring. Stifling. He had once imagined doing this for the rest of his life and would rather have jumped off a cliff into a rocky surf.

But to Sophie, it was all fascinating. She listened to everyone explaining what was done and how as though she were going to be examined later. Full attention, eyes wide, excited grin.

And when his father brought out her breather, she forgot the food completely as she grabbed the device, staring at it in wonder.

Breathers were used when someone needed to swim deep or for long periods. They were put on the face, gripped by the teeth, then sealed around the mouth and nose so the holder could relax. The body was cylindrical, laying across the mouth, with a vent at the front. When she breathed in, water would come in through the ends, be converted into breathable air through a series of filters that kept it from being pure oxygen, and when she breathed out, bubbles would be pushed out the front.

She stared at the simple device like it was some kind of magical artifact.

“I’ve always wanted to breathe underwater,” she confessed, her fingers excitedly moving up and down the breather. “I mean, I know there’s like scuba gear and stuff, but it never seemed quite so cool as just swimming free without anything weighing you down. Can we go right now?”

Serval chuckled, putting the remains of his lunch aside. He wasn’t tasting it anyway. And he could only imagine what it must be like for a fully terrestrial species to suddenly have the open ocean completely available to them. The very existence of swimming clothes suggested that humans could visit the water, but that didn’t mean they could appreciate it fully.

Taking Sophie by the hand, he pulled her to the water and began walking in with her. She followed eagerly, looking over the device.

“Now?” She asked, vibrating with excitement.

“Not until your head goes down. Take a breath, hold it, put the device in, go under, then breathe out. Then, you can breathe through it.”

“This is going to be so cool! Oh! Does the combot work underwater?”

“Our models? Yes.” He smirked back at her. “I paid extra for it on yours, but it’s a pretty standard feature here on Wav’aii.”

“Yes! Do you mind if I do some recording?”

He chuckled, turning as they reached the point where she was chest level in the water. “No. Go ahead. Show off the family farm.”

Sophie beamed, throwing her arms around him. She kissed him eagerly, thankful that he was letting her record. But he understood completely. He wouldn’t ever let a story opportunity pass him by, he didn’t expect her to either. And he didn’t mind being on camera.

He loved showing off his female. Let the entirety of Earth see how well he cared for and adored her as she enjoyed his planet. His family.

She put the breather in as he instructed and ducked under the water.

And her ass immediately floated back up.

Serval swam back and down, easily able to sink so that he was still walking on the ground even as his head moved under the surface. His female, so soft and squishy, had to work to swim, to keep herself under, as she kept trying to float back up.

He could only laugh, his voice echoing in the water, as he took her hands and pulled her after him as he pushed off, swimming deeper into the bay. She kicked forward, still horizontal in the water, as she depended on him to sink further.

Serval turned, pushing off the ground, pulling her by the hand.

He swam.

Not her cute, human flailing. He swam like an allowee, cutting quick and easy through the water. It was freeing. The pool in his ship, though it wound through and around the rooms and halls allowing him to swim in circles without needing to stop, wasn’t the same as being out in the open water. The fresh, salty water on his skin making his wii glow, the warmth of the sun through the water’s surface, the calls of his family speaking the deep language, as they returned to work.

The bay had multiple beds prepared for ovili growth at the artificially flattened, sandy bottom. They could be finicky, but his family had it down to an art. It was more instinct than science at this point, but there was a healthy amount of both.

Each bed was a square, about as wide as he was tall, with high walls coated in an oil that would keep the ovili from crawling out. They kept small nets over them, protecting the ovili from most predators, with holes just big enough for the bags of feed they dumped onto them to filter through.

He brought Sophie to the bottom, showing her around silently. He tried to talk to her, but the deep tongue was too hard for her human ears to hear underwater. So, he eventually gave up and just reverted to hand signs as he pulled her around the farm.

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