Page 5 of Not So Stranded
Kit didn’t want to imagine that, but he could understand that the drive to procreate might cause someone to do something heinous out of pure desperation. “I assume the hosts survived the experience?”
“Oh, yeah. They were drugged comfortable for two weeks or so and set free afterward. Horrible, I know, but…” Hiaka shrugged like they understood, too.
“And now you no longer have to do that because you’re half-human. Which I assume raised your body temperature so that you can host, right? Hold on,” he said as he realized something else. “Did you say you have the memories of your ancestors? What do you mean?”
“Exactly that,” Zenori said. “I can recall moments from the lives of my ancestors from seven generations back. The memories act as guides for life.”
Kit could only sit there and blink. Seven generations of memories? That they could recall whenever they needed guidance? He should sit down. Oh, he was already sitting down.
“He’s so cute when he gets all blinky.”
“Perhaps these concepts are too much for his level of intelligence.”
Kit snorted and that helped snap him out of it. “I’m amazed and maybe a little envious and just soverycurious. What’s it like to have an ancestor’s memories to inform decisions or use like a how-to guide?”
“Awkward,” Hiaka said at the same time that Zenori said, “Often inaccurate.”
Intrigued by Zenori’s answer, Kit asked, “How are the memories inaccurate?”
Zenori cocked their head and frowned. “Perhaps that is the wrong word.”
“Out-dated?” Hiaka offered.
Nodding, Zenori continued. “My ancestors’ memories say breeding should be perfunctory. That I should not remain with my partner after completing fertilization. That the one who seeks the host should do so alone.”
“But meeting me changed all that,” Hiaka said with a grin.
The fond expression on Zenori’s face as they gazed at Hiaka told Kit that the two of them might be a newish couple, but they were attracted and committed to each other.
“How did the two of you meet?”
Hiaka started to speak, but Zenori talked over them. “There is a place we all visit from time to time. We met there.”
“Like a holy place?” Kit shifted on his rock, totally intrigued. “What’s your religion like?”
“Cecaelia don’t have a religion. The place,” Hiaka said with a little stink-eye thrown Zenori’s way, “is an underwater colony where our ancestors once resided. It’s a hub of all available knowledge because of the elders who live there and share their histories.”
“Wow,” Kit said. “So you both took this journey and found each other there.”
“Yeah, we’ve been bumming around the ocean getting to know each other and looking for a place to breed.” Hiaka held out their hands, seeming to indicate the lagoon.
“Oh!” Kit stood up and stepped back. “While I’d love to know all about that, I don’t want to get in the way or be intrusive. Let me just refill this jug and I can get out?—”
“We’re not going to do itnow,” Hiaka said on a laugh. “Just that’s why we picked this place.”
Zenori said something in another language, and Hiaka rolled their eyes. “It’sstilla safe place,” Hiaka said sternly with a glare at Zenori.
Kit held up his hands. “Seriously, I don’t want to get in the way or cause any issues for you. If you want or need this place, then we can come up with some way for me to get water without being invasive. Maybe I could signal from the forest? Give you time to?—”
“Zenori,” Hiaka said like a warning.
Kit watched as Zenori took a deep breath and sighed it out again. “You can come and go as you please, Kit. Your presence will not be intrusive or invasive.”
“If you’re sure,” he said as he looked between them.
“We’re sure,” Hiaka said definitively.
Zenori only nodded.
