Interference (A Human Pet Tale)

Chapter 6: Nightmares

Faerin

I wake with a start, wondering who the heck may be calling me this late at night. 

I pick up my tablet and pick up the call. "Faerin, sorry to bother you, but the Jias is crying again." Hileis' voice mumbles through the link and I sigh.

"I'll be there in a moment." I get up off my padding, dress into my jumpsuit, and head out towards the Jias' enclosure.

I enter it and immediately, his whimpers and shrill sobs enters my ears. I walk over to him, his tiny body tucked in the heated nest.

His hands and legs kick out momentarily, tears sliding down his face.

He starts to make a calling sound, high, shrill, and short. He is calling for his parents. He is only a hatching after all.

I sigh as I enter the nest, pick him up, and lay him on top of me. Immediately, his tail wraps around my waist and he buries himself into my chest.

His cries soften a bit, even though he continues to call out for his parents.

When we found him on his home planet, we were devastated to find his whole swarm dead, half eaten by whichever predators decided to hunt them.

They were obviously protecting him; a swarm usually only has one or two hatchlings every 200 years.

Luckily, he survived, but he is too young to understand why his parents will never answer his cries again, or why his swarm will never cuddle up with him during the cold nights.

Once a swarm member is left alone, abandoned, or the only survivor, they are alone. Another swarm will never accept them, and thus, they usually die much earlier.

If we had not found him and brought him here, he would have died in the next couple of months, for he is too young to even know how to find food.

His adult teeth and fangs have not even come in yet, thus he cannot eat any solids yet.

Another problem, he has not been weaned off his mother's milk yet.

I sigh as I pick a bottle from my apron, a container of milk powder, and another bottle of water.

I mix the water and a couple of spoonsfulls of powder and pour it all into the empty bottle.

The pup's cries lengthen and increase in volume, no doubt smelling the milk. The best substitute we have for a Jias' mother's milk is milauka worm milk. It's a lot better than rice milk, and a lot fuller.

Only certain creatures like Jias can feed on it though.

I push the nipple of the lid into his mouth, and instantly, he suckles, still in his sleep.

Jias don't mature until 24 years of age...they usually live to 500 years or more. Not the longest lifespan out there, but quite long.

I sing a soft lullaby as he feeds, his cries gone thanks to the milk.