Pompods

3

"Is Zaree coming today?" asked Kaia.

Oku sat and gazed out the window to the path that led up from the village. He nodded to acknowledge the query but his eyes never wavered from their position.

"Well, I hope the weather remains nice, it would be a shame if it rained again."

Oku nodded in agreement.

It had rained for several days and raised the waters levels a fair amount along the riverbanks of the valley. The elders had sent some of the movers to divert the water's flow to prevent flooding. Toko had been kept busy redirecting many of the flows into new underground cisterns.

A Memee entered through the window and began to tumble around.

Most Memees tended to get in the way, but with Oku, they seemed more interested in playing with him than annoying him as they did the others. They were playful yet mischievous, with a tendency to hide things.

Today's little visitor was no different, after a few somersaults and tumbles, the little sprite stood on the ledge before Oku as if attempting to entertain him. She watched as it danced and gurgled incomprehensibly at him. She often wondered what they might be trying to say.

Midway through a jump, Oku backhanded the little sprite out the window. Gurgling laughter could be heard as it flew through the air.

"What silly little creatures they are, are they not?" Kaia commented.

They never seemed to bother others as much as they enjoyed being around him. Most of the time, he would simply ignore them, other times he would stomp, hit or kick them. But no matter what he did to them, they would always return.

Silly little creatures indeed.

She stroked the top of his head, running her hand back as she did so. It always amazed her how his skin would soften an instant before she touched him and would immediately return to its razor hard and sharp state the moment her hand left. Even when he slept, the result was the same.

Only she and Zaree were capable of touching him, everyone else would suffer lacerations if they came into contact with him.

There were only two other creatures capable of withstanding his touch. The first were the Memees and as far as anyone knew, they were near-invulnerable. Many a Memee would hitch a ride atop a Cabal just to jump off it once it had soared high enough.

On blistery windy days, you were always certain to catch an average dozen or more Memees falling from the sky, gleefully gurgling on their way down. On impact they would produce a loud squeak and if other Memees had witnessed the impact, they would fall to the ground and gurgle away insensately.

The other creatures were Kashas. She remembered the first time he had seen one was at Zaree's hatching.

It had been at the start of his fifth cycle year. All the members in the village that had pods that phase had been invited to Zarezare's for the welcoming of the new podlings.

Even thou Kaia's mate had perished in the quake before Oku's hatching; Zarezare still invited her lifelong friend to come celebrate the welcoming of this phase's podlings.

The pods were huddled together and everyone chatted jubilantly as they engaged in pleasant conversation.

Baru was regaling everyone with an exciting story of the valley he had discovered when he ventured past the mountain ranges. He had left at the request of the elders to see if he could locate the ancestral ruins in the hopes they held some answers as to the reason why so many quakes were being felt so recently. He had unfortunately failed to locate their star ancestor's hidden village but had come across an interesting creature that many thought had long since disappeared.