She’s never heard it, you know. I was going to try it out on her but I could tell she wouldn’t believe me.”
“What would it tell her that I bring her flowers from a garden that is also hers to graze?” Aari asked, shaking his mane.
“That you brought her breakfast in bed?” Thariinye suggested. “No, no, go back to your book. Forget I said anything.”
But the next morning, Thariinye slept in while Aari went to see if he could assist his parents in the laboratory where they were analyzing the sap that had killed the Khieevi. Upon awakening, Thariinye saw the book Aari had left behind. His journey with Neeva, Khaari, and Melireenya to collect Khornya from her human foster parents had given him a superior knowledge of Standard, he felt. With the help of the LAANYE he had carried -with him from the Niikaavri, he was able to translate one of the stories, although the words fell in odd places. This particular tale, by a human named Rostand, told of a fellow with a disfiguringly long nose-which sounded perfectly attractive to Thariinye, since long noses were considered elegant by Linyaari tastes. The longnosed chap was in love with a female also desired by a more attractive male, a friend of the longnosed chap. Finally, because he -was a kind person and wished to see both his friend and the female he loved happy, and also because it allowed him to speak his own -words of love to the female, the longnosed male hid and spoke his love words while the handsomer male pretended to speak them to the female.
Thariinye knew that it obviously would never work out. There were a few similarities in the personalities involved of course, but considerable mutation would have to occur before such a solution would in any way serve the present situation.
Maati was a youngling, but in her capacity as a messenger, she had been receiving a great deal of vicarious experience since she was very small. The only other females available to discuss this with, unfortunately, were Khornya and Aari’s mother, who was quite busy and besides, Thariinye didn’t know her. Maati would have to do.
Maati was thrilled to find herself among human younglings approximately her age. They had been alive much longer, as Linyaari children developed very rapidly and, once adult, maintained a healthy maturity of great longevity. The youngest of these children had been alive at least eight years, which was much longer than Maati’s single ghaanyi. A ghaanyi was about one and a half years, by Standard time, which was how these humans measured their days.
But the younglings were barely sentient for a very long period in their early lives, so their experience, while different, was not much greater than Maati’s own. Certainly none of them had been messengers for their governments, although Laxme, one of the boys, had developed unusual skill with the com units. Nor had they been shot down by a Khieevi ship, fought a Khieevi hand-to-hand, and lived. But the Maganos Moonbase children, she was sorry to hear, had all endured horrible lives as child slaves. The Starfarer children of the Haven had watched their parents die at the hands of hijackers, had defeated and dealt decisively “with the same hijackers, and now were in command of their home ship, with only a little help from a few adults. The thing all of the children had most in common was that they loved and admired Khornya, though the human children called her “Acorna,” “Lady Epona,” or “The Lady of the Light” and regarded her with worshipful adoration Maati found strange.
“She’s just a really nice girl, like us, only a little older,” Maati told them.
“Like you, you mean,” Jana corrected her. Jana was really nice and had been asking Maati lots of questions about healing. At first Maati had been unwilling to answer. Linyaari did not usually let outsiders know they healed directly through their horns. Doing so could lead to incidents like the one where bad humans took many Linyaari ambassadors prisoner and tried to force them to heal and cleanse water and air under horrible circumstances. Linyaari raised on the homeworld knew this, but Khornya had not.