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Gentle, steady words. The golden one blinked up at her mother's loving face, drinking in the words she did not as yet understand. But she could understand the love in those words, and the pride. Her own heart opened in response, and she felt a sudden rush of feeling so intense it almost frightened her.
She mewed, and her mother kissed her, laughing softly.
"Yes, my golden one," her mother said. "Yes, you are wonderful and precious. I love you so much."
Love. The golden one blinked and rubbed her head against her mother's hand. It was her first lesson, to learn this feeling.
Without warning, there came a perfunctory pounding on the door. Before the mother could move, the door was slammed open, and a shaft of sunlight stabbed inside.
Startled, the golden one cried out. Her brothers awoke with screams. Their mother struggled up, hastily scooping her babies behind her.
"Get out!" she roared. "This is a birthing room! I have the right to privacy for these first days."
A pebble-skinned, blue Viis male in a dust-colored coat that hung long enough to cover his tail stepped inside. He wore a voluminous hood that masked his rill and face except for his vivid green eyes, and concealed his identity. Two Toth thugs carrying stun-sticks followed him.
Fear filled the Aaroun mother.
Standing well above two meters, nearly as tall as the Viis, with massive heads and shoulders covered in pelts of matted, curly hair, Toths were the worst kind of enforcers. Brutal, stupid, and dirty, they entered with a cloud of flies buzzing about their heads, chewing lazily, now and then flicking a big, pale tongue up inside their broad nostrils. They gazed at her with small, cruel eyes that danced with anticipation. Toths enjoyed inflicting hurt. Mercy was unknown to them. For the first time in her life, the mother felt the need to say the ancient Heva lamentations as a prayer rather than song-poetry. But her mind went blank, unable to summon the words. In the name of the ancient gods, what were these creatures doing here?
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h o m e • a l i e n s p e c i e s • e x c e r p t • a n e w u n i v e r s e • o r i g i n s • a r t