#Iqi:Arrival

[fandomsentertainment]

Iqi: Chapter Seven

“Iqi, look at this,” Hermione grinned showing me her phone.

It was a picture of me in the park, my back towards the camera, my gaze on the sky. My pale figure contrasted stunningly against the brown, reds and yellows of the trees.

“2 million people have already commented on it!” Hermione squealed. “I’m pissed that they photoshopped me out but it is a really good photo.”

I nodded in agreement. “Is this what all the humans will do with the photos they took?”

“Probably. I wouldn’t be surprised it some of them frame the photo in their homes. Say, when we get back to the condo I’m going to make a website for you.”

“We probably won’t be back until tomorrow or very late tonight.”

I frowned still upset at myself for being so absent minded and forgetting Captain Kiernan would be leaving today. I could have spent the day with Huder. I could imagine his quite literally bone crushing goodbye already. I could feel Captain’s disapproving gaze on me, scolding me for one last time.

“Hey,” Hermione took my hand. “The pilot said we would make it on time. We’re only half an hour away.”

“I’ll only have just as much time to say goodbye then,” I sighed.

“Whether you have an hour or years, goodbyes always hurt the same. You’ll still be able to keep in touch. And the internet is open they’ll be able to see you all the time!”

I nodded.

Hermione sighed. “I’m not going to lie. It won’t be the same. But I have an idea for a new hobby to keep you distracted.”

“What?” I asked.

“You’ll see once you’ve finished your goodbyes,” she winked.

-

As promised we arrived at the base where our spaceship had landed less than a week ago. There was an hour until launch. It’d take fifteen to get through the checkpoints, ten to get to the space, another ten perhaps to hunt down Huber. Which left me less than half an hour to say my goodbyes.

Hermione let me go ahead of her knowing it would take longer for her to get through the checkpoints. The guard guiding me seemed to understand I was in a rush and moved quickly. Despite our quick pace it was twenty minutes to launch when I finally got on the ship.

“Gt’ire! Where’s Huder?” I asked frantically.

Gt’ire pointed one of her tails down a corridor and I hurried down it. It didn’t take me long to find him, well he found me. Just as I opened the doors to see Captain Ki’rnne giving a short speech of goodbye to a single reporter with a camera, Huder launched himself at me. I could hear the humans cry of surprise as Huder’s muscular body encased me and began to squeeze.

“You fucking brat,” Huder hissed quietly in my ear, in his own language. “Too busy frolicing with your Soenil friends to remember me huh?”

I gasped an unintelligible apology, feeling my wings bending painfully.

“Oh, you better be sorry,” Huder chuckled.

I could hear my heartbeat over the sound of Captain Ki’rnne trying to reassure the humans that I was in no actual danger. I wasn’t so sure my heart felt as if it would burst.

I flapped my one free wing against his side signalling I was at my limit. Huder sighed and reluctantly released his grip. I coughed and gasped pitifully on the floor.

“I’m - I’m sorry. I forgot you were leaving today,” I choked out, wiping tears from my eyes.

“Iqi are you alright?” I heard an anxious human voice call.

I looked up Captain Ki’rnne was standing between the humans and I, he had taken a defensive posture. There were only three humans total in the room but they all had a weapon in their hands and a look of panic in their eyes. My own eyes widened as I realized the weapons weren’t really weapons. One held a jagged table leg, another held the shaft of a lamp as a makeshift dagger and the last had a piece of broken glass in it’s hand, wrapped in a cloth.

The rumours appeared to be true. Humans really could make a weapon out of anything and were absolutely crazy enough to attack animals much more powerful than them. The idea of three adult humans thinking they could take on even a teenage Sikknic was laughable. But here they are, their makeshift weapons in hand ready to attack.

I tried to stand leaning against Huder for support who looked as if he wasn’t sure if he should be fearful of these humans or not.

“I’m fine,” I quickly said. “This is just a misunderstanding. Huder would never harm me, we were just roughhousing.”

“Yes,” Captain Ki’rnne said. “Huder and Iqi have grown up almost like brothers this is just how they greet each other. I understand he may not seem like it to a Soenil but Huder is the same age as Iqi. They are children and I would appreciate it if you didn’t point your... weapons at them.”

The humans hesitated but eventually lowered their weapons and dropped them altogether.

“We’re sorry,” one of the said. “We truly thought Iqi was in danger. And we’re sorry if we frightened you Huder.”

Huder simply nodded, he had a peculier look on his face.

“Thank you,” I said. “I know you only had good intentions.”

“I’m pleased to know I will be leaving Iqi on a planet where even the reporters are warriors,” Captain Kiernan smiled relaxing his stance.

The humans laughed. “Oh, we’re not warriors or anything.”

“Yeah I failed gym in high school,” one laughed.

“How did you know how to create weapons so quickly then?” I asked intrigued.

“Oh, uh… Well I don’t know. I just thought Huder was trying to kill you and I didn’t even think about it,” one of them said scratching his head.

“I was a girl scout when I was a kid so that helped I guess. But yeah I just reacted,” another said.

Captain Ki’rnne seemed baffled. “You just... create weapons as an instinctual reaction to danger.”

“Uh, I guess so,” the humans shrugged.

Huder eyed me. “Can you do that?”

I shrugged. “It’s not like I’ve been exposed to much danger.”

“Well, Huder,” Captain said. “Go help prepare for launch. Iqi and I have somethings to discuss.”

Huder nodded and gave me one last look of farewell before slithering off. The humans began to pack up their stuff and clean up the mess they had made. I walked to Captain’s side.

“Captain,” I began in his native language. “I apologize for my tardiness…”

“Don’t concern yourself with that,” Captain said. “It’s good that you’re settling into Earth so well. And it seems that Earth has accepted you.”

“Yes, I feel very welcome here,” I couldn’t help but smile.

Captain turned to me a peculiar expression on his face. “Your mother…” he began.

I looked up at him expectantly.

“Your mother was a force to be reckoned with. A true example of humanity’s ability to not only survive but prosper in even the harshest circumstances. But she had flaws, Iqi. Remember that. Even the best of humanity has flaws. They can be easy to overlook with all of humanities great accomplishments, but don’t ever make the mistake of thinking humans are perfect. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Captain,” I nodded. “I should trust them, but still remain wary.”

“Good,” he smiled. “Iqi, it was an honor to raise you aboard this ship. I hope you find what you are looking for, but if you don’t there is always a home for you aboard my ship.”

“Thank you Captain,” I didn’t know what else to say.

He turned and began to leave. I was filled with a sudden panic of abandon and gripped the fur on his hunches. In my mind’s eye I could see my mother - her image blurry - walking out. He turned to me surprised as I walked to his head and wrapped my arms around his thick neck.

“I’ll miss you Captain,” I whispered.

He rested his head on the back of my wings and we stood there, embraced for a beat before he clear his throat and lifted his head.

“Goodbye Iqi. Be good,” he said then walked out the door.

It was harder then I imagined to stay in the building and watch through the glass as my first family flew off into space. But Hermione came to stand beside me and linked her fingers in my hand with a comforting smile and I knew I’d be alright.

“President Tapiwa wants to talk to us,” she said.

“About what?”

“Our unscheduled outing. We’re kind of in trouble,” Hermione shrugged unfazed that the leader of her world was agitated with her.

~

“Do you have any idea what could have happened to Iqi in that park?” President Tapiwa somehow managed to keep a calm face while speaking with complete rage.

“Nothing happened,” Hermione said. “We took some pictures and got a caricature painting.”

“And Iqi was plucked,” President Tapiwa turned her gaze on Hermione.

“Yeah, but like, he got what he deserved. And Iqi handled it better than I would have.”

“Do you know what that man is going to do with your feather Iqi?” President Tapiwa asked.

“Uh, keep it. I think,” I said sheepish.

She showed me her tablet. There was a picture of my feather along with a selfie of the man holding it up. It was being bid for. I gaped at the still rising price.

“Two million dollars,” President Tapiwa said. “It’s expected to rise significantly over the next few hours.”

“Holy shit Iqi you’re a walking gold mine,” Hermione laughed.

“That’s the problem, Hermione. Can you imagine the horrible things people would do to your brother if they could get their hands on him?”

“Yes, I can,” Hermione became serious. “But Iqi can’t be hold up and have his only contact with humans be via fancy galas and events. He needs to meet everyday people not just politicians and celebrities.”

“It’s too dangerous…”

“But I have a solution that can ensure Iqi’s safety and still allow him to communicate with people,” Hermione smiled.

President Tapiwa sat down sighing. “Well let’s hear it.”

“We can make an official website for Iqi. One where everyday people can sign up to meet him. Let’s say three days out of the week we have a small group come to the condo to meet with him. He can learn so much from them and vise versa. Iqi can also maybe do little facetime sessions where he talks to people one on one. Or maybe he can start a video diary on the internet where he can ask people questions and maybe answer questions they may have for him. There’s a whole world of possibility!” Hermione grinned excited.

I also liked this idea of having people come over in small groups and getting the chance to ask them questions. The crowds in the park were rather intimidating, this sounded a lot nicer.

“Hermione I know you mean well but exposing Iqi to the public is too dangerous and the funds we would need for security with all these people in and out will be way too expensive,” President Tapiwa said.

“What if we charge people for these visits,” Hermione argued. “We could also have a donation page.”

“People will find it suspicious that an - and forgive my language Iqi - but an alien asking for money from the public when he seems to already be living a luxurious life on their tax dollars.”

“Then we tell them the truth! We say the cost of security for these visits are incredibly expensive. Rather than spending the people’s tax dollars please feel free to donate whatever you wish.”

President Tapiwa sighed. “Hermione…”

“Please let us try it,” I begged.

They turned to me.

“I’m - I’m tired of being cooped up. People want to know more about me and I about them, but if we can’t see each other we’ll just make assumptions.”

“And assume makes an ass out of you and me!” Hermione added cheerfully.

I gave her a blank look.

“Jesus Iqi you really need to learn how to spell,” she shook her head.

“I’ll let you two try. One visitation. We’ll help you get the website running. But I don’t want random people for the first one. Ask people to send a page long submission about why they want to meet Iqi. Then I’ll have our people sift through to choose ten applicants for this initial meeting,” President Tapiwa said.

“Really!” I beamed.

She smiled. “Don’t get too excited. If this goes south that the end of it. Understand?”

“Yes, President Tapiwa! Thank you!” We grinned.

Hermione and I chatted excitedly about our plans for the event. As we approached the doors I noticed it was raining.

“Is Earth rain toxic?” I asked.

“Hmm, oh no it’s just water. The same kind we drink,” She gave me a funny look. “Do you want to run in it Iqi?”

“I want to fly,” I said watching the gentle drizzle fall from the sky. “I’ve never flown in rain before.”

“Do it!” she said excited. “I’ll get a video!”

She fumbled for her cell phone as we opened the door. She stayed in the doorway eagerly urging me on as I stepped into the drizzle. The rain was cool and refreshing. I stretched my wings to their full length. They were almost as wide as I was tall on both sides. Stunted for the Darite but humans thought they were enormous. I raised them and bent my legs to break into a sprint. I beat my wings as I ran feeling the strength rise in the as I rose off the ground. The humans hurrying in and out of the build all stopped to watch me make my first proper flight on Earth.

Finally I had enough momentum and I leapt from the ground beating my wings hard to lift my heavy body. I rose ten, twenty, thirty feet off the ground and held myself there. I spread my arms to bathe in the rain. I ran my hands through my hair and pulled my sleeves up to feel the cool water on my skin.

A buzzing sound caught my attention and I opened my eyes. A drone was flying near me, hovering in the air and watching. I reached out to touch it but it pulled out of reach. I smiled and prepared myself to descend, my wings already tired from the effort. Judging the distance I froze my wings and dropped from the sky. I could hear the sudden cries of alarm from the humans as i fell from the sky. I smiled and caught myself about five feet from the ground and dropped the rest of the way.

Looking up at the sky all I could think was how much I loved this planet.

[fandomsentertainment]

Iqi: The Arrival Chapter Ten

Hey guys I’m so sorry it took so long for me to come out with this chapter. I don’t really have an excuse I was being lazy about it. But I’ve really gotten back into the groove of things and I’m happy to announce that chapter eleven is almost completed as well!

Support me on Wattpad please!

https://www.wattpad.com/story/135795678-iqi-arrival

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I regretted my recent life decisions. I never really had to make any before and now I was spying for my mother’s home planet on members of said planet. As Katherine walked out of the stunning white mansion towards us on the beach I couldn’t imagine her to be capable of all that President Tapiwa. She was dressed casually. She wore a pink tee-shirt with some Earth writing, baby blue jeans and white sneakers. The only thing that reminded me she was a scientist was her white lab coat that blew in the wind with her hair.

“Iqi! I’m so glad you came!” she beamed.

I couldn’t help but smile back… or notice Hermione’s scowl.

“Yes, thank you for inviting us Ms. Ahuja,” Hermione smiled politely.

“Of course,” Katherine smiled back, she turned to me. “Ler and Kym are so excited to meet you. The others too.”

“The other scientists?” I asked.

“No, the other Selkie,” she smiled.

“Our reports say that you only have two Selkie in possession,” one of my security stepped forward.

“Do they?” Katherine mused. “You must have been misinformed. Also the Selkie are not my property they are my guests. Come. Let’s go inside.”

We followed her up towards mansion where her own security stood on guard. The doors opened on their own as we stepped into the pristine and white… home? The mansion looked nothing like a lab or research facility on the inside. It looked like a family home with furniture and pictures on the walls. We followed Katherine into the living room confused as two of her security guards trailed us.

“Here we are,” Katherine said cheerfully. “Now I apologize for the breach of privacy but I will have to have you all searched before we enter the facility. Jeremy,” she said gesturing to one of the security guards.

They began to pat us down carefully being gentle but thorough. Hermione wasn’t having it.

“Is this all necessary?” she complained. “Why invite us if you’re going to treat us like criminals?”

Katherine laughed. “Oh trust me this is a lot kinder than the security protocol they had when I first joined. I was blind, deaf and handcuffed for most of my journey to SOUS.”

A few of the security chuckled along with her.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way let’s head downstairs,” Katherine touched her hand to the wall and a panel lit up scanning her hand print. Suddenly it seemed as if the wall split in two and opened to a sleek white elevator. She gestured for us to enter.

“Now do you guys want the short or long tour of the facilities?” She asked as the doors closed behind us.

“The long tour,” I said quickly remembering that President Tapiwa wanted me to get a good idea of the facilities capabilities.

“Long tour it is then,” she smiled as the doors opened again.

“Katherine! Did you know that there’s a Sword Art Online movie!” I heard a male voice call as we stepped out of the elevator.

“Noam,” Katherine replied as we exited the elevator. “You remember Iqi right? From the banquet.”

The young man I had seen with Katherine that night was sitting on a couch with his laptop on his lap. He grinned as we entered.

“Iqi! My man! What’s good?” he addressed me familiarly.

“I’m well, thank you,” I said not knowing how else to respond.

He stood up and walked towards us. I noticed with a bit of curiosity he had green eyes. I didn’t think any humans did, perhaps he was wearing contacts to change his eye color. Humans are weird like that.

“Noam this is Iqi’s sister Hermione and their guards Kapono and Anton,” Katherine introduced us.

“How did you know our names?” Kapono asked suspiciously.

Katherine smiled warmly at him. “I know a great many things Kapono. Especially about the people I allow into my facility.”

“So are we gonna have this tour or what?” Hermione asked annoyed.

“Where are you guys touring first?” Noam asked Katherine.

“I was gonna grab you first then head down to the labs Joham and the others are there.”

“Alright I’ll come with,” Noam smiled enter the elevator.

Katherine gestured for us to come.

“So Iqi,” Katherine asked. “Have you been enjoying New York?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “The city has such wonderful people. It seems larger than life at night.”

Katherine smiled. “I still remember my first time in New York. It was so loud and there were just too many people.”

“You didn’t enjoy it?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, I was a kid it was terrifying. But now I really like New York, there's lots to see and do there.”

“Oh, I don’t get out much,” I said.

She gave me a small smile. “Well, that’s to be expected considering your popularity with humans.”

The elevator doors opened to a brilliant laboratory. Dr. Willoughby would have lost her mind at the sight of it. A stark contrast to the white pristine mansion above the laboratory was bright and colorful. Beautiful murals decorated the walls and each distinct station had its own personal flair. The scientists who had been working and walking around all stopped at our arrival.

“This is my laboratory,” Katherine beamed. “This is where the bulk of our work is done.”

We stepped into the lab awed at the high ceilings and decor.

“Everyone is this Iqi, Hermione, Kapono and Anton. They are our guests and will be staying with us for a short time.”

We got a small chorus of hellos from the relatively small group of scientists. I was surprised. I expected an army of experienced faculty but there seemed to be less than twenty. They varied in age from as young as Katherine to much older humans. They also varied in hue, size, shape and more. Most human scientist seemed to be the pale type it was delightfully strange seeing so many different types of humans working here. Katherine seemed to like different.

“So what exactly do you do in this laboratory Katherine?” Hermione asked.

“Oh all kinds of things,” Katherine smiled walking us through the lab. “Whatever really holds our interest. Right now we’ve been into cancer research so we’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”

“I’ve been working on some cures against ebola right now. It’s a very free-range kind of lab,” Noam added.

“What does that have to do with the Selkie?” Hermione asked frowning.

“Nothing at all,” Katherine smiled in a way that implied otherwise.

I only half listened to their conversation as we walked through the lab. I was much more interested in the devices and work the scientist here were doing. They smiled when I made eye contact with them but for the most part continued their work undisturbed. It was almost like seeing me wasn’t a big deal. And that felt… kind of nice. It’s like I was just another person walking through, not Iqi the angelic alien child of the warrior Maia Floros.

“Absolutely not!” Hermione snarled.

I turned back to them wondering what had upset Hermione. Katherine met my eye.

“I was just explaining to your sister that I only allow very few people to have contact with the Selkie and your entourage would have to wait here or elsewhere in the lab while you and I visited,” Katherine said apologetically.

“Why do you think we brought guards?” Hermione huffed. “They aren’t here to protect against you they’re here to protect against those things!”

Katherine eyes narrowed. “That’s exactly why I won’t allow them near the Selkie. I can’t have a bunch of trigger happy people who already see the Selkie as threats to be near them. That’s a recipe for disaster. Iqi comes with me alone or not at all.”

“Not gonna happen…”

“Fair enough,” I said.

“Excuse me!” Hermione gaped at me. “Iqi if you think I’m gonna allow you to just…”

“Hermione no offense but I don’t need your permission,” I said not unkindly. “Also I have more experience with meet new species than anyone on this planet. Katherine is right that a hostile attitude brought into an situation can make the situation hostile,” I quoted Caption Kiernan.

“Besides it’s not just you,” a new voice said.

A tall slender dark skinned man approached us. He had a strong aura of authority but a warm and pleasant smile.

“Katherine only allows three people in this facility besides herself to see the Selkie on a regular basis,” the man said. “She’s very protective of them.”

“Joham,” Katherine beamed. “You’re back! How was your honeymoon?”

“It was glorious, I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you,” Joham smiled.

Katherine snorted. “Please Joham, that was me repaying you for all you’ve done. But back to the topic on hand, Iqi if you’re ready to go we can head down right now.”

“Yes,” I said excited.

“No!” Hermione said firmly.

“We’ll take the elevator Iqi,” Katherine ignored her walking past the group and back to the elevator.

I casted Hermione an apologetic smile and hurried after Katherine. The look she gave me was almost murderous. But I knew I was safe with Katherine. At the press conference the creatures seemed so gentle and looked at her with such love and devotion. It was clear they were more than science experiments to Katherine.

As we waited for the elevator to descend I took a moment to observe Katherine. This was the first time I had seen her up close. She was small for a human but always walked with her head high. Her hair reminded me of the tygit fabric made on planet Hqi’quet. It was dark full of texture but extremely soft looking. I wondered silently if it was as soft to the touch s it was on the eyes. Her brown skin wasn’t as dark as President Tapiwa’s or Joham. It was a lovely shade of dirt, warm and oddly unblemished. Her dark brown eye was suddenly on me.

“You’re observing me,” she said.

“Sorry,” I stammered embarrassed at being caught studying her. I had forgotten humans didn’t like being stared at for too long.

She laughed. “Don’t look so frightened. I’m used to be observed by humanoids. Ler has a strong fascination with humans, much like you.”

“Humans are very strange,” I nodded. “But there’s something wonderful about your oddness.”

She smiled at me. “No wonder they love you so much,” she mused.

The elevator doors opened to a sudden burst of fresh air as if we were outside. The smell of the sea was rich and salty but misplaced to the view of the giant pool in front of us. We stepped out and it made sense.

A giant glass wall was the only thing that seperated us and the ocean. It was almost as if we were underwater. I realized the pool before us was also filled with clear beautiful seawater. Different fish and aquatic plants were living inside of what I could see of it. In the middle of the pool was a structure that looked like a rocky set of caves.

“Welcome to the pool!” Katherine grinned suddenly childlike. “This is where the Selkie live!”

[fandomsentertainment]

Iqi: The Arrival Chapter Eight

Please go check out the whole story on Wattpad! Thank you for your patience in waiting on this chapter! I had a lot of things going on and since this chapter is a turning point in the novel/ novella/whatever I wanted to get it right!

https://www.wattpad.com/story/135795678-iqi-arrival

“I can not believe you read the entire thing,” Hermione shook her head at me in disbelief opening up her package.

“I can’t believe you ordered more clothes,” I raised an eyebrow at her setting the Quran down on her nightstand.

“What? I got something for you too this time!” she grinned.

I plopped down on her bed. “Hm.”

“So did you enjoy your read,” she asked still digging through her package.

“It was surprisingly similar to both the Bible and Tanakh. But I guess that’s to be assumed considering they have similar origins,” I sighed. “I can’t believe humans have so much conflict with each other simply because of vague differences in these texts. I can ever imagine any written word being moving enough to inspire such violence.”

“Eh, humans were slaughtering each other long before any of those books were written so it’s more likely that people are just trash and the books are excuses,” Hermione said shimmying on some boots.

“I don’t think people are trash,” I muttered.

“That’s why people love you,” she laughed. “When’s your next session anyways?”

“Two days from now. Tuesday.”

“Good, any cancellations?” Hermione asked walking up to the mirror to admire her shoes.

“Only one. But that spot was fill up pretty quickly so security had time to run a background search on them,” I stood up. “I’m hungry. Can we order some food?”

“Sure. What are you craving?”

“Jamaican.”

Hermione grinned at me. “If someone told me a year ago that my alien brother would ask me for some Jamaican food I’d laugh in their face.”

“I think you’d laugh in their face regardless,” I smiled.

“Ha! Yeah, you’re probably right. Go see if Willoughby wants anything, I’ll start ordering on Grubhub. What do you want?”

“Brown rice, oxtail and fried plantains,” I could feel my mouth already salivating at the thought.

Hermione chuckled to herself. “Alright.”

I walked down the hall to Dr. Willoughby’s lab nodding to the patrolling security as I went. It was always strange walking into the lab knowing it was specifically designed to study me. I could see sample of my hair, blood, feathers and skin organized neatly around the lab. Dr. Willoughby slept peacefully at her desk, her head resting on a thick open book. I smiled and walked up to her resting my hand on her head softly and waiting for her to stir awake.

“Iqi,” she yawned loudly. “Do you need something?”

“No, Hermione and I are ordering some Jamaican food. We were wondering if you wanted any?”

“Aw, you’re so sweet,” Willoughby stretched, still yawning. “Yes, can you get me some jerk chicken and rice. Oh and a sprite too!”

“No problem,” I began to walk off. “Also, I know I’m suppose to just let the security do their jobs but should I ask them if they want anything as well?”

“I’m sure they would love that. It must get boring patrolling a high security building, nothing ever happens here,” Willoughby stood up and opened a draw, pulling out a small notebook.

“Here,” she said. “Write down what they want and give it Hermione. I’m sure she has more than enough money with that session you have coming up on Tuesday.”

“Thank you,” I smiled taking the notebook. I wrote down jerk chicken, rice and Sprite on the first page.

“No, thank you. Also could you drop by after lunch so I can take some blood samples?”

“No problem,” I called walking out.

It only took about fifteen minutes to gather everyone’s order but Hermione was an impatient woman.

“Where the hell have you been? I’m starving,” she scowled.

“Sorry, it took a while to get everyone’s order,” I apologized holding out the notepad.

“What do you mean… You took everyone’s order!” she gasped.

“Yeah, Willoughby said you’d have enough money for everyone,” I frowned sensing Hermione’s irritation at me.

“Ugh, that moralistic…” Hermione shook her head. “Okay I’ll order it just this once but next time we order food it’s just you and me.”

“Sorry,” I said.

Her expression softened. “Don’t worry about it kid.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“You just did.”

I scowled at her response. “Where do you get money from? I thought you needed a job to get money.”

Hermione laughed. “Not in this digital age my dear brother. As the creator of your website I get a small percentage off of the sessions you have with the public. Considering how much people are willing to cough up to meet you that small percentage in usually a significant amount of money.”

I frowned. “I thought we were going to keep it affordable for the everyday person.”

“We are,” she reassured me. “With each session we sell eight tickets at a reasonable price. The last two however are left up to a bidding war so the price rises significantly with those two tickets. This way the poor can buy a normal ticket while the rich fight over these two opportunistic tickets.”

“How much do they usually sell for?” I asked.

“Hmm, anywhere from $500,000 to a million. The session you had with that Arabian prince was $2.4 million! Can you believe that?” Hermione laughed.

I tried to imagine 2.4 million water bottles. It was… difficult to comprehend that amount of wealth.

“Alright the food is all ordered. It came up to $345.67,” Hermione sighed. “Plus tip is like $70 so… Christ that’s like $415!”

“Sorry,” I apologized again.

“It’s alright. Willoughby was right that I can afford it but it’s better to save money then blast it.”

I looked around her room littered with new purchases and nodded in agreement.

“Hey Iqi,” Willoughby stuck her door in the doorway. “That Katherine girl is on TV right now.”

“Really!” I grinned.

“Yep channel 8,” Willoughby laughed.

I got up quickly to head to the living room.

“Jeez where’s the fire?” I heard Hermione say behind me.

I plopped down on the sofa and used the remote to get to channel eight. There she was. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. It was straight like mine rather than curly now. She had a very serious expression on her face as she walked up to the podium. She was wearing traditionally male human garments. They made her look intimidating. She faced the camera and began to speak.

“Good evening. My name is Katherine Ahuja and I am the co-CEO of SOUS - Study of Unusual Species. Ever since we have come out as a public company there have been many speculations about what the species we study exactly are. Who we are and what are we trying to achieve. I stand before you today to put these questions to rest - but I should warn you that by answering these question I will be generating more questions.”

“Ooo ominous,” Hermione said taking a seat next to me.

“She looks scared,” I said.

“Her company is suspicious as fuck. With all the recent hacks she probably is scared,” Hermione said.

“First of all I will introduce to you the one creature that is the reason SOUS has stayed so secretive all these years. We all know now that we are not alone in the universe as sentient beings. But what you don’t know is that we are not even alone on our own planet,” Katherine said.

“Is she talking about me?” I asked.

“No, everyone already knows about you,” Hermione was watching intently now.

“No, I am not talking about our brother from the stars, Iqi. We have cousins, who live beneath the sea. They’ve been here for thousands of years, in hiding. But some of them are ready to come out and join hands with humanity if we will allow them. Iqi’s arrival and openness with the public has paved the way for these cousins of ours. And it is my honor to introduce you all to Ler and Kym,” she gestured to the curtain behind her which opened to reveal a large glass wall.

Behind the wall was water and two creatures came into view. The crowd on the tv were silent as the larger of the two swam up to the wall. I’ve never seen a creature like this. It had the upper body of a man but the lower of an aquatic mammal. He was at least twice the size of a normal man and covered with short grey fur with a long black flowy mane of hair. He smiled adoringly down at Katherine Ahuja who smiled tightly back up at him. The other was a younger, smaller female who seemed to be with child.

She turned back to the public. “Humanity I’d like to introduce you to your cousins: the Homomare, or in plain language the Selkie.

[fandomsentertainment]

Iqi: Arrival Chapter Nine

You can read the whole story on Wattpad

https://www.wattpad.com/story/135795678-iqi-arrival

“Fuck! That little cunt planned this all along!” Hermione paced the room angrily.

“Calm down this was clearly something that was a long time coming,” Dr. Willoughby said re watching the scenes with the Selkie in it from the press conference. “Obviously she meant to release this information slowly to the public, but Iqi’s arrival delayed her plans and the recent hacking forced her to accelerate them. I doubt she did this with an malintent. If anything I’d say she looks quite reluctant to release this information.”

“Still do you know what this means for Iqi! Know one's gonna want to see him anymore. All they’re gonna care about are those stupid fucking Selkie!” Hermione ranted.

“People will obviously still love and care about Iqi. That doesn’t go away just because he’s no longer the brand new humanoid species. The only thing that might really change is the amount people are willing to pay to see him. But those sessions were never about the money. Right?” Dr. Willoughby said.

“Right,” I agreed.

Hermione went silent, still steaming about the announcement of the Selkies. Personally I found them interesting. If they were cousins of humanity then they were cousins of mine as well. It seemed almost like the perfect fit. The skies for me, the land for man and the sea for the Selkie. I smiled at the thought of one day meeting these Selkie.

“I want to meet them,” I told Dr. Willoughby.

“Of course you do,” she smiled. “I’m sure that meeting is inevitable. It feels like so sort of metaphor huh. Sky and sea meeting for the first time.”

“I was thinking the same thing!” I grinned.

She patted my head. “You’re pretty clever Iqi. I wonder if the Selkie are at the same level of intelligence as us.”

The doorbell suddenly rang.

“Finally the fucking food is here,” Hermione grumbled getting up.

“Security will get it. You don’t have to get up,” Dr. Willoughby said.

“Yeah, but since you and Iqi decided you would order food for everyone they’re probably gonna take their sweet time giving us our food,” Hermione stalked off.

“Why is Hermione so upset ?” I sighed.

Dr. Willoughby didn’t answer. But kept pausing and zooming in on different parts of the Selkie.

My wings flapped restlessly. Maybe Hermione was right. Maybe humans love for me was only temporary, so long as I was a novelty. I wondered if I could be happy knowing I was at least loved by my sister and Dr. Willoughby. A sudden pang in my heart told me otherwise. I loved humans, and I want them to love me too.

“Dr. Willoughby?” I asked.

“Yes, Iqi.”

“Should I say something? Like to the public. About the Selkie.”

Dr. Willoughby paused the tv and sat back thinking intently.

“I think you will be expected to,” she finally said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if a handful of speeches for you to give were being written right now by the HIC.”

“The hic?” I asked.

She smiled at me. “It’s an abbreviation of the Human Intergalactic Council. President Tapiwa will definitely give a speech either today or tomorrow. They’ll probably want video footage of your meeting with Ms. Ahuja and the Selkie so you’ll definitely be expected to give some kind of speech then or even before then.”

“Here’s the food,” Hermione grumbled walking back into the living room.

I could smell the heavenly spices wafting from the bag already and my mouth began to salivate. This was a fairly new experience for me. In general food when space traveling doesn’t have much flavor and needs to be rationed for weight control. On a planet however you can have as much food as you want with as many flavors that are available. But humans were unique in the fact that they’d try to eat anything at least once. Anything that was edible on their planet they consumed it.

Since the only true way to know if something was edile or not was to try it many species had a limited palette because who would be crazy enough to put something unknown into their bodies! Since the humans were in fact crazy enough they had acquired an enormous palette unmatched by any other species, even scavengers.

Human food had flavors and textures unlike any in the know universe. At first I was nervous about trying human foods since I was technically a brand new species and no one knew how my body would react to certain things. But Hermione was persistent and now food was no longer a duty but an experience for me. I eagerly took the bag from Hermione’s hands as she sat down beside us.

“President Tapiwa wants to see you Iqi,” she said.

“Already?” I asked funneling the rice into my mouth.

“Yeah, I just got off the phone with her. She’s actually coming here for once. She wants to avoid exposing you to the public right now.”

“Oh,” I said. “Wait so what about my Tuesday session!”

“Gotta cancel,” Hermione said biting a chunk out of her chicken. “We’ve never had to cancel before so we’ll need to write a generic letter to send everyone.”

“But… that’s not fair! I was looking forward to that! The people coming were looking forward to it!”

“Blame Ms. Ahuja for that one,” Hermione said nonchalant.

I looked down at my food.

“I know you were looking forward to this Iqi,” Dr. Willoughby said placing her hand on my leg. “And I know you don’t want to disappoint anyone but it’s for security reasons. Just give them back they’re money and right a genuine apology and it’ll be fine.”

I nodded sighing. “I just don’t get why the Selkie being announced puts me in danger?”

“President Tapiwa is probably protecting you from bad press. People will want to ask you about the Selkie and she wants to be in control of the narrative rather than letting people go wild with assumption.”

“I understand. But still…” I muttered.

“Well, regardly of the reason she’ll be here in three hours so make sure you clean yourself up,” Hermione said.

I frowned. Cleaning my wings was a real chore, I usually washed up about twice a week and had started to line up my wash days with the sessions. But now not knowing how long I wouldn’t be allowed sessions, this might mess up my schedule.

“I’ll help you wash them, Iqi,” Hermione smiled touching my face.

“Thank you,” I returned the smile.

~

President Tapiwa and her security arrived at seven p.m. She was dressed in a sharp suit, much more masculine than the one Katherine was wearing. She sat across from me at the desk set up in my bedroom.

“Iqi, thank you for hosting me,” she smiled warmly.

“Thank you for coming,” I replied.

“I’m sorry about you having to cancel your sessions, I know those are important to you,” she started off. “But with this new and surprising development it’s important we all share the same narrative.”

“I understand. But what is our narrative?” I asked.

President Tapiwa smiled. “Excellent question. Officially we welcome the Selkie with open arms. Like Ms. Ahuja said these are our cousins and we are thrilled to meet them and continue our journey of life with them.”

“Unofficially?” I asked weary.

“Unofficially, we are extremely suspicious of not only these creatures but on Ms. Katherine Ahuja herself. She obviously has had knowledge of these creatures for years now but neglected to let the public or even her government know of their existence. There has to be a reason for that and we will endeavour to find this reason out,” President Tapiwa’s face took on a scary edge.

“So… I should avoid them and her?” I asked, shifting uncomfortably in my seat.

“No, actually I want you to do the exact opposite. I want you to meet her and these creatures. I want you to get as close to them as you can. And I want you to report back to solely me,” President Tapiwa pulled some papers out of her folder. “The hacking done on SOUS was done by me and Chancellor Nakano. We were suspicious and uneasy with the way SOUS was able to keep such a low profile. They were a completely dark area in the matter of intelligence and we needed to know what exactly they were doing there. Suddenly we got a backdoor entrance so to speak from someone on the inside.”

She showed me a picture of a pale beautiful human woman with  lovely brown hair.

“This is Veronica De Sauveterre. She was a scientist who worked at SOUS a few years ago and was quite accomplished. She was tried and convicted under mysterious circumstances and is being jailed within SOUS. We do not know what her condition or treatment is like nor why she has been imprisoned. But she is the one who managed to make contact with us from within SOUS.”

“Katherine is holding her prisoner?” I looked up at President Tapiwa.

“We can’t make any assumptions. Katherine Ahuja is a co-CEO of SOUS but it’s clear she is simply the face of SOUS, whereas Jeffrey Harley seems to be the true mastermind of the company,” President Tapiwa pulled out a photo with Katherine and a man standing side by side smiling into the camera.

“Iqi, I want you to uncover what’s going on in SOUS. I want you to spy for the Human Intergalactic Council.”

A sharp knock rapped on the door before I could respond.

“Come in,” President Tapiwa said irritated, it was one of her detail.

He came in holding a phone. “Ms. Ahuja has made contact to Iqi.”

President Tapiwa nodded. “Put it on speaker.”

He set the phone down in the middle of the table, pressed a button and left.

“Hello?” I heard Katherine’s voice on the other line.

“Oh, hello!” I said gathering my thoughts.

“Iqi, how are you? I wasn’t sure if they’d let me speak with you,” she laughed.

“I’m very well. Thank you for calling,” I said constantly monitoring President Tapiwa’s face for disapproval.

“You probably already know what this is about. I was wondering if one day you wanted to meet Ler and Kym. We’ll provide security and a place for you to stay if you want to spend a few days here,” she sounded nervous.

“I’d love to but,” I looked up at President Tapiwa’s face she was watching me closely. “Haven’t you been having hacking issues?”

Katherine laughed. “Yes we have. But you don’t need to fear these hackers, they are after all from the HIC. Oh, but they probably didn’t tell you any of that. My bad.”

President Tapiwa’s face took on a dark look.

“Oh,” I said not really sure of what else to say.

I heard Katherine sigh. “She’s in the room with you isn’t she. President Tapiwa, I understand you won’t respond so you can have plausible deniability but I can assure you Iqi will be well taken care of during his visit to my facility, if he so chooses to go. I’ll allow him to bring his detail, his sister and of course Dr. Willoughby, but some parts of my facility will be off-limits to them. He’ll be perfectly safe, I’ve been dealing with the supposedly supernatural much longer than anyone on your team I can assure you.”

No one said anything for a long beat.

“So, Iqi what will it be? Will you come visit me?” Katherine asked.

I looked up at President Tapiwa. Her face seemed to ask a question too.

Will you spy for me?

“Yes,” I answered, looking into President Tapiwa’s eyes. “I will.”

[fandomsentertainment]

Iqi: Arrival Chapter Eleven

“Katherine!” a child’s voice called out.

I heard a small splash soon after and followed Katherine to the pool edge. Suddenly a young girl popped out of the water and leapt into Katherine’s arms. The Selkie seemed to be about fourteen or fifteen human years of age but she was much larger than Katherine. They collapsed to the floor in a fit of giggles.

“Kym! This is Iqi! I told you he’d come to meet you!” Katherine beamed at me and I couldn’t help but beam back.

Kym turned her big black eyes on me with a look of awe. She had grey fur up and down her body like the older Selkie “Ler”. Her long tail looked strong and elegant. Her hair was much like Katherine’s but a darker shade of black. It hung in thick wavy strands around her face.

“You really came!” she smiled shyly.

“Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said holding out my hand.

She stared at it for a moment then burst out laughing.

“Katherine!” she giggled. “He’s more human than us!”

“Well he is half human,” Katherine rolled her eyes. “Pardon Kym, she’s actually much younger than she looks, Selkies age quickly at this age.”

“Iqi!” a male voice said behind me.

I turned to see Ler pulling his enormous body out of the water. He looked much bigger in person than in the press conference video. I thought Katherine looked small beside him simply because she was small. But now seeing him face to face I was a little intimidated. He was over twice the size of the average human man. The sharp teeth and claws that seemed cute on Kym looked dangerous on him.

“Iqi, this is Ler. I know he seems scary at first but that just cause he’s so big. Ler’s a big softy trust me. It’s Sobek that’s actually terrifying,” Katherine laughed walking up to Ler and giving him a hug. Her arms barely wrapped around half his torso but he patted her head fondly with his enormous hand, racking his claws gently through her hair.

“I’m so glad you were able to come Iqi,” Ler said. “We were worried you’d be kept away.”

“I almost was,” I laughed. “I’m very happy I was able to meet you in person.”

“Is it true you lived in space?” Kym asked.

“Yes, I’ve lived in space all my life. Did you live in the ocean before living with Katherine?”

“Yes. Our tribes were somewhere off the coast of the human continent Antarctica,” Ler replied.

“It must have been difficult to live in the ocean. I heard even humans can’t survive it well,” I said.

“Please,” Ler snorted. “Humans are lucky they’re so smart. Their pathetic bodies can’t keep up with anything else on this planet.”

“Hey!” Katherine protested dropping her arms from his side.

Ler gripped her hands between two fingers and gave her a toothy grin. “By all means Katherine, escape my grip without tricking me.”

To give her credit Katherine did give it a good effort, but Ler’s strength was laughably superior to hers. A small bark by the structure caught Ler’s attention and he released her.

“What was that?” I asked.

“My daughter,” Kym said gleefully slipping into the water.

“Her name’s Ostara,” Katherine smiled rubbing her hands. “Do you wanna meet her?”

“Of course! How do we get there?” I asked eyeing the structure Kym was swimming towards.

“We swim of course,” Katherine grinned taking off her lab coat. “But if you prefer you can fly.”

“I need a head start to fly and there isn’t enough space,” I said sheepishly.

Katherine tilted her head at me. “You don’t know how to swim do you?”

I shook my head no. “I’ve never even tried it.”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything!” Katherine smiled. “We’ll teach you how to swim if you teach us how to fly.”

I laughed. “I’ll do my best,” I said taking off my shoes.

Ler slipped into the water with ease and Katherine jumped into it with wild abandon. Ler smiled at her shaking his head then held his hand out to me. I took his hand and lowered myself into the cold salty water.

It felt amazing. The water was the perfect temperature and it felt as if my body was floating. It was almost like flying. Ler towed me along slowly keeping a close eye on Katherine who who was splashing around.

“This is amazing,” I said sighing relaxed.

Ler grinned. “Must be the human part of you, humans love swimming. Especially Katherine.”

“Isn’t this water cold for her?” I asked remembering humans don’t enjoy the same temperature range that I do.

“It’s freezing for her, if she stays in too long she gets sick.”

I frowned. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

Ler shrugged. “Humans don’t seem to care much about danger.”

I rolled my eyes. “Tell me about it.”

We laughed. It was nice having someone to talk about humans with. As much as I enjoyed the company of humans they were still such a strange species.

“Did you learn English before you came to Earth?” Ler asked suddenly.

“Yes. I learned both English and Spanish along with the basic languages required of Captain Ki’rnne ‘s crew before I came here. Why do you ask?” I said shifting my weight a bit.

“Just curious,” Ler smiled. “It took me a long time to become fluent in English, especially since Katherine didn’t understand my language. We spoke using hand gestures for a long time at first.” Ler laughed.

“That’s always difficult,” I nodded remembering the numerous times I would be in the company of beings who didn’t speak any languages I understood.

“Right now Katherine is teaching us French and Spanish. We’re better at Spanish though,” Ler said pulling up to the structure.

“Why those languages?” I asked reaching up to the structure as Ler lifted me.

“Because I already know those two,” Katherine grinned above me reaching out a hand.

I reached out and grasped her hand as Ler gave me a quick boost. But the push fell short and I felt myself fall back into the water. I would’ve sunk quickly if Ler hadn’t grasped my hand. My wings usually light and airy felt like heavy lead now that they were soaking wet.

“Are you okay?” Katherine asked still reaching out, concern etched on her face.

“Yes,” I gasped clinging to Ler’s arm. “My wings…”

Katherine slapped her hand to her face. “Of course, they’re all filled with water. Hang on a second I’ll get Ezilia.” She ran off.

“Who’s Ezilia?” I asked.

“Kym’s sister,” Ler had a peculiar look on his face. He turned to me. “Do your wings hurt?”

“No, they’re just very heavy out of water,” I smiled.

Ler gave me a toothy grin. “I feel that way out of water too.”

Heavy footsteps came up to the edge of the structure. An enormously tall man that looked vaguely like Ler towered above us. Katherine made a few hand gestures and he wordlessly reached down and pulled me up onto the structure by my arm.

“Iqi, this is Sobek. Kym’s father,” Katherine introduced us.

He was incredibly intimidating. Scars decorated his naked body and he regarded me suspiciously. He held a large fur pelt over his arm but didn’t make an effort to cover himself.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I swallowed offering my hand.

He gazed at my hand nonchalantly for a beat before turning to Katherine who gestured at him again. He gave me a quick nod of acknowledgement and wandered off to wherever he had come from.

“Don’t mind Sobek,” Katherine smiled. “He only ever smiles at the children.”

Ler pulled himself up the structure. “Where’s Ezilia?”

“She’s nursing the baby,” Katherine said walking further into the structure.

We were on a flat area surrounded my large cave entrances with faint light coming from each.

“Kym! We’re here!” Katherine called into one of the entrances.

“Do you all live on this structure?” I asked Ler.

“Yep, this entire area is ours. The humans live upstairs.”

“This structure is kind of small for all of you,” I frowned.

“Don’t worry,” Ler smiled. “Most of it is underwater. There are tunnels and cave with air pockets that we can access from up here and under water. Plenty of space for all of us and the other creatures we share this space with.”

“This is Iqi?” A women’s voice asked.

She was a beautiful Selkie woman with midnight hair like the others going down her back. She sat at one of the cave entrances holding a sleeping baby Selkie in her arms. She smiled gently at me.

“Yes, this is Iqi,” Katherine said introducing us. “Iqi this is Kym’s sister Ezilia.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said. “Is this Ostara?” I asked referring to the offspring in her arms.

“No,” Ezilia said. “My baby. My Ja’nek,” she smiled.

“He’s beautiful,” I smiled.

“You okay Iqi?” Katherine asked suddenly.

“Yes, why?”

“If your wings are getting to heavy you should sit down while you wait for them to dry.”

Suddenly I remembered that my wings were extraordinarily heavy.

“Ah, thank you,” I smiled taking a seat on the ground.

Katherine came to sit besides Ler and I. “How long do they usually take to dry?”

“I’ve never gotten them this wet before. It’ll probably take hours,” I said apologetically.

“Hmm,” she pondered. “When we get upstairs we can probably sit you in front of the big heat fan. That should dry you off.”

I laughed nervously. “My body is no good at handling high temperatures. I go into shock it it gets too hot.”

“Christ,” Katherine exclaimed. “What’s your temperature range then?”

“-50 to 70 degrees fahrenheit are the temperatures I can tolerate without protective wear.”

“-50 degrees!” Katherine raised an eyebrow. “That’s impressive. This water is about 20 degrees and I’m freezing,” she laughed.

“Blanket?” Ezilia asked concerned.

“Oh yes please if you don’t mind,” Katherine smiled gratefully.

Ezilia nodded and slid back into the entrance she came from.

“Ezilia’s english isn’t as good as Ler’s and Kym’s,” I noticed out loud.

“Well they only arrived here a year ago. And since they have so many other Selkies to talk to it wasn’t as necessary for them to learn as quickly as Ler and Kym did,” Katherine explained.

“We’re here,” Kym’s voice came from the cave entrance Katherine called her from.

I stared in confusion. It was Kym but she didn’t have a tail. She was walking towards them on human legs holding a Selkie offspring in her arms with a fur pelt much like the one Sobek carried.

“Oh,” Katherine said realizing my confusion. “So the Selkie have the ability to morph between having legs and tails. They rarely do it in their own habitat but do it quite often here apparently.”

“A tail can become burdensome on land,��� Ler further explained. “So we morph quite often here.”

“How to you grow legs? And how long does it take to go back to your original form?” I asked fascinated.

“Here’s Ostara,” Kym beamed holding up her small daughter proudly.

The baby gurgled and reached out for Katherine who took her from Kym. She was a beautiful baby. She was very chubby and had a full head of dark hair that hung in wet strands around her face. She had almost no fur compared to the others and her skin was a strange greyish brown color.

“Hi baby! Hi princess, did you miss me sweet face!” Katherine cooed at the baby who babbled happily at her. “This is Iqi. He’s our cousin from the stars. Say hi.”

Katherine waved one of the baby’s little hands at me. I smiled and gave the baby a wave back. She wasn’t very interested in me, she just wanted to look at Katherine. I realized they all looked at Katherine that way. Ler watched her with adoration, Kym watched her with admiration, Ezilia with motherly love and even Sobek seemed to at the least have a bit of respect for her. Watching this small family I couldn’t imagine Katherine was capable of the things President Tawipa feared. It had to be the doing of this Jeffrey Harley she mentioned. The mastermind of SOUS.

“Will Jeffrey Harley be joining us today?” I asked trying to sound merely curious.

Katherine gave me a peculiar look. “No. Unfortunately he is away on some business - OUCH!” Katherine yelped as the baby bit into her arm.

“Ostara no!” Kym scolded.

Ostara seemed to think everyone’s reaction was hilarious and giggled well gnawing gently on Katherine’s arm which had blood running down it now. Katherine just sighed and tickled the baby to make her release.

“Ostara you know you’re not supposed to bite people,” Katherine said shifting the baby in her lap.

“Katherine’s bleeding,” Ezilia said suddenly walking towards us. She gave the baby a gentle smile while shaking her head. “Take blanket.”

She gave the blanket to Katherine and quietly scolded the baby in her harsh barking native language. Ler reached over the inspect Katherine’s arm.

“I’m fine Ler. She doesn’t even bite that hard yet, it’s just those teeth. She’s gonna make one hell of an apex predator,” Katherine laughed.

“We have to get her to stop biting you,” Ler frowned. “She’s gonna be stronger than you in a few years, it’ll be dangerous if she isn’t disciplined.”

“It’ll be fine, she’ll learn,” Katherine waved Ler off. “Besides it’s incredible that she even has a full set of teeth at this age.”

“Humans aren’t born with a full set of teeth?” I asked.

“No. Wait were you?”

“No but I thought I gave that from my father not my mother,” I explained.

“Oh, well human babies actually have two sets of teeth but they are all hidden away in the gum. As they get older the first set of teeth push through the tissue and the baby can then eat more solid foods. Then the adult teeth will come in later and push those teeth out. It’s pretty funny yanking them out actually…” she trailed off suddenly noticing the look of disgust we all gave her.

“What?” she said indignantly.

“That’s horrific,” Ler said.

“Doesn’t it hurt the children?” I asked.

“Well, yeah but they’re babies when the first set grows in so they won’t remember it. The second set really doesn’t hurt at all.”

“Why would you pull them out if they’re gonna fall out on their own?” Kym asked.

“Well when the adult tooth starts pushing the baby tooth out, the baby tooth will start wiggling and you can move it around with your tongue and stuff but it’s still attached to the gum so sometimes you gotta yank it out yourself,” Katherine explained.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Ler asked.

“Well it depends on how loose the tooth is when you go for it. The faster you do it the less it hurt. So sometimes we tie string to the tooth and then to a door then slam…”

“Okay I don’t need to know everything about humans,” Ler stopped her looking sick.

“Come on it’s not that bad, it’s actually a lot of fun. And your parents give you money for each tooth you lose.”

“Humans pay their children for mutilating themselves,” I said.

“It’s not like that!” she insisted.

Ler and I both looked t each other. Humans, we both thought.

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Just posted the story to Wattpad! Here’s the link!

https://www.wattpad.com/523923998-iqi-arrival-chapter-on