Niv was not entirely sure how the whole courting process was supposed to go, but from where she was standing it seemed like she was doing a very good job of it so far.
Things had been progressing extremely well.
Not only had the human accepted the gifts that Niv had brought earlier, but the human had also given gifts back in return, which was a very important part of the whole bonding process. On top of that, the human had just invited her into its den, which felt like a very big and meaningful step in the whole “becoming bond-mates” situation.
All of this together made Niv feel extremely pleased with herself.
Her tail could not help swishing back and forth behind her in wide, happy arcs that she was not even trying to hide anymore. She felt warm and excited in a way that made her ears twitch and her grin stretch across her face.
Her bond-mate was pretty, and its name was Juno.
This had been a very good idea.
Juno stepped to the side of the den-entrance and gestured for Niv to enter the den first. The opening looked surprisingly small now that Niv was standing this close to it, and she quickly realised that the tall antlers rising from her head were going to make things a little awkward.
She had to duck down very low and carefully angle her head forward so that her horns would not smack into the frame of the doorway. Even then the tips came a little uncomfortably close to the wood as she shuffled inside.
For a moment she had to crouch slightly just to get fully through the entrance, but once she was inside the den itself she found that the space was tall enough for her to stand up straight again.
Niv slowly rose to her full height and looked around.
Immediately she was hit with a flood of interesting sights and smells.
The inside of the den was filled with things.
There were so many objects everywhere that it made her head feel a little dizzy just trying to take it all in. Humans clearly liked to surround themselves with a lot of belongings, and every single one of them carried faint traces of Juno’s scent.
Niv sniffed the air a few times with great curiosity.
There were plants growing in little hard containers placed around the room, their leaves stretching upward toward the lights above. Nearby there were flat raised surfaces where even more things had been placed on display, including strange tools, small decorative objects, and other items that Niv could not immediately identify.
The entire den smelled strongly of the human.
It was a comforting scent.
Behind her, Juno closed the entrance covering with a firm motion. There was a small clicking noise as it shut, which made Niv’s ears flick in surprise as she glanced back toward the cover for a moment.
Then Juno turned and gestured toward a large strange object sitting in the middle of the room.
“Take a seat, if you want,” she said casually.
“Okay!” Niv replied immediately.
She walked forward a few steps and sat down right on the shiny wooden floor of the den. The surface felt smooth and cool beneath her legs, and she placed her hands comfortably on her knees as she looked around with bright curiosity.
A moment later Juno spoke again.
“I meant on the couch,” she clarified.
Niv blinked and tilted her head.
“What is couch?” she asked honestly.
Juno walked over to the large object she had been pointing at earlier and tapped it lightly with one hand.
“This,” she explained. “It’s meant for sitting on. It’s a bit more comfortable than the floor… unless you want to sit there?”
Niv stared at the object with growing fascination.
It looked soft.
Very soft.
Her ears lifted slightly as she stood back up and walked over to inspect it more closely.
“No,” she said with sudden enthusiasm. “I try couch!”
Niv walked over to the large strange object with obvious curiosity written all over her face. She bent down slightly so she could inspect it more closely, her antlers tilting forward as she leaned in to examine the surface.
From up close it looked even softer than it had from a distance.
She slowly reached out one clawed hand and gently pressed her fingers into the material. The surface gave way under her touch in a way that surprised her, sinking slightly before rising back into shape again.
Her ears perked up in delight.
“It’s soft!” she said with clear amazement in her voice. Then she looked up at Juno with bright interest. “I can sit?”
Juno nodded, watching her with a mixture of amusement and curiosity.
Niv did not need any further encouragement. She carefully lowered herself down onto the object, moving a little cautiously at first because she did not entirely trust something that squished so easily under her weight.
But the moment she settled onto it fully, she let out a small pleased sound.
It was even softer than it had looked.
The feeling reminded her a little bit of lying down in a deep pile of leaves during leaf-falling time in the forest, when the ground was covered in thick layers of dry foliage that crunched and shifted beneath her body. Except this was smoother and warmer, and it gently supported her weight instead of rustling around.
She bounced slightly once or twice just to test it.
Across from her, Juno sat down on a smaller sitting place and leaned forward slightly. The human rested its arms on its knees and looked directly at Niv with those wonderfully bright blue eyes.
Niv could not help staring back. Humans had very pretty eyes.
After a moment Juno cleared her throat slightly.
“So,” it began slowly, sounding like it was choosing its words carefully, “I just want to understand what exactly is going on here.”
Niv blinked. “What do you mean?”
Juno paused for a moment as if it was organising her thoughts.
“Well,” it said eventually, “could you maybe explain this bond-mate thing?”
“Oh!” Niv replied, suddenly understanding what she meant.
She sat up a little straighter on the couch and tried to think of the correct human words. Translating things from her own language into the human one was sometimes difficult, but she felt fairly confident she could explain this part.
“Yes,” she said. “You and me exchange gifts. Then scent mark same territory so no one else intrudes. Then spend time together doing hunts and nuzzles and… spawnlings later.”
She finished that explanation with a satisfied nod.
“Ah,” Juno said.
For some reason the human’s skin suddenly printed a darker pink colour across her cheeks and the tips of her ears.
“That might be a problem.”
Niv’s ears drooped immediately, and her entire posture slumped slightly.
“Do not want me?” she asked quietly.
Juno reacted instantly.
“No!” it blurted out. “I mean yes—no, that’s not what I meant.”
It rubbed a hand down its face and let out a long sigh, clearly trying to untangle the mess of words it had just created.
“Okay,” Juno said after a moment. “So first of all, despite the similarities, I don’t actually know if we would be capable of… you know… making … spawn, due to not being the same species..”
It made a vague circular gesture with its hands as it said that part.
“On top of that,” she continued, “I am female, and I can tell you are too.”
Niv blinked in mild surprise.
Oh.
She was female.
It had actually been a little difficult for Niv to tell before. Normally she relied on scent to identify things like that, but humans did not have the same clear signals her own kind did and she was covered in the colourful skins.
Still, that was fine.
The Mother’s older sibling had not bond-mated with a female either, and he and his partner had still lived happily together while raising several abandoned spawnlings they had found over the years.
So the idea did not seem strange to Niv at all.
Meanwhile Juno was still talking.
“But I am interested in… um…” she hesitated, clearly struggling with how to phrase something. “Shit, this is weird, dating?”
Niv tilted her head.
“What is the dating?”
Juno scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.
“Uh… we kind of do what we’ve already been doing,” she explained slowly. “But more like an explicit agreement. We might exchange gifts, go places together, learn more about each other, and then maybe eventually decide to spend our lives together if we think we’re a good match.”
“That is… strange,” she admitted.
But after another second she shrugged lightly.
“But I okay with it. I do not know much about humans, so I do not know how you work.”
Juno blinked a couple of times.
“Well… umm… yeah,” she said awkwardly. “Okay. Cool. Cool cool cool cool.”
“Juno is cold?”
Juno blinked a few times before letting out a nervous laugh.
“No, no,” she said quickly, waving one hand a little as if to brush the misunderstanding away. “It’s just an expression. Humans say it sometimes when they mean something is good or fine, I guess.”
Niv’s ears perked up immediately when she heard that explanation.
“Cool!” she said proudly.
Juno chuckled softly at the enthusiasm before leaning back slightly in her seat.
“So I guess we should probably get to know each other first,” she said.
Niv’s tail immediately started swishing again, smacking against the couch.
“Yes!” she said eagerly. “Ask anything. Except for the secrets. Can’t share the secrets, even if I’m stupid head.”
Juno frowned slightly when she heard that.
“Why would you call yourself that?” she asked, clearly puzzled.
Niv shrugged. “Because I courting a human,” she replied matter-of-factly. “Bad bad stupid idea. Probably going to have big rock time when the Mother finds out.”
Juno blinked slowly.
“Okay,” she said carefully. “That’s… a lot to unpack.”
She raised one finger as if she were mentally organising a list.
“First question,” she continued. “What exactly is the big rock?”
Niv looked at her with confusion, as though the answer should have been extremely obvious.
“It’s the big rock,” she said.
Juno stared back at her. “There are lots of big rocks out there.”
Niv shook her head quickly. “No no,” she said, holding up one clawed finger for emphasis. “Those are a big rock. This is the big rock.”
She nodded firmly, clearly satisfied with that clarification.
Juno rubbed her temples lightly. “Okay… could you maybe explain that a little more?”
Niv thought about it for a moment before trying again.
“It is the punishment place,” she said. “When someone does something very stupid, the elders send them to the big rock. You sit there while the elders look at you and tell you why you are stupid. Then you think about the stupid thing you did until you understand why it was stupid.”
She shrugged again.
“When you understand, big rock time ends.”
She paused briefly before adding in a slightly grumpy tone, “I hate big rock time.”
Juno leaned back a little further in her chair as she processed that explanation.
“So… dating a human is a taboo,” she said slowly. “Then why are you risking the, uh… big rock time… for me?”
Niv answered immediately without even needing to think about it.
“Because you’re very pretty and smell good and know how to make the nice meats.”
Juno blinked. Then she laughed.
“Well,” she said after a moment, “that’s certainly a flattering set of reasons.”
Niv nodded seriously, as though she had just delivered a perfectly logical argument.
Juno rested her chin briefly on one hand as she studied the tall cryptid sitting across from her.
“Okay,” she said eventually. “If you think I’m worth the risk, then I guess I’ll take a risk too.”
She paused for a second before adding, “You know, most humans are actually pretty scared of your people.”
Niv’s ears twitched slightly.
“But humans are much scarier,” she replied.
Juno raised an eyebrow.
“Are we?”
Niv nodded firmly.
“The Mother says humans are small and weak,” she explained. “She says humans make easy prey.”
Juno did not look particularly reassured by that sentence.
But before she could respond, Niv continued.
“She says humans never be hunted ever,” Niv said seriously. “Because there is never just one human.”
Juno let those words sink in for a moment.
Strangely enough, the statement was both reassuring and slightly sad at the same time. The logic behind it made perfect sense, but it also painted a very clear picture of how humans were viewed from the outside.
Her mother was right though.
There was almost never just one human.
Niv continued speaking, completely unaware of the thoughts running through Juno’s head.
“Also the Mother’s the Mother says humans taste bad,” she added casually. “She tried once. Did not like it.”
Juno blinked again.
“She… what?”
Niv shrugged.
“She says if humans taste bad and bring death, then why hunt them? Better to hunt antler-prey. Antler-prey taste good.”
She nodded firmly again.
“Antler-prey taste very good.”
Juno giggled softly at the conversation, and the sound did something very strange to Niv’s insides.
It felt like her chest had suddenly become too small for her heart, as though the thing was trying to beat its way right out of her ribs. The sound was light and warm and completely unlike the harsh barks of laughter Niv had sometimes heard from humans in the distance. Hearing it directed at her made her tail twitch happily.
For a moment she simply stared at Juno again, trying not to look as completely smitten as she probably did.
“So,” Juno said after the giggle faded, “you gave me the venison, right?”
Niv blinked. “Venison?”
Juno nodded and leaned forward slightly as she explained.
“It’s what we call the meat from what you called ‘antler-prey’. Except we call the animal deer.”
Niv nodded slowly as that clicked into place in her mind. Of course the humans would have their own names for things. They seemed to have a lot of words for everything, even things that were already perfectly understandable.
“Yes,” Niv confirmed. “Antler-prey meat was my gift.”
Juno smiled slightly.
“I was planning on putting it into a pie or maybe a stew,” she said thoughtfully. “Both of those work pretty well with venison.”
Niv tilted her head again.
“What is pie?”
Juno paused for a moment as if she were trying to figure out how to describe something that was probably extremely normal to a human but might sound very strange to someone who had never encountered it before. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“It’s… kind of like food wrapped inside baked dough,” she explained slowly. “The dough gets cooked in an oven and turns into a sort of shell around the meat and other stuff.”
Niv listened with growing interest.
That sounded complicated, but also potentially very tasty.
Juno tapped her fingers lightly against her knee while thinking.
“Oh,” she added after a moment. “Actually that reminds me. Can you eat vegetables? You didn’t seem to like the ones I gave you earlier.”
Niv immediately scrunched up her nose in response.
“The plants with the meat gift?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Juno said.
Niv shook her head quickly.
“No. Do not eat the plants. Makes sick.”
Juno nodded slowly.
“Okay, okay, sure,” she said, clearly making a mental note of that information.
Then her expression shifted slightly as another thought crossed her mind.
“On that note,” she continued, “you rummaged around in my rubbish… and ate an old sandwich.”
Niv frowned slightly.
“What is rubbnish?”
Juno chuckled softly at the unfamiliar pronunciation.
“Rubbish,” she corrected gently. “It’s the bad food and other things that I don’t need anymore. Stuff that’s spoiled or started rotting, or just things I want to throw away.”
She paused briefly before continuing.
“Regardless, that sandwich you were eating the other night was almost entirely made from processed plants. Except for the meat.”
Niv blinked.
Her ears slowly lowered as she thought about that.
“Processed… plants?” she repeated uncertainly.
“Yeah,” Juno said, nodding as she tried to explain it a little better. “The outside of the sandwich was bread, which is made from a kind of grass that humans grow and grind up into flour. Then we bake it and it turns into bread. The sauces in it were made from fruits and other plants that get mixed together and processed.”
She paused for a moment, looking slightly concerned as she studied Niv’s expression.
“Will you get sick from that?” she asked.
Niv frowned and sat a little straighter on the couch while she thought about it.
“I am feel okay right now,” she said slowly.
She turned her head slightly as if checking her own body for any strange feelings. Her stomach did not hurt, her head was not spinning, and nothing felt wrong or strange inside her. As far as she could tell, everything seemed perfectly normal.
Still, the idea sat oddly in her mind.
She had always been told that plants were not something her kind should eat. They were supposed to make her sick, or at least taste very unpleasant. Yet the sandwich she had eaten the night before had actually tasted pretty good.
Maybe a little bit was fine.
Or maybe humans did something strange to plants that made them safe.
There were clearly many mysteries about human food.
Juno nodded after hearing her answer.
“Well, that’s the most important thing,” she said with a small relieved smile. “If you feel fine then it’s probably okay.” She shifted slightly in her seat and leaned back against the chair. “Anything you want to ask me?” asked Juno.
Niv’s ears perked up immediately. “Yes!” she said enthusiastically. She had been thinking about something ever since she entered the den, and now seemed like a good time to ask.
“Why don’t you scent mark your territory?” she asked curiously. “How does anything know this place is yours if you do not do that?”
Juno stared at her for a moment before suddenly laughing.
“Humans don’t really have the… uh… tools for that,” she explained once the laughter faded a little. “We can’t mark territory the same way animals do.”
Niv tilted her head again. “Then how?”
“Well,” Juno continued, “humans do have a way of setting territory, it’s just different. Usually people know a place belongs to someone because it’s their house and property. Other humans generally won’t come onto my land unless they have a reason to be here.”
She gestured vaguely toward the door. “Like if they’re delivering something to me, for example. A package or mail or something like that.”
Niv nodded thoughtfully.
“Oh okay,” she said.
Of course humans would have their own way of doing things. She was learning many new things tonight, and it made her feel strangely excited to understand even a small part of how the human world worked. After a moment another thought popped into her mind.
“Why did not like my tree skin?” she asked suddenly. “It smells nice!”
Juno blinked. “Oh right, that,” she said with a slightly awkward expression. “Sorry about that. I thought it was some kind of prank at the time.”
She rubbed the back of her neck a little before continuing.
“Um… I might dry it out and put it somewhere tomorrow.”
Niv relaxed slightly when she heard that.
“Okay!” she said with relief. She nodded firmly. “Was worried. Good smell tree skin important for den.”
After sitting quietly for another moment, Niv’s ears twitched as another thought slowly worked its way into her head. She had been thinking very hard about everything Juno had explained so far, and the more she thought about it, the more curious she became about certain parts of the human’s life.
Eventually she leaned forward slightly on the couch, her tail curling around the side of it as she focused on the next thing she wanted to know.
“Where get the strange tasty hot meat?” she asked.
Juno blinked, clearly not expecting that question quite so suddenly. “Well… I can—” she started, but then she paused as another thought occurred to her. “Wait. Do you know what money is?”
Niv shook her head immediately.
“No.”
Juno let out a small sigh as she realised just how much explaining that was probably going to require.
“Okay,” she said slowly, thinking about how to simplify something that humans usually spent their entire lives dealing with. “So… humans have this system where we can trade very specific paper or pieces of metal for things.”
Niv’s ears tilted slightly as she tried to follow the explanation.
“I earn those special papers and metal pieces by doing work.” Juno continued. “Basically I do certain tasks for other humans, and they give me money in return. Then I can take that money and trade it with other people to get things that I need.”
She gestured vaguely around the room.
“That’s how I got my den and territory, for example, and it’s also how I get most of my food.”
Niv frowned deeply as she tried to understand the logic behind that system. It sounded extremely strange.
“Why not just trade prey for it?” she asked after a moment. “Prey much more valuable than rocks.”
Juno chuckled softly at that before rubbing her forehead a little.
“Sometimes, sure,” she admitted. “But the thing is, some rocks are actually very rare. Rare enough that they can be worth thousands of something like rabbits, if you wanted to compare it that way.”
Niv’s eyes widened slightly at that idea. Thousands of rabbits seemed like an absurd amount of value for something that did not even taste good. Juno continued speaking while Niv tried to process that.
“The rocks and paper we use are mostly symbolic,” she explained. “They only have value because everyone agrees they have value.” She shrugged lightly. “The whole system has some pretty massive downsides, but at the same time human society probably wouldn’t function without currency. It’s a really complicated thing that people argue about all the time.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Anyway, the important part is that I earn currency so I can buy things like the hot meat you ate earlier.” She paused briefly before adding something else. “Well… for humans, most meat ends up being hot meat. We can get sick if we eat it raw.”
Niv’s entire body jerked in shock.
“What?” she gasped.
Juno nodded. “Yeah. Humans get sick more easily than most animals if we eat raw meat. But we also have a lot of ways to deal with sickness when it happens.”
She leaned forward slightly and continued explaining.
“But if you cook the meat over fire first, it gets rid of a lot of the things that make us sick in the food.”
Niv stared at her in disbelief. Her ears slowly drooped while she tried to wrap her mind around that.
“Humans are strange!” she finally declared. “They use hard rocks for food and get sick from prey!”
“Yeah, I guess we are.”