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(Ami is Ku’Aya’s nickname for Abirami)

Ku’Aya

“Whoa! Cool green skin!” the boy called out!

My ears tingled. So… cute!

He had a baby face with blazing blond hair. His bangs stuck out half-hazardly about, and I had to wonder how he got his hair to stay that way… like an organized mess that actually looked really good.

My hair was the worst. I could never make it do anything I wanted… well, besides the mohawk. Any aelacrin could do that…

And I didn’t have to crane my neck up to look at him. Sure, he wasn’t as tall as Abirami or… well, most of the people in the room, but he was still taller than me… just, not outrageously so. Standing me up against the ‘normal races’ sometimes felt like putting any race up against a loxor!   {loxors are the giants of my world…}

But this was refreshing. Yet, still, my breath caught in my chest. Had I heard him right? Did he really say my green skin was… cool?

I grabbed onto Abirami. How was I supposed to react to that? What do I say? What do I do? He likes green skin? I want him to like me. What am I thinking? What do I do?

“She looks like a troll fairy princess!!!” He burst out.

I looked up at Abirami. He was confused to.

Princess?

“What’s a troll?”

“It’s a green warrior guardian of bridges the swamps and they ask riddles and if you fail them they eat you.”

Princess? Wait… a warrior guardian? A guardian? I kinda liked that. But a guardian of what? Bridges? Swamps? Well, my ancestors did live predominantly in swamps… but… princess?

I couldn’t get that word out of my mind. Even so, I felt the need to clear one thing up, even if my courage was quickly leaving me. What was this boy doing to me? I’d never felt like this before.

“I don’t eat people,” I whispered quickly.

I’m not sure he heard me.

“Were you teleported form a beach, or is there a pool somewhere?” he asked Abirami

“Not really a pool, no,” Abirami said “I had to leave my garb in the other room after transforming during that emergency.”

Ami, you took his attention off of me…

Normally, I’d more more than happy. What had changed?

Princess?

It was so foreign. I was an aelacrin. A nasty, disgusting, dirt-ridden, bottom-feeding bug-lover. My skin was puke green. Not the fair tan or the strong grey or even the sturdy blue. Yet, this boy had said it was cool…

“I’m Abirami el Hanniumm, an aygiff. And this I my sister, Ku-Aya, an aelacri-“

“Good to meet you! I’m Ehud, a human?” He blurted out.

Ehud. His name was Ehud… his name started with a vowel, just like Ami’s. Ehud. His name meant ‘he that praises.’  I wondered if he knew his name meant that. In our world, names had really deep meaning. I never liked my name for that reason. Ku’Aya meant ‘many blessings.’ I was anything but that.

Ehud, however… he seemed to fit his name perfectly.

Ehud had been talking for a while, and I realized I had been staring at him but not listening.

“Are there people with other colored skin from your world? Like blue skin, or purple skin? Where do you come from? And-“ He covered his mouth with the back of his sleeve and shoved his other hand in his pocket. “Sorry, I talk a lot…” He muttered.

I was still so stunned, I let Abirami talk. Ami was good at that.

Not that I was bad at it, just… I’d never had any opportunities to test whether I was actually any good at it. No one had ever really been interested in me before. Well, Ami didn’t count.

Then Ehud turned his attention directly at me, and I could feel the blood drain from my cheeks and flood my ears.  {odd description, but she is having butterflies AND blushing at the same time…mixed with embarrassment}

“And you, you can control bugs? How’s that work? Is it just certain types of bugs?” he asked

He’s interested? It doesn’t put him off? What is this? I never imagined such a person existed. Was he just being polite, or was this for real?

I smiled, a feeling of hope and belonging filling me with a strange warmth I’ve rarely felt before.

“No, I can talk to any insect I want,” I said. Even Ami always seemed to have the wrong impression about my relationship with my hive. “And I don’t control them,” I corrected, pushing against Abirami. “They’re my friends.”

“Oh,” Ehud said, “bugs don’t live very long usually. Do you have a lot of funerals? Ah sorry! I mean-…”

My eyes went wide. He understands! He actually understands!!

“Actually, I do,” I said. “No one’s ever asked me that before.” I was dumbstruck.

Feeling emboldened and excited, I stepped away from Abirami. I didn’t even realize I had let go of his hand, but this impossibly cute guy was actually talking to me about bugs!

“You’re right,” I said. “They don’t live long, but that’s something I love about them. I can make friends with one, and then I get to see their children’s children for generations on, and be friends with all of them. It’s like living a full life, over and over again.”

And it was true. The connection I had with my hive was special. Even my relationship with Abirami was nothing like it. Everything I knew about life, I learned from them.

“But…doesn’t it make you sad?” Ehud asked.

I shook my head. “Death is a natural part of life. Just something you have to accept.”

Ever since before I could remember, I had always been surrounded by death. In fact, Abirami and his adopted family was the longest anyone had ever stayed in my life… the thought stunned me. Would death come to them soon too? Oh, I hoped not. But their lives weren’t like those of my hive. Insects were short-lived, and therefore precious.

“Oh, what’s your favorite bug?”

Jolted back to the present, I couldn’t believe my ears! I wanted to laugh and whoop for joy, all at the same time.

I reached back and detached my bawl from my hair.

“This is Shaear,” I beamed with pride.

“That’s so cool! Is it a boy or a girl?” He ask, gently touching it’s plated skin. “Oh some bugs change gender while they’re growing up…but I can’t remember which ones…”

“It’s actually gender neutral,” I said, hoping he would be just as enamored with it as I was. “They are asexual, meaning they can reproduce themselves without the aid of a partner.”

“Weird!” said Ehud. “Wouldn’t that be lonely? Not needing anyone else?”

“Oh no,” I said. “Bawls are very social insects. They will actually adopt whole colonies of different species of bugs and act as a wise guardian for them. It’s quite incredible. And they live for a very long time. Some, even for years at a time! Shaear has been with me for two whole years now! He’s an very old man now.” I laughed, petting Shaear down his platted back, similar to what Ehud had done.

He scratched the back of his head, and then stuffed on his hands deeper in his pocket. He pulled out a daddy longlegs.

He had an arachnid in his pocket?

I gasped. “Will you marry me?!”

“-Oh! What do grandaddy’s eat? Wait… what?

Nooooooooooo… Did I really just say that out loud?

My ears, my cheeks… even the tip of my nose went red. I could just die of embarrassment. Oh, where was Abirami when I needed him? I looked around, hoping to hide behind him, but I couldn’t see him.

Shoot. What do I do? What do I do?

The daddy longlegs crawled up to the edge of Ehud’s hand.

“Oh, what you got there?” I looked in closer, hoping helplessly that perhaps he would let my slip-up slide. “Oh, that’s a harvestmen. Many people think it’s a spider, but it’s not. It is an arachnid, but see how it only has one body section, not two? That’s how you can tell. And while they can eat other insects, they are also scavengers, which means they can eat carrion or compost. Can we be friends?”

Ehud grinned from ear to ear, his cheeks glowing red as well. “Sure!

I sighed in relief. Wait… he said yes? I couldn’t tell if it was my heart or my lungs that were stuck in my throat, but nothing was where it should be, was it? I couldn’t tell anything anymore.

“What’s Shaear eat?” he asked. “And what do you do if bugs eat other bugs and you like both bugs…??”

I laughed, hoping my nervousness wasn’t completely evident. “Most of my bugs are scavengers. They will eat anything that has already died, which is kinda beautiful, if you think about it, because they use death to promote life. It’s always so connected.” Was I rambling? I was so rambling.

A shadow came over Ehud’s face, so I quickly redirected the conversation.

“But for those who do eat other bugs, I make sure they go outside the hive to eat. And they are usually good with that. Insects are very territorial beings. They have no issues cannibalizing a foreign colony. Especially if it means protecting the hive or self-preservation. Are not most men the same?”

Oh shoot. Had I gone too far? Aelacrins were infamous for elevating insects to the point that many thought we cared more for them than other people. Would Ehud think the same of me? Oh please no. I’m not a people-hater, I promise…. I silently willed for him to understand.

 

 

Ah! That was so fun! This is so unlike what Ku’Aya normally is, it is great! ha! Really breaking her out of her tough shell and revealing her soft interior she never lets anyone see! This is great!!!

oh, and by the by… this is a picture depiction of a Loxor… (the giants of my world.) In case you were wondering… and even if you weren’t… hehehe. (wicked grin)

Oh, actually, it’s a picture of a female loxor. The males are even larger (like almost two times larger…)