Krakun Coming-of-Age 2

Part 1 

So for this section it should be a little more apparent what kind of time scale I'm building into this story. I know it's a little on the short side but I'm trying to write it out how it naturally feels rather than trying to meet an arbitrary word count goal this time. Comments appreciated!

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Over the next forty years, with the help of DIY tutorials, I started constructing new parts for my geroo colony, learning how to construct double-walled transparent rooms and corridors for them to expand in. My mom referred to it as my "little hobby" that she understood insofar as it was something krakun whelps experimented with. The process was slow mostly because making a structure air-tight was more difficult than I thought, but I made certain to always run extensive tests before I committed to any new structure--each test could take months or years to ensure long-term stability. As a result, I spent most of my free time designing and building these habitats.

I hadn't learned much about geroo society until that first year after I started construction, but I did learn quickly enough that Tuijai and his people had been reluctant to adopt technology. Luddites were scorned on Gerootec, and his people had been condemned to slavery for committing acts of terrorism, desiring to drive my people off his world.

For being terrorists, though, they seemed awfully loving and considerate. I got to meet Tuijai's family for the first time after building the first expansion. His mate, Bue-ke, had a young daughter in her pouch who was only then starting to grow in her fur. Geroo, when not wearing their environment suits, were rather soft and plush-looking mammals, and I longed to touch them, to stroke their soft fur and feel their warmth on my pads.

But bringing my claw down on them, they reeled back as the walls of their habitat creaked. I pulled away, remembering what my father had done, and so when observing I kept my limbs tucked under my chest. But I felt it, that same desire. To hold them. To cuddle them. I wanted them to love me. And if I could not touch them, I could at least provide for them.

For my next project, I built a long corridor from the habitat to my bed, with an elevator and everything, ending in a transparent box in which I'd hooked up a two-way speaker. But for the longest time, Tuijai hadn't bothered responding when I asked him to come up and talk to me, and the box with its comfortable cloth furnishings laid empty, and I always sighed when I woke up and saw it remaining so.

But one day, when I came back home from an errand and flopped into my bed, I was startled to find his youngest daughter, Kanui, sitting in the box. In the blink of an eye, she'd already grown into an adult, and I found myself unable to keep my mouth from falling open. She was a lovely sight for a geroo. Her fur was a deep reddish brown, with large black spots over her face and flanks, and she had bright blue eyes that sparkled when she spoke.

Dead gods, I wanted to touch that fur so badly.

"Hi," she said, waving awkwardly. "My dad doesn't know I'm here."

"He's going to, soon," I said. "My voice isn't exactly the most subtle of noises."

"Well, whatever, he can't stop me now."

"Why come visit me now?" I asked, scrunching up one of my large pillows and laying my neck atop it as I faced the little mammal. "I've been asking for years."

"That's what I've been wanting to talk about," Kanui said, standing up from the couch to approach the box. "Ever since I was born, my dad's been very adamant that we not acknowledge you beyond giving you some shows of appeasement. That's why we've mostly been using the extra room as a storehouse, rather than living in it."

"You didn't say anything about that on the network."

"Yeah. Apparently--just before I was born--you told my dad that you had full access to everything we did on the network, and he got very paranoid about revealing anything that might anger you. He's been like that my whole life. Is it true you killed my grandmother?"

"My father did that," I said, heaving a sigh that fogged up the glass. "But I might as well have."

"I've never seen a single hint from you that you're anything to fear," Kanui said. "But it's all my dad ever seems to talk about, how the krakun stole everything from us with lies and deceit. Well, I've never known Gerootec. This has been my entire life, and from my point of view, it looks like you've just been giving us gifts my whole life and my dad's screaming his head off about your treachery for what looks like little reason. A lot of us are just tired of being scared all the time."

"You realize this isn't normal, though?" I asked. "Your dad is right. Most krakun don't care about slaves. My whole society doesn't really care about your people except what we can extract from you. Gods' hell, I'm only nearly four hundred and even I can see that--did you hear on the news that Planetary Acquisitions is testing their new terraformer technology on Gerootec? Apparently they want to turn it into a livable world for krakun. Pretty soon, they're going to have stolen even the hope of a place to return to from you."

Kanui's ears wilted, but she shook her head. "Listen, that's all horrible, but you can't exactly take back our history or circumstances. Whatever happens to our world, what matters to us is here and now, in this habitat, and you specifically, not krakun society at large. My dad hasn't been able to accept that this is our life now. But it's always been my life, and it's been the life of all the young geroo here. This is our world. So for him to tell me that it's all ruin, that we're living in the apocalypse... I want to believe that we, at least, can have it better than that. I want to extend some trust to you."

She placed her paw on the face of the glass. I hesitated, knowing how much I'd frightened them before, but gingerly I reached forward too, laying the pad of my finger upon the other side. I thought of what my father would think if he knew I was doing this, and I shivered.

"Kanui," I said, "I promise, as long as your people are my responsibility, I'm going to do the best I can to take care of you."

Her ears perked up. "Really?"

"Yes!" I said, smiling. "I mean, I guess I mean... I'll try."

"Well then!" Kanui's ears perked up, and she pulled out a very tiny tablet computer--the geroo started calling them 'strands' for whatever reason--and started tapping her paw on the screen. "In that case, I have a few requests on how to make this place more livable..."

I grimaced, but tried to keep the look on my face pleasant as I wondered what new hell I'd gotten myself into.