After a while it got very crowded in there. They were a noisy bunch, always making suggestions about how I should manage my life and how I should rear my kids. They wanted more room and some of them were impatient to get on with their lives.
And then a few years ago, I finally tossed most of them out. Oh, there are a few still hanging on, waiting for me to tell their stories, but most of them are living in the valley I created for them, busy having babies and carrying on as though I never carted them around.
They're blue. One or two of them weren't too happy about that but that's the way the cookie rolls...Jade thought I ought to find a way to grow chocolate in the valley. Bishop whined about the lack of electricity. Personally, I think I did a pretty good job.
The dintis are happy with their role as mentors for the women and they're proud their long silky hair is shorn twice a year to weave in the bonding blankets.
Sneering at the dintis low expectations, the packits (big hunting cats) trot off into the woods, hunting at the side of the males they choose to mentor. But both packits and dintis have saved the lives of their humans so they all have reason to be proud.
In the gardens, the tiny firkas industriously keep all tidy and weed free in exchange for a few pottery huts. Once in a while an orphan firka is adopted by a human much like a gerbil or hamster, though they're never caged, of course. After all, one doesn't cage members of a sentient species.
Not everything is sweetness and light in the valley. If it was, the humans would grow lazy and careless. That was never part of the plan. In exchange for longer lives and protection from the outer world, they work hard. Yes, they do. But that's pretty much life, isn't it?
If you would like to know more about the Blues, check out Traveller's Refuge. It's free for the next week. I think you'll like the people you'll meet. Who knows? You might even want to be blue, too?
Just click on the book cover for more info!
anny
