Meme: Greatest Profit (Patreon)

Liam came out of the bathing room, unsurprised to see Ondry had already left. Holva had new pottery that should be finished today, and Ondry had never stopped worrying about Liam’s need for sleep. Liam remembered how humans would talk about how relationships grew stale if partners didn’t work at it, but being with Ondry never took effort. Ondry always put Liam’s needs first and Liam always felt the same about Ondry’s needs.

Of course that was easy when Ondry’s main need was to show up some tuk-ranked trader from another city who thought Ondry’s relatively smaller size meant that he could be taken advantage of. After centuries of living together, Liam had discovered his own mean streak.

He’d never felt that way about anyone on the ship, but in some ways life was kinder on a ship. Space demanded that individuals work together to a far greater extent. Now that they were back on Prarownt, Liam enjoyed inflicting a little humiliation on those who underestimated him and Ondry. He pulled his clothes on and used his computer to pull up trading information and personal messages.

Earth had sent another request for information on the Cy and Ko-tekteta. He rolled his eyes. Rownt might live for centuries, but that was a blip on the radar of humanity’s ability to hold a grudge. Well if they couldn’t play nice and ask the one human group with access to a Cy ship for that information, Liam wasn’t going to waste his time formulating a response. 

Once Liam had checked for any updated requests relating to the trade areas, Liam brought up the map to check on Ondry’s location. Yep. He was at Holva’s workshop. Hopefully he would get some nice pieces. She had been looking to pull Ondry’s tail for months now, and he wasn’t above using it against a woman if she had eggs in her eyes. 

Liam should wander that way after getting some food from Tilm. He opened the door and immediately stopped. A huge female crouched near his front door. With a deliberation only an ancient Rownt could manage, she turned and then unfolded her large frame. She wore the single white stone of a Grandmother. She was not one of the Janetjay Grandmothers, although something in her coloring looked familiar. Sometimes the shape of one’s eyes or the pattern of the skin of the face passed from one generation to another, so Liam might know a family member. If so, it would be impolite to say as much since a Grandmother gave up any ties to biological family when she took on the responsibility of leading.

“Grandmother,” Liam said with a bow as he tried to decipher why she might be waiting at his door. Grandmothers did sometimes travel to trade or learn some new skill, but it was unusual. And if a Grandmother wished to trade, Ondry would never decline a Grandmother’s request that he attend a temple in another town.

“Tuk-Liam,” she rumbled as she inclined her head toward him. “Be well.” She held a bundle out, and Liam accepted it on instinct. One didn’t offend a Grandmother by refusing whatever gift or payment she had chosen to personally deliver. She turned away, and Liam blinked, not sure what to make of the exchange. And then the bundle in his arms moved.

Half afraid he was holding a poisonous lifeform, Liam flipped the edge of the covering back and a tiny Rownt face looked up at him. It blinked. No, he blinked. Liam could tell the child was male because he had pulled his long, masculine tail around and was busily chewing on it. Panic almost made him call out to the Grandmother as if she’d forgotten a child by accident, but his brain kicked in before he made a monumental mistake. 

She’d come to a new town to leave her eggling with a responsible parent. With Liam and Ondry. Liam’s eyes grew hot with tears, and his emotions were too big for his chest. He physically ached as he watched the eggling maul his the tip of his own tail with toothless gums. No, not the eggling. His eggling. Their eggling. 

Liam looked up to thank the Grandmother or at least learn which town she was from, but he had been so distracted that she was already out of sight. She might have laid the egg, but Liam was the baby’s father, and now Liam needed to get the baby’s other father on the computer and tell him to come home because neither Holva’s pottery or profits mattered, not compared to what Ondry had waiting for him at home.