After our hands had clapped together, I said, “That’s a high five. I used to do them with my papa, uncle, and cousins whenever one of us brought down a nicely sized buck or caught some juicy fish. It’s kind of a celebratory gesture.”
“Is my hand supposed to sting?” Surkah questioned, staring at her palm.
“Sometimes.”
“And this is a custom with all humans?” Nero asked.
I shrugged. “I’ve never thought about it, but yeah, I guess so.”
Nero looked like he made a mental note of that information, and I made a note myself to talk to him about it just so he didn’t scare a human woman half to death by shoving his big hand in her face as he waited for a high five.
“Are you both ready to go, kin?” he asked. “Kol is requesting our presence. Again.”
“Tell him a few more minutes. Nova has to see what she looks like first.”
“Females,” Nero said with a playful shake of his head. “I will wait outside. Please, do not take long.”
Surkah waved Nero on, earning another scowl from him before he left the room. I laughed when Surkah took my arm and tugged me across the room until we stood in front of a blank section of the wall. I blinked and looked at my sister-in-mate.
“It’s a wall.”
“Everything is not what it seems aboard the Ebony, sister,” Surkah said before she leaned forward and placed her hand against the wall. When she removed her hand, the wall slid upwards, and it revealed a huge floor-to-ceiling viewing glass.
“Wow!” I gasped. “That’s gigantic.”
Surkah smiled wide as my shock became evident when my eyes landed on myself.
“Holy shit,” I exhaled as I stared at the blue-eyed, brown hair, fair skinned, healthy woman staring back at me. “Surkah, how is that me?”
I had on the same kind of outfit that Surkah had on, only mine was a deep blue, and my body jewellery was black. My neck, arms, lower back, waist, and hips were exposed, but it looked … beautiful. My skin was a stunning porcelain and clear with not a speck of dirt in sight. It almost looked as if it glowed. I used to think I had a shapeless, average body but not in the ensemble I was wearing. It showcased just how feminine I was. There was a sensual curve to my exposed hips, a tight narrowing at my waist, and then slight fullness to my chest. My legs looked very long with the slits in the skirt going right above my bare hips.
“You’re a beauty,” Surkah beamed. “My brother will swallow his tongue when his eyes land on you.”
I smiled back at her. “You’re very sweet.”
“Sweet?” Surkah’s brows shot up to her hairline. “You know what I taste like?”
I burst into surprised laughter.
“No!” I rasped. “I mean, your words are kind. Saying you’re sweet is just another way of saying you’re being kind.”
Surkah placed her hand on her head. “Your human words do confuse me at times.”
“I can see,” I said with a teasing grin. “I hope the Maji on Ealra don’t have as hard a time with language barriers as you seem to have.”
Surkah snorted. “Our Maji species researchers will shadow a lot of your females to learn your way and words, and they will document that information and make it available to the rest of our society to help us understand humans more.”
“Who came up with that idea? Is a good one.”
“The Elders, of course.”
Intrigued, I asked, “Who are the Elders?”
“The oldest and wisest of the people,” Surkah explained. “They’re Papa’s Council and hugely respected amongst the people. The four of them were alive when we had to flee our original home world after a huge space rock crashed into our planet. They were only youngsters. All of them had just turned forty and entered malehood that very moon cycle, but they had to quickly become grown males and help the people find a new planet and establish a home there because they were the oldest males of the people who survived. They helped find Ealra and are the reason the people started our life here.”
“Wow,” I said, dumbstruck. “That is incredible. How old are they?”
“Not that old,” Surkah replied. “Five hundred and forty-three years.”
“Five centuries?”
“It still shocks you that our lifespan is so long? Five centuries is not even middle aged to Maji.”
“It’s so shocking I still can’t comprehend it.”
“Maji are only on Ealra for five hundred years.” Surkah giggled. “Papa is the only Revered Father the planet has seen. He, and Muma, are both four hundred and ninety-seven years old.”
“Almighty!”
Surkah laughed. “You’ll adjust to the aging scale. Eventually.”
“How many Maji were saved when your planet died?” I quizzed.
Surkah frowned. “Only 1900. 1900 from two billion. It happened so suddenly; there was no warning when the space rock came and broke our planet apart, so getting off of the planet was a scrambled effort. Many of those rescued were females. Our males caring for females so greatly is what has led to our race being critically endangered.”
“I don’t understand.”
Surkah sighed. “Many of the females who were rescued were mated, and their mates died back on our original home world. That means a few days after…”
“The females died,” I finished. “Their mates died, so their essence did, too.”
“Yes.” Surkah nodded, glumly. “My papa and uncle, whom are from the same pregnancy and were just a few days old at the time, were saved. Their remaining older brothers were not, as they were on a hunt and too far away to make it to the crafts in time to flee. Papa was not the firstborn, but he was older than my uncle, so when all of their brothers died, he became the oldest living son and the new Revered Father of the people. My zaza was saved also, but my oba was not, so she died six days after they escaped.”
Zah-zah and oh-bah.
“Huh?” I blinked. “I don’t understand. What do those words mean?”
“Oh,” Surkah said. “You call the mother of your mother and father ‘zaza’, and you call the father of your mother and father ‘oba’. They both translate to ‘mother of my life bearer’ and ‘father of my blood’.”
“Grandparents,” I nodded. “Got it. What happened to your zaza?”
“She stayed awake the entire time after she was rescued and extracted milk from her teats for her sons to drink after she died. She produced a lot of milk that would last many weeks once stored in freezers on the craft they escaped on. Females can overproduce when they choose to.”
I was wide-eyed.
“How did your father and uncle survive?” I asked, astonished. “Surely, the milk would have run out before help was found?”
Surkah nodded. “It did run out, but as I said, a breastfeeding mother can overproduce milk if she chooses to do so. One pregnant female was thirty-nine years old and the stress of situation made her go in labour over ten moon cycles too early. She was a rare female whose uva contracted when she was thirty-six. With the help of a healer, and her young mate, she successfully gave birth to her small, but healthy female aboard the vessel. She overproduced her milk supply to help feed the Revered Father and prince.”