The human larva wasn't cleared to interact with anyone more delicate than a level 2 deathworlder. Companion Rix wasn't sure why... until they saw the toddler leave bruises on their mother by biting, apparently in play. -- Anon Guest
[AN: I scoured my archives for Companion Rix, but I haven't mentioned them before. Thanks for the new character, Nonny]
Human Nii seemed like an ordinary Human larva. Bumbling through upright locomotion like most of their age peers. They seemed to be of the correct stage of development to learn and implement concepts like "careful" and "gentle". Yet this was a larval Human who had not yet been cleared for interaction with Havenworlders of level two point one and above[1].
Human Fen, Nii's primary parental, had warned Rix to at minimum wear their livesuit gloves when ze came to visit. The reason behind this became apparent when Human Fen picked their larval young up for some simple maintenance.
Human Nii had four very new teeth and knew how to bite with them. Without missing a beat or batting an eye, those four new teeth sank into Human Fen's hand. Human Fen seemed to carry on with only a laughing, "Oww..." as acknowledgement of their injury.
No blood was drawn, but Companion Rix could easily imagine what those four little teeth could do to sufficiently fragile Havenworlders. It was at that moment that Rix noticed that Human Fen's hands were covered in randomly-scattered bruises. There were some on their forearms as well. Some were ageing, some were fresh. All were alarmingly coherent with the larval Human Nii's bite pattern.
"This is normal?" Companion Rix boggled.
"Normal for some," Fen carried on with the maintenance operation, and gave Nii a small piece of hardened bread to gnaw on as they put the child down. "Nii's teething, and chewing on things is how they relieve the pain a little. Sooner out, sooner biting better things than their Rennie. Or strangers."
Ah. Yes. This explained a lot.
"Or," speculated Fen, "Nii could be trying to establish control on their environment, but I doubt it."
[1] The higher the number, the greater the severity of the world classification. For deathworlders, it means more contributing factors towards mortality. For Havenworlder, it means more amenable circumstances towards coddling life.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Ruslanchik]
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