Welcome to Gaia! ::

Of course Naeria wanted to know more about Andreyia's research, but more than that, there was a certain cycle she wanted to break. Every time she'd been around him lately, things had been stressful. Things had gone wrong. She'd been in danger.

Andreyia had saved her those times, because he was wonderful, and she liked him, but she wanted to be able to get to know him better when things were not so desperate.

There was always a slight chance that some awful trap would show up in his garden, but Naeria hoped and hoped that it would not.

She liked learning, and plants, and Andreyia, and not falling into some endless water pit.

She still kept a careful eye out as they approaced his garden, even as she asked, "So, what kinds of plants are you growing?"

"Yes. Capitalism," she said, looking over the land that the humans had decided to sell to Andreiya for money. "I have been learning about this." She did not sound impressed, at all, with their concepts of ownership, but she wasn't upset at Andreiya for taking advantage of it, either. She spent several seconds staring at the greenhouse with interest before she stepped inside.

She watched where her feet went, of course. She did not want to hurt Dylas.

"My favorite plant is clover," she said. "I do not know if you have it." It might not be worth growing in a place like this when it was so abundant naturally. Of course, maybe that was part of the appeal. Naeria found herself drawn to the wild things. They were so different. "It is not so useful, from what I briefly researched, but it is the first plant I saw when I arrived, so it is," she paused, "Special?"

She didn't know if that made any sense.

"I'm curious about what you're doing, though. I think there is a lot we can learn here about food production. That's something I've been researching, too."

Her eyes had not left the ground. "Also, I would like to see the snake."

"There are some plants you can eat when they are sprouts," said Naeria, glancing around at the various young vegetables, which, while impressive, did not look ready to eat. "Mung beans. I read about them when I was trying to find what foods here are plant based."

That had been surprisingly difficult to figure out. It seemed that humans liked to put animal products into nearly all of their food despite the sustainability issues, and while some of the other members of the Vanguard did not seem to mind, Naeria did.

She didn't want to put more of a strain on the resources of this planet than strictly necessary.

All of those thoughts were pushed away, though, when she saw Dylas in his little curl by the heater.

"Oh," she whispered, squatting down to get a better look, although she kept some distance. "He is fantastic."

His round eyes, his tongue? It was all magnificent.

Although, while she was here, staring at this animal who Andreiya had insisted was free to be here, Naeria had to ask, "But, do you think that the way that the humans keep pets is always bad? I was talking to one of them about it, and-"

She cut off, losing her nerve halfway through the sentence.

Naeria kept looking at Dylas and nothing else. Looking over to Andreiya while he spoke about his thoughts felt like too much, but she was listening.

"Is it shameful to want to learn more about humans and their connections to these animals, the treatment of these animals?" she said, and peeked over at him, just for a second. "That is a serious question. It may be."

She shifted, swallowed, and then spat out, "Andreiya, I have ridden a horse."

In that moment, Naeria knew the answer to her own question. These things were shameful. A dark violet blush spread across her features. She needed to say more, to explain herself, but the nerves were too much. Her voice failed.

Needing to do something, she reached for her Comtech, trying to type out a message, and she found that to be easier.



She looked over at him, pleading, then typed faster.



She'd also wanted to, but she did not mention that. Even writing things out, she was not immune from nerves, and she curled up into something of a ball, her knees tucked up next to her chin. "I am sorry," she managed to add out loud, her voice barely a whisper.

Some of the nerves unwound when he didn't seem mad, and they unwound even farther when he spoke of his own relationship with hamsters, how he had held them, how he wanted one.

"Acting human in that instance was necessary," she said, regaining some courage, "But, Andreyia? I want to go back. I liked brushing the horse, and taking care of it."

That was an admission of its own, but this time, she kept her composure.

"I know it's not quite the same as with the hamsters. Horses are much larger. They probably would not have any natural predators, but I think I understand, about wanting to care for something."

She understood just wanting to be around animals as much as possible. She did not think that they would overcome mushrooms as her favorite Earth life form, they were miraculous enough in their own way that it was a close thing.

After a moment, she added, "I will not tell Lyndin if you decide to bring one home."

"I do not think a horse could live in a house. That would be cruel," said Naeria. "Even the humans know that."

It was a much different concept than caring for a hamster. Naeria knew that. They were small, like the mouse that had taken to living in her closet sometimes. She could understand that a hamster might even be happy inside of t heir house.

The thought of keeping something in a cage, even for protection, did still make her somewhat upset, but not to the point where she was going to argue against it.

"So, you do not have to tell me I can bring a horse to the house. You can come meet her, though. Her name is Meadow, and her-" Naeria paused. Owner still felt like an awful word in her mouth, so she said, "Person said I can come visit again, whenever I want. So, I will not be breaking into any more stables or confusing any more humans."

At least, she would not be confusing any humans over that.

Something felt different in her face when he called her his friend. Warmth. That was it. Her cheeks felt warm.

Naeria had never been very social. She'd spent a lot of time alone, pouring over some database or the other. She never had many friends. Whenever one showed up anyway, however, like Andreiya and some of the other members of the Vanguard were doing right now, she found that she liked it.

"We will go, then," she said, because of course she wanted to share her interest in horses with him.

Slowly, she uncurled from where she was still kneeling near Dylas and instead looked over towards his plants again.

"Oh, but you were showing me something, weren't you? I was meeting your plants. Dylas just stole my attention before you could tell me about what you are growing."

Naeria walked slowly through the greenhouse and gave the tomato plant the same kind of thorough, impressed looking-over that she'd given to Dylas a few moments ago. While she did look some at plants and not strictly mushrooms, she spent most of her time looking through meadows and woods at the edge of town, finding wild species rather than cultivated ones.

This was new to her.

"Earth is-," she started, looking back over to him. "As dangerous as it is marvelous. it's beautiful. It's terrible. Looking at things like this," she nodded to the flowers he was showing her, stepping away from the tomato plants, "I start to fall in love, but then something else happens."

She pressed her lips together, and ran a finger over the edge of a leaf, blinking at the way it tickled.

"I still miss home."

Velenia was a strange concept. She knew it was the dream of many people to restore it, but to her, it was as foreign of a world as Earth.

"I miss Velencya."