These events take place just after Unknown Variables: Secrets of Soubos (coming soon), which occurs right after Astra Fauna: Expeditions, so yeah, those books are referenced but I tried my best to keep it light so you could still enjoy this tale. This is a light, stand alone with some mild spoilers for the other two books. I, personally, think it’s safe to read now, but you can make that call.
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Note: These are unedited. Typos and grammatical errors may be present but if/when I turn these into an official book, those will be addressed by my editor. Right now, these serve as little worldbuilding and character development snippets for both me and you to enjoy. I’m just playing here. :)
Surprise party - How Umaii met Taq
Part One
Soubos had been a mess. Upon returning to Inquiry for what normally would have been writing reports and filing paper work, Umaii was immediately sent to a medical facility to be treated for bruising, abrasions, lacerations, dehydration, and burns. Although their arm had largely healed on its own, it still felt a bit tingly as well, but perhaps that was all in their head? It was hard to sort out.
The medical facility was a mild nightmare as well. The very first thing the nurses did was to try to separate Graham from them, to give Graham medical care, and the sheer volume of their howls made Umaii’s chest tighten so badly they almost wanted to join Graham in their screaming.
Luckily, the staff relented in mere moments and the pair was put in a quarantined area together. After that, Graham had taken to hiding in the colorful lobes on Umaii’s head - which really just served to make it appear like Umaii’s head was growling at most people.
Having Graham was, usually, annoying, but, sometimes, when they huddled into themselves to cry when the grief of Soubos got too intense, it was nice to have - whatever Graham was - wailing alongside them.
Due to Graham’s presence, the pair remained in quarantine for twice as long as Umaii would have needed in more normal circumstances. It was necessarily clinical, and intensely lonely.
Until three days ago…
Tap, tap, tap!
Graham was snarling before the 1st tap had finished resonating. Umaii had been “reading” also called “dozing while holding a book”. It was late; they should have gotten off their soft, circular chair and into their bed hours ago, but the chair had been far too warm and squishy to allow for such a maneuver.
Umaii started fully awake and squinted at the glass that served as one wall of their room, their eyes taking a few moments to accept what was their current reality.
Pressed against the glass was a poster. On this poster was an endearingly cute depiction of what Umaii suspected was themself but with neon colored wings. Under the drawing was written, “Free in Three Days!”, and holding this artistic calamity was Taq, with a grin on her face. She vigorously pointed to the sign, then to Umaii, and back to the sign.
The absurdity of the moment caught up with Umaii and they found themselves laughing. Graham immediately quieted and went back to dozing. Umaii barely knew Taq; they had spoken briefly only a couple of times, and yet, here she was - with a fairly ridiculous sign, in the middle of the night.
Umaii, still chuckling a little, approached the door and touched a button, “I didn’t know how much I needed that. Thank you, and you know you can talk to me, right? Hold down the button”. They pointed to a second button on Taq’s side of the glass.
Taq dropped the sign and Umaii could see her mouth say, “Yes!” before she hopped to the button and pressed, “This is great! This is so much better than having to make hundreds of signs, which I was prepared to do…” Umaii noticed a very stuffed pack hanging from Taq’s shoulders, “but this is way easier! How are you? Today is the first hour of the first day you’re allowed visitors! Oh! This is visitation hours for nocturnal species by the way, and I promised that I wouldn’t wake you up if you were asleep. Are you nocturnal too? I was just going to leave the sign and go, but you were reading, so…”
Umaii blinked; they were still processing the fact that Taq had come ready to communicate via signage, but when they heard, “How are you?” they focused back to reality and answered, “I’m…I’m still sore, but I’m ready enough to go. I would like to go home.”
Taq didn’t falter for a moment and seamlessly shifted back to that point of the conversation, “I can absolutely understand! I would very literally be climbing on the walls if I had to be in there for as long as you’ve been in there. Anyway, I wanted to make sure you were holding up okay. Do they give you enough food?”
Umaii gave a short burst of laughter, “Oh course they are, but, it’s…well, it’s…”
“Bleg?” Taq added helpfully.
“Yeah, it’s bleg.” Umaii admitted.
Taq scrunched her face up, and added, “Can’t stand to see a friend having to survive on bad food. Tell you what, when you get out, we’ll get something actually good to eat? Does that sound like a good plan to you?”
Umaii nodded, “There’s a tea house near my place, I would sincerely love to have a few of their biscuits again.”
“Perfect!” Taq said, “Biscuits it is!”