Chapter 15

Jax was collecting branches for Della when she was surprised by Mia landing on her shoulder.

“What you doing, wizard lady?” Mia asked.

Well, we have to go find some friends of ours and need to fill Della’s tanks with raw materials before we can leave,” Jax replied.

“Can my friends Bec, Sam, Bea, Pip, Gay and I come too?” Mia asked.

“We could be gone for a very long time,” Jax replied.

“That’s okay. With all the new Nix nearby, we won’t be missed. We were supposed to start a new colony, but now we won’t need to if we don’t want to. Our new friends Dee and Jai will probably want to come to,” Mia replied.

“The eight of you?” Jax asked with some confusion.

“Sure, we aren’t like you, big people. We can mate with whoever we want, and we aren’t limited to one gender. We just tend to prefer one gender over the other for everyday living.”

“Even so, we six were picked because we aren’t closely related to each other, and none of us are related to Dee or Jai. That gives us a really good chance to start a new colony. Did you know that we can lay up to six eggs at a time?”

Shocked, Jax said, “Um, no, I didn’t know that.”

Mia chuckled, “Yep, we are odd as far as big people go. While we look and act a lot like big people, we are not the same. We didn’t come here in spaceships. We have always lived here.”

“We lay at the start of spring, and the babies hatch twelve days later. Our babies spend most of a rotation as grubs. We do have to contain them, teach them and make sure they are fed.”

“If they escape, they can be real pests as they will try to eat everything. It is just as well we have racial memories. If they do get lost, they can find us later if they hatch and survive.”

“The grubs go into a cocoon as winter starts and hatch in the springtime. Our young are about 10cm tall when they hatch and can fly within the day. We are fully developed at six rotations from when we were eggs. The two girls Tammy has, are now three and four. The boy is five rotations old.”

“Do they have siblings waiting to hatch?” Jax asked in fascination.

Mia shook her head, “No, they perished with the parents in the fire that consumed their home. The three younglings escaped because we can fly.”

Jax frowned, “I don’t remember there being any fires in the trees?”

Mia looked down and then said softly, “No, they were diseased, so some of the other Nix set their house on fire. That happened before the Pix turned up and tried burning the rest of us. My mother was very upset, and the family was sent away.”

Jax sighed, “People do strange things when fearful.”

“Yeah, that they do. That family were always doom and gloom, so we won’t miss them. Mother has kept their two remaining cocoons. She plans to raise them better than their parents obviously raised the siblings who set the fire.”

“One can only hope,” Jax replied. “Well, since you eight won’t take up much room, I guess we can find berths for you on Della if you wish to go with us.”

Mia hugged her neck. “I’ll go get the others. Mother will be pleased, and you won’t be sorry, Jax,” she replied and flew off.

David and Blair both looked at Jax with raised eyebrows.

She had to giggle as she was sure the Nix would get into everything.

With Della loaded, Jax, David, Blair and their new Nix friends took their leave of Iota Island.

“They will be back,” Eddie said to Tammy with certainty as he hugged her.

Tammy could only nod as she watched Della take to the sky and disappear into the thick clouds. It was hard to believe that they had been on the island for three weeks (18 days).

Tammy looked at the field they were standing near and smiled, as all of the tea bushes were sprouting new leaves. They still had a lot of work to do to get them to the stage where they could harvest the leaves in any quantity, but they had plenty of time.

She had her boys to keep her company and knew she was loved as much as anyone could be. She also suspected she would spend a lot of her future as a female, as she felt very comfortable in her new skin.

She didn’t think that Eddie cared what form she was in as he loved her, warts and all. As for Ernie and Bluey, she had a feeling that they may end up finding other partners to join them. They tended to stay male during the day and only changed for sex.

Jax had mentioned that there were plenty of other Shifters on the island, and ships did come and go. She didn’t think the boys were in any hurry to leave, but if they were going to police the towns, they would come in contact with more people.