Chapter 36

Allison led the parade of creatures through the front door. "Welcome to our home, friends. I can already see we need more room to receive guests of your august stature."

Felix, standing rather tall even as he sat on his haunches, "It is small as dens go."

Smiling a toothy grin, Denali said (or, more precisely, thought), "Are you suggesting we are too big to visit now?"

"In a word, yes, if more a few of you guys drop in. All twenty of us will fit around our dinner table. Three of you are larger than the table. I'm sure we can make accommodations for your comfort given time. Meanwhile, try not to break up the furniture with your giant selves."

The good-natured chatter continued as the group toured the house. The Wolves and Cats were amazed to say the least. Mostly at the level of technology the structure represented, but partly that the house was necessary at all. Lauren explained that extremely diverse people occupied every climatic niche on the planet Terra. "Someone might live in a cold place, but they still need warmth and shelter."

"And in our particular situation, we needed protection from several groups of quite mean people who meant to do us serious harm. Not unlike the period in your history before you found common cause." Yvette added.

"One accommodation we need to work on is how to feed our guests. Phoebe had it right about opposable thumbs. May I look at your forepaws, Felix?" Cam asked.

Felix complied as she inspected his 'fingers'. "Extend your talons. Now, retract. Can you move your toes independently or do they have to move together?" Cam wiggled her fingers to demonstrate. "Not so much, but some. OK."

Kim was catching on. She took one of Denali's paws and felt for the vestigial 'thumb' a little way up his leg. "Can you move this little bit here?" The wolf concentrated and achieved some motion. "We might be able to fashion a glove of sorts to help you grip tools and manipulate small objects."

Thalia noted, "The Place of Memory is even more impressive now that we can see how hard it was to build. Imagine what you could do with finer tools!"

Pete and Amy's avatar inspected the offered paws. "I think we can design a prosthetic hand to magnify any small motion of the toes and 'thumb'. Maybe not to the level of control we have, but enough for our friends to make tools suitable for their needs."

Star interrupted. "Excuse me. Did you forget the part where we are starved? Why don't you put a replicator under the bus shelter to feed the masses while we take a shower? Make huge calzones for the furry ones. They can hold it between their paws like otters. Pizza will be messy. Priorities, girls, first things first."

The O'Neals went straight to the showers on the third floor while the Pixies helped Amy set up an impromptu picnic area outside. The dire wolves and saber tooths decided to let the humans pick the menu.

In the bath, Pete asked his sister and daughters, "Have you noticed how easy it is for the other Pixies to 'speak' to the natives?"

"Now that you mention it, 'yes'. I am used to us doing it all the time, so the others doing it seemed normal at first." Spring observed, "Now, our sisters are broadcasting individually and clearly."

"I think we amplified their power when we released the force to destroy the warship. Or we tuned them and ourselves to the psychic aura of Aurora herself." Phoebe allowed. "Though Big Brother focused most of the raw energy we drew, we had to be radiating random stuff like crazy."

"If they are boosted that much by the leak, what are we?" Star wondered. "We were much stronger than the other Pixies to begin with and then we channeled the power directly to Dad who was drawing, absorbing and directing his own and ours."

"Dad was way ahead to begin with and has to be real strong now."

"We will need to be careful until we know more. Amy already warned us to tone it down." Pete said. "Don't try anything new and keep the mindspeak to a minimum except with the natives. Then, whisper."

He grinned, "Don't do this." Pete pointed to a towel and it flew into his hand from the rack several feet away. "Telekinesis can be dangerous."

Phoebe tried anyway. "No danger there. I can't do that yet. What did you do?"

"Not sure. I just wanted it to be in my hand. While we were downstairs, I moved some little things around as a test to see what else I could do."

"I'm still hungry and the pizza is outside by now. See ya later." Star dressed and ran to the picnic, followed closely by the others. The food did smell wonderful.

Felix and Denali were delighted by the calzones. "These are flavors never tasted on Aurora! Truly unique." Felix said between bites. "Thank you for sharing."

"And it's hot. We eat our food at room temperature and raw. Cooking makes it taste different." Denali declared. "Human food will not replace our regular diet but the spices might make the meat more interesting."

"A steady diet of our food would probably upset your stomachs. You guys are straight up carnivores. We're omnivores, but too much of anything messes us up somewhat." Thalia said. "A lot of stuff we like is not so good in quantity."

Picnic chitchat went along those lines as the various species debated the merits of their cuisines. The girls were universally against eating the local wildlife raw. "We eat all sorts of meat, but we cook it. Mostly some sort of antelope or bird. Never dogs or cats, though. We treat them as friends and family. Our dogs are quite social and become helpers. Our cats are not as social but do a pretty good job of keeping the pests down." Mary told them. "As a rule, we don't munch on species if they show intelligence."

She did fudge the truth a little. Swine were sort of smart and some Southeast Asian cultures considered canines a delicacy. Some people ate horsemeat or monkeys. Then there were the rumors about bad Chinese take-out and a local scarcity of cats ... But most of those people were not around anymore. She didn't feel all that bad.

Clio asked about the climate. "The weather seems very pleasant. Is it like this all the time?"

"It rains sometimes, but just enough to keep the grass green." One of the Ancient tigers said. "We don't travel far usually. There is no need to hunt very far and our homes are here."

"Aren't you curious about what else there is to see?" Circe was surprised. "We make ourselves crazy wondering what's beyond the horizon or just out of reach."

Felix answered, "I suppose we would explore more if we found fault with the way things were here. But we find all we need here. Seeking more would seem ungrateful and it is likely we would find a new place lacking."

"We've been at peace with our intelligent neighbors as long as we can remember. There is food to spare for everyone; even the non-telepathic predators don't bother us." Denali added, "Not that they could threaten us much. We can be very scary if we have to be."

"And it is not just the appearance of 'scary'. Making trouble would not end well for the troublemaker. Even the bear-cats, as you think of them, who are smart but not as social as us, subscribe to a peace treaty. Those folks can do a lot of damage to an aggressor." The Ancient wolf supposed, "They don't appear to be as psychically sensitive as us, so they did not fall into the mind trap the invaders laid. Eventually, they would have figured a way to defeat them and free us. They, while not all that neighborly everyday, are loyal to the treaties among thinking species."

"Their driving motto appears to be 'You get what you give.'" Denali said, "And they live by it."

"You could have worse neighbors." Jenny admitted. "Will they accept us as equals?"

"I suggest we take Pete and a few of you to visit. Make it clear you mean them no harm and that you will not compete for the same food. They are not unreasonable, and will know if you are not truthful." Felix warned. "And they are huge."

Pete considered the information he had so far. "On this world, the three main apex predators have reached an accord. Are there predator species not part of the treaty we should be aware of?"

"In our version of what you would call the tropics, there are monstrous lizards who do nothing but kill and eat. Us, the bear-cats, you, anything is food to them. Every attempt to deal with has been met with violence." Denali said. "I advise you to avoid them altogether. If you see one, kill it immediately. Once they smell food, they are relentless."

"That sounds like the dinosaurs from our planet hundreds of millions of years ago." Yvette commented, "I wonder why they continue on here with competition from intelligent mammals?"