Page 23 of Mazorium Buys a Human

“Did the baby hurt you?” I asked as Nadia started fussing. I now knew that those sounds often led to much louder sounds of unhappiness. “I can get a milk ball from the sleeping quarters.”

“No, it’s fine,” Mika said, shifting her clothing to cover one mammary gland and reveal the other one. “Nadia sucked that breast dry, and when she does that it can sting a little. That’s all. It’s nothing.”

As I watched, she held Nadia to her other breast and the baby latched on and started suckling again. Mika rubbed the baby’s cheek with one finger before picking up the stew to finish eating.

“When it doesn’t sting, what does it feel like when she feeds from you?” I asked.

Mika moved her shoulders a little. It took me a moment to remember that movement was called a shrug and could meanmany things, including a lack of knowledge or the inability to articulate answers.

“It’s hard to describe,” she said. “Scientifically I know breastfeeding can release all kinds of hormones in my body that help me bond with Nadia and feel happy. But there’s more. I get this sense of connection. There really isn’t a word for it.”

As a scientist who dealt with numbers and formulas, I could understand struggling to describe a feeling. How did you explain an experience with mere words?

“I read that a human can nurse their pups for up to five solars,” I said. “But that long isn’t recommended.”

“Five solars,” she repeated, then her eyes went wide. “You mean years? Nope! I’ll probably stop breastfeeding when she starts getting teeth. Mom said the earlier you can teach a baby to eat regular food the healthier they are. I’m actually lucky; my mom’s milk didn’t even come in for my youngest sibling. That was when I had to go to work for a local business, otherwise we couldn’t afford the milk balls for her.”

“How old were you?” I asked.

“Fifteen standard years old,” she said. “It wasn’t bad. Because I was still small, I got to do the easier job shifting suspended loads from the ceiling beams.”

A shocked rattle came out of me before I could stop it. “That’s a dangerous job! Even when wearing a safety harness, you can be badly hurt if you fall.”

“I fell a few times but only got bumps and bruises,” she said, obviously unconcerned with the horrible danger she’d been placed in as a child.

My human didn’t realize how fragile she was!

“You’ll never do labor again,” I declared, hoping to be reassuring.

Mika’s expression tightened, as if she wanted to argue with me but chose not to speak. I didn’t like that she wasn’tcommunicating freely, but trust had to be earned, so all I could do was be patient and keep proving to her that all my actions were sincere.

I needed to make a note in the journal I was keeping on taming a wild human, that some humans might be prone to putting themselves in danger.

“Do you want more jorjuk?” I asked when I noticed she’d finished the bowl full.

“I’m still a little hungry,” she agreed.

I jumped up to fix her another human-sized serving and also grabbed a canister of water. When I placed them in front of her, she drank most of the water first then started in on the stew. Nadia continued to drink from Mika's breast in quiet contentment.

I noticed that her everclean suit was starting to change color. That indicated it needed to be switched out for a new one. This might be a good moment for Mika to show me how to do this task. According to the literature, human pups needed to wear everclean suits until they were roughly three to four solars old. As they got bigger they could wear half suits, but when they were this small, only full suits would work.

I didn’t entirely understand how the everclean suit worked, something about nano tech breaking down the pup’s waste products and storing the elements in the suit’s fibers. It didn’t really matter as long as it kept the pup clean and dry.

Having Nadia meant I needed to reconsider my resupply list.

“I need you to think about everything you might need for your pup for the first three solars of her life,” I told Mika.

She looked confused. “Why?”

“So I can make sure we don’t exclude vital items,” I explained. “I understand that’s a lot of things to consider, so don’t make yourself ill thinking about it too much. Simply do your best and we can compensate as necessary.”

“Oh, right. That makes sense,” she said, then yawned. “I just woke up, but it feels like I’m ready to sleep again.”

Nadia’s mouth relaxed around Mika’s nipple, her face going lax in sleep.

“You’re not the only one who wants sleep,” I pointed out with an amused rumble, then winced. My chestbox was sore from making that rumble for so long. My legs and lower back were also sore from doing what I called Nadia’s Gait. The discomfort was a small price to pay to make Nadia content.

Thankfully a comforting rumble didn’t bother my chestbox. I couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to “purr” for Mika.