Day 21 & 22
*mutters unhappily about being behind*
Vera nodded thoughtfully.’
“Well,” she said finally. “I’m sure you’ll be glad to know I didn’t spend all my time sunning myself.”
Sandy smiled at her.
“No,” she replied. “I imagine you kept yourself quite busy.”
“I did. I got to know my symbiont,” Vera said smugly.
Sandy’s eyebrows raised.
“Got to know it?” she repeated.
“Not in a ‘lets sit down over dinner and have a chat’ got to know it,” Vera amended. “I just… tried to understand my relationship with it better. Because I knew that I knew things that I didn’t actually learn in school, and I was pretty sure I didn’t overhear adults talking about it. And for that matter I knew all about any number of uncatalogued animals that I came across.”
“Really now?”
Vera went on to explain what she had told her parents the night before.
“I was hoping I could get into contact with other people looking into the verasite,” she finished.
Sandy smiled.
“Vera, as soon as I was able to verify that you did have the verasite everyone who was involved in their study wanted to meet you,” she told her in bemusement. “You have no idea how frustrated everyone was when I had to tell them you ran off.”
Vera had the grace to look bashful.
“Sorry. I didn’t think. I just… I just needed to get away.”
“It’s obvious you didn’t think. But what’s done is done.”
“It was good though,” Vera insisted. “I think that I learnt a lot of things that I wouldn’t have if I’d stayed with people.”
Sandy considered her thoughtfully for a moment, reflecting briefly on what Vera had just told her that she had learnt about her symbiont, and finally nodded.
“No, perhaps not. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have accomplished the same thing by telling people you were going on a pilgrimage or something.”
“A what?”
“Never mind. I’ll get into contact with Farm Haven - they have the largest known verasite population, and are pretty much the central location for verasite research. They’d love to have you.”
Vera nodded.
“Okay,” she replied agreeably.
After talking to and making arrangements with Sandy, Vera headed to the community graveyard. There were only a few graves there, but more than the three who had died in the epidemic. Vera regarded them solemnly, remembering when they were buried.
She stood in front of Joe’s grave and slowly knelt down. She was silent for a time, mourning for her friend and finally reached out a hand to touch the gravestone.
“I’ll miss you,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back sooner.”
“Vera!” Elspeth exclaimed.
“Elspeth!”
Sam looked on in amusement as the two old friends hugged each other. He was even more amused (and a little perplexed) when they started on a conversation that involved them both talking at once. He was amazed they were even able comprehend what the other girl was saying. He gathered that Vera was telling her about living in a treehouse by the side of a waterhole for the past few years and rambled on a bit about her symbiont, whereas Elspeth was telling her about how she and Sam were both studying marine biology now and giving all all the gossip she had missed out on.
Vera stayed at Terinos Lake for three weeks, during which she inspected all her talberry plants. She had be delighted to see how much her patches outside had grown and mildly amused to find that all her pot plants still had the weeds or “talberry friends” as she prefered to call them growing in them. Aidan even commented on this when he noticed her inspection.
“Hey sorry about all the weeds,” he said. “Mum wouldn’t let us take them out.”
Vera looked a little started, but smiled.
“Good,” she said softly. “The talberry plants need their friends if they’re going to grow big, red, juicy talberries.”
Aidan looked puzzled.
“They are?”
“Yes. And any comparrision between befriended talbarries and umm, friendless talberries will show you that befriended ones always taste better,” Vera nodded.
Aidan scratched his head.
“Well...” he said slowly. “I can’t say I’ve ever done a comparrison.”
“You should sometime,” Vera replied. “And I think I should explain to Mum why I never wanted her to take the so-called weeds out.”
Vera departed then to find her mother leaving Aidan to stare after her.
* * *
Farm Haven was primarily madfe up of livestock farms, although there were two families who raised crops. Variety in the local diet, and all that. Many families had lost a loved one to the epidemic, including the local doctor. The residents were making up for their losses as best as they could, but until one of Jessu’s rising generation graduated from medical school (or what passed for it here), they were going to be without a doctor for awhile and would have to go to SomeNameHere for treatment. That said, for their yearly checkups a doctor from SomeNameHere would be going there.
On the other hand, they did have plenty of veternarians.
Vera’s first contact was with Helen with whom she would be staying. Her husband had died some years ago from a growler attack, and of her four children, one had died during the epidemic and another had married and started their own farmstead. Of her kids remaining, she had two boys, Barry and Lloyd.
The same day that Vera arrived not only did she have dinner with Helen and her family but also everyone in the community who was involved with the symbionts. Which was just about every residient in Farm Haven (and then those who weren’t still showed up). Everyone had questions and Vera ended up spending the entire evening (and well into the following morning) talking about verasites.
Farm Haven had actually learnt quite a bit about the verasites.
“Not everything we’d like to now, certainly, but we’re getting there.”
After a longer sleep in than usual the next day (which for Vera meant after the sun had risen), Vera joined the farmers in their chores and they showed her some of what they had been talking about the night before.
“Now this,” said Helen, patting a fine she-wilour, “is Gertrude, and the mother of most of our hosts.”
Vera nodded.
“Yes... you said something last night about verasites being hereditary?”
“Yes,” Helen replied. “At first we thought there was some sort of genetic factor that made them more likely to be a host, but then we ran a test straight after one litter was born and one of the wilettes already had one.”
“Wilettes?”
“What we’ve taken to calling the babies.”
“Oh okay. Cute.”
“That’s what I said,” Helen chuckled. “In any case after that we took to testing all our wilettes striaght after birth, and then again a few weeks thereafter. It would appear that all the wilettes that were going to get a symbiont got it at birth. Certainly none of them went into any discernable sleep or coma. At least not one that seemed unusual. Our theory is that this is the preferred time for the symbiont to find a host.”
Vera nodded.
“Sounds reasonable.”
“What’s more is that we’ve recently realised that it’s when the mother is the host that the babies - no matter which species - are more likely to become hosts itself. If the father is a host,” Helen waggled her hand back and forth. “The odds are increased a smidge is about it. But the mother? Guarenteed there will be at least one host. We’ve seen up to three in one litter.”
Helen paused.
“Well, I probably shouldn’t say ‘guarenteed’, since it only took us a decade to get this far,” she chuckled. “But still. It feels like it.”
Vera smiled.
Vera leaned on the railing of the veranda and looked out across the farm. Everything seemed so peaceful. The wilours were grazing in the far paddock, the Echa birds were making their whirring clucking noise and pecking at the ground for food. Someone approached and stood next to her. She turned her head and smiled at Lloyd.
“Hey,” she said sotfly.
“Hey,” he replied.
Vera’s time on the farm was not spent merely in study. She was expected (and wouldn’t have done otherwise) to do her share of the chores around the farm which was certainly a learning experience for everyone involved. Vera learnt how to care for the animals, which was certainly a change from living on the lake where the fish looked after themselves. And to the great interest of Helen and her boys, Vera was able to provide insights into the animals that they had been spending all this time trying to understand. Like why the Echa birds insisted on waking up in the middle of the night, squarking their little heads off.
“It does get a bit much being woken up in the middle of the night,” Barry admitted. “Which would be why we moved them away from the house, but yeah. We’ve tried everything. Not sure if there’s some sort of nocternal predator we don’t know about or something.”
“Food.”
“Huh?”
“There’s an...” Vera frowned. “An insect I think... it comes out at night.”
“It bothers them?”
“No... they eat it.”
“They eat it,” Barry repeated. “All that racket for a midnight snack?”
Vera shrugged.
“Don’t ask me why.”
Vera nodded thoughtfully.’
“Well,” she said finally. “I’m sure you’ll be glad to know I didn’t spend all my time sunning myself.”
Sandy smiled at her.
“No,” she replied. “I imagine you kept yourself quite busy.”
“I did. I got to know my symbiont,” Vera said smugly.
Sandy’s eyebrows raised.
“Got to know it?” she repeated.
“Not in a ‘lets sit down over dinner and have a chat’ got to know it,” Vera amended. “I just… tried to understand my relationship with it better. Because I knew that I knew things that I didn’t actually learn in school, and I was pretty sure I didn’t overhear adults talking about it. And for that matter I knew all about any number of uncatalogued animals that I came across.”
“Really now?”
Vera went on to explain what she had told her parents the night before.
“I was hoping I could get into contact with other people looking into the verasite,” she finished.
Sandy smiled.
“Vera, as soon as I was able to verify that you did have the verasite everyone who was involved in their study wanted to meet you,” she told her in bemusement. “You have no idea how frustrated everyone was when I had to tell them you ran off.”
Vera had the grace to look bashful.
“Sorry. I didn’t think. I just… I just needed to get away.”
“It’s obvious you didn’t think. But what’s done is done.”
“It was good though,” Vera insisted. “I think that I learnt a lot of things that I wouldn’t have if I’d stayed with people.”
Sandy considered her thoughtfully for a moment, reflecting briefly on what Vera had just told her that she had learnt about her symbiont, and finally nodded.
“No, perhaps not. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have accomplished the same thing by telling people you were going on a pilgrimage or something.”
“A what?”
“Never mind. I’ll get into contact with Farm Haven - they have the largest known verasite population, and are pretty much the central location for verasite research. They’d love to have you.”
Vera nodded.
“Okay,” she replied agreeably.
After talking to and making arrangements with Sandy, Vera headed to the community graveyard. There were only a few graves there, but more than the three who had died in the epidemic. Vera regarded them solemnly, remembering when they were buried.
She stood in front of Joe’s grave and slowly knelt down. She was silent for a time, mourning for her friend and finally reached out a hand to touch the gravestone.
“I’ll miss you,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back sooner.”
“Vera!” Elspeth exclaimed.
“Elspeth!”
Sam looked on in amusement as the two old friends hugged each other. He was even more amused (and a little perplexed) when they started on a conversation that involved them both talking at once. He was amazed they were even able comprehend what the other girl was saying. He gathered that Vera was telling her about living in a treehouse by the side of a waterhole for the past few years and rambled on a bit about her symbiont, whereas Elspeth was telling her about how she and Sam were both studying marine biology now and giving all all the gossip she had missed out on.
Vera stayed at Terinos Lake for three weeks, during which she inspected all her talberry plants. She had be delighted to see how much her patches outside had grown and mildly amused to find that all her pot plants still had the weeds or “talberry friends” as she prefered to call them growing in them. Aidan even commented on this when he noticed her inspection.
“Hey sorry about all the weeds,” he said. “Mum wouldn’t let us take them out.”
Vera looked a little started, but smiled.
“Good,” she said softly. “The talberry plants need their friends if they’re going to grow big, red, juicy talberries.”
Aidan looked puzzled.
“They are?”
“Yes. And any comparrision between befriended talbarries and umm, friendless talberries will show you that befriended ones always taste better,” Vera nodded.
Aidan scratched his head.
“Well...” he said slowly. “I can’t say I’ve ever done a comparrison.”
“You should sometime,” Vera replied. “And I think I should explain to Mum why I never wanted her to take the so-called weeds out.”
Vera departed then to find her mother leaving Aidan to stare after her.
* * *
Farm Haven was primarily madfe up of livestock farms, although there were two families who raised crops. Variety in the local diet, and all that. Many families had lost a loved one to the epidemic, including the local doctor. The residents were making up for their losses as best as they could, but until one of Jessu’s rising generation graduated from medical school (or what passed for it here), they were going to be without a doctor for awhile and would have to go to SomeNameHere for treatment. That said, for their yearly checkups a doctor from SomeNameHere would be going there.
On the other hand, they did have plenty of veternarians.
Vera’s first contact was with Helen with whom she would be staying. Her husband had died some years ago from a growler attack, and of her four children, one had died during the epidemic and another had married and started their own farmstead. Of her kids remaining, she had two boys, Barry and Lloyd.
The same day that Vera arrived not only did she have dinner with Helen and her family but also everyone in the community who was involved with the symbionts. Which was just about every residient in Farm Haven (and then those who weren’t still showed up). Everyone had questions and Vera ended up spending the entire evening (and well into the following morning) talking about verasites.
Farm Haven had actually learnt quite a bit about the verasites.
“Not everything we’d like to now, certainly, but we’re getting there.”
After a longer sleep in than usual the next day (which for Vera meant after the sun had risen), Vera joined the farmers in their chores and they showed her some of what they had been talking about the night before.
“Now this,” said Helen, patting a fine she-wilour, “is Gertrude, and the mother of most of our hosts.”
Vera nodded.
“Yes... you said something last night about verasites being hereditary?”
“Yes,” Helen replied. “At first we thought there was some sort of genetic factor that made them more likely to be a host, but then we ran a test straight after one litter was born and one of the wilettes already had one.”
“Wilettes?”
“What we’ve taken to calling the babies.”
“Oh okay. Cute.”
“That’s what I said,” Helen chuckled. “In any case after that we took to testing all our wilettes striaght after birth, and then again a few weeks thereafter. It would appear that all the wilettes that were going to get a symbiont got it at birth. Certainly none of them went into any discernable sleep or coma. At least not one that seemed unusual. Our theory is that this is the preferred time for the symbiont to find a host.”
Vera nodded.
“Sounds reasonable.”
“What’s more is that we’ve recently realised that it’s when the mother is the host that the babies - no matter which species - are more likely to become hosts itself. If the father is a host,” Helen waggled her hand back and forth. “The odds are increased a smidge is about it. But the mother? Guarenteed there will be at least one host. We’ve seen up to three in one litter.”
Helen paused.
“Well, I probably shouldn’t say ‘guarenteed’, since it only took us a decade to get this far,” she chuckled. “But still. It feels like it.”
Vera smiled.
Vera leaned on the railing of the veranda and looked out across the farm. Everything seemed so peaceful. The wilours were grazing in the far paddock, the Echa birds were making their whirring clucking noise and pecking at the ground for food. Someone approached and stood next to her. She turned her head and smiled at Lloyd.
“Hey,” she said sotfly.
“Hey,” he replied.
Vera’s time on the farm was not spent merely in study. She was expected (and wouldn’t have done otherwise) to do her share of the chores around the farm which was certainly a learning experience for everyone involved. Vera learnt how to care for the animals, which was certainly a change from living on the lake where the fish looked after themselves. And to the great interest of Helen and her boys, Vera was able to provide insights into the animals that they had been spending all this time trying to understand. Like why the Echa birds insisted on waking up in the middle of the night, squarking their little heads off.
“It does get a bit much being woken up in the middle of the night,” Barry admitted. “Which would be why we moved them away from the house, but yeah. We’ve tried everything. Not sure if there’s some sort of nocternal predator we don’t know about or something.”
“Food.”
“Huh?”
“There’s an...” Vera frowned. “An insect I think... it comes out at night.”
“It bothers them?”
“No... they eat it.”
“They eat it,” Barry repeated. “All that racket for a midnight snack?”
Vera shrugged.
“Don’t ask me why.”