Page 52 of Meat

But the sudden rumbling in her belly had changed her mind.

She was a carnivore now, as much as her child was, but she didn’t have any interest in eating more nith. She decided she may as well go full cannibal now—after all, it was her own body’s nutrition. Why not put it back where it came from?

As for the baby, the chubby little thing was quiet now. After his initial outrage at being evicted from his home inside Alyx’s womb, he had quickly resigned himself to his new surroundings with tiny stoicism.

He was now feeding at Alyx’s breast. The first latch had happened easily. There had been some discomfort, sure. A raspy stinging at the nipple. But the relief of her milk dropping out of her breast and into the baby’s hungry mouth was a tremendous relief.

She snuggled deeper into the nest of furs that her mates had gathered for her, cradled her feeding son, and hummed a lullaby softly.

The sound had an effect on her mates as well.

They gathered round her, looking on with quiet reverence at mother and child. Despite their skill at making babies, it seemed that these primitive men truly did not know anything about birth or infancy. Their eyes were bright with amazement and mystery.

She had made a little ukkur.

This woman. This animal they had found lost in the woods. She had made a little ukkur from within her own body and now she was feeding it with food that she had made as well.

Jale drew close, gently stroking the soft down on the child’s round head.

“Little ukkur,” he said, smiling.

“Baby,” Alyx said, giving the English word that seemed to have no equivalent in their alien tongue.

“Bibi,” Jale said.

Alyx couldn’t help laughing at his mispronunciation. She did her best to keep her voice down, not to disturb the feeding, half-conscious child.

“Baby,” she corrected.

“Bibi.”

It was hopeless. Soon Ravnar had joined in and Krogg too, all whispering in soft voices, “Bibi, bibi…”

Bibi it was, then. It didn’t matter what they called it. All that mattered was the feeling in the air. The feeling of pure love and bliss between five living beings who were now a family.

CHAPTER 20

As they rode the skriks over the ridge of the mountain, a wide open prairie sprawled beneath them, a sea of burgundy grass rippling in the wind like water, like blood. A few miles off, pale threads of smoke rose from campfires amid a cluster of big tents, three dozen or more. Alyx could make out figures moving about like insects down there—smaller specks that were ukkur and a number of bigger animals that must have been skriks.

“Ukkur camp,” Jale said with a note of pride in his voice. “Big ukkur camp.”

Alyx was seated in front of Jale on the same skrik. It was their usual riding arrangement. Little Cyrith—Krogg had chosen that name—was at her breast, feeding hungrily. Bright, intelligent eyes stared up at her. Chubby cheeks worked softly as the child suckled her abundant milk. Less than a week old, and he was already getting big. Growing much faster than a normal human baby. Alyx could already feel the sting of little teeth at her nipple.

And Alyx was already pregnant again. Two days, and her belly was swollen and round as if she were six months. That one would come in another two or three days probably.

Under normal conditions, that should have been impossible. She had just given birth a few days before. She should have been too tender down below to even consider having sex yet. But in no time at all her body had fully recovered—a side effect of the ksh, which she had continued to eat, despite her newly carnivorous diet? Or something in her ukkur mates’ alien seed?

Alyx wasn’t sure. Perhaps a little of both.

She didn’t know what was crazier, the fact that she was going to be the mother of two in the space of two weeks or the fact that her mind and her heart were already settling into this new situation, which somehow felt so natural and right.

Alyx nodded to Jale. “Big ukkur camp,” she repeated, to show that she’d understood.

So, there really were more of these ukkur living out here in the wilderness. And as Alyx had speculated before, it appeared they lived a kind of nomadic existence, probably moving about with the herds of wild game that provided them with food and hides for clothing and tents.

Her three ukkur mates talked among themselves, speaking too quickly for Alyx to catch.

Whatever they were discussing, it was serious. The look of happy pride fell from Jale’s face, and his expression hardened.