I saw that last point and the touched bewilderment of the aliens shone through, and I had to write something. :)
It was one of the proudest days of our research group when we were the ones selected to be allowed to observe a group of human young. Over all the time since we had first made contact with the humans, we had learned that they were, as a species, very protective of their young. We had clearly been selected for a great honor, and we knew that this could lay the groundwork for remarkably better understanding of the human psyche.
We were informed that we would be allowed to watch a group of young at a “pivotal developmental stage”, in a “normal setting”. We were taken to “Darmen Elementary School’s First Grade Class”. This is a group of young aged around five or six Earth-cycles [years]. They are taught how to express themselves through written symbols, and how to mimic the speech patterns of adults. They also learn how to better interact with other humans, through what appears to mostly be a trial-and-error process.
We learned a great deal about how human young interact, and it was mostly new to us, but there was one event that shocked us all - in the best of ways.
It was the final day of research, we were packing up our notes to analyze back with the rest of our team.
The research group of human young [*henceforth referred to as “class”. This was their chosen moniker, unrelated to their task in the human hierarchy] were excited, we had noticed it earlier that day, but as such bouts of strong group-moods were fairly common as a phenomenon (they appear to help the young sympathize with and relate to one another, useful for encouraging pack-bonding) we simply noted the mood and moved on.
It was only when we were letting one of the adult humans know we planned to depart that it happened.
The children, excitement reaching the peak that always made Xlix’an agitated, swarmed us.
At first we were concerned that they were mock-attacking our researchers. We had been assured early on that all attacks were mock, and not intended to hurt us, and even so the adult humans had been trying to discourage them since we had informed them that we felt it violated our ability to research objectively. (It was more to do with the anxiety-inducing effects of such attacks on several of our researchers, including Xlix’an and Daa, but we did not wish to offend the humans.)
After a few moments, however, it was clear the swarm was not an attack formation. Instead, each young was holding out their hands, and resting on top of the open hands was a small clay object.
Each child had a different object, and they were baring their teeth in the human gesture of excitement and friendship.
I personally looked down to see the small young named “Sidney” jumping up and down in front of me, holding out a small object that passingly resembled a flower.
I shook my head, a gesture we had learned in order to refuse the requests of the young.
It worked remarkably well usually, as they had been instructed to respect our authority and relative objectivity.
When I performed the gesture to refuse Sidney whatever it was xe was requesting, xe stopped jumping.
Seeing my results, my fellow researchers performed the same gesture at the young around them.
But Sidney did not leave. Instead, xe stopped baring xir teeth, and xe stared at me for a long moment, before water started to overflow from xir eyes.
I had seen this reaction before, when a small young had fallen and injured themselves earlier in our research period.
The adults had informed us it was a response to pain that was common in young.
Immediately my spinal feelers began to vibrate with the stress I was feeling, unsure of how I had injured the young in front of me.
I hadn’t wanted to injure them! For a moment I was terrified that I had ruined all Quarlian-Human relations for millions of years to come.
Luckily, that was not the case.
The adults quickly hastened around to soothe the injured young, and one of the adults, displaying a human expression we were mostly unfamiliar with, gestured for us to follow xir into a hallway.
“I’m so sorry,” xe said with xir portable translator, “we didn’t explain. They just want to give you a going-away gift.”
We were confused. Finally I spoke up, not even really needing my portable translator to communicate a message I heard plenty of times from the young. “Why?”
Xe bared xir teeth in the friendly gesture. “It’s something our [human young] do.” Xe explained. “It means they like you.”
I exchanged a look with Hurvii, the one on our team who had been most interested in this particular phenomenon. Neither of us quite believed what we were hearing.
“They are pack-bonding? With US?” I asked. “We are not even of your species!”
We’d seen the young pack-bond with other terrestrial species than their own, but with US??
The human’s mouth opened, baring xir teeth even more, and xe made the barking noise that humans use to indicate amusement.
“They’re [human young].” Xe explained. “They’ll ‘bond’ with anything.”
And, on the way back to our research base, we all quietly decided that, though humans were terrifying at times, we would give anything to go back and see “our” pack-bonded group again.
amandla
theartofmadeline
stormborns
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