“You can’t be that different from human children, can you?” I croon, keeping my voice low and pleasant as I approach. “I can’t tell how old you are as easily, but we’ll figure that out together, won’t we?”
I sit on the floor an arm’s reach away from the triplets. I note that only one, the pale blue child, has the line of nubby points that will grow into a spine. A little boy, then, and the other two with smooth backs are little girls.
“Hello there,” I wave, slow and friendly. “I’m Liara.”
The trio’s weeping slows, but doesn’t stop. They gaze at me with distrust, even as they gasp for breath in between sobs.
“A star came down and went ker-splash,” I say in a singsong, beginning the first little rhyme I think of. “And all the little children laughed! The pond went bright and then went dark. But suddenly, they heard a bark!”
The triplets are mostly hiccuping now, their faces still wet but with no new tears flowing.
“From the water bounced a dog, his coat as bright as moonlit fog,” I continue. The youngsters begin to inch towards me. “The children clapped and reached right out, and stroked their new friend on his snout. A fallen star become a pup, to always love and cheer them up!”
“Pup,” says the lavender little female. “Pup pup pup pup.”
“Oh! You like that word?” I smile and try to figure out if she’s old enough to be verbal. If she were a human child, her size would suggest yes. Since she’s Kiphian, I simply can’t tell.
“Pup.” She nods, staring at me.
“You don’t have dogs here on Kiphia,” I say, since talking seems to calm them. “But other animals can have pups, too.”
The little girl cocks her head at me. Then, as though listening to an inner signal, she clambers into my lap. At once, the other two are doing the same. They are not small, and suddenly I have a pile of wriggling toddlers all over me.
“Okay, okay,” I laugh. “Hold on, let me help you.”
I arrange the triplets as best I can, so everyone feels like they’re being held. The lavender girl’s head is practically in my armpit, but that’ll have to do for now.
“There we are.” I use the sleeve of my shirt to clean the tears and snot off my new friends’ faces. Turns out, Kiphian kids have as many boogers as human ones. That shouldn’t be oddly comforting, but it is.
“Now, can you tell me your names?” I ask, hoping they can. I’d guess they’re just under two years old, but the Kiphians are bigger than humans, so they could be younger.
All three regard me with big eyes.
“I’ll go first,” I say. I introduced myself once, but they probably didn’t hear it over their crying. “My name is Liara. What’s yours?”
“Lee-ra,” repeats the pale green child, her voice sudden and startlingly clear.
“Li-a-ra,” I say again, more slowly. “How about your name?”
“Velli.” The little girl wiggles on my knee. “My name Velli.”
“Velli! What a beautiful name!” I’m thrilled, already excited to not have to think of them as the ‘green one’ or the ‘blue one’ anymore. “Hello, Velli!”
“Parik,” proclaims the boy. “Parik.” He pokes himself in the chest, and I smother a laugh.
“Well, hello to you too, Parik.” I smile at him. “Another wonderful name!”
“I am Reena,” announces the third child, tucked under my arm. I’m startled by her complete sentence, in comparison to the other two. Is this a personality thing, or are Kiphian children a lot more complicated than I realized?
“Nice to meet you, Reena. You have a very pretty name, too.” I squeeze all three of them. “I’m so happy to learn all of your names!”
The triplets nestle into me, their small bodies soft and warm. Almost against my will, I’m utterly charmed. They settled down remarkably fast and are clearly hungry for affection.
I wonder silently what happened to their parents. Kravath said they were the children of his late brother, but nothing more than that. Did he even know their names?
I let out a soft sigh. I trust that someone else will take care of my students back in the human quarter. For now, I have to do my best for these little people. It’s not their fault they were stuck with King Kravath the Brutish and Rude.
A voice in my head says he might be a brute, but there’s something else about him... Something compelling. I try to ignore it, but I can’t shake that first image of him, sitting on the throne.
Magnetic. Intriguing.
Trouble.
