{"id":20559,"date":"2025-03-07T13:51:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T17:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/?p=20559"},"modified":"2025-03-08T18:52:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T22:52:25","slug":"octavia-e-butler-bloodchild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/short-stories\/octavia-e-butler-bloodchild\/20559\/","title":{"rendered":"Octavia E. Butler: Bloodchild"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis<\/strong>: Bloodchild<\/em> is a short story by Octavia E. Butler, published in June 1984 in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine<\/em>. The story follows Gan, a young Terran who lives on a reservation governed by the Tlic, an alien species whose well-being depends on humans. Gan has grown up protected by T’Gatoi, an influential Tlic leader linked to his family since birth. However, underlying this coexistence is a disturbing pact that will test Gan’s beliefs and will.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Octavia<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bloodchild<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Octavia E. Butler
(Full story)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My last night of childhood began with a visit home. T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s sister had given us two sterile eggs. T\u2019Gatoi gave one to my mother, brother, and sisters. She insisted that I eat the other one alone. It didn\u2019t matter. There was still enough to leave everyone feeling good. Almost everyone. My mother wouldn\u2019t take any. She sat, watching everyone drifting and dreaming without her. Most of the time she watched me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lay against T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s long, velvet underside, sipping from my egg now and then, wondering why my mother denied herself such a harmless pleasure. Less of her hair would be gray if she indulged now and then. The eggs prolonged life, prolonged vigor. My father, who had never refused one in his life, had lived more than twice as long as he should have. And toward the end of his life, when he should have been slowing down, he had married my mother and fathered four children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my mother seemed content to age before she had to. I saw her turn away as several of T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s limbs secured me closer. T\u2019Gatoi liked our body heat and took advantage of it whenever she could. When I was little and at home more, my mother used to try to tell me how to behave with T\u2019Gatoi\u2014how to be respectful and always obedient because T\u2019Gatoi was the Tlic government official in charge of the Preserve, and thus the most important of her kind to deal directly with Terrans. It was an honor, my mother said, that such a person had chosen to come into the family. My mother was at her most formal and severe when she was lying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no idea why she was lying, or even what she was lying about. It was<\/em> an honor to have T\u2019Gatoi in the family, but it was hardly a novelty. T\u2019Gatoi and my mother had been friends all my mother\u2019s life, and T\u2019Gatoi was not interested in being honored in the house she considered her second home. She simply came in, climbed onto one of her special couches, and called me over to keep her warm. It was impossible to be formal with her while lying against her and hearing her complain as usual that I was too skinny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re better,\u201d she said this time, probing me with six or seven of her limbs. \u201cYou\u2019re gaining weight finally. Thinness is dangerous.\u201d The probing changed subtly, became a series of caresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still too thin,\u201d my mother said sharply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi lifted her head and perhaps a meter of her body off the couch as though she were sitting up. She looked at my mother, and my mother, her face lined and old looking, turned away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLien, I would like you to have what\u2019s left of Gan\u2019s egg.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe eggs are for the children,\u201d my mother said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are for the family. Please take it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unwillingly obedient, my mother took it from me and put it to her mouth. There were only a few drops left in the now-shrunken, elastic shell, but she squeezed them out, swallowed them, and after a few moments some of the lines of tension began to smooth from her face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good,\u201d she whispered. \u201cSometimes I forget how good it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou should take more,\u201d T\u2019Gatoi said. \u201cWhy are you in such a hurry to be old?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother said nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like being able to come here,\u201d T\u2019Gatoi said. \u201cThis place is a refuge because of you, yet you won\u2019t take care of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi was hounded on the outside. Her people wanted more of us made available. Only she and her political faction stood between us and the hordes who did not understand why there was a Preserve\u2014why any Terran could not be courted, paid, drafted, in some way made available to them. Or they did understand, but in their desperation, they did not care. She parceled us out to the desperate and sold us to the rich and powerful for their political support. Thus, we were necessities, status symbols, and an independent people. She oversaw the joining of families, putting an end to the final remnants of the earlier system of breaking up Terran families to suit impatient Tlic. I had lived outside with her. I had seen the desperate eagerness in the way some people looked at me. It was a little frightening to know that only she stood between us and that desperation that could so easily swallow us. My mother would look at her sometimes and say to me, \u201cTake care of her.\u201d And I would remember that she too had been outside, had seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now T\u2019Gatoi used four of her limbs to push me away from her onto the floor. \u201cGo on, Gan,\u201d she said. \u201cSit down there with your sisters and enjoy not being sober. You had most of the egg. Lien, come warm me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother hesitated for no reason that I could see. One of my earliest memories is of my mother stretched alongside T\u2019Gatoi, talking about things I could not understand, picking me up from the floor and laughing as she sat me on one of T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s segments. She ate her share of eggs then. I wondered when she had stopped, and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She lay down now against T\u2019Gatoi, and the whole left row of T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s limbs closed around her, holding her loosely, but securely. I had always found it comfortable to lie that way, but except for my older sister, no one else in the family liked it. They said it made them feel caged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi meant to cage my mother. Once she had, she moved her tail slightly, then spoke. \u201cNot enough egg, Lien. You should have taken it when it was passed to you. You need it badly now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s tail moved once more, its whip motion so swift I wouldn\u2019t have seen it if I hadn\u2019t been watching for it. Her sting drew only a single drop of blood from my mother\u2019s bare leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother cried out\u2014probably in surprise. Being stung doesn\u2019t hurt. Then she sighed and I could see her body relax. She moved languidly into a more comfortable position within the cage of T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s limbs. \u201cWhy did you do that?\u201d she asked, sounding half asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI could not watch you sitting and suffering any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother managed to move her shoulders in a small shrug. \u201cTomorrow,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes. Tomorrow you will resume your suffering\u2014if you must. But just now, just for now, lie here and warm me and let me ease your way a little.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still mine, you know,\u201d my mother said suddenly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing can buy him from me.\u201d Sober, she would not have permitted herself to refer to such things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing,\u201d T\u2019Gatoi agreed, humoring her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you think I would sell him for eggs? For long life? My son?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot for anything,\u201d T\u2019Gatoi said, stroking my mother\u2019s shoulders, toying with her long, graying hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would like to have touched my mother, shared that moment with her. She would take my hand if I touched her now. Freed by the egg and the sting, she would smile and perhaps say things long held in. But tomorrow, she would remember all this as a humiliation. I did not want to be part of a remembered humiliation. Best just be still and know she loved me under all the duty and pride and pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cXuan Hoa, take off her shoes,\u201d T\u2019Gatoi said. \u201cIn a little while I\u2019ll sting her again and she can sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My older sister obeyed, swaying drunkenly as she stood up. When she had finished, she sat down beside me and took my hand. We had always been a unit, she and I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother put the back of her head against T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s underside and tried from that impossible angle to look up into the broad, round face. \u201cYou\u2019re going to sting me again?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, Lien.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll sleep until tomorrow noon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood. You need it. When did you sleep last?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother made a wordless sound of annoyance. \u201cI should have stepped on you when you were small enough,\u201d she muttered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an old joke between them. They had grown up together, sort of, though T\u2019Gatoi had not, in my mother\u2019s life-time, been small enough for any Terran to step on. She was nearly three time my mother\u2019s present age, yet would still be young when my mother died of age. But T\u2019Gatoi and my mother had met as T\u2019Gatoi was coming into a period of rapid development\u2014a kind of Tlic adolescence. My mother was only a child, but for a while they developed at the same rate and had no better friends than each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi had even introduced my mother to the man who became my father. My parents, pleased with each other in spite of their different ages, married as T\u2019Gatoi was going into her family\u2019s business\u2014politics. She and my mother saw each other less. But sometime before my older sister was born, my mother promised T\u2019Gatoi one of her children. She would have to give one of us to someone, and she preferred T\u2019Gatoi to some stranger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years passed. T\u2019Gatoi traveled and increased her influence. The Preserve was hers by the time she came back to my mother to collect what she probably saw as her just reward for her hard work. My older sister took an instant liking to her and wanted to be chosen, but my mother was just coming to term with me and T\u2019Gatoi liked the idea of choosing an infant and watching and taking part in all the phases of development. I\u2019m told I was first caged within T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s many limbs only three minutes after my birth. A few days later, I was given my first taste of egg. I tell Terrans that when they ask whether I was ever afraid of her. And I tell it to Tlic when T\u2019Gatoi suggests a young Terran child for them and they, anxious and ignorant, demand an adolescent. Even my brother who had somehow grown up to fear and distrust the Tlic could probably have gone smoothly into one of their families if he had been adopted early enough. Sometimes, I think for his sake he should have been. I looked at him, stretched out on the floor across the room, his eyes open, but glazed as he dreamed his egg dream. No matter what he felt toward the Tlic, he always demanded his share of egg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLien, can you stand up?\u201d T\u2019Gatoi asked suddenly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStand?\u201d my mother said. \u201cI thought I was going to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLater. Something sounds wrong outside.\u201d The cage was abruptly gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUp, Lien!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother recognized her tone and got up just in time to avoid being dumped on the floor. T\u2019Gatoi whipped her three meters of body off her couch, toward the door, and out at full speed. She had bones\u2014ribs, a long spine, a skull, four sets of limb bones per segment. But when she moved that way, twisting, hurling herself into controlled falls, landing running, she seemed not only boneless, but aquatic\u2014something swimming through the air as though it were water. I loved watching her move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I left my sister and started to follow her out the door, though I wasn\u2019t very steady on my own feet. It would have been better to sit and dream, better yet to find a girl and share a waking dream with her. Back when the Tlic saw us as not much more than convenient, big, warm-blooded animals, they would pen several of us together, male and female, and feed us only eggs. That way they could be sure of getting another generation of us no matter how we tried to hold out. We were lucky that didn\u2019t go on long. A few generations of it and we would have been<\/em> little more than convenient, big animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHold the door open, Gan,\u201d T\u2019Gatoi said. \u201cAnd tell the family to stay back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is it?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cN\u2019Tlic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shrank back against the door. \u201cHere? Alone?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was trying to reach a call box, I suppose.\u201d She carried the man past me, unconscious, folded like a coat over some of her limbs. He looked young\u2014my brother\u2019s age perhaps\u2014and he was thinner than he should have been. What T\u2019Gatoi would have called dangerously thin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGan, go to the call box,\u201d she said. She put the man on the floor and began stripping off his clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did not move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a moment, she looked up at me, her sudden stillness a sign of deep impatience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSend Qui,\u201d I told her. \u201cI\u2019ll stay here. Maybe I can help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She let her limbs begin to move again, lifting the man and pulling his shirt over his head. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to see this,\u201d she said. \u201cIt will be hard. I can\u2019t help this man the way his Tlic could.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know. But send Qui. He won\u2019t want to be of any help here. I\u2019m at least willing to try.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She looked at my brother\u2014older, bigger, stronger, certainly more able to help her here. He was sitting up now, braced against the wall, staring at the man on the floor with undisguised fear and revulsion. Even she could see that he would be useless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cQui, go!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He didn\u2019t argue. He stood up, swayed briefly, then steadied, frightened sober.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis man\u2019s name is Bram Lomas,\u201d she told him, reading from the man\u2019s armband. I fingered my own armband in sympathy. \u201cHe needs T\u2019Khotgif Teh. Do you hear?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBram Lomas, T\u2019Khotgif Teh,\u201d my brother said. \u201cI\u2019m going.\u201d He edged around Lomas and ran out the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lomas began to regain consciousness. He only moaned at first and clutched spasmodically at a pair of T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s limbs. My younger sister, finally awake from her egg dream, came close to look at him, until my mother pulled her back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi removed the man\u2019s shoes, then his pants, all the while leaving him two of her limbs to grip. Except for the final few, all her limbs were equally dexterous. \u201cI want no argument from you this time, Gan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I straightened. \u201cWhat shall I do?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGo out and slaughter an animal that is at least half your size.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSlaughter? But I\u2019ve never \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She knocked me across the room. Her tail was an efficient weapon whether she exposed the sting or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got up, feeling stupid for having ignored her warning, and went into the kitchen. Maybe I could kill something with a knife or an ax. My mother raised a few Terran animals for the table and several thousand local ones for their fur. T\u2019Gatoi would probably prefer something local. An achti, perhaps. Some of those were the right size, though they had about three times as many teeth as I did and a real love of using them. My mother, Hoa, and Qui could kill them with knives. I had never killed one at all, had never slaughtered any animal. I had spent most of my time with T\u2019Gatoi while my brother and sisters were learning the family business. T\u2019Gatoi had been right. I should have been the one to go to the call box. At least I could do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to the corner cabinet where my mother kept her large house and garden tools. At the back of the cabinet there was a pipe that carried off waste water from the kitchen\u2014except that it didn\u2019t anymore. My father had rerouted the waste water below before I was born. Now the pipe could be turned so that one half slid around the other and a rifle could be stored inside. This wasn\u2019t our only gun, but it was our most easily accessible one. I would have to use it to shoot one of the biggest of the achti. Then T\u2019Gatoi would probably confiscate it. Firearms were illegal in the Preserve. There had been incidents right after the Preserve was established\u2014Terrans shooting Tlic, shooting N\u2019Tlic. This was before the joining of families began, before everyone had a personal stake in keeping the peace. No one had shot a Tlic in my lifetime or my mother\u2019s, but the law still stood\u2014for our protection, we were told. There were stories of whole Terran families wiped out in reprisal back during the assassinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went out to the cages and shot the biggest achti I could find. It was a handsome breeding male, and my mother would not be pleased to see me bring it in. But it was the right size, and I was in a hurry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I put the achti\u2019s long, warm body over my shoulder\u2014glad that some of the weight I\u2019d gained was muscle\u2014and took it to the kitchen. There, I put the gun back in its hiding place. If T\u2019Gatoi noticed the achti\u2019s wounds and demanded the gun, I would give it to her. Otherwise, let it stay where my father wanted it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned to take the achti to her, then hesitated. For several seconds, I stood in front of the closed door wondering why I was suddenly afraid. I knew what was going to happen. I hadn\u2019t seen it before but T\u2019Gatoi had shown me diagrams and drawings. She had made sure I knew the truth as soon as I was old enough to understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet I did not want to go into that room. I wasted a little time choosing a knife from the carved, wooden box in which my mother kept them. T\u2019Gatoi might want one, I told myself, for the tough, heavily furred hide of the achti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGan!\u201d T\u2019Gatoi called, her voice harsh with urgency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I swallowed. I had not imagined a single moving of the feet could be so difficult. I realized I was trembling and that shamed me. Shame impelled me through the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I put the achti down near T\u2019Gatoi and saw that Lomas was unconscious again. She, Lomas, and I were alone in the room\u2014my mother and sisters probably sent out so they would not have to watch. I envied them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But my mother came back into the room as T\u2019Gatoi seized the achti. Ignoring the knife I offered her, she extended claws from several of her limbs and slit the achti from throat to anus. She looked at me, her yellow eyes intent. \u201cHold this man\u2019s shoulders, Gan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stared at Lomas in panic, realizing that I did not want to touch him, let alone hold him. This would not be like shooting an animal. Not as quick, not as merciful, and, I hoped, not as final, but there was nothing I wanted less than to be part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mother came forward. \u201cGan, you hold his right side,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll hold his left.\u201d And if he came to, he would throw her off without realizing he had done it. She was a tiny woman. She often wondered aloud how she had produced, as she said, such \u201chuge\u201d children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever mind,\u201d I told her, taking the man\u2019s shoulders. \u201cI\u2019ll do it.\u201d She hovered nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d I said. \u201cI won\u2019t shame you. You don\u2019t have to stay and watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She looked at me uncertainly, then touched my face in a rare caress. Finally, she went back to her bedroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi lowered her head in relief. \u201cThank you, Gan,\u201d she said with courtesy more Terran than Tlic. \u201cThat one \u2026 she is always finding new ways for me to make her suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lomas began to groan and make choked sounds. I had hoped he would stay unconscious. T\u2019Gatoi put her face near his so that he focused on her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve stung you as much as I dare for now,\u201d she told him. \u201cWhen this is over, I\u2019ll sting you to sleep and you won\u2019t hurt anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlease,\u201d the man begged. \u201cWait \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no more time, Bram. I\u2019ll sting you as soon as it\u2019s over. When T\u2019Khotgif arrives she\u2019ll give you eggs to help you heal. It will be over soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cT\u2019Khotgif!\u201d the man shouted, straining against my hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSoon, Bram.\u201d T\u2019Gatoi glanced at me, then placed a claw against his abdomen slightly to the right of the middle, just below the left rib. There was movement on the right side\u2014tiny, seemingly random pulsations moving his brown flesh, creating a concavity here, a convexity there, over and over until I could see the rhythm of it and knew where the next pulse would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lomas\u2019s entire body stiffened under T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s claw, though she merely rested it against him as she wound the rear section of her body around his legs. He might break my grip, but he would not break hers. He wept helplessly as she used his pants to tie his hands, then pushed his hands above his head so that I could kneel on the cloth between them and pin them in place. She rolled up his shirt and gave it to him to bite down on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And she opened him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His body convulsed with the first cut. He almost tore himself away from me. The sound he made \u2026 I had never heard such sounds come from anything human. T\u2019Gatoi seemed to pay no attention as she lengthened and deepened the cut, now and then pausing to lick away blood. His blood vessels contracted, reacting to the chemistry of her saliva, and the bleeding slowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt as though I were helping her torture him, helping her consume him. I knew I would vomit soon, didn\u2019t know why I hadn\u2019t already. I couldn\u2019t possibly last until she was finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She found the first grub. It was fat and deep red with his blood\u2014both inside and out. It had already eaten its own egg case but apparently had not yet begun to eat its host. At this stage, it would eat any flesh except its mother\u2019s. Let alone, it would have gone on excreting the poisons that had both sickened and alerted Lomas. Eventually it would have begun to eat. By the time it ate its way out of Lomas\u2019s flesh, Lomas would be dead or dying\u2014and unable to take revenge on the thing that was killing him. There was always a grace period between the time the host sickened and the time the grubs began to eat him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi picked up the writhing grub carefully and looked at it, somehow ignoring the terrible groans of the man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abruptly, the man lost consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood,\u201d T\u2019Gatoi looked down at him. \u201cI wish you Terrans could do that at will.\u201d She felt nothing. And the thing she held \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was limbless and boneless at this stage, perhaps fifteen centimeters long and two thick, blind and slimy with blood. It was like a large worm. T\u2019Gatoi put it into the belly of the achti, and it began at once to burrow. It would stay there and eat as long as there was anything to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probing through Lomas\u2019s flesh, she found two more, one of them smaller and more vigorous. \u201cA male!\u201d she said happily. He would be dead before I would. He would be through his metamorphosis and screwing everything that would hold still before his sisters even had limbs. He was the only one to make a serious effort to bite T\u2019Gatoi as she placed him in the achti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paler worms oozed to visibility in Lomas\u2019s flesh. I closed my eyes. It was worse than finding something dead, rotting, and filled with tiny animal grubs. And it was far worse than any drawing or diagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAh, there are more,\u201d T\u2019Gatoi said, plucking out two long, thick grubs. You may have to kill another animal, Gan. Everything lives inside you Terrans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had been told all my life that this was a good and necessary thing Tlic and Terran did together\u2014a kind of birth. I had believed it until now. I knew birth was painful and bloody, no matter what. But this was something else, something worse. And I wasn\u2019t ready to see it. Maybe I never would be. Yet I couldn\u2019t not see it. Closing my eyes didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi found a grub still eating its egg case. The remains of the case were still wired into a blood vessel by their own little tube or hook or whatever. That was the way the grubs were anchored and the way they fed. They took only blood until they were ready to emerge. Then they ate their stretched, elastic egg cases. Then they ate their hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi bit away the egg case, licked away the blood. Did she like the taste? Did childhood habits die hard\u2014or not die at all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole procedure was wrong, alien. I wouldn\u2019t have thought anything about her could seem alien to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne more, I think,\u201d she said. \u201cPerhaps two. A good family. In a host animal these days, we would be happy to find one or two alive.\u201d She glanced at me. \u201cGo outside, Gan, and empty your stomach. Go now while the man is unconscious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I staggered out, barely made it. Beneath the tree just beyond the front door, I vomited until there was nothing left to bring up. Finally, I stood shaking, tears streaming down my face. I did not know why I was crying, but I could not stop. I went further from the house to avoid being seen. Every time I closed my eyes I saw red worms crawling over redder human flesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a car coming toward the house. Since Terrans were forbidden motorized vehicles except for certain farm equipment, I knew this must be Lomas\u2019s Tlic with Qui and perhaps a Terran doctor. I wiped my face on my shirt, struggled for control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGan,\u201d Qui called as the car stopped. \u201cWhat happened?\u201d He crawled out of the low, round, Tlic-convenient car door. Another Terran crawled out the other side and went into the house without speaking to me. The doctor. With his help and a few eggs, Lomas might make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cT\u2019Khotgif Teh?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tlic driver surged out of her car, reared up half her length before me. She was paler and smaller than T\u2019Gatoi\u2014probably born from the body of an animal. Tlic from Terran bodies were always larger as well as more numerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSix young,\u201d I told her. \u201cMaybe seven, all alive. At least one male.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLomas?\u201d she said harshly. I liked her for the question and the concern in her voice when she asked it. The last coherent thing he had said was her name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s alive,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She surged away to the house without another word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been sick,\u201d my brother said, watching her go. \u201cWhen I called, I could hear people telling her she wasn\u2019t well enough to go out even for this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said nothing. I had extended courtesy to the Tlic. Now I didn\u2019t want to talk to anyone. I hoped he would go in\u2014out of curiosity if nothing else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFinally found out more than you wanted to know, eh?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I looked at him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t give me one of her<\/em> looks,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re not her. You\u2019re just her property.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of her looks. Had I picked up even an ability to imitate her expressions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019d you do, puke?\u201d He sniffed the air. \u201cSo now you know what you\u2019re in for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked away from him. He and I had been close when we were kids. He would let me follow him around when I was home, and sometimes T\u2019Gatoi would let me bring him along when she took me into the city. But something had happened when he reached adolescence. I never knew what. He began keeping out of T\u2019Gatoi\u2019s way. Then he began running away\u2014until he realized there was no \u201caway.\u201d Not in the Preserve. Certainly not outside. After that he concentrated on getting his share of every egg that came into the house and on looking out for me in a way that made me all but hate him\u2014a way that clearly said, as long as I was all right, he was safe from the Tlic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow was it, really?\u201d he demanded, following me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI killed an achti. The young ate it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t run out of the house and puke because they ate an achti.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had \u2026 never seen a person cut open before.\u201d That was true, and enough for him to know. I couldn\u2019t talk about the other. Not with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh,\u201d he said. He glanced at me as though he wanted to say more, but he kept quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We walked, not really headed anywhere. Toward the back, toward the cages, toward the fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid he say anything?\u201d Qui asked. \u201cLomas, I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who else would he mean? \u201cHe said \u2018T\u2019Khotgif.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qui shuddered. \u201cIf she had done that to me, she\u2019d be the last person I\u2019d call for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019d call for her. Her sting would ease your pain without killing the grubs in you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou think I\u2019d care if they died?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. Of course he wouldn\u2019t. Would I?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShit!\u201d He drew a deep breath. \u201cI\u2019ve seen what they do. You think this thing with Lomas was bad? It was nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t argue. He didn\u2019t know what he was talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw them eat a man,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned to face him. \u201cYou\u2019re lying!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw them eat a man<\/em>.\u201d He paused. \u201cIt was when I was little. I had been to the Hartmund house and I was on my way home. Halfway here, I saw a man and a Tlic and the man was N\u2019Tlic. The ground was hilly. I was able to hide from them and watch. The Tlic wouldn\u2019t open the man because she had nothing to feed the grubs. The man couldn\u2019t go any further and there were no houses around. He was in so much pain, he told her to kill him. He begged her to kill him. Finally, she did. She cut his throat. One swipe of one claw. I saw the grubs eat their way out, then burrow in again, still eating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His words made me see Lomas\u2019s flesh again, parasitized, crawling. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me that?\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He looked startled as though he\u2019d forgotten I was listening. \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou started to run away not long after that, didn\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah. Stupid. Running inside the Preserve. Running in a cage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shook my head, said what I should have said to him long ago. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t take you, Qui. You don\u2019t have to worry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe would \u2026 if anything happened to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo. She\u2019d take Xuan Hoa. Hoa \u2026 wants it.\u201d She wouldn\u2019t if she had stayed to watch Lomas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t take women,\u201d he said with contempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey do sometimes.\u201d I glanced at him. \u201cActually, they prefer women. You should be around them when they talk among themselves. They say women have more body fat to protect the grubs. But they usually take men to leave the women free to bear their own young.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo provide the next generation of host animals,\u201d he said, switching from contempt to bitterness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than that!\u201d I countered. Was it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf it were going to happen to me, I\u2019d want to believe it was more, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is<\/em> more!\u201d I felt like a kid. Stupid argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you think so while T\u2019Gatoi was picking worms out of that guy\u2019s guts?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not supposed to happen that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSure it is. You weren\u2019t supposed to see it, that\u2019s all. And his Tlic was supposed to do it. She could sting him unconscious and the operation wouldn\u2019t have been as painful. But she\u2019d still open him, pick out the grubs, and if she missed even one, it would poison him and eat him from the inside out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was actually a time when my mother told me to show respect for Qui because he was my older brother. I walked away, hating him. In his way, he was gloating. He was safe and I wasn\u2019t. I could have hit him, but I didn\u2019t think I would be able to stand it when he refused to hit back, when he looked at me with contempt and pity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wouldn\u2019t let me get away. Longer legged, he swung ahead of me and made me feel as though I were following him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I strode on, sick and furious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook, it probably won\u2019t be that bad with you. T\u2019Gatoi likes you. She\u2019ll be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned back toward the house, almost running from him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHas she done it to you yet?\u201d he asked, keeping up easily. \u201cI mean, you\u2019re about the right age for implantation. Has she\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hit him. I didn\u2019t know I was going to do it, but I think I meant to kill him. If he hadn\u2019t been bigger and stronger, I think I would have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He tried to hold me off, but in the end, had to defend himself. He only hit me a couple of times. That was plenty. I don\u2019t remember going down, but when I came to, he was gone. It was worth the pain to be rid of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got up and walked slowly toward the house. The back was dark. No one was in the kitchen. My mother and sisters were sleeping in their bedrooms\u2014or pretending to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once I was in the kitchen, I could hear voices\u2014Tlic and Terran from the next room. I couldn\u2019t make out what they were saying\u2014didn\u2019t want to make it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sat down at my mother\u2019s table, waiting for quiet. The table was smooth and worn, heavy and well crafted. My father had made it for her just before he died. I remembered hanging around underfoot when he built it. He didn\u2019t mind. Now I sat leaning on it, missing him. I could have talked to him. He had done it three times in his long life. Three clutches of eggs, three times being opened up and sewed up. How had he done it? How did anyone do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got up, took the rifle from its hiding place, and sat down again with it. It needed cleaning, oiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All I did was load it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGan?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She made a lot of little clicking sounds when she walked on bare floor, each limb clicking in succession as it touched down. Waves of little clicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She came to the table, raised the front half of her body above it, and surged onto it. Sometimes she moved so smoothly she seemed to flow like water itself. She coiled herself into a small hill in the middle of the table and looked at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was bad,\u201d she said softly. \u201cYou should not have seen it. It need not be that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cT\u2019Khotgif\u2014Ch\u2019Khotgif now\u2014she will die of her disease. She will not live to raise her children. But her sister will provide for them, and for Bram Lomas.\u201d Sterile sister. One fertile female in every lot. One to keep the family going. That sister owed Lomas more than she could ever repay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll live then?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wonder if he would do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one would ask him to do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I looked into the yellow eyes, wondering how much I saw and understood there, and how much I only imagined. \u201cNo one ever asks us,\u201d I said. \u201cYou never asked me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She moved her head slightly. \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter with your face?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing. Nothing important.\u201d Human eyes probably wouldn\u2019t have noticed the swelling in the darkness. The only light was from one of the moons, shining through a window across the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you use the rifle to shoot the achti?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd do you mean to use it to shoot me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stared at her, outlined in the moonlight\u2014coiled, graceful body. \u201cWhat does Terran blood taste like to you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you?\u201d I whispered. \u201cWhat are we to you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She lay still, rested her head on her topmost coil. \u201cYou know me as no other does,\u201d she said softly. \u201cYou must decide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what happened to my face,\u201d I told her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cQui goaded me into deciding to do something. It didn\u2019t turn out very well.\u201d I moved the gun slightly, brought the barrel up diagonally under my own chin. \u201cAt least it was a decision I made.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs this will be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAsk me, Gatoi.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor my children\u2019s lives?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She would say something like that. She knew how to manipulate people, Terran and Tlic. But not this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be a host animal,\u201d I said. \u201cNot even yours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took her a long time to answer. \u201cWe use almost no host animals these days,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou use us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do. We wait long years for you and teach you and join our families to yours.\u201d She moved restlessly. \u201cYou know you aren\u2019t animals to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stared at her, saying nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe animals we once used began killing most of our eggs after implantation long before your ancestors arrived,\u201d she said softly. \u201cYou know these things, Gan. Because your people arrived, we are relearning what it means to be a healthy, thriving people. And your ancestors, fleeing from their home-world, from their own kind who would have killed or enslaved them\u2014they survived because of us. We saw them as people and gave them the Preserve when they still tried to kill us as worms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the word \u201cworms,\u201d I jumped. I couldn\u2019t help it, and she couldn\u2019t help noticing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see,\u201d she said quietly. \u201cWould you really rather die than bear my young, Gan?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShall I go to Xuan Hoa?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes!\u201d Hoa wanted it. Let her have it. She hadn\u2019t had to watch Lomas. She\u2019d be proud.\u2026 Not terrified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Gatoi flowed off the table onto the floor, startling me almost too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll sleep in Hoa\u2019s room tonight,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd sometime tonight or in the morning, I\u2019ll tell her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was going too fast. My sister Hoa had had almost as much to do with raising me as my mother. I was still close to her\u2014not like Qui. She could want T\u2019Gatoi and still love me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWait! Gatoi!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She looked back, then raised nearly half her length off the floor and turned to face me. \u201cThese are adult things, Gan. This is my life, my family!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut she\u2019s \u2026 my sister.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have done what you demanded. I have asked you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will be easier for Hoa. She has always expected to carry other lives inside her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human lives. Human young who should someday drink at her breasts, not at her veins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shook my head. \u201cDon\u2019t do it to her, Gatoi.\u201d I was not Qui. It seemed I could become him, though, with no effort at all. I could make Xuan Hoa my shield. Would it be easier to know that red worms were growing in her flesh instead of mine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t do it to Hoa,\u201d I repeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She stared at me, utterly still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I looked away, then back at her. \u201cDo it to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I lowered the gun from my throat and she leaned forward to take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d I told her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the law,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeave it for the family. One of them might use it to save my life someday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She grasped the rifle barrel, but I wouldn\u2019t let go. I was pulled into a standing position over her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeave it here!\u201d I repeated. \u201cIf we\u2019re not your animals, if these are adult things, accept the risk. There is risk, Gatoi, in dealing with a partner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was clearly hard for her to let go of the rifle. A shudder went through her and she made a hissing sound of distress. It occurred to me that she was afraid. She was old enough to have seen what guns could do to people. Now her young and this gun would be together in the same house. She did not know about the other guns. In this dispute, they did not matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will implant the first egg tonight,\u201d she said as I put the gun away. \u201cDo you hear, Gan?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why else had I been given a whole egg to eat while the rest of the family was left to share one? Why else had my mother kept looking at me as though I were going away from her, going where she could not follow? Did T\u2019Gatoi imagine I hadn\u2019t known?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hear.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow!\u201d I let her push me out of the kitchen, then walked ahead of her toward my bedroom. The sudden urgency in her voice sounded real. \u201cYou would have done it to Hoa tonight!\u201d I accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI must do it to someone tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stopped in spite of her urgency and stood in her way. \u201cDon\u2019t you care who?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She flowed around me and into my bedroom. I found her waiting on the couch we shared. There was nothing in Hoa\u2019s room that she could have used. She would have done it to Hoa on the floor. The thought of her doing it to Hoa at all disturbed me in a different way now, and I was suddenly angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet I undressed and lay down beside her. I knew what to do, what to expect. I had been told all my life. I felt the familiar sting, narcotic, mildly pleasant. Then the blind probing of her ovipositor. The puncture was painless, easy. So easy going in. She undulated slowly against me, her muscles forcing the egg from her body into mine. I held on to a pair of her limbs until I remembered Lomas holding her that way. Then I let go, moved inadvertently, and hurt her. She gave a low cry of pain and I expected to be caged at once within her limbs. When I wasn\u2019t, I held on to her again, feeling oddly ashamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She rubbed my shoulders with four of her limbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you care?\u201d I asked. \u201cDo you care that it\u2019s me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She did not answer for some time. Finally, \u201cYou were the one making the choices tonight, Gan. I made mine long ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould you have gone to Hoa?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes. How could I put my children into the care of one who hates them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t \u2026 hate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI still am.\u201d I could admit it to her here, now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you came to me \u2026 to save Hoa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d I leaned my forehead against her. She was cool velvet, deceptively soft. \u201cAnd to keep you for myself,\u201d I said. It was so. I didn\u2019t understand it, but it was so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She made a soft hum of contentment. \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe I had made such a mistake with you,\u201d she said. \u201cI chose you. I believed you had grown to choose me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had, but \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLomas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had never known a Terran to see a birth and take it well. Qui has seen one, hasn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTerrans should be protected from seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t like the sound of that\u2014and I doubted that it was possible. \u201cNot protected,\u201d I said. \u201cShown. Shown when we\u2019re young kids, and shown more than once. Gatoi, no Terran ever sees a birth that goes right. All we see is N\u2019Tlic\u2014pain and terror and maybe death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She looked down at me. \u201cIt is a private thing. It has always been a private thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her tone kept me from insisting\u2014that and the knowledge that if she changed her mind, I might be the first public example. But I had planted the thought in her mind. Chances were it would grow, and eventually she would experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou won\u2019t see it again,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want you thinking any more about shooting me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The small amount of fluid that came into me with her egg relaxed me as completely as a sterile egg would have, so that I could remember the rifle in my hands and my feelings of fear and revulsion, anger and despair. I could remember the feelings without reviving them. I could talk about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have shot you,\u201d I said. \u201cNot you.\u201d She had been taken from my father\u2019s flesh when he was my age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could have,\u201d she insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot you.\u201d She stood between us and her own people, protecting, interweaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWould you have destroyed yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I moved carefully, uncomfortable. \u201cI could have done that. I nearly did. That\u2019s Qui\u2019s \u2018away.\u2019 I wonder if he knows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did not answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou will live now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes.\u201d Take care of her<\/em>, my mother used to say. Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m healthy and young,\u201d she said. \u201cI won\u2019t leave you as Lomas was left\u2014alone, N\u2019Tlic. I\u2019ll take care of you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE END<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloodchild is a short story by Octavia E. Butler, published in June 1984 in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. The story follows Gan, a young Terran who lives on a reservation governed by the Tlic, an alien species whose well-being depends on humans. Gan has grown up protected by T’Gatoi, an influential Tlic leader linked to his family since birth. However, underlying this coexistence is a disturbing pact that will test Gan’s beliefs and will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[923,552,570],"class_list":["post-20559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-stories","tag-octavia-e-butler-en","tag-science-fiction","tag-united-states","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":559,"label":"Short stories"}],"post_tag":[{"value":923,"label":"Octavia E. Butler"},{"value":552,"label":"Science fiction"},{"value":570,"label":"United States"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Octavia-E.-Butler-Hija-de-sangre.webp",1024,1024,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Juan Pablo Guevara","author_link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/author\/spartakku\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":559,"name":"Short stories","slug":"short-stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":559,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":420,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":559,"category_count":420,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Short stories","category_nicename":"short-stories","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":923,"name":"Octavia E. Butler","slug":"octavia-e-butler-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":923,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":552,"name":"Science fiction","slug":"science-fiction","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":552,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":121,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":570,"name":"United States","slug":"united-states","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":570,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":294,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}