by Pepper North
“Your name was Pieter in your life back on earth. I call you Pien because it is close to your name. Pien is the Nrantian name for the frothy foam on top of racing water. Your hair reminds me of the pien. Hair like yours does not exist on Nrantia. Nor does any Nrantian have your green eyes,” she said evenly. She knew that she would lose everything if she lost her temper. “Ouch!” she yelped as Pien tugged ruthlessly on her fur.
Pien looked stricken at her yell from pain. He cringed away from her body as her hands tightened around his hands and torso. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. I thought this was some kind of hoax. Please don’t eat me!” he begged as he widened his shoulders and tried to make himself look more imposing. He’d always been one of the bigger guys around, even when he was a kid. He’d made friends in school because he was good at sports.
“Eat you? Of course not, Nrantians are not bloodthirsty. Come, Pien. Let’s see if you are strong enough to stand. Hold on to my arms, little human,” Huma instructed as she lifted him effortlessly to stand on his feet. Two of her hands supported his body under his arms. She let him stand there for a little while before beginning to take her hands away. Immediately, Pien started to fall, and he clung to her arms. “I’ve got you, Pien. Your muscles will strengthen, and you will regain your balance,” she reassured him as she scooped him back up into her arms. Cradling him as he recovered his breath, Huma asked him, “Would you like to see what Nrantia looks like, Pien?” When he nodded suspiciously, Huma stood and carried him out of the nursery and to the exterior door.
“It is almost the time of greenness,” she warned Pien. “We will not go outside, but you will be able to see the pinkness change to the greenness. I think I remember in Earth terms that this is the change of day to night.” Huma pressed one hand against the glowing screen, and the door slid open.
Pien froze in place, holding on to Huma with an arm around her shoulder. It was an entirely different world. He knew now that she was telling him the truth. He was no longer on Earth. He was on a planet of vivid colors. A thick, blue grass covered the ground, while the sky was a combination of pink and green swirls. As he watched, the pink faded as the green swirls spread and consumed them. There were splashes of color everywhere. He looked sadly up to Huma’s face and stated the obvious, “I’m really not on Earth, am I?”
She stepped back from the opening to allow the door to slide back into place. “No, Pien. You’re on Nrantia now.”
Chapter 29
He dropped his forehead to rest against her neck. “I don’t think I feel well,” he moaned.
Huma immediately pressed a hand to his forehead. He didn’t feel warm to her, but she wanted to make sure that he was not becoming ill. “I will take care of you always, Pien. Just rest now as I make sure that you are well. Then it will be time for you to sleep. Your body needs lots of rest as it adjusts to life on Nrantia.”
Carrying him back into the nursery, she laid him softly on the padded changing table. His human body looked very small on the wide surface. Quickly, Huma unfastened the sides of his quobon. Before removing it, she pressed steadily on his lower abdomen to trigger the release of his liquid waste. Pien squirmed frantically, trying to get away.
“Wait! Stop! What are you doing?” he demanded. “You’re going to make me… ahhh!”
“Pien, relax. The rules that you followed on Earth do not apply here. Your urine was absorbed easily by your quobon. You will wear a quobon for all your waste needs,” she explained easily as she began to lift the top flap of his quobon to clean his skin. She was stopped when he clutched the top of the padded material.
“I’m not a baby. I know I’m smaller than you are, but I’m an adult. Adults don’t wear a diaper. And you can’t just undress me when you want,” he yelled, outraged.
Huma worked hard to keep her face Nrantian straight without expression. Now, she began to understand the subtleties of a human smile. “There are no toilets on Nrantia. Nrantians visit an evacuation chamber infrequently to release their waste. Humans would not survive a cycle in this chamber. Your intestines would be pulled from your body, leading to your death. You are wearing a quobon. You will wear a quobon for the rest of your life. Like many new things, you will find on Nrantia, you will adjust,” she said evenly as she restrained him easily to pull off his quobon. Without pausing, Huma began to wipe the urine carefully from his skin. She pressed his legs apart to wipe between his buttocks and around his testicles. She wrapped a cleansing cloth around his enlarging penis and pulled it up and down his shaft.
Pien closed his eyes, trying to stop his body’s reaction to her touch. It dawned on him that something was different as the cloth wiped smoothly over his sensitive skin. His eyes flew open to look at his crotch. “What happened to my pubic hair?” he asked, feeling overwhelmed. He hadn’t been smooth around his penis since he had been at least thirteen. It seemed like his adult identity was being erased faster than he could hold on to it.
“It would have presented challenges to keeping your body clean. I removed it on the first night you arrived. It will not grow back to cause a problem,” Huma said softly. As she had expected, his curly hair between his legs was a sign of his maturity. It was best that he was not conscious to see her remove this permanently from his body. She turned him over on to his side and held him in place with one strong hand while she parted his buttocks, revealing his anus. His eyes watched her hands as she removed a long rod from a panel on the wall above the changing table. She dipped it in a thick fluid and immediately pressed it against his anus, sliding it deep into his rectum.
Pien tried to arch his back to push the device from his rectum, but he was anchored firmly to the table. “Take it out!” he demanded. “You can’t treat me this way!”
The Nrantian simply rubbed his shoulders with a free hand. “The reading device will take just a little while to conclude, Pien. This device will go in your bottom often. It reads your health and tells me what supplements you need to be healthy. Try to relax. If you struggle, you will be more uncomfortable,” her no-nonsense response and the way she easily overwhelmed his efforts to free himself made him sag in defeat onto the table. In a short time, the device beeped, and squiggles appeared on the screen on the wall.
With a whisper, a red capsule slid into Huma’s waiting hand. Before Pien could object, the reading device was out of his bottom, and her finger was pressing the red capsule into his rectum. Her free hand continued to rub his shoulders until she felt him relax. “Just let yourself drift to sleep, Pien. I will take care of you and keep you safe,” he heard as she turned him to lay on his back. Pien felt a quobon being wrapped around his hips and pulled snuggly around him before everything went black.
Chapter 30
Huma ran her fingers through his long, curly hair. Pien had slept deeply for several lora and now was beginning to wake up. She had faulted herself for allowing him to get so upset when he’d first awakened. The luryx medicine had soothed him back to sleep. She had already helped him evacuate his bladder and had dressed him in a fresh diaper. Huma had entered his measurements into the computer, and he now had several clothing items to wear over his quobon. She hoped that he would like to leave her home—their home—she corrected herself, to explore Nrantia.
Rubbing his eyes, Pien struggled to wake up. His eyes opened lazily, expecting to see the ceiling of his apartment, but he saw a large, six-fingered hand begin to wipe his face gently. His eyes closed again quickly. “Please let this all just have been a dream,” he chanted to himself before daring to reopen his eyes.
Smiling at her precious human, Huma finished wiping his face clean. “Good pinkness, Pien. I’m glad you were able to sleep. Your body is adjusting to the physical differences between Earth and Nrantia while your mind is struggling to understand how your entire world has changed. I know it is difficult. I thought maybe you would like to see a little more of Nrantia? It must all seem unreal,” she said, trying to read his expressions. “I am always glad to try to answer any questions you
might have. Before we talk about difficult things, I bet you could eat something. Your stomach has to be hungry.”
Her smile settled his nerves slightly. He nodded cautiously. “What do Nrantians eat?” he asked.
“Let me show you, Pien.” Huma stood, lifting the human in her arms. When he wiggled and pushed against her, Huma allowed him to lean back to look at her face.
“I can walk. I’m not used to people carrying me,” Pien said, smiling to persuade her. He’d been on his own for a long time. He wasn’t used to anyone taking care of him. He needed to be independent.
She looked at him seriously. “I will allow you to try to walk from your nursery to the eating area. You must tell me if you feel weak or faint. I will pick you up immediately if I am concerned about your health. Okay?” she questioned.
“Deal!” he answered, lengthening his body to persuade her to lower him to his feet. Once his toes touched the ground, Pien swayed greatly. He patted Huma’s hand as she began to pick him back up. “I’m okay. I can walk,” he said quickly to convince her. He forced himself to walk several steps, allowing her to support him with two hands under his underarms. By the fifth step, he was gasping for breath. He looked up at her exhausted. “Thank you for letting me walk. I need to rebuild my strength. How long was I asleep?”
Scooping him up in her arms, Huma carried him to the eating area. She sat him in a tall chair and fastened a tray in front of him. “Drink this, Pien. It will help build your strength,” she advised, filling a glass with a removable lid and a slot for drinking.
He looked at it scornfully. He didn’t need a kid’s sippy cup. He lifted it to pull off the lid, and it crashed to his tray. It was heavy. He looked at Huma in disbelief. She’d just filled it and moved it around like it was a plastic cup. He tried to pick up the cup again and used both hands. This time, he was able to lift it to his lips and take a long drink. “Wow, Huma. That’s amazingly good.” He smiled at her. “I can’t believe I’m so weak. How long was I asleep?” he asked again.
“The Earth equivalent would be a little more than twenty years. It is very stressful to the human body. You will regain your strength slowly over time,” she said calmly as she began to place various things on the table. “Your body can only survive one trip in the stasis bed.”
The cup crashed to the tray. “Twenty years? All my friends are old now,” he said as he considered what her statement meant.
“They continued to age while your body was held in stasis. It is most probable that all your friends would no longer be living even if you could survive a return trip,” Huma shared sadly. This was a difficult discussion for the humans who survived the trip to Nrantia. She placed four different colored squares on his tray to distract him. She watched him automatically pick up a yellow one and pop it into his mouth as his brain tried to digest the information that he was telling her.
When he bit down on the yellow cube, she saw a burst of juice spurt from his mouth. Immediately, she wiped his lips with a towel before tying it loosely under his chin. His immediate sounds of enjoyment made her smile again. “Good, isn’t it?” she asked.
“What is it? It’s messy, but it tastes amazing,” Pien asked, looking for another piece. He picked up the orange one.
“The yellow brihn is a variety of a plant that grows in the greenness. It grows very slowly, so the plant is very sweet.” She chuckled as he eagerly put the next square into his mouth and made a grimacing face. She put her hand under his chin and said, “Spit it out, Pien.”
It was so bitter that Pien couldn’t think of anything but getting it out of his mouth. His tongue pushed it past his lips before he could process that he was spitting food into her hand. He started to apologize but had to get a drink first. He lifted the heavy cup with both hands and drank deeply, swishing the fluid around to rinse his mouth.
“I didn’t think you’d like the orange brihn, but it’s important that you try different things to see what you like.” Huma lifted a long green item from a plate and held it in front of his lips. “Try this one.” When Pien tried to take it from her fingers to feed himself, she pulled it away and trapped his hands in one of hers. “You must learn appropriate manners, Pien. Some foods may be eaten yourself but to eat others with your fingers is rude. Others will view your behavior and judge you for being a human. They will also decide that I am not doing my job as a Keeper. We’ll make a code between the two of us. If I put it on your tray, you may pick it up. If I hold it to your lips, you should eat it from my hand. That will be safest for you as well. Other Nrantians may not know what humans can eat safely. You must never eat anything given to you by another Nrantian without my approval. This is important. It could be a matter of life and death for you.” She held the long green food to his lips again. This time, Pien opened his mouth to allow her to place it on his tongue.
“Mmmmm! I like that one. What’s that?” He pointed to a dish with something moving on it.
“Those are derisp eggs. They are very good but very dangerous to harvest,” she said picking up several and placing them in her mouth. She held one to his lips, but he sealed his mouth and shook his head to say, “no way.” Huma fed the delicacy to herself. “We have many things to share with each other before the translator is turned off.”
“You’re not speaking Swedish?” he asked, looking concerned.
“No, Pien. I am speaking Nrantian while you are speaking… Swedish? I had not heard of that human language. I do not see how a planet could have so many different languages. How do you learn them all?” she asked curiously.
“I’m not good with languages, Huma. Can you learn Swedish so we can talk?” he asked quickly. Pien considered himself to be smart. Well, now that he was out of school, he thought he was pretty smart. He hadn’t done well in remembering all the boring stuff in school that he knew he’d never use. Languages had been impossible for him. He knew Swedish because everyone spoke that one and he knew French because his grandmother had spoken to him in French from his earliest memories. If he spoke French with her, he got cookies. He really liked cookies. Pien looked over the dishes on the table. He didn’t think anything looked like cookies on the table. He’d never learn Nrantian.
Huma watched Pien’s face become sad. He was concerned about not being able to speak to her. She would ask if an exception could be made for him. One little human using a translator might be okay. In her mind, she knew there would be no bending of the rules. He would learn Nrantian, or they would have to communicate in some other way. It was time for a distraction. “Would you like to see more of Nrantia now, Pien?” She smiled as his face brightened. Her smiling practice had come in handy already.
Chapter 31
When Pien was once again teetering on his feet, trying to balance in the Nrantian gravity, Huma sat gracefully on the ground with some type of coverall in her hands. She placed one of Pien’s hands on her shoulder to help steady him as two of her hands helped him step into the leg openings. Huma eased the stretchy fabric across Pien’s muscular calves and thighs before smoothing the fabric over his bottom and crotch. She felt his penis twitch under her fingers as she covered his quobon. Instantly, Pien pulled back away from her hand.
Holding him close to her body, Huma spread her fingers across his pelvis, cradling his penis in the palm of her hand. “Pien, I do not understand why you move away from my touch. Your penis reacts positively by stiffening as is normal in human arousal. Do I repel you?” she asked, staring into his eyes at his level.
“It’s just not right. I can’t control it,” he said, turning red and gesturing toward his stiffening organ.
“Why would you want it to do anything else?” she asked curiously. “You are turning red. I think you are embarrassed. You know that I’m your Keeper, correct?” When he looked confused, she understood, “Oh, my precious human. I have wanted to be a Keeper for so long that I have forgotten to make sure you know what a Keeper is! Let me explain. Keepers are specially selected and trained to care for humans who have
been relocated from Earth. This is a role that few can dream of filling. It is an honor to be selected, and Keepers are selected with very precise goals in mind. From the first moment that I was matched with you, I became responsible for your health and happiness. I am a female. I was selected to be your Keeper because you need me. I will provide for all your needs, physical, emotional, and sexual. You are supposed to respond to my touch.” Huma moved her hand up and down his growing penis. “Close your eyes, Pien, if you enjoy my touch more when you don’t see my differences from you.”
Even though he had not detected any negative thoughts from her idea that he might not respond to her alien touch, Pien leaned forward to kiss her purple cheek. He kept his eyes on her and groaned as her fingers reached into his quobon pushing it down to free his penis. The feel of her soft fur wrapped around him like velvet over a steel grip made him sway further in toward her body. He moaned low in his throat as his weakened muscles allowed his climax to rush forward faster than he would have wished. When her lips covered over his to swallow his sounds of arousal, that was the last touch he needed. “Aaahhh!” His body emptied into her warm palm. Pien slumped against her strong body.
Closing his eyes to recover, he felt her hands right his quobon and finish guiding the outfit around him. He relaxed and let her take over as she moved each arm gently into the garment and finished by sealing the front. When she lifted him, he allowed her to cradle him in her arms. He felt her lips against his temple. “Good little human. Thank you for letting me care for you. Look around as I carry you to my favorite spot in Nrantia. It is close to my home. I think you will like it as well.”
Chapter 32
