“Yes, beloved,” I agreed. “Hmm... I shall take you regenerating.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I’ll teach you when we arrive at the site,” I promised. “But first, we must acquire a basket and seeds. Let us visit Linn’ar’s den.”
“If he’s even home,” Levi murmured in amusement. “It looked like he didn’t want to leave Jaeyoung’s side.”
“Yes, I also noticed that. I suspect Linn’ar feels the same pull towards your friend as I did to you, even if neither of them are aware of it yet.”
Levi’s brows rose. “You think so? But they’ve barely spoken.”
“Time will pass. They will speak, and get to know each other. If the connection is true, it will happen.”
Levi nodded slowly, then smiled. “You sound so confident, Zat’tor. It’s funny. If anyone else told me Jaeyoung would fall in love with an alien, I’d laugh it off. But when you say it, I believe you.”
I worked my tentacle around his waist as he walked. “It’s only a theory based on how Linn’ar looked at your friend. He is not usually so fussy.”
Levi grinned. “I guess we’ll see.”
When we arrived at Linn’ar’s den, my sibling greeted us. His mood had improved once he knew Jaeyoung was well. Linn’ar handed us a sturdy basket he’d woven from dry root fibers.
“Are you two going regenerating?” he asked.
“Yeah, although I don’t know what that means yet,” Levi replied.
Linn’ar trilled happily. “Oh, you will enjoy yourself, Levi! In that case, just wait a moment.”
He scurried into his den and returned with a single beige seed. Holding it gingerly between two claws, he placed it in Levi’s open palm.
“One for me, one for all,” Linn’ar recited. “Now you’d better get going. You will be busy if you’re visiting the whole village.”
As we went to the next den, Levi faced me and asked, “The thing that Linn’ar said... it sounded like it was part of a ritual.”
“You could say that,” I agreed. “Regenerating is one of our rituals. We will visit each of my siblings, and each one will give us a seed. We shall take the seeds to the Sweetfields and plant them where the flowers were crushed.”
Levi lowered his face guiltily, but I tipped his chin up.
“It’s not a ritual of punishment,” I told him. “It’s as the name suggests. Regeneration. Starting anew. Feel hope instead of shame.”
A smile tugged at Levi’s mouth. “I’ll try.”
We continued our rounds and were rewarded with plenty of seeds for our efforts. Levi gained confidence during each visit as he met and spoke to my siblings, many of them for the first time. Of course, every Maeleon knew Levi was my filum. They treated him as one of our own—which he was.
“You know, this ritual is kind of similar to something we do on Earth,” Levi commented. He sorted through the seeds, examining all the different shapes and colors.
“Oh?” I asked.
“On certain parts of Earth, we have a yearly festival called Halloween,” Levi explained. “It’s mostly for children, but adults can participate, too. Everyone dresses up in a costume and goes door-to-door, kinda like what we’re doing. Except instead of getting a seed, you get candy.”
“Halle-oh-wiin,” I murmured, attempting to say it correctly.
Levi grinned. “That’s right.”
“Fascinating. What is candy?”
“Oh, they’re like small sweets full of sugar.” He chuckled. “They’re actually pretty bad for you, but they taste good, so humans can’t stop eating them.”
I imagined Levi stuffing his mouth full of little sweets. The image made my heart clench with fondness.
