Danzig took me through the process of a friend request, and then how to access the direct message part of the app.
When Bec accepted my request, I felt triumphant. She was talking to us! True, it was through the veil of this app, but it counted as progress.
“Send that picture of the camel you took when we were in Australia,” Danzig told me.
This was working so I didn’t question Danzig’s order. However it took me forever to find the damn picture, it was from over ten years ago! I didn’t realize I had pictures on this phone going back that far.
I sent the camel photo, even though the lighting was a little overexposed, and a short explanation of why a camel was indoors.
MotoSerpent1520
This camel liked people so much he’d follow them around like a dog. He even followed me into thehouse I was renting and I had to get the property owner to come over and get him out.
The little glowing bubble that indicated someone was typing popped up, then came Bec’s response. It was a series of laughing emoji’s and then words.
TheNewMe888
He’s going to get along really well with Danzig’s llama!
“Has she responded? What did she say?” Danzig asked.
“Something about your llama getting along with my camel,” I answered. “Please tell me this isn’t some weird sexual thing?”
Danzig burst out laughing. I heard his phone sound in the background. He must be DMing with her also.
“Ask her about her favorite foods or desserts,” Danzig said. “I’m asking about hobbies she wants to try. If all she’s doing is sitting in her car, then now is a good time to message her.”
MotoSerpent1520
Have you ever had gelato?
TheNewMe888
Yes, there’s a place not far from the condo. It’s so good that I had to limit how many times a week I let myself go there.
I asked about her favorite flavors and if she’d ever tried tiramisu. That’s when I found out that her friend Mila was a pastry chef. That led us to talk a little about her life back in South Dakota. I was learning more right now than I had in the last few months.
“This is fantastic," I said. Danzig and I were still on a call, chatting as we messaged back and forth with Bec. “I’m going toneed to find all my photos from when we were building in China and post them.”
“That was the height of your photography obsession so that’s a good idea. Bec is telling me she might like to try photography out as a hobby so maybe you two could bond over that.”
“I got rid of all my gear a while back, but I could buy us both new cameras and lenses,” I said.
I was so focused on finding just the right words to respond to Bec’s question about my favorite place to travel, that I didn't realize that Danzig had gone silent.
I actually forgot we were on a phone call until Danzig blurted out something shocking. “I talked to Mom.”
“No!” I breathed, almost hitting send on a half-finished sentence. “Tell me you didn’t tell her about Bec.”
Our mom was a typical female Jörmungandr: strong, loud, commanding, and protective.
For someone who wasn’t used to the world serpent culture, Mom would seem overbearing and probably overwhelming. We were a long-lived species and children were rare. Not only had Mom managed to lay and protect an egg for a hundred years of incubation, but then the two of us popped out of one egg.
No one had ever heard of that happening before. A Jörmungandr who attended our Beginnings Celebration said we were cursed with only half a soul each. Mom beheaded him and tossed his body into the ocean. No one dared say anything negative about us or to us after that.
Our mom was a fearsome Jörmungandr and the oldest alive right now. Her “back in my day” stories include munching on woolly mammoths!
It wasn’t that we were afraid that she’d do anything to Bec, she’d never hurt our mate. In fact, she’d be absolutely delighted and want Bec to start calling her mom right away.
