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I wake up and try to stretch my legs out. They feel stiff. Heavier than I remember.
Glancing around, I realize my vision is blurry and dim. Hm. Maybe it's still early? I reach for my glasses. At least I try to. My arms are not cooperating this morning either. Being old sucks!
In the distance I can hear Rocky and Adrian, engaged in a melodic conversation. Oh good, maybe they can help me locate my "eye crystals" as they call them. When your whole species doesn't have eyes, there's no need to have a word for glasses now, is there?
I can already hear Rocky's gentle reprimands for misplacing my glasses again and a bubbly chuckle leaves me. But something weird happens. As I let out the gentle sound, my vision got - sharper? That. Can't have been right.
Before I can wrap my head around of what just happened, I notice Rocky and Adrian sounding much closer. Except now their voices sound panicked. I can just barely make out their shapes before suddenly Rocky starts skittering towards me.
"What did you do?!"
I flinch at the anger in his voice. Wha- what did I do? I can't remember doing anything to make him sound so angry, tones booming around me. I try answering him but all that leaves me is a meek squeak before he's on me, claws clamping down on my hands. He's pinned me down.
"Rocky!" I can hear Adrian calling to him, voice panicked and loud. But he doesn't listen as he grinds my limbs into the ground. Distantly I wonder why it doesn't hurt as much as it should. My fragile old human bones should be shattering below an eridian's strength.
"You destroyed his grave!"
Now I'm truly confused. Whose grave? I'm octogenarian, I'm lucky when I can get out of bed on my own! I have no energy to destroy anything! I try to say as much but my vocal chords won't cooperate, letting out more intelligeble sounds.
"How dare you! He sacrificed his life on Earth to save us and this is how you repay him?"
I let out a panicked chirp as I realize that he's talking about me. But - but I'm alive! He's currently touching me! How could I have possibly destroyed my own grave? Thoughts are rushing through my mind as I'm trying to make sense of the situation.
"Rocky please, you're scaring him," Adrian pleads, trying to soothe with their melodic voice but it's like Rocky isn't listening. His whole body is shaking in rage as his grip on me tightens. I yip in pain.
"I'll fucking kill you," Rocky threatens, voice gone low and menacing and I'm sure he's serious. I have no idea why my best friend hates me all of a sudden. I don't know what I could have done to deserve this. But I give in, body going limp as I accept my fate. It's not as if I could fight him off anyway.
And then he's getting flung off of me by a giant limb slamming into him.
I keep talking to my mate as we get closer and closer to Grace's grave. We have been coming here on the anniversary of the human's passing. Rocky always insists he can go alone. I always insist I will go with him.
We crest the hill that is the human's resting place. Rocky picked this place so Grace could watch the ocean he oh so loved.
"No. Nonononono," Rocky mutters, stopping in his tracks. I stop as well. I see the grave - or rather what's left of it. The ground has been disturbed, the stone that stood there to mark the spot turned over. And next to it was a very small eridian, chittering softly where they lay on the ground.
Before I can stop him, Rocky runs towards the strange eridian, bellowing loudly.
"What did you do?!"
In a rush, I make my way over to the pair, calling out to Rocky in a panic. I have never seen my mate so angry. His claws dig the shaking eridian's limbs into the ground and they let out high pitched squeaks of panic. Something catches my attention and I echolocate with purpose, focusing on one of their limbs.
Rocky keeps demanding answers, shaking in rage as it dawns on me. There is a mark on the eridian's limb. An indent of an eridian's claw. I'd recognize its shape anywhere.
"Rocky please, you're scaring him," I try to soothe but it's no use. Rocky's grip tightens as he lowers his voice to a register he never uses.
"I'll fucking kill you."
Dread makes me move before I can think about it. I slam my limb into Rocky's body, dislodging him from the eridian. I know he's able to take it but it still makes me wish I haven't done that. He hisses and tries to get back up but I'm faster, my size giving me an advantage as I quickly press him down. Firmly but gently.
"Adrian let me go!" he demands with irritated sharp sounds. I don't let up.
"It's Grace," I say simply but he's not listening, flailing his limbs around wildly.
"Rocky!" my voice booms, bouncing across the bio-dome in an echo. Commanding his attention. It finally makes him stop but I can tell he's still enraged. His small body is buzzing with the emotion.
"It is Grace," I repeat, hoping he will finally understand. He doesn't. He hisses and spouts expletives at the believed vandal. The eridian trembles and chitters out tones of distress. It makes my hearts ache.
"Observe. Focus on their arm," I instruct and reluctantly, Rocky listens to me. I can tell the moment he notices what I have already noticed. His whole body freezes.
"What?" he hums, uncertain. I cannot blame him. This should not be possible.
"Grace," I call out to the eridian, keeping my melody as gentle as I can. He chirps and raises his carapace slightly. His movements are uncertain and stilted. So new to the rigid body after spending a lifetime as a soft human.
"Grace?" Rocky asks, voice rising in pitch in disbelief. I finally take my arm off him, sure he won't attack Grace again. He moves towards the eridian hesitantly. Grace attempts to respond but he doesn't know how to use his song yet and all that leaves him are disjointed tones and trills - no better than a newly hatched pebble, vocalizing for their parents.
And then Rocky does something that shocks me. My beautiful, brave mate who saved the stars, runs. I call after him but he doesn't slow down before he's exiting the bio-dome.
"Ro-" Grace cries, the tone a bit off but the intent clear. He's trying to call after my mate. His best friend.
"-ian?" he croaks the end of my name and the sound is so full of fear. I have no idea how well he's adjusting to not being able to rely on his eyes so I decide to come closer to him, one of my vocal systems starting up a low hum. That should help him know where I am.
"It is alright, Grace. We will find out what happened," I promised, picking up his small body gently with two of my arms, cradling him close to my carapace. He lets out more trills, and they already sound more confident, less worbly. I carry him out of the bio-dome and into my and my mate's empty home.
I feel like a mess. When was the last time I slept? I don't bother trying to recall. The last few days have been a blur for me.
Grace's life was short compared to an eridian's. I learned how long humans live on our trip to Erid and ever since that moment I was preparing myself for the inevitable. It did not make it hurt any less when I found Grace in his bed one morning. Motionless.
Too short. Our time together was too short but I can't imagine changing a thing. I made my peace with it.
Except Grace was alive. He was alive. I don't know how. It should not be possible, we buried him according to the human custom he picked. I was the one who lowered his frail human body into the ground. And now he was back, his body no longer the squishy leaky blob I have come to admire over the years.
No, his outer shell was as hard as mine, five limbs instead of the inefficient four. Three fingers instead of five. No eyes. No hair.
Somehow, Grace has turned into an eridian and he was alive and I feel faint all of a sudden. This, also, has been happening a lot as the reality crashed into me in waves. Or it could be the lack of sleep - a voice dangerously close to Grace's chastises me.
I recall how scared he sounded when I pinned him down. I was so convinced it was a rogue eridian who broke into Grace's bio-dome and who destroyed his final resting place.
If it wasn't for Adrian, I would have-
I recall how desperate my mate was to catch my attention. To make me notice what they noticed. The claw mark was unmistakably mine - smaller on Grace's new eridian limb but there was no doubt. It was the only time we had touched when he was still a human, no barriers between us. And it left him with a scar.
And now the first time I touched him as an eridian, it was filled with violence and hate.
I let out an involuntary troubled chirrup. Without thinking, I have made my way to mine and Adrian's home and now I was nervously shuffling in place. How could I face him? How could I face either of them?
That decision was taken from me as Adrian left our home. I couldn't even hear them coming, too preoccupied with my thoughts.
"Love. We were so worried," Adrian hums a melody full of relief. One of their claws reaches for me and I sidestep it. I don't deserve their comfort. I don't think I will ever again. Not after I hurt Grace. Not after I ran like a coward.
"How - how is he?" I ask instead. Adrian straightens up a bit, clearly hurt by me avoiding their touch. It makes me feel even worse.
"Grace is adjusting well but slow. The eridian body is so new to him, it will take some time before he's fully comfortable."
"He is smart, he'll figure it out," I say with conviction and Adrian lets out an affirmative low frequency thrum. Then they fall silent. I can feel them observing me but I don't know what else to say. No apology could ever make my actions right.
"Your name was the first word he was able to pronounce properly."
That took me by surprise. Even after all of that? I was expecting Grace would hate me. I was prepared to never see him again. Adrian moves again and this time I let them touch my carapace. They whistle gently, a sound of affection.
"He would love to see you," they say and I no longer have the desire to fight them as they guide me through our home. They bring me to our nest. A place of privacy, reserved only for mates. But Grace was always an exception to many eridian customs when it came to us.
He trills as he recognizes me and I freeze. It sounds so much like his old human voice that it paralyzes me. I didn't expect to hear its melody ever again and the sound of it is overwhelming.
On shaky limbs, he stands. Still uneasy about having an extra limb at his disposal. That finally makes me take a hesitant step towards him.
"Don't push yourself," I beg but he doesn't listen to me. When does he ever? He stands, three limbs supporting his weight. His other two limbs move in front of his carapace, one horizontal and the other - the one with my claw mark on it - perpendicular to the first one.
I recognize the stance immediately and with a shaky chipper do the same. Grace lets out an excited squeak and almost falls over as he attempts to dance but manages to catch his balance again, sidestepping more carefully this time.
We dance together just like the first time we met, Adrian crooning at us happily. I know that if I had human eyes, I'd be leaking everywhere, the happiness flooding my system in a warm tidal wave.
Whatever happened to bring my Grace back to me, it was a miracle. And I wouldn't throw it away.