Chapter Text
This was never supposed to happen.
From an early age, he knew he was bound to be alone for the rest of his life, so obviously this drastic change was NEVER supposed to happen to him. He has heard of it, back then when he was a pebble, that there are a very few Eridians who never underwent this process.
He had made peace with it long ago, so why was it happening now?! Not only that, but this was going to start while he was in outer space with a leaky alien, cramped in a small space with nowhere to hide.
With his luck, he might not even survive the course.
Grace paced back and forth on his side of the Hail Mary, clearly agitated about it. He was emitting low vibrations, inaudible to the human ear. Fortunately, his human companion was busy cleaning himself up on the far side of the ship, oblivious to the sharp sounds of his claws stomping around on the clear xenonite.
The Soulmorph.
The Eridian professor was already nearing the middle of his lifespan, and he even taught a lesson or two about this topic to his pebbles back on Erid, so obviously this was not supposed to be a foreign concept to little old professor Grace.
It only felt like a foreign concept because he never expected it to happen to him.
“Teacher Grace, teacher Grace!”
The medium rough, small triangle shaped pebble was waving their claw as they approached him in a hurry. Classes have ended and most of his students have already gone to their respective villages, probably annoyed at the load of homework he gave.
“Slow down, you might fall. Yes, Finn?”
“Can I ask you something? My parents are always too busy and it’s about my older sibling.”
Grace stopped arranging his teaching materials. “Oh, Feather? Why, did something happen?” He remembered Feather, when they were still a wee pebble. They were never in his class but the Eridian was boisterous and notorious throughout their school, enough for him to have heard of them. They had the opposite personality of their sibling, who was currently nervously rubbing their claws in front of him.
“Yes yes yes, it’s about Feather. Aspen-parent said that what is happening to them is normal, but I do not understand.”
The Eridian teacher let out a questioning trill. “Did something happen? Are they hurt?”
“No no no, like Aspen-parent said, it is normal. I just found them in their private chamber surrounded by something that looks like bigger carapace? But not the same texture and shape as their own! And Feather is inside, I can hear them!”
Grace released a few musical notes of relief. At least Feather was not in any harm.
“Ah, little Finn, your sibling is just undergoing their Soulmorph. It’s normal, actually, and nothing to be worried about. I’m guessing Aspen-parent and Harlow-parent have not told you about it?”
Which is not unusual, since Finn was barely 50 years old. These talks were usually done when they are closer to being a boulder.
“Yes yes yes, which is why I am here, asking you, since you are Teacher.”
Grace clicked disapprovingly. This was supposed to be a talk from the parents, but then again, this topic isn’t vulgar to pebble hearing organs, since it was just a normal part of life. Plus, the poor pebble was worried about their elder sibling.
“Alright. What is happening to Feather is called a ‘Soulmorph’. Does it sound familiar?”
The little Eridian raised its claws. “AH! Yes, I have heard of that. I think Feather-sibling said it also, but I was… not paying attention.”
They were probably playing games on their portable device.
“I see. Well, we Eridians have a perfect song match, or a songmate, who are connected by a strong soul bond. This soul bond is not something we can feel in our carapace, and it is not something physical on our bodies. Eridian scientists actually still do not have a good explanation on how we find our perfect song match, but they think it is related to our heart melody.”
“Oooh!”, Finn whistles. “I remember, Feather met their perfect song match, it is Otis!”
“Otis?” Grace tried not to sound too bewildered. That pebble was in his class long ago, and if he remembered correctly, was just as rambunctious as Feather. Certainly a perfect match.
“Yes yes yes! Is that why Feather is still inside the big carapace?”
“Ah, yes, I believe”, Grace continued. “They say that when you find your perfect song match, you will know and feel it in all five hearts; a melody that you never knew was lacking all your life. It is like the two of you complete a song. After this, the Soulmorph process starts, but it is not the same for every pair. Some start right away, some start together, others start a few weeks or months after finding their perfect match, and sometimes they will not experience it at the same time.”
Finn emitted a low coo. “So what is Soulmorph?”
Grace pointed his claw to the rough diagram in the far corner of the chamber. “You know how we are from different villages, environments, and even countries?”
“Yes yes yes, Erid is very large planet.”
Grace gave a note of affirmation. “We are adapted to our homes, to where we are born. Here in Country Savanna, it is very hot with a lot of flat land, so most Eridians here are smaller and have adapted to keep mercury inside our body despite the heat.
In other places, like Country Alps, Eridians live very high above, and have physiologies adapted for less ammonia, and they are also usually a bit bigger, compared to us, with textures that complement their environment.”
The pebble waved their claws in understanding.
“When you have a perfect song match, the Eridian body senses this, and undergoes a metamorphosis to equilibrate to the two home environments. During this process, we form an external shell, thicker than our own carapace to protect our body as it develops the changes. After approximately weeks to months, depending on the changes, the pair emerges from the shell, completely adapted to home environments of both.”
“Amaze!”
Grace laughed. “Yes, it is amazing. Evolution has helped us adjust to our different environments, with our most compatible song match, in order to assure a very healthy clutch that can survive in both places. If both come from the same environment, then there is little change.”
Finn shook his claws in excitement, and did a little dance. “So that’s what’s happening to Feather-sibling! It was because they found their perfect song match.”
“Yes, and it is a normal process of Eridian life so there is no need to worry about them. Just give it a few weeks and they will be out of the shell, good as new.”
The pebble slowed down their happy dancing. “Does this mean it will happen to me too, when I find my perfect song match?”
Grace tried to sound excited. He really, really did, but he couldn’t help the sad undertones in his vocalizations. “Y-yes, everyone eventually finds their match… well, as far as I know. All my friends have already had their first clutch and are very happy happy happy.”
The small pebble stomped their claw. “You too, Teacher Grace? How was Soulmorph for you?”
How was Soulmorph indeed.
Grace tried to recall what he told little Finn, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember. All his life he wondered what it would feel like, being able to hear his perfect song match and being able to change to better match them, to have multiple clutches, and to raise little pebbles.
But deep down, he knew that he was a little bit too different from the usual everyday Eridians.
Grace, despite being a member of a species that highly depends on community, loves to keep to himself. He tends to work better when alone, and because of this, has a very irregular sleeping pattern, where he spends most of his life awake. On the few times he had to sleep, there were communal places where friendly Eridians will offer to keep watch.
That was how pathetic and alone he was. No family, no mate, no one was there to watch him sleep. Which was why he tried to stay awake as much as possible, certainly very strange to other Eridians.
He also knew he wasn’t the most attractive Eridian back home. He was smaller than most for his age, carapace a bit too smooth, lacking the beautiful curves, notches and grooves that reflect the pretty resonances that the usual Eridian loves to hear. He remembers old workmate scientists Shapiro and Dubois, who were completely enamored with one another the moment they met. They both almost instantly have gone into Soulmorph so close to the time of launch, which lead to… unfortunate circumstances.
Very unfortunate circumstances.
But that was something he did not want to delve into right now.
He felt a shiver coming from all 5 of his hearts, and he could tell that his core temperature was starting to rise.
Was this… what a Soulmorph felt like?
Some of his old friends have said that the feeling of meeting their songmate was indescribable, hard to put to music. It seems to stem from the deep, physiological connection that one suddenly perceives once they hear their perfect song match, and they always said there is something in their voice that seems to physically connect at their heart strings when they first meet. Some say their hearts skip a beat, others will feel a fluttering of their gut, and some describe it as a sudden increase in their core temperature.
All of which Grace felt when he first saw the human alien, Rocky.
But of course, he ignored all of that because he was too busy being freaked out by the presence of another living thing other than him in this cold, expansive domain.
Grace huffed to himself. He legitimately thought that he was just really excited to see someone else, after years of being alone. How was he supposed to know that all of those sensations was him meeting his songmate?! Plus, Rocky was a human, so he really had no idea!
There was a sharp pang in his hearts and he knew he was going to have to make space for his cocoon soon. He had no time to dilly dally- he needs to prepare now.
If he remembered correctly, Feather’s Soulmorph took about 2 months. He remembers Yao saying that his took about 3 weeks, one of the fastest he has known.
How long would his take?
And what was going to happen to him?!
Rocky was a human, he has no carapace, only 4 limbs, breathes oxygen and has “eyes” as a sensory receptor organ! He has no idea what it was like to perceive with these, much less walk on two limbs!
Will his biology really force him to change that drastically?
Would he even survive it?
Is there a chance that he would…. No.
No. No. No.
Grace tried to calm himself down as he started to pace towards the area with the least machines that Rocky uses, so that he will be out of his way while he was-
Oh no.
Rocky.
He never told Rocky about Soulmorphing.