Shattered Bonds (continued)

You shouldn’t have observed it the first time, Wendy wanted to retort, but she could not find a more polite way to say it aloud.

She settled for, “I don’t think that will be possible.”

Wendy read the young [alien]’s expression as disappointment.

“Shanta,” Wendy explained gently, feeling oddly mildly guilty. “We—most humans—don’t like to be watched when we . . . Bond.”

Shanta’s head tilted again. “It the same among the [] as well. It is considered . . .”

“Rude?” Wendy offered.

Muscles in the [alien]’s face moved. “No,” she finally said. “It is . . . perverted.”

Wendy’s eyes grew wide and her eyebrows rose. When the initial shock wore out, she tried very hard not laugh.

“Shanta,” she choked back a giggle, “where did you hear that word?”

“From a female Human,” Shanta replied, very matter-of-factly. “The one that bore Lor’lei and her litter.”

Wendy managed to mostly not roll her eyes.

Of course. Who else? She suppressed a sigh. I wonder who she was going off about now . . .

“Um,” Wendy said, biting down on her lower against a snicker. “I’m not sure that’s the right word.”

She realized that Shanta was staring at her, apparently seeking an explanation and, possibly, the correct Human term.

“Is it forbidden?” she asked Shanta.

“It is not done.”

Wendy’s lips formed a tight line, trying not to show her frustration at the young [alien]’s rather unhelpful explanation.

“Why not?”

It was Shanta’s turn to pause before answering.

“Because once they are Bonded, no mate would want another.”

Wendy nodded. That made sense to her, based on what she understood of [alien] mating physiology.

“What about before they Bond?”

Shanta appeared to consider this for a moment. “It has never been spoken of.”

To you, anyway, Wendy remarked silently.

Since Shanta was young, it was entirely likely that she had not been exposed to any discussions that covered deviant sexual behavior in her society. If Wendy was right, though, Shanta should be approaching the [alien] equivalent of puberty.

I wonder who handles “The Talk” in their families? Wendy guessed, based on her understanding of [alien] society, it was probably the mother. Do they even have “The Talk”?

Many cultures on Earth, from what she had read, had specific rituals and ceremonies when a young man or woman passed from childhood to adulthood. For females, it might be the first onset on menses, marking their transition to reproductive maturity. Or it might be predicated upon reaching a certain age or achieving a specific accomplishment. In many primitive hunting tribes, the male child was required to complete his first successful kill during a hunt before he would be permitted to pass into manhood.

“I’m still not sure that ‘perverted’ is the right word,” Wendy said, stumbling slightly over the term. “It means . . . something that people don’t believe should be done.”

“It is not done,” Shanta repeated.

“I mean in a bad way,” Wendy explained, beginning to see that the nuances of certain human words might be more than just a little difficult to explain to the rather direct and plain-spoken [aliens].