Life in the Nest - Something Monstrous This Way Comes II

Nest Year 7, 36th day.

Hello again.

Sandra helped me write my last post, and after I posted it, she suggested that I write about what life in our nest is like.

Unfortunately, because of our isolation, I do not have a good idea what other pentapede nests are like, or even what your society is like. So, Sandra is helping me to highlight areas where we differ.

I was hatched from a six-parent egg group. From a biological perspective, Sandra says our sexual reproduction is similar to yours, one sperm + one ovum = one offspring (more complicated than that, she says, but good enough for now). So that means I have one "mother" and one "father", but without testing it would be impossible to know which of the six is which. It's even possible, though unlikely, that I only have one genetic parent that provided both ovum and sperm. That doesn't really matter, though, because every parent of the egg group is considered a primary caretaker of the hatchlings. I suppose there could be vastly greater numbers involved, but generally our nest has three- to nine-parent groups.

Only about 60% of the eggs hatch, and only 30% of the hatchlings survive their first two weeks; most are killed by other hatchlings. I have to justify this, she says. Well, when we hatch, we aren't aware of ourselves; we're vicious, violent. In a couple weeks, we grow out of this, but we can't remember it. There's no more justification to give, it's how we are.

After we reach awareness, we are allowed to participate in the nest. We're taught our language quickly, and meanwhile we are assigned simple, menial tasks while we mature, which takes about two months. Then, we join the nest as adults and are expected take part in organizing and running it.

Which is something I must do now; we raise mice for food, but they don't provide all our nutrition, and anyway they don't breed fast enough to sustain our growth. So, I must hunt for birds or other small animals to feed us tonight.

-- Shndahshah