Marianne Dyson - The Shape of Things to Come

She sucked in air and exhaled, “Squeak! Squeeaak!” She also tried getting up on her four little limbs to follow them, and even made two steps before falling. With practice, she could do it, but she would be better off getting them to carry her. She puckered up her hairless spot and made a pop sound like she’d seen the young one do. Oh, yes! She was getting better and better at this! The tallest one turned its two main eyes at her. She puckered up again. “Smooch!”

That did it! The tallest one folded itself and then lifted Suetork high again as it straightened out. Suetork saw that the young one rode on the back of the other tall one as before, its upper limbs wrapped around it. Imitating it, Suetork settled herself on a flat area atop one of the tallest one’s upper limbs, pressing against a curve for support.

She shared heat with the tall one like she did with her sisters at night. She was pleasantly surprised how much heat it gave back! Sleeping on one of these beings would be like stretching out on warm sand. She even spread her hairless section out flat to cool off a bit, running it over one of the tall one’s hairless spots. It didn’t seem to mind, and Suetork enjoyed the salty taste of its skin.

After a short time, the two tall ones lifted the white hollow tube and suspended the rock thing from it between them. As they shifted their mass from side to side, the rock thing sloshed with blue deep. Suetork still didn’t understand why they did this, but looked forward to figuring it out.

As the being carried her toward the dunes, Suetork considered how nice it was to not worry about elaw, the night cold, or if she would find enough food to bud the next generation of Suetorks in time to dominate the annual mating. Being treated as a young one certainly had survival value! If it turned out the beings fell to some predator before they caught more of the brown food, Suetork would simply join the feast, and then try her ruse with the winners. Eventually, she imagined her whole group would use this trick to survive and thrive as never before.