Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Unplanned

"Funny considering your species is a big proponent of infanticide."

Sunny frowned at him, and he winced, "Sorry."

She continued, "I'm not going to say you are wrong, because you aren't. But there is a fundamental difference between our species. Humans are.... I'm not going to say they aren't monogamous because some most certainly are." She gave him a pointed look, "I mean you could never manage with anyone else, and you most certainly don't share, but then you have people like Ramirez, so we know that humans are not necessarily built for a single partner. Drev on the other hand mate for life....." She looked down at her hands, "The few people I have told about my parent's rocky relationship have asked me why they simply didn't get a divorce, and that's not really how it works for Drev. You can't just get a divorce."

She rolled her spear from one hand to another, "When you fall for someone, it doesn't even really feel like a choice.... Its more like an inevitability, a universal truth, like it has always been that way. My father couldn't leave my mother in the same way he couldn't flap his arms to fly, it just wasn't possible. Drev don't cheat on each other and we don't have secret liaisons. Drev have fallen for rival Drev on a battlefield and they just had to make it work. Usually they duel it out and whoever loses has to leave their own clan."

Adam had gone quiet now and was just listening to her talk.

He never forgot she was the saint of Anin, but sometimes he was remind ed that that position came with an almost scholarly philosophy and understanding of Drev religion and culture, "Not only can Drev not leave each other, but we can't actively cheat on each other either. You can't have more than one connection in a lifetime. Its why Kanan has never gotten together with anyone else and he never will. Our intensely monogamous nature, and our lifestyle as warriors hasn't exactly done great things for the birthrate."

That seemed to be true enough.

Adam had often wondered how Drev managed to even keep their population in balance when they spent most of their time trying to kill each other.

"To compensate for the fact we only ever mate once for our entire lives, it means there is this undeniable biological imperative much stronger than what you see in humans. Plenty of human woman have no drive to have children, don't even want them. Humans are so different that family is a choice." She shook her head once, "Not to us, the biological imperative is too strong , and we compensate for the fact that we have a high death rate by having as many children as possible."

He sat up feeling the beat of his heart slow as he listened to her talk, resting his head on her shoulder to listen.

"I don't think we have as much choice as humans do. Naktan thinks that the whole infanticide thing is deeply intertwined with that. Sacrificing a child that requires more care to make room for healthy kits assuming that its better to make room for more healthy kits rather than waste resources on one that is not. Both of us agree that this isn't the way it should be done, but you get the point."

He took her hand, lacing the four of her fingers through his five as he listened still trying to come to terms with the way their lives had suddenly and drastically changed.

"But the biological imperative is stronger than the need to create room for healthy kits, which is why so many Drev mothers can't kill their young and instead abandon them."

She sighed and rubbed her head, "Point being is that, I think birth control is counter intuitive to how we operate normally, which is why I never considered it. War never stopped us before, so why should it stop us now."

"To be fair." He muttered head still resting against her shoulder, "They weren't stuck on a ship in deep space far inside hostile territory."

She hummed low in her chest.