The Non-Human Society

Chapter One Hundred and Seventy One - Renn - A Cough To Notice

      Vim coughed again, drawing my eyes to his table.

"Is he sick?" Fly asked.

"Vim doesn't get sick. He probably just ate something that bit back," Merit said as she messed with the food in her bowl. Her small spoon, the same size as the one that Fly was using, clanked as she did so.

"What'd he eat...?" Fly asked quietly.

Smiling at her tone, which told me exactly what she thought he had eaten, I wondered how long it'd take before Fly truly grew accustomed to us. Or at least, to Vim.

"Who knows?" Merit sighed, and then reached across the table as to grab the small bottle of spices. Maybe she hadn't been playing with her food, but simply didn't like it much. This was the third time she's poured more of that strange herb into the bowl.

Still...

Glancing at the table Vim sat at, two away from ours, I wondered how long he'd cough for. It's been nearly a whole day since he had gone down into that weird hole... and although he wasn't coughing anywhere near as often, or as harshly, every so often he still did so.

"He's fine Renn," Merit said as she stopped adding more spices to her bowl, and went to taking another bite.

I nodded, though wasn't sure if I agreed with her just yet.

After all... there was obviously a reason he was, and had been, coughing. What had been down there? Why had it affected him so harshly? He had said it would have hurt me too, which was why I had not gone with him.

Why was something so dangerous right below us?

And even more importantly...

For it to have bothered him to that big of a degree, I could only imagine what it would do to others...

Why didn't he fix it? Surely it was something he could eliminate if he wanted to? Wasn't such a thing a threat? To our members? To humans too? Anyone?

Why did Vim eliminate dangerous threats so swiftly, yet on other occasions seemingly let them be without a worry?

"It is kind of nasty," Vim said to Tosh, who laughed and went on to describe some kind of animal meat from the south that the stuff we were eating reminded him of.

Looking down at my own bowl, and its nearly empty condition... I wondered why they all seemed to not care much for it.

It had tasted fine to me. Maybe not as tasty as most of the stuff we usually ate here, but it wasn't horrible by any means.

Did the fact that I didn't mind it, but everyone else did mean something? Maybe I was still not accustomed to eating good food. Or maybe it was something simpler. Or...

"Can I go see my room now?" Fly asked as she dropped her spoon into her now empty bowl. Like me she didn't seem to notice if it tasted bad, or if she did she simply didn't care.

"I'll take ya!" Brandy startled the young bird, her loud voice making her jump as she turned to look at her.

Brandy giggled away, standing from the table that Vim sat at. She left her bowl and cup, and Fly quickly got up to join her.

"Renn?" Fly glanced my way as she did so, and I realized she expected me to come with her.

"I'll join you after I'm done," I said with a gesture to the little left in my bowl.

She nodded and smiled, seemingly understanding.

"Bye Merit!" Fly hurried to leave with Brandy. As she did, I notice she gave the table Vim and Tosh sat at a large birth.