"Let's have a parade for Easter with our new stuffed animals!" Brittany suggests excitedly in English. She starts lining up stuffed animals.
"Okay!" Margaret agrees in English. She lines up her stuffed animals for the parade too. The other pets also line up thier stuffed animals. Tulip tries to line up her stuffed chick but flops over. Emily and Margaret help her sit up again in her special chair.
"Thank you," says Tulip.
After the parade, the aliens come in and get the pet humans for lunch. They are gently placed into thier highchairs.
The pets are fed ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, and jellied cranberries for lunch. Gibray sits beside Tulip and feeds her.
"Gibray, Tulip can feed herself. You really like her, don't you?" Lioslay asks.
"Yes! I'm sorry, Lioslay," Gibray answers.
"It's okay, Gibray. Thank you for trying to help Tulip and being so kind to her. Eat your lunch. Tulip's food is already cut up for her, and she can eat it herself," Lioslay says.
The pets are given milk to drink. The aliens eat little houses filled with treasures for lunch. The houses are made from petals and the "treasures" are berries and beans. Palasha is also served, along with sparkling "ponds" to drink.
The Nividians discuss thier pet humans and other things during lunch. Quigor had introduced the others to thier sister and her family earlier.
"How's everything going with Susie? Is it difficult having her?" Eckrel asks Oypalla and Nombley.
"Susie is a challenge, but she's doing very well," Oypalla says, watching her pet happily eat her food.
"Susie is very happy and caring. She's also fun to watch. The kids love her," Nombley says. "Yes, it's difficult sometimes, but it's also very rewarding."
"That's good. Have you managed to teach her anything?" Eckrel asks.
"She comes sometimes when we call her now," Homsel says.
"Very good Homsel! You must have had to work very hard to teach her that!" Eckrel exclaims.
"Yes, we did. Susie has lots of trouble learning," Gibray says, petting Tulip softly. "Does Tulip have trouble learning too?" She asks Lioslay curiously.
"She does have a harder time with it than other pets sometimes, but she's very smart for a human," Lioslay replies, watching Tulip.
"Than why can't she talk?" Gibray asks.
"Because her muscles don't work well enough for her to be able to pronounce our words like other pet humans can. But Tulip can understand a lot of what we're saying. She has a communication book that she uses to talk to us by handing us symbols. She's able to speak to the other humans," Lioslay explains.
Tulip stares at the two aliens. "Tulip, it's okay. I'm telling Gibray how smart you are!" Lioslay tells her. Tulip looks at her owner and smiles.
"Wow! Can I see it?" Gibray asks.
"Yes, I'll show it to you after lunch," Lioslay replies.
"Okay! Thank you!" Gibray replies.
They finish eating thier meal. Quigor puts Margaret to bed for a nap after lunch. Susie and Tulip also take a nap, while James, Brittany, and Emily play together. Lioslay shows Gibray Tulip's communication book, and she loves it.
"Let's go play in the backyard!" Brittany cries excitedly in English.
"Okay!" The others agree in English.
"Mepo! Emily, James, Brittany play outside?" Emily asks in Nivish.
Mepo asks Eckrel, Oypalla, and Azzeela if that's alright with them. They agree to let thier pets play in the backyard. "Yes, Emily, play outside with friends," Mepo tells her, letting them go to the backyard.
Azzeela, Pombal, Homsel, and Gibray go outside with the pets to watch them. Quigor, Mepo, Eckrel, Oypalla, and Nombley play a complicated Nividian game inside the house.
Brittany happily goes on the swings while Emily builds a sandcastle.
James decides to pretend he is hunting. He grabs a giant flower petal and searches for his prey.
Emily's sandcastle looks like a good catch. James closes in on his prey, sneaking up quietly on it with the petal.
Suddenly he is picked up by Pombal. "Come play James," Pombal says, petting him softly.
"No, James play Emily," James protests in Nivish, squirming to get away.
"James, Emily play too," Pombal says as Homsel carefully picks up Emily.
"Play sand please?" Emily begs in Nivish.
"No, Emily. Play game with us," Hombel says, carrying her onto her playset.
"Okay. Play good," Emily says in Nivish. "James, it's okay. We'll play by ourselves later," she says to her friend in English.
Gibray had grabbed Brittany. She is very excited to begin the game with the pet humans. They are going to discover Earth, where the wild humans live. (Don't worry, only in thier game. Not for real.)
"Okay, so where's Earth?" Gibray asks. Brittany looks at her. "Earth?" She asks, sounding worried.
"Yes, Brittany, Earth! Good girl!" Gibray says, petting her sofly and not understanding she's upset.
"Brittany, don't worry, it's only a game they're playing," Emily explains in English.
"Oh, okay. Thanks," says Brittany in English, sounding relieved.
"Put them in the sandbox. That's Earth," says Homsel.
"How do we keep them there?" Asks Gibray.
"It's okay if they run off. They can't get out of the yard," Homsel says.
"Okay," says Gibray, placing Brittany into the sandbox. Brittany happily starts on a sand castle.
"Are you all having fun with the pet humans? Make sure to let them play with each other. They're all very good friends," Azzeela says.
"Yes, they're lots of fun. Don't worry, we'll let them play," the children agree.
James is still holding his petal. He sneaks up on Emily again with it once they are back in the sandbox. Then he hits her sand castle with it to capture his prey.
"Hey, James, you broke my sand castle! Why did you do that?" Emily asks in English.
"Because I'm going to cook it for supper! It's a nice juicy rabbit!" James says, scooping Emily's sand castle into a pail and carrying the sand to the some stem pieces he piled up.
"No, James! Bad!" Azzeela says, gently picking him up and taking the pail of sand away from him. She gives it back to Emily and carries James into the house, placing him into a timeout pen.
Brittany and Emily happily work on thier sandcastles together. Emily's castle has a nice fence with watchtower. She tears off a small piece of Jame's petal to use for a flag for her castle. Brittany has made a round castle surrounded by smaller square castles.
The children pretend to head to Earth after breakfast. It doesn't take take them long to get there in thier fast spaceship. They carefully land on "Earth" and search for the humans.
"Look! I see some humans playing over there!" Gibray exclaims.
"Be careful not to startle them. Wild humans get frightened very easily," Pombal warns.
Emily turns around to look at the aliens. "No take Emily please. Emily play Brittany friend," she says in Nivish.
"Let Emily play with Brittany, Pombal," Azzeela orders.
"But we want to play with the pet humans!" Gibray protests.
"Then go see if Susie is awake. She'll play with you," Azzeela suggests.
Homsel disobeys Azzeela and picks up Brittany anyway.
"No! Play!" Brittany cries in Nivish. She worked very hard with Azzeela to learn these words.
"Put her down!" Azzeela orders.
Homsel reluctantly puts Brittany down and the alien children go back inside the house, very dissapointed that Emily and Brittany didn't want to play with them.
Emily and Brittany go play on the swings and slide together. They have all sorts of fun until they get thirsty and Emily asks Azzeela for a drink. They've been outside for forty five minutes now.
Azzeela takes the pets inside and gets them both something to drink. Thier friends are eating cookies for a snack when they get inside. Everyone has awoken from thier naps.
Gibray is holding Tulip and feeding her. Tulip is very happy and greets Emily and Brittany warmly.
Homsel is holding Susie and feeding her. Susie squirms excitedly at the sight of Emily and Brittany coming inside.
James and Margaret are in highchairs. Emily and Brittany are gently picked up by Lioslay and Azzeela and placed into highchairs too.
The aliens decide to take thier pet humans home with all of thier Easter baskets and toys after lunch.
All of the pet humans had a very good time playing together today!
Author's Note: Thank you for reading Special Pet! Please consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed the story. Tulip will visit her parents for Easter next time in Special Pet. Human Settlement on Nividar will be updated next.