After she fell asleep, I started to feel like I should as well, but this was mixed with a feeling that she was picking favorites and was picking me out of the 5. With my age, though, there was also a feeling she persisted with me for a different reason.
"Nathan, can you see the dreamed-up world?" She asked me as I look around the room in the sense of familiarity.
"Yes, and is this... my home?" I said to her as I started to shed a tear.
She brought me to the couch and said: "Yes, it is, and your former home it's not as spacious compared to mine, but I've got your entire room now and more square yards to use," she replied.
"Wouldn't have expected you to use earthen measurements," I replied.
"Hey, maybe you can remodel the home?' She asked me.
"Do I look like a house flipper to you?" I asked her.
"It's easier than you think with our technology," she replied.
"What do I have to work with then?" I asked her.
"I'll tell you when we wake up," she replied.
I soon woke up to Clair, holding me and feeling the left side of my face. "You could use a cobra hood," she told me.
"So how exactly am I supposed to remodel this place?" I asked her as she got me out of the web.
"Let's head to the entrance, and I'll show you," she replied.
We headed out, and she gave me a device with a UI with a layout of the house. "Wow, 10,000 square yards, that's about as big as Machiavelli said he had set aside for my room and the hive," I told her.
"Yeah, the hive moved, and guess what?" She asked me.
"They're moving in with us," I replied.
"Wow, that's what I was going to say," she replied. "The hive took up most of that to be clear."
I started by placing the hive's door to see how much it took. It took 9,500 of it. "My room wasn't that big," I told her.
"Your room was only 50 or so," Clair replied. I then extended the size of the main room to double its size. "Ok, now we can so inside and do the furniture since the main room is done," she told me.
We headed inside to find the main room double the size and with 100 square yards left. "A lot of the stuff I don't normally use, but I have a feeling you'd find a use," Clair told me.
"K, I'll get everything set up," I replied. I set up the Lovesac couch to allow all of us to lay on it; effectively making it a big bed, Then the TV that somehow had a few HDMI ports on it. "I didn't know our standards were used here," I told her.
"Hah, your computers can even interface with ours," she replied.
"dunno why you kept that in there," I replied. "Also, I remember the hive being multi-story."
"Yeah, it doesn't account for the height, just the floor that connects to our home," she replied.
After getting the kitchen setup, I decided to get my computer setup, but after getting all of the stuff to use out, she told me we were heading out for lunch. "Can I at least be out of this form when we go?" I asked Clair.
"Oh come on, Nathan, you'll get used to it, then I'll let you turn from that form," she replied.
"Fine, but what restaurant are we going to?" I asked her.
"You'll find out," she replied.
We headed out into what looked like a shopping district of the ship, and the one she chose was surprising even to the others. "A Dairy Queen, wouldn't have expected that," I heard the other human kid in the group in the kid say.
"Well, it'd be easy for you to eat, seeing that she doesn't lock you in your serpent form. I just hope I do not have to swallow it whole," I replied.
"What? I know we're a snake-like race, but we still have to tear the food apart," Clair told me.
While we were waiting for our food, I started to get a sense of my new body. "I don't know what it is about this new form, but I feel like this has some advantages that I didn't know about," I told her.
"Believe me, Nathan, there's plenty of reasons not to turn back after I let you," she replied.
"What is it about my human form, if anything, you don't like?" I asked her.
"There's nothing wrong with your human form Nathan. I just feel like I did something wrong if my children act as if they're not mine. In his case, I'm just there to watch him until we find his family, but you, Nathan, you have no family to go to. I'm your adoptive mother now, and as such, you are mine," she replied.
"I know I keep saying I'm not, but I can't thank you enough for your kindness. Because I feel like I have a home still, but our kind doesn't treat the animals we have in captivity like us; we treat them like they're in the wild, and if your civilization's ethics are like ours you'd know you're doing something wrong here," I told her.
"Your kind's intelligence is up there with ours. You can adapt and change to fit what's going on," she replied as he held my hand. "Come on let's eat then we'll head to the group that Machiavelli introduced to you,"
After we ate lunch, we headed to the same park I first met the others at, but none of them were there. "Huh, I thought they'd be here by now," Clair told me. That's when I saw Daniel and Dante near a heat lamp overlooking sand with Daniel underneath the sand.
"Well, one of my friends is over here near this heat lamp," I told her.
"Which one?" She asked me.
"Daniel, I haven't seen him in days," I replied. I headed over to him, but for a bit, he didn't recognize me.
"Who... oh Nathan, I almost didn't recognize you in that new body. You know Clair might be strict, but I've never known someone as kind as her. One time after we met, Dante had me with her for a day or 2. She wouldn't let me out of my dragon form, but in the first 4 hours, I realized how much stress I was putting on myself because when I was with her, it was just gone. So I now try to unwind every so often if I can," he told me as he worked his shoulders into the sand.
"What brings you here, anyhow?" Dante asked.
"I was looking for the rest of the group I used to go to," I replied.
"Well, after what happened between you and Machiavelli, it disbanded. You know he's the one that set it up," he told me.
"I guess we can head home then, Clair," I told her.
"Wait, Nathan, maybe I can bring them together," she told me.
"You can?" I asked her.
"Yeah sure, but yeah, let's just head home for now," she replied.
We headed back to Clair's home, and I started to get my system setup into the house only for Clair to come out of a closet a minute or so later with what looked like close tailed blankets meant for her kind. "Why'd you bring those out?" I asked her
"Aren't you stressed about the investigation?" She asked me.
"Why wouldn't I be, my own family was murdered," I replied.
She handed me my wrap as she said: "don't you want to get your mind off of it for a while? Come on, get into that and I'll turn the TV on."
"Might as well," I replied as I got onto the couch and got into the thing and that when I realized something's different about mine compared to theirs. "Where are the armholes?" I asked her.
"You're the one we'd snuggle up to. You won't need them," she replied. "There's some inner sleeves for your arms, though."
"Why do I even do this? I really need to get my..." I stopped there as she hugged me. "Why do your hugs always... Oh, what am I kidding? I'll get in for you," I told her.
"that's the kid I know, knowing when they need to settle down and let their troubles wash away," she replied as she zipped me inside of it.
She gathered the others, with the other human kid in the room turning to his serpent form, and put theirs on, which had sleeves on the outside that covered the entirety of their arm, even their hands. It looked to be as soft as mine. "How tight is this thing? I don't..." I ended up with the same calming sensation as before when she hugged me again, and I stopped my speech there.
"You know why this always calms you down?" I could care less in the state I was in. I only let out a smile as I looked dreamy-eyed at her. "It's just a calming touch our kind has with those we love," she told me,
and when there's more in the picture," I heard one of the kids say as they hugged me. "It can turn into something more." The rest preceded to hug me as well, and I began to feel an overwhelming amount of love from them to the point I began to shed a tear.
"Clair, would it be odd to your friends if I start calling you mom?" I asked her.
"Nathan, you don't have to, I don't even share a relation with your kind let alone you," she replied.
"Well, it just feels wrong now. My actual mother never wanted me, I have no whereabouts of my dad, my grandparents on my father's side were poisoned with hydrogen cyanide by Machiavelli, and my uncle bled out from a stab wound by Virgil's knife. I can only imagine where your husband is Clair because I'm sure he'd raise me like his son," I told her.
"He's working on cleanup efforts on Earth, Nathan, but he's coming back," she replied.
"I'm sure he's wonderful to raise these three he must love us as much as he does you," I replied.