"Naaaaaa! Naaa….. na….."  

Kiki suddenly realized that the person in front of her was important. 

Like, very important. Perhaps more important than anyone she had ever met before. It didn't matter that this person only vaguely looked like a human woman, and mostly was a glowy vine-mushroom creature. What mattered was her inviting smile, very snuggable leaves, and very chewable seed pods. 

She needed to be in those vines immediately.

Without even taking a moment to think, she rushed for the woman's legs. 

“Oh dear. You’re a needy one, aren’t you.”

Kiki nuzzled her face at the foot of the creature, and caught a wondrous aromatic odor, a stinging taste of pollen and fruiting mushrooms. She felt a little guilty for embracing the stranger so quickly, but she couldn't help it. Her entire body was brimming with desire to make physical contact with the lady. Part of her mind was struggling, trying to urge caution with the giant plant alien, the name of which had escaped her. Was it the Effies? The Fisheries? It didn’t matter. The thought of being caressed by someone's vines made her so happy.

“What’s your name, little one?”

The lady knelt down to meet Kiki face-to-face. The human cocked her head. There was a lingering sound of a name at the tip of her tongue. She opened her mouth to speak.

“Chr… chi…" 

She had trouble bending her tongue to say the word properly, and so scrunched her nose up and tried again. "Chi...chi…"

"Kiki?" The lady finished for her, asking very sweetly.

Kiki nodded cautiously. She thought that was it, but part of her had reservations. Not that it mattered; that name sounded exactly correct coming from someone else's mouth, and so she conceded.

"Kiki…" the alien raised her head to look around before turning her attention back to the human. "You have such a cute name, little one… where's your owner?"

Kiki frowned. What had happened to Kiki's owner? She never for a second doubted that she must have had one. Perhaps that sky-voice was her owner… or maybe it knew? She wasn't sure. Using all of her brain power, she searched for an answer… but the urge to be snuggled overpowered all of her other concerns. 

Coming up with nothing, she let out a defeated bleat and nuzzled the creature's vines again. This time, the lady petted Kiki with a soft leaf, and joy erupted from Kiki's heart. Yes. Yes, this was exactly what she needed. She let out a soft trill. She was so distracted by physical touch that she could barely understand what the lady was saying.

"...Roots... This does not at all conform to the standards we set for domestication. Not at all… and for an owner to bring their floret to an active conflict zone, no less…"

She felt her head stop being petted, and made a needy whine. "Oh dear. Um. You'll want to come along with me. This is no place for a sophont like you. Perhaps we can track down your owner for you. We'll start looking at an embassy nearby; they've just begun to set the buildings up."

Kiki beamed, nodding. This wasn't a place for a… what had the plant lady called her? A sophont. She was a sophont. That was good. She nuzzled the lady.

"Heh. You may call me Laria Xylon, Fourth Bloom, if you'd like."

Kiki bleated happily in response. Laria Xylon. That name was just… just perfect for a Laria. Just like Kiki was a perfect name for Kiki!

"Law… laaaaaaaawwaaaa…" she managed, her tongue still being quite tied up.

The Laria craned her neck. "Class-Ws, hmm? I don't have an antidote on hand, but perhaps we can procure some for you."

The sophont bleated meekly. If by "antidote", the plant lady meant "more pets," then Kiki welcomed and relished having as much antidote as possible.

---

As Laria Xylon, Fourth Bloom, comforted the human in front of her, she was baffled.

She had come to do a cursory sweep of one of the feral colony's tertiary hives. Although she was sure she hadn't seen anyone in the last two sweeps, this final time she heard the cries of what sounded like a terrified sophont, behind one of those composite steel doors to their hive, no less. When she had finally rescued the sophont in question, they found that "Kiki" clearly was in some pseudo domesticated state already, which was… odd.

There were clear signs of affini neurochemical intervention. Class-As, used to enhance sensitivity; Class-Bs and Ls for memory alteration; Cs for elevating the basic human bonding impulse; and that potent W, making anything coming out of Kiki’s mouth intensely nonsensical. But curiously enough, a significant amount of Class-J drugs had clearly taken their toll on Kiki's self-preservation instincts, replacing them with ones prioritizing affection. Those were generally only administered in safe domestication situations, not developing conflict zones. 

How did this happen? 

Her first thought was that Kiki was some floret who had been brought along by an irresponsible owner, a thought that rubbed Laria's roots the wrong way. That was more than just negligence… it was reckless endangerment. The thought of a peer affini bringing such risk to their pet made her vines quiver in anger.

Kiki trembled in response to Laria's physical reaction, and the affini stopped. She hadn’t intended to disturb the poor thing with her emotional outburst. She used a leaf to caress Kiki’s soft head.

“Sorry, little one. Laria is just thinking…” she explained. Kiki baa’d in response, cooing and nuzzling the leaf with her nose.

Indeed… I must remain calm. 

Her second thought was that some mishap must have occurred, and perhaps Kiki had attempted to escape domestication. As Kiki began to paw at the affini for more attention, Laria noted that her fists were blistered… she had been walking on all fours? Without simulacrum implants, or even gloves? Even the most ignorant affini would not have let this poor pet wander the ruins of a rebel hive under these conditions. Laria refused to believe it.

No matter what the circumstances were, she reasoned the best course of action was to return to the scout vehicle, and fly to the embassy. She had left her Observer a distance from this hive location, so that she could be more discreet about her investigations. Now that she needed to take someone with her, for once she felt glad to be of smaller size relative to her colleagues; Kiki would have ample room in the cockpit.

Laria looked back down to check on the pet. Kiki had her mouth on one of Laria’s ulnar seed pods, and was drooling just a little. The affini let out a soft scoff.

"Let us get you home, little one." She did her best to give a big smile, the kind that always seemed to calm humans down. “Would you be comfortable with me carrying you?”

Kiki bleated happily, and Laria lifted the pet onto her shoulders. She took care to wrap the human up all nice and comfortable in a sort of vine harness, allowing Kiki to rest belly down so that she could stay comfortable. 

We’ll get to the bottom of this one, Kiki. Don’t you worry.

Ready to go, Laria began to take them to the ship.

---

Kiki derived immense satisfaction from riding on the Laria Xylon’s back. The soft, lumbering motion she made as she stepped made Kiki feel safe and secure. It wasn’t just that making physical contact with the Laria made everything warm and fuzzy on her insides; she was also getting such great sights from atop those broad shoulders. 

Six feet up, the beautiful striations which colored the badlands of Cervina II were a wonder to behold. The sun had already set, but the planet’s triad moon arrangement brought such light to the planet’s night cycle that much of the terrain was still fully visible. A purple haze was present, low hanging clouds that blanketed the earth in romantic hues. There were also buildings there– terran made constructions of instacrete and metal slabs that protruded forth as if attempting to conquer the land in rough hewn surfaces. But thankfully most of them seemed abandoned or defeated, leaving trails of smoke that drifted into the sky. 

As they moved, a particularly large cloud was churning towards both of them, slowly replacing the smoky remains of the cave that Kiki had just escaped. She welcomed the fresh scent; it was something like the taste of blueberries that spread from her nose and started circulating through her body. She sniffed the air excitedly. A tickle began to grow at the tip of her nose, and she felt a sneeze coming on.

"Achoo!"

Kiki let out a satisfied bleat.

“Oh dear…” she heard the Laria say. “This plume might be a little intense for you. Worry not; the effects are only temporary. If you wish, I can administer an antidote as well.”

More antidote? Kiki began to nod and murmur in agreement. More affection sounded amazing about now, especially with how sleepy she had suddenly gotten… Kiki’s eyelids felt heavy. She was so tired. It was like her skull was being filled with paste. She felt an itch at the back of her mouth... for some reason she couldn't muster up the strength to sneeze…

Oh. Something had just poked her in the leg. A soft pain. She let out a soft whine.

“There we go. Class-E antidote administered.”

Kiki felt that tiredness slowly seep out of her system, almost like it was flowing into the Laria. Wow. This plant lady really was special, huh?

“It’ll keep you from being fully knocked out; especially since you hardly need it, in your state.”

The sophont wondered what State she was in. A part of her mind picked over that word. “State”. Heh. She knew that there once were States she learned about in some off-world country a long long time ago. Maybe she was in one of those? But that didn’t make sense. She was in Cervina II, where there was only one state… one governing body…

She let out another defeated bleat. Thinking was frustrating her again. A vine was raised to give her a scritch under the chin, and Kiki greedily nuzzled into it. 

Wow. This was good. This was very good. So much better than trying to muster up useless thoughts–

The Laria suddenly paused, and Kiki felt herself sway in the harness of the plant lady.

The rumbling of her vines as Laria talked took on a different tone, and Kiki realized something was the matter. “Kiki, I am going to set you down now. Be a dear and stay at this patch of grass, okay? Laria’s got some business to settle.”

The sophont was set down into a particularly comfortable looking stretch of plant. She glanced back up at the Laria. The plant lady had a protective look as she brought a vine to pet the human, but the vine stopped halfway, causing Kiki to pout until she realized the Laria was holding a finger to her lips.

“Be a good pet… and keep quiet, okay?”

Kiki bleated as quietly and cutely as she could in affirmation, and was rewarded with pets. Happily, she curled up around herself. Before she could even realize it, Laria had disappeared. Kiki hummed.

Hopefully Laria wouldn’t take long, and would be able to administer even more antidotes shortly.

---

The affini could sense them before she could see them. 

Rebels.

Laria took a low profile behind a rocky outcropping as her mind raced. Her previous reconnaissance flights suggested that they had managed to cordon off the rest of the feralists from this sector, but it looked like her intel was faulty. 

Roots… they likely have masks. And those annoying laser guns. No good.

The scout disassembled her human form, arms and legs being absorbed into the center mass, until Laria resembled a puddle of glowing fungus and vine. Crawling as a motile swarm of tentacles, she crested the outcrop to peek overhead.

It was a squadron of four… moving slowly, in the same direction that Laria’s ship was…

…oh dear.

In total a dozen men stood around her Observer, weapons trained on the vehicle. Indeed, they were all equipped with filtration masks. A tall one issued commands to the others, some uniform regalia indicating they were some rank above. Laria couldn’t help but find some amusement in their hierarchical displays. 

How insipid. This will be quick.

From within her body, Laria pulled out a switch and pressed a series of buttons. A hissing sound emerged from the Observer, and the uniformed man turned to look at the vehicle. 

*POFF!*

A payload of Class-Es and Zs exploded from beneath the scout ship, a massive expulsion of bright purple mist which mushroomed upside down, blanketing the landscape in an opaque cloud fit to obscure all visual clarity.

Perfect.

Lurching forwards, first with a slow movement to build momentum, then flowing like quicksilver, Laria charged headfirst towards the group. From inside of her she readied a bundle of needles. The affini began to quiver with excitement.

The first one to notice was a short masked soldier off to her left. Before he had a chance to say anything, Laria had a vine wrapped around his leg, and toppled him, continuing to advance forward. A second soldier gasped, and soon had his rifle pulled from his hands, before also being tripped and tossed to the ground.

*PEWPEWPEW*

The other men turned, lasers firing wildly. Unable to aim properly or see their target, the shots left temporary streaks in the cloud which quickly were filled by its sheer volume. In the chaos, Laria swiftly mantled onto her scout ship, identified each target one by one, then bundled a spring of energy underneath her. With a leap, she sailed above her assailants in a propeller of vines, sending out a fan of needles as she did.

*SWISH- CLINK!*

Masks shattered around Laria, pins hitting their targets with perfect strength and precision. She landed with a roll, fungal pods first to blunt the fall. As she began to arrange herself back into her human form, she heard the telltale sound of collapsing terrans, no longer able to filter the airborne drugs. Frightened shouting and groaning turned to soft mewls before eventually, the terran patrol had completely fallen silent around the ship. 

Not bad. Laria waited to get visual confirmation on the Terran patrol's status… and made the realization that there were too many of them for the Observer to carry. 

Ah. Gonna need to call backup for all of these sophonts…

Laria felt a cramp in one of her newly grown legs, and sighed.

It’s been a while since I’ve done that one. I’m getting rusty.

She turned back towards the outcropping where she had left Kiki. She could tell the pet was growing impatient from the quiet whimpering she was hearing from across the way, and suppressed a smile, despite the situation. This floret sure was cute… if only she didn’t already have an owner.  

Laria straightened up, put herself back into focus. This was a rescue mission, after all.

Alright, time to call the embassy.