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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Betty-Adams on 2024-11-04 23:52:48+00:00.

Humans are Weird – Circulation

Original Post:

Sift shifted her forelimb where it rested on the seam of the open window and flexed her claws in the warm sun that was perfect for basking. The wind from their travel rushed around the windshield and filled her nostrils with the scent of a fertile savanna basking in warmth of a white star.

“You would almost think a place this beautiful would have proper seasons,” her companion commented from the other side of the passenger cabin where the human was idly munching on some kind of dried animal protein.

“Not every planet wobbles like a broken millstone,” Sift replies, stretching out her tail and giving a wide yawn. “Share a bit of that...what did you call it?”

“Jerky,” Mary said holding out the bag, casually at first and then more carefully as the wind tried to rip it out of her hands.

Sift dipped her snout in and snatched up a large piece of the jerky. As she expected it was tougher than three days seasoned pure bread but it did have a reasonably springy texture and she started gnawing on it contentedly. Just as she was sucking down the first mouthful of juices an alarm on the counsel chirped and Mary sat up and began examining the road and savanna around them. The human shoved her loose hair out of her eyes and reached over to activate the large predator scanners. She gave a grunt of contentment and shifted her mass to take manual control of the transport.

“Do you need to empty your bladder again?” Sift asked, quickly pulling out her notepad. “Is the little one sitting on your bladder?”

Mary looked at her and laughed, shaking her head.

“I’m actually pretty good bladder wise,” she said as she eased the transport to a stop and opened the external door. “Nah, but we mammals get extra clotty in the blood when we are making more mammals. I set the timer to remind me to stop and get my blood flowing every hour or so.”

Sift shimmied out of her restrain harness and scramble over the seat and down after Mary. She made it in time to set up her recorder to catch the beginning of Mary’s exercises. In the gangling mammals a wild windmilling of limbs that would make for an excellent program to scare off avian species from grain-fields. One Mary had ‘got into the flow’ and wouldn’t mind interruptions Sift stood on her hind legs and cleared her throat.

“But you were stretching out in the transport,” she pointed out. “Do you need more room?”

“Changing the seating settings wouldn’t do much,” Mary explained as she awkwardly tried to fold herself in half over her growing belly. “You see how much I need to move.”

“Yes,” Sift agreed as she swayed backwards to avoiding a soft, flailing hand. “And all this, is it absolutely necessary, or just a caution?”

“Eh.” Mary’s face contorted as she pondered that. “Six of one, half a dozen of the other, but if I don’t my changing center of mass pinches my butt in new and interesting ways, and that hurts!”

“Butts must be quite the inconvenience,” Sift observed as Mary, seemingly content with the movement of her joints, set out running around the transport, “all that fat with so few muscles to manage it.

Mary’s laughter fell around her as the human rounded the vehicle.

“Well I couldn’t do without my man’s,” the human pointed out as she passed.

Sift gave a gurgle of amusement and waited to respond till the next lap.

“I too,” she agreed, “appreciate how my mate’s tail waves. It would be well worth a pinch or two in my own.”

Mary staggered to a halt, started at her searchingly, and then nearly doubled over laughing.

Sift blinked a moment, then decided that she had transgressed an amusing rather than offensive cultural boundary and made a note of it.

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