Awaiting Departure

Our Mother gives/ She splits her Spark/ Our Mother provides/ Her Spark lives in Us.

Crenami silently recited the Mother’s Song of Travel while her secondary hands anxiously wrung the water from the crimson banner. She sat at the basin of the Holy Mother’s Eternal Fountain bathed in cool water. A crystalline glow from the bio luminescent lights mixed with the fading sunset reflected of the insectoid’s absinthe green chitin as the tranquil cascade of the fountain’s water echoed around her. She felt the hemolymph coursing through her erect wings and in her wisplike antennae which probed the air. She could taste the honeysweet scent of the thousands of sisters who’d bowed before the fountain over the course of the day.

The Departure; that day of the zenthropi academic calendar when thousands of zenthropi females left their Homeworld to service the intergalactic community. After fifteen years of study Crenami would finally journey to the stars; her life’s pursuit. Yet, in spite of it all, her joints were stiff. She’d been preparing for this moment for so long convinced of her path, yet over the past twenty hours, watching peer after peer follow divergent paths, she wondered if she’d made the right decision. Being the first zenthropi in a system was the sort of challenge she yearned for, yet wasn’t it against their nature to separate from the race?

An alien voice projected through the chamber, tearing her from her thoughts. The voice was unlike any zenthropi dialect, lacking any of the accentuating whistles and clicks. This voice was packed with air and wetness.

“Are you ready?” It asked in a throaty tongue...

- [READ THE FULL SNIPPET HERE], by Nicanor