TiranthiaScene: Tevendii Meets Jenny

Explanatory Notes About Tiranthia

         In my immaginary universe of Tiranthia, Terians are winged people that look pretty much just like us, but they have 4 wings on their backs--two large primary wings which they use for lift and propulsion, and two smaller wings below them which they use to assist in steering and flight stability. Although as tall as the rest of us, they only weigh about 30 lbs each.
         Tellurian is the Tiranthian name for what we call Human. They are so called because their planet of origin is the planet Tellus. In Tiranthia, the term 'Human' refers to a certain genetically engineered crossbreed race between Tellurians and a now extinct species known as the Huron.

Tevendii Meets Jenny

         Tevendii looked at the museum theatre schedule. The next feature showing started shortly and would be an hour long. She looked at the datacom strapped to the inside of her right forearm. She had a full two hours before she had to rejoin her tour group at the museum entrance. She smiled. She had never experienced an observatory projection before, she had heard that weaker stomached people from some races could get motion sickness from such theatres, but that the thrill was definitely worth the risk. She didn’t worry too much about that. She was a Terian; motion sickness wasn’t exactly a problem for her.
         She was about to go buy some popcorn -- a fairly common treat here on Tellus that she had only experienced once elsewhere -- when she was halted by a small shy voice behind her.
         “Excuse me miss, um… could I ask you something?”
         Tevendii turned to see a young Tellurian girl, about three feet tall, staring up at her self-consciously.
         “Of course. What is it?” Tevendii answered politely.
         The girl bit her lip and shifted her weight from one foot to the other and back again. She opened her mouth as if to speak and then shut it again, blushing deeply. Whatever she wanted to ask, she was clearly uncomfortable asking it.
         “Don’t worry,” Tevendii encouraged, “I only bite boys for asking embarrassing questions.”
         The girl smiled, relaxing a little, but she still hesitated a moment longer before finally blurting out her request.
         “Could-I-have-one-of-your-feathers?” she rushed through the question so fast that Tevendii almost didn’t hear what she said. She then blushed such a deep cute red that Tevendii couldn’t help but laugh.
         “I can’t fly without my feathers,” she said. “Whatever would you want one of them for?”
         The girl looked like she wanted to fall through the floor, but she tried to explain. “I… I hope you won’t think I’m weird or something, like if I told you I collected skulls or something…”
         “What would be weird about that?” Tevendii interrupted, “I would think you were a smart girl on her way to becoming an anatomist.”
         The girl seemed encouraged. “I… collect feathers from pretty birds. For each feather I find, I have a box for the type of bird it came from. I tape a picture of the bird on the top of the box. I tape the prettiest feathers next to the picture and put the rest inside the box. I know you aren’t a bird,” the girl laughed a little as she gained confidence, “but I don’t have any Terian feathers, and your feathers are so very pretty…” she looked longingly at Tevendii’s wings as her sentence trailed off.
         Tevendii felt her self esteem shoot through the roof at the compliment. She knelt down so that she was roughly level with the Tellurian child’s face. “What’s your name?” she asked.
         “Jennemeade,” she girl answered, “but my mom only calls me that when I’m in trouble. Usually she just calls me Jenny.”
         Tevendii looked the child over. She had tanned skin, and bright deep blue eyes that stood out like jems against it. She would definitely be a heartbreaker when she grew up. She had the thickest, softest hair that Tevendii had seen anywhere except in cosmetically altered image captures. It fell in waves both in front and back of her shoulders to her lower sides and the small of her back where it curled wildly at the end. It was a rich brownish red.
         “I’ll tell you what Jenny,” Tevendii smiled. “I’ll let you take a picture of me with your datacom and choose six feather from anywhere but the tips of my wings, because those are the most critical ones, if you let me take a picture of you and take this lock of your hair.” She reached out and lifted a small section of the hair that fell in front of Jenny’s right shoulder.
         Jenny brightened up like a new sunrise, “yes, thank you!” She unclipped her datacom for a picture. “Where do you want me to stand for your picture?” she asked.
         “That will do fine right there. Just keep smiling.” Tevendii instructed. Jenny replied with a big grin that the Terian girl quickly preserved as a holo-capture.
         Tevendii then unfurled her wings for her new friend, who wasted no time in obtaining an image of her own. She then took out her laser knife and cut off the appropriate lock of hair close to Jenny’s scalp.
Jenny chose 2 feathers from each main wing and 1 from each tail wing, but all from different wing sections.  On the underside, Tevendii’s wings were a glossy jet black, with a large red spot on the leading edge at the outer joint and on the tips of her tail wings. On the backside, the were a shimmering red and deep blue smear of seemingly random color that was mostly blue at the leading edges, and mostly red at the trailing ones. Jenny chose a red and a black feather from the underside of the right wing. She chose half red and half blue ones from the topside of the left wing, a smaller one near the leading edge and a large one near the trailing edge, and she chose predominantly red and blue feathers from the topsides of  each tail wing. Tevendii removed the feathers, not without a small amount of pain, and placed them in the delighted hand of the younger girl, who tucked them carefully into a side pocket of her lunchbox.
         “Mom!” Jenny called to a plump woman across the room with eyes as bright and deep a blue as her daughter’s. She grabbed the older girl’s willing hand and tugged her across the room. “Mom, look what this girl gave me!”
         Jenny’s mother looked up and examined the feathers showing through the mesh of the lunch box pocket. “Wow, that’s wonderful Jenny! Will you introduce me to her?”
         “Sure! Um, what’s your name?” Jenny pulled her new friend down to whisper in her ear.
         “Tevendii Duskwing.” Tevendii whispered back.
         “Mom, this is Tevendii Duskwing. Tevendii, this is Mom, but that‘s just what me and my brothers call her. Her real name is Renderra.”
         “Pleased to meet you miss…”
         “Filler, Renderra Filler.” the older woman finished for her. Shaking the young Terian’s outstretched hand.
         “Were you people going to see the show?” Tevendii invited. “I was just going to buy popcorn and go inside when I made friends with Jenny here. Would you like to sit together?”
         “Yes, lets do that. Would you like to take Jenny in and save seats? I’ll get the popcorn. It’s on me. Just be sure to save five extra seats for my husband and Jenny’s brothers.”

End of the scene, as far as I imagined it.