Blessed by Night

Once Malachi and Camille were sitting back down, the rest of the N'Kai circled them again to begin the second phase of their ceremony; the gifting.

Tsath continued to give Malachi something of a scrutinizing gaze.

And inwardly, Mal felt really bad.

Since showing up, these beings had been nothing but kind and courteous to him and his daughter.

They hadn't picked on him for having different origins.

Nor did they try to eat him for being weaker than them.

They didn't even try to harm any of the beings in he base who weren't N'Kai.

And how had he responded to their kindness and favor?

By almost having a panic attack because he started to look like them; inadvertently telling them loud and clear that he thought of them as a monstrous race of beings.

His behavior had made him truly ashamed.

He hadn't been raised to act like that or treat people that way.

And now, he was looking for an opportunity to properly make amends, but it was difficult.

Especially since he still had his own reservations about his new appearance.

Not because he still thought of himself as a monster.

But because he feared that other people would.

His sister, his best friends, his fake grandfather and father-in-law.

But most importantly of all… he was so unbearably terrified of facing Joanne.

"Tell me, A'Shea…" Tsath asked.

"Bu?"

"What kind of gift would you like to receive from us? What sort of things do you like?"

Immediately, all of Camille's parents sucked in their teeth.

They were almost certain their daughter was going to ask for something baby shark related or for more teething toys and stuffed animals.

While that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, this was a one of a kind opportunity to receive presents from an alien race that was likely centuries more advanced than their own and had conquered numerous worlds.

It sort of felt like it would be a real waste to let a child pick those items out on their own.

'Well, as long as she is happy I guess..' Malachi thought with a wry smile.

Camille proceeded to start babbling as she waived her small fingers in the air- ensuring that she was being taken seriously by her extended family and gift givers.

The first thing that she asked for was a big stuffed animal.

Tsath nodded and pulled out a small metallic looking cube fr his pocket with numerous buttons on it.

He punched a few of them in and a moment later the box started to vibrate and make a beeping sound.

A wormhole opened up just above the punch pad, and it spit out a stuffed animal that was two meters tall.

It was clearly from another dimension or something, because it was difficult to identify what kind of creature it was.

It had a bear-like body with the head of a fox and two small antlers atop it's head.

"Aba!" Excited, Camille held her hands up in the air with evident glee.

*Squeak* At that moment, the bear imitated her and lifted up it's own fluffy arms.

"Ah... What kind of toy is that?" Malachi asked with an incredulous look.

"It is an automation device from my second world, Ozymundax. It will protect her, enact stimulus enriching activities, and it can even feed her if she still requires food."

Malachi and all of his fiancés looked back and forth between each other to ensure that they hadn't misunderstood Tsath's words.

'Did he basically just give us... a nanny?'

Tsath stood up and moved over so that the next N'Kai could ask Camille what she wanted for her birthday.

This time, she said that she wanted a 'play house'.

The N'Kai pulled out another one of those fabricator devices and handed it to Camille, with instructions for her to press the red button when she was ready.

Because children and buttons are like guns and holsters, she could not resist pressing the button as soon as it was offered to her and nearly gave all of her parents a heart attack.

A strong gust of wind almost knocked everyone on the mountaintop over as she created another wormhole in the sky and a much larger item jumped out of it.

But no one had any idea what it was supposed to be.

It was a swirling, shifting mass of liquid metal the size of twelve olympic pools.

"What... is..?"

"It's a programmable matter home. Tell it what sort of rooms you want, and it will mold itself to your specifications." the N'Kai explained.

Camille giggled as she clapped her hands together excitedly, while her parents tried to pick their jaws up from the ground.

"You guys... you are not simple gift givers, are you?"

"""""No."""""

-

All in all, Camille ended up getting a stuffed animal nanny, a 'playhouse', a toy automation in the shape of an actual baby shark, and a finger painting set that would temporarily bring her creations to life after she finished them.

Anna was in shambles she watched her receive her last gift.

Camille actually could have received a fifth gift from one of the aliens, but according to her she could no longer think of anything else to ask for.

So as a result, the last of the N'Kai panicked a bit and just gave her the spare wormhole technology that they had all been using.

He explained the method of maneuvering through dimensions using buttons and dials but Camille looked like she only understood around every sixth word or so.

Since nobody wanted her to open up random wormholes in space, Luna elected to hold the item for her daughter out of safety concerns.

Now, it was Malachi's turn to receive his gifts.

"Tell us K'Horror. What kind of items do you desire?"

Mal had been thinking about it ever since he watched Camille open her gifts, but he still didn't have an answer.

Instinctively, he began to caress the snake tails jutting out of his lower back in an effort to think better.

"Ada! Bu!" Camille chirped.

"Your father likes fighting?" Tsath asked with a raised brow.

"Bu." Cami said as she nodded with satisfaction.

Malachi smiled wryly and revealed his new menacing white teeth. "I wouldn't say that I-"

"A bit barbaric for N'Kai interests but.. I suppose that your upbringing would make something like that understandable."

"..." Today Malachi learned that his extended family of galaxy consuming parasites did not consider themselves to be barbaric and even judged him slightly for being so.

He had no idea how he was supposed to take something like this, but smiled and nodded nonetheless.

Tsath typed in a few buttons on his metallic cube and pulled out two golden wristbands.

He took the liberty of placing them on Malachi's wrists himself and started to explain their functions.

With a thought, Malachi could shape the bracelets into three different weapons.

A pair of heavy blades with chains, a pair of handheld spears, and twin maces.

Malachi opted for the first preset and he very nearly shit himself as soon as he called the blades. out.

The power emanating from the weapons was so great that the actual air around them was vibrating.

The weapons themselves resembled large cleavers, with a long trapezoid-like shape that curved slightly inward.

At almost two and a half feet in length, they had shining silver blades that were scratched up quite a bit, almost as if they had seen many battles.

Golden patterns were inscribed along the flat sides of the blades that made them seem ceremonial in nature, but the power emanating from them absolutely begged to differ.

Combined with Mal's strength alone, he felt like he could take a good chunk out of the mountain with a single swing.

'Guess I'll have to bother Aisha to teach me how to use these...' he thought.

He finally put the weapons away and lowered his head as deeply before Tsath as a sign of thanks.

"I appreciate the gesture... it means a lot."

Tsath was so surprised by Mal's sudden show of sincerity that he had to blink a few times to let his words settle in.

In the end, he simply nodded and backed away, unaware that he had forgotten to mention a specialty of those weapons he had gifted Malachi.

The gifting ceremony continued, and Mal received gifts that were slightly less impressive than Camille's.

In total he received new weapons for not only himself but his fiancés as well, some insanely durable fabric to help make lightweight gear for everyone in the base, some tech for Bianca to study, one of those finger-paint kits for Anna, and some of their bottled blood for Luna and Nadine.

With the gifting now over with, Malachi's heart thumped in anticipation as they arrived at the part of the evening that had been on his mind all of this time.

"I ask you now, new bloods... What wish would you have your forebears grant for you on this auspicious day?"

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