Everyone Just Needs a "Hug"

***some mature themes below***

Content warning: Contains themes of non-consensual reproduction

Many rising moons ago she was forced upon during a chance encounter with a male. What remained was his seed and an intense angst but no actual recollection of the meeting. The creature, who could only be described as “yeti-like” in nature, now squatted deep in the darkness of a damp cave, where she would birth her first and only young. 

Her species had evolved with an efficient coldness. Newborns were precocial, and bonding chemicals subsided quickly. That’s why it would have been perfectly normal for her, after a violent mess, to ascend from the cave with her offspring trailing behind, then traverse to lower lands in the valley, where they’d part soon after.   

Only what happened instead left her instinctually confused. After an effortless push she jolted and in her scotopic gaze found her product to be a soft-bellied, hairless, squirming little bean that shared little resemblance to herself. 

Words were not needed to describe that this was atypical, and it would disrupt her biological rhythm. She studied its eyes, which were small bald slits that in normal circumstances would have been the size of a quarter. It seemed to be restricted to a default position on its back, and clearly lacked the strength to support its own head. The female curiously sniffed the specimen. For a second she teased tasting its skin with the tip of her tongue but ultimately refrained. 

Poking the soft head and skull felt unpleasant so she stopped, and went on for a few moments watching its small breaths make contact with the frigid air. Suddenly the neonate emitted a horrendous noise from the same cavity. Its loud shrieks echoed off the cave walls like some avian cacophony. The female snatched the small bean in agitation, bruising its arms and intending to smother it. However, she found the sound quickly extinguished upon clutching its fleshy body. With all four limbs, it clung tightly to her arm. It shivered, and her nerves calmed. Unbeknownst, had she not picked it up when she did, the infant would have soon succumbed to the coldness of the moist floor. She adjusted to its default position on the back and tucked it closer to her breast, where it’d remain quiet and of little burden. 

Long golden rays began to project on the ceiling of the room, followed by a subtle breeze, signaling the new day. She began her ascension with the bean asleep in her arms. It shivered once more, and she held it tighter in retaliation. 

***

When the scientists had translated the document they realized it was a form of literature, and were quite interested in the nature of its meaning. Some had speculated it was a creation story or common folklore to explain the existence of their kind. Others had guessed it was a fable to keep their young from the dangers of their caves, and some ascertained it had been mistranslated.

After leaving the Intergalactic Congress of Historical Discoveries I found myself back in my lodgings, and too was caught up with the intention of the document’s writer. I had many drinks and pondered in silence. I had wondered if the work was mistranslated after all or if it was even presented in its entirety. Certainly if it wasn’t a fable it was a commentary on the nature of their being. Then it occurred to me that the very speculation of its meaning could have been the true intention, and I had spent much more of my interest and time on the matter than I would’ve if I’d received a definite answer before. This brought me closure to the subject for a little while.

I prepared to rest. 

Late in the night I pictured the confused anthropoid standing over its screaming infant in the dark. I thought about the primal descriptions of her species, specifically the lack of bond shared with their children, and how the infant put her at risk of predators with its crying. Perhaps I was taking the verbage too literally, but I believed the abandonment of the child immediately upon discovery of its abnormalities would have been imminent, as similar lifeforms on this planet had shown a tendency to do so. With that being said, its inclusion in the document had to be of some significance.

It then became very clear all in one instant. Never before in the entire history of its species had there been such a racket during delivery of a newborn. And from then, an on-going bargain, void of compassion, fueled only by fear.

***

I spent many stretches of my life after that traveling to various dig sites to learn more about the once great race that had ruled the planet, to which we were then the only inhabitants. They had very much and at the same time very little in common with my own kind. In my older years I remembered the first listen of the document and how my sentiments have changed over time. Early in my tenure I had studied atrocities of many worlds on a cosmic scale, and the stark subject matter would eventually deter me to aspire in cultural forensics. From all the malevolence I have learned from, I am thankful and grateful for the collective achievements of life in the cosmos in service of itself. Near the late 4490s, We had determined that the history of the human race, or “mankind” as they referred to themselves, would be selected for preservation in the Intergalactic Historical Archive under the basis of “significant cultural development and depth”. A personal hero of mine from the Intergalactic Council of Admissions of 4497, who shall remain nameless, had gifted me the original copy of the document presented at the Congress. To this day I come back to it with a great comfort in mind - the attachment shared between the creature and the infant, was indeed a result of innate anxiety. But ultimately, an evolutionary triumph was unlocked. Through my career-long evaluation of their efforts, and countless readings of their dictionaries, it seemed to me, to sustain the long term development of an intelligent species, everyone just needs a “hug”.