Humans are Weird - Laugh and Laugh Again

Humans are Weird - Laugh and Laugh Again Wing Commander Tenth Click darted down to the control panel again and checked to make sure the hover-transport was still tethered correctly to their path. Again the display revealed that the hover-transport was working perfectly. Tenth Click thought about checking the straps that secured the massive rolls of soft, natural fiber fabric but he could hear the clicks of younger wing member sounding out the load and satisfied himself with darting around the formation. The air in their midst was full of happy chattering as mostly young males who had not been home in years chittered over the chance to see a newborn. Tenth Click gave a happy click himself at the thought as they approached the massive, false-stone dome that served as human housing on this dry and arid section of the planet.
The wing came to rest against the side of the dome,easily finding purchase on the swirling patterns of plants that had been printed into the structure when it was first erected after the human family’s arrival. Tenth Click dug his nails into the easily grip-able surface and admired design. Tayen Tsosie had expressed delightful taste, though the raised mural leaned a bit too heavily on herbaceous plants for a Winged’s taste. Tenth Click thought adding a few sturdy tree trunks into the design would really pull it together.
“To each their own as the humans say,” Tenth Click said to a general murmur of agreement from the wing.
There was a brief mid-air scuffle between the younger wing-members as they determined who got the privilege of ringing the door bell, an actual handcrafted bronze bell with a natural fiber pull rope that gripped your feet delightfully, and the three winners darted down and flung themselves into the ringing with gusto. Tenth Click noted that they hadn’t perfectly applied their hearing and horn protection, there were visible gaps in the applied foam but he decided to lead with the gust of enthusiasm rather that clip their obvious delight.
The sound rolled through the wing and summoned Tayen’s mate. Small, by human standards the male was frequently away from home shipping goods to the more distant asteroid mining colonies and as such humans often did, showed skin damage from decompression and other accident related injuries. However today his whole body was so awash with delight that Tenth Click rather thought the human might leap into flight despite the disadvantage of his dense bones.
“Come in, come in!” He shouted, waving his hands. “She was just doing it again!”
Forgoing the usual effusive human welcoming ceremonies the male spun and lumbered back into his home. The wing accepted his invitation and darted after him the hover-transport trailing after them placidly. The human came to a cluster of other humans in the main room, all of whom were crooning and cooing at something below them. The male wiggled his way through his larger humans and claimed the spot of honor beside his mate. Tayen herself was folded into a comfortable, for a human, seating situation on the couch, curled around a bundle of soft blankets. Tenth Click examined them closely as the wing approached, feeling satisfied that their gift matched the blankets already in use for softness and wrap-strength equally. The pattern was a traditional Winged design as Tayen had indicated she would prefer. Her mate whispered something to Tayen and she glanced up with a wide grin on her face.
“She’s doing it again!” Tayen announced, as she started unwrapping the blanket bundle. “Remember to stay out of the way of her hands, she doesn’t have control yet!”
The wing dedicated itself to proper acrobatic displays of delight and tried to remember to lower the frequency of their delighted chitters as the very, very round human that was exposed.
“Tayen’s mammary glands got so round-” a voice declared and Tenth Click was suddenly grateful no one was remember to speak in human ranges.
“And that made the baby so round!”
“Look at her cheeks!”
“Do you think she has pouches in those?”
“No, it’s just subcutaneous fat deposits.”
“I want to shove my nose into her cheeks!”
“Remember what Tayen said!” Tenth Click barked out. “I am not having the party ruined because someone got their wing joints crushed by a baby hand!”
“It would be worth it!” the voice cheekily returned.
“She is so cute!”
Tenth Click sighed and approached the pair of humans to formally offer their gift. They accepted with distant politeness, all of their real attention obviously on their offspring.
“I meant to ask,” Tenth Click said once the wing had landed on the retaliative safety of the adults’ shoulders to observe and admire the tiny human, “what developmental milestone are you commemorating with this party?”
“Her first laugh!” Tayen declared, lifting her eyes from her child for the first time since they had arrived. “It was last night. She had the hiccoughs and I started making hiccoughing noises back at her and she started laughing between hiccoughs! Watch!”
Tayen bent over her child and made a senseless squawking noise. The round little creature wriggled and indeed began to convulse in what the humans called laughter. The wing lifted off and danced over Tayen’s head in shared delight.
“Oh! That is a wonderful sound!” declared many voices at once.
Tenth Click found himself tapping his feet in delight.
“Oh your gifts!” Tayen’s mate suddenly declared, standing up quickly and picking up a tray filled with tiny satchels!
“The traditional metabolically available salt for seasoning food!” he declared. “We got this from the synthesizer over at the neighboring hive so it should be matched to your needs, but you can absolutely wait to test it before you eat any. We won’t be offended.”
Tenth Click signaled for the wing to take the gifts and they flew down one at a time to politely take the satchels of salt. Tenth Click wondered if the salt was really the gift, or if the neat little satchels, woven from Shatar vine fiber were supposed to be the real gift. It seemed an odd way to commemorate an infant’s laugh. However the gift giving was clearly not the main focus of the party, the sounds the very, very round human was again making clearly were as Tayen’s mate clearly demonstrated by setting the tray of gifts down before half the wing had claimed their salt, and darting back to have a playful battle with Tayen’s sister over the privileged place by her side.
Tenth Click idly tasted the salt. It was salt as advertised, and turned his attention to the real focus of the party. He could investigate whatever cultural significance salt had once had later. Traditions formed and drifted down the winds of time like dust, often landing so far from their origin that not even the species who valued them knew where or when that was, but a baby with big round eyes, was always a baby with big round eyes.  
Author Betty Adams Books
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