Disclaimer: Trigun is sadly enough not mine, or there would have been way more episodes!

Chapter 63: Knives' POV
After Vash had told him who the kid was he started to carefully go through his head, and stopped paying active attention to the conversation. Instead he was reasoning through his course of action over the next few weeks. It would be wise to learn all that he could about this place and its people in a non-violent way since he had a feeling that his twin would require him to get along, plus the fact he would be visiting here so often. He also felt the need to either reassure these people that he was no longer a threat, or find a way to avoid them whenever they were in town.

Since he was not paying sharp attention to the conversation past the minimum required of him, he barely noticed the flow of time before he felt the familiar presence of Khetla brush against his mind, alerting him that the group would be there within minutes.

They are here. He broadcasts to the small group, interrupting the discussion and getting to his feet. Beside him the other three do the same thing, while it takes the others in the small group a moment to realize who he is talking about. He can hear the Doctor wondering why they were not warned and smiles to himself. All of their warnings were for the sky or above ground, totally worthless for the memousi who live and work underground more often than not.

"Let's go greet them," the old man suggests as he gets to his feet.

Indeed. He replies as he motions for blue-eyes and temper to leave first. Directing his thought only at their small quartet, he comments, they will be coming in on the west side of town, just a little north of the road. I am betting that they are already planning their entrance to be somewhere near the plant. They will break through where they plan to erect the entrance, so we should go to the plant.

Alright. His twin replies, and their group heads towards the plant at the end of the town. Just as the group gets there a small cloud of dust explodes out from the ground, the hard bedrock crumbling in a small tight circle. A moment later a set of long ears shows through the hole, followed shortly by the rest of the slender memousi as the young woman comes through the opening.

Keeping back he watches and listens to their thoughts. Most of the groups from the community are surprised despite the warning he had given them about what both the memousi and lizaeri look like. The memousi representative on the other hand is highly excited, her long ears twitching in pleasure. After a moment's thought he comes up with her name, Mykala. She had not quite finished her studies when he had made his announcement, so she must have finished them shortly thereafter. However, her curiosity about the spiders was probably the reason she was selected for this mission, probably a good thing as well.

"Hello Gracious Ones," she greets them, her voice soft with the slight click that having slightly longer teeth causes, "Greetings humans, I am Mykala, head marine biologist and spokeswoman for our aqueduct." He can just about feel the excitement pouring off of her, though her thoughts are all questions about the human settlement and people, she is keeping to the subject at hand and the orders he can hear in her mind from the council.

The old man is the first to get past the shock. "Why hello, it is nice to meet you Mykala, I am called Doctor or Teacher by those of this village, and am one of its leading councilmen."

She smiles, her whiskers twitching as she inclines her muzzle just a bit. Offering her hand, she comments, "It is nice to meet you."

For a few minutes the group of humans and her exchange pleasantries before finally getting down to the subject matter at hand. After a brief discussion she drops back down the hole, before returning a few minutes later. With her is Jazbael, a lizaeri ecologist. If the reaction to Mykala had been amusing to him, the reaction to the tiny lizaeri was even more amusing. Mykala they could almost relate to, she seemed more human than mouse with only a few of her animal traits being noticeable. The same could not be said for the lizaeri with their small lizard like bodies and hissing tongues. Like Mykala he greets Knives before he turns his attention to the humans. Only unlike Mykala his words are slightly harder for them to follow because of the hiss that nearly all lizaeri do.

Beside him, he can see that the two girls are having one of their conversations again, and listens in shamelessly to blue-eyes side of it.

Amusing, they at least had warning of them, we didn't. So why are they so shocked? Blue-eyes inquires as she watches the interactions between the Seed village Hope's human delegates and the delegates for the two animal-like races.

Temper shrugs in response, Seeing is believing? After all, it is a common misconception among humans that they created the plant race, just look at our history books, so how could someone created by another create not one, but to species? I think someone might wish to update the history books to point out the fact that the ladies are not created.

For a moment blue-eyes does not comment, and does not respond, then her eyes get wide as she glances over at her friend. Its clearer, normally these conversations are brief, no details, how…?

Again temper shrugs in response before commenting, It is still mostly body language, however, I'm barefoot and connected to the ground which amplifies what tiny bit of telepathy I have, and you have been practicing with Knives, who I am sure is listening in, which means we're using as much telepathy as body language. Sort of backing up or filling in what our motions mean.

Are you listening in? Blue-eyes queries, glancing his way.

He inclines his head in acknowledgement. He is far too used to listening in to the lizaeri, memousi, and his various minions to feel any sort of guilt about listening in on her head. When he feels the slightest touch, his focus changes from blue-eyes to her daughter, sure enough, she is trying to catch his attention. Forming the link, he sends curiosity through, to see what her reaction will be.

She sends an image of the lizaeri and memousi, asking, What are they?

He calls for the memories of several lizaeri first, then replies, These are the lizaeri, a race of lizard-like humanoids. They are small no taller than three feet, he makes sure to show her a height comparison so she can understand. They are very nimble, with sharp minds, some even have gifts like ours. He takes the time to show her some of their culture and society before moving on to the memousi. These are the memousi, a race of mouse like humanoids. They can range from short like the lizaeri, to as tall or taller than me. Again he makes sure to use several visual aids. They also are nimble, but are a more physical race than mental one, the gifts are next to never seen in their race but they smart. He takes images of the memousi nests, lives, and culture to share as well. Both races tend towards science. Both races mostly dislike human spiders, even without my input on it. They also have their own languages past the human tongue that they speak. He shares the memories of both with her, including the fact that Dream had carefully taught him the language that had seemed more natural to her then the human tongue she used for communicating with him plus the memories of listening to the thoughts of several memousi as he learned their language.

He maintains the link while returning his attention to the others for a few minutes to allow her time process. She has a well developed mind for a child of her size, but he has been reassured by Ayako that children of their kind had their minds develop before their bodies, it was not uncommon for the mothers to share thought-speech or emotional-imaging with them. It also gave a fairly good idea where a child's talents would lie.

Mykala and Jazbael had negotiated where the permanent garden and growing area was to be, though the humans were having a hard time understanding why the others of their kind had not emerged from the tunnels below. Eventually Mykala chirps at Jazbael in her own tongue, asking him to explain because she must be doing something wrong the human spiders are not getting it. He agrees and Knives feels the energy pull as he focuses on the old man.

"Our khindss wass ccreated by Masster Khnivvess. He iss khind to uss alwayss, but humanss, your khind, they are not. We khnow oph your sspecciess hisstory, oph the ccruelty your khind ccan ccausse and do. Azz sshucch our khindss cchoosse to avvoid yourss. We are ccompleting thiss projecct phor Masster Khnivvvess, phor the Graccious Oness, but nevver phor sspiderss, nevver phor humans." He pauses for a moment, allowing what he had said to sink into the human minds before continuing, "Uss two havve a ccuriossity oph your sspecciess, thuss we will be the oness you sspeak with. The otherss may in time change their mindss, but phor now they will remain sseparate phrom your khind."

Creator? He hears the little girl query.

My name is Knives, or if you would prefer uncle, I did not create you, only the lizaeri and memousi. He tells her as he waits for the humans to respond.

The old man looks thoughtful for a few minutes while the group stays silent, he can see that the younger man wishes to comment but is holding back as he waits for what the old man has to say.

Uncle Knives, do I have a name? I notice that in the memories you shared each of the creatures has a name of their own, but I do not know if I have one too. She finally inquires just as the old man comments.

"It is understandable, your kinds nervousness of us, I can promise that us within this village will be polite and non-violent towards your kind. We are thankful for the help, no matter what the cause of it is. Perhaps in time our village could be on friendly terms with your kinds."

Blue-eyes, your daughter wishes to know if she has a name, he informs her, eyes and mind carefully watching the humans for a deception.

Jazbael inclines the tip of his long mouth, replying "We sshall ssee."

That seems to be the end of the meeting because both Mykala and Jazbael bow to him before vanishing back down into the hole, leaving the humans to stare after them. He can feel that Vash wants to discuss it with him, but is holding off for some reason. Temper has the thoughtful look on her face as she too watches the humans, though he can feel her earth-sense reaching into the ground below as well.

Yuri, I was thinking of calling her Yuri for the one whose blood she has. In her memory, since she is the reason that she will be a plant. Blue-eyes answers him finally, eyes wide as she glances at her stomach, she wishes she can connect with her daughter as easily, but is finding it simpler to connect with her son through emotions.

He inclines his head, returning his attention to the little girl. Yuri, you are to be called Yuri, so you have a name.

She absorbs it, and he can feel her testing it out in her mind, before she replies, Greetings Uncle, I am Yuri. Her wording the same as any other plant he had met in the last few weeks, the difference being that she said uncle instead of brother.

He sends warmth through to her, the impression of a smile. Greeting Yuri, it is good to meet you. I can feel your tiredness, rest now, I'll sing.

Pleasure and excitement are her response as she settles down and listens.

The four of them turn and return to the place where they are staying, his mind partially on the conversation with them and partially on Yuri, his mind voice softly crooning lullabies.

Authors Note: For those of you wondering about Knives' behavior but not asking, it is not so much as he has had a change of heart, because that is not the case, he still hates humans and thinks that the majority of them are worthless spiders however he has been forced to admit that not all of them are, and that his actions were not right because they were spider like by Tala and Kikyo. In his interactions with Yuri, he wants her to have a better life than Vash or he has had, to not understand the pain that Tesla had felt. So with her he is gentle, he tempers his personality, muting it if you will. While he had been ordered to protect the children, and he protects the boy for that reason, it is not the reason he protects the girl. Now then, with that out of the way, I love reviews, please leave some.

Edit: 9/23/2015 - I have completely copied this over to AO3 and will be adding this back to my story rotation, though I still do not know when I will actually work on it, it is coming out of hiatus