I left the creche worried for Nadi. Maybe that was unnecessary—all my mothers seemed genuinely happy about it, and it was a normal part of growing up for Uli—but my past lives’ sensibilities rebelled at the idea.At least Uli didn’t breed in their very first heat. The pedicide issue aside, my new species had enough cognitive capacity to understand the risks and enough emotional maturity to guide their young through this part of maturation before going on to be treated as an adult.Girls coming into their estrus cycle for the first time tended to do so a bit early, and all across the tribe, mothers were teaching their daughters about what it means to be an adult. It was a very different practice than the boys and their First Blood, thankfully. Not long after, though, the rest of the women began to come into season.I had noticed the monestrous nature of Uli before, growing up in the creche, mostly by the absence of one or more of my mothers at a time around this time of year. Outside of the creche, it was much more apparent. The females were rarely seen in this part of the tribe’s camp the rest of the year, but it became a common sight to see one of the tribesmen collect one of his mates and bring her back to his tent for coupling.Daru was no exception to this. I glanced up from where I was resting in his tent when he walked in with Loma-ar Nuiq, the female who I was pretty sure was my birth mother.“Oh, Mali, you’re here. Good, I can show you how—”I leapt to my feet. “I’m good! I’ll give you some privacy!” I shouted, rushing out of the tent.Uli weren’t shy about that sort of thing, but I did not need a demonstration of how to breed my mother by my father.The worst part was the smell. I could now tell it was the season for mating because my own sensitivity to it was rising, as I too was coming into adulthood.While the females were going (...)