Our Parts

The Self has learned the language of the Tiili well enough to communicate with them, but still doesn't grasp many of the subtleties. The Tiili, for their part, don't understand what the Self actually is.

What is your shape? You make the sound of something flat with many holes in it.

That's our wall. We are inside it.

Inside the floor of the world?

We don't understand this expression, "floor of the world". Is it new?

You're under all this flat area? Just how big are you?

How big? The question doesn't make sense for us.

What's your size? Are you large or small? Of the singing families, we are the largest, almost twice as long as the Spitters.

That requires a comparison. Of our parts, some are smaller and some are larger, but we don't know how they compare in size to your voices.

What are your parts like, and how do they put you together?

They're in the wall to keep the atmosphere from hurting us. They have eight tails that take turns keeping the atmosphere out of their holes, and two tongues that gather food.

You eat?

Don't you?

Of course we do, but we couldn't eat if we lived under the floor. We have to chase our food or else go hungry.

Your food moves? ...You eat alive things?

What else could we eat?

Our food isn't alive. It drifts past the wall in the atmosphere. Our parts reach out their tongues, small pieces stick to them, the tongues come back in, and they gather the pieces into large enough bundles to eat.

This cloud of dead-tasting stuff? This is what feeds you? I'd rather chase my food and eat it fresh.

Time frame: ~27 million years in the past