For that reason we were unkillable in the normal ways that mammals could be killed and we were constantly renewable. Of course, they said nothing about propagation. Quite the opposite. They told us to enjoy coupling with the mammals of Earth as much as we wanted because we were sterile and would never engender any offspring. This turned out to be true. And we did enjoy coupling with humans, both men and women. And we enjoyed coupling with each other. Every factual thing told to us by the Parents might have been true. They warned us that different villages and groups of Earth had different rules about coupling. We must be careful and not run afoul of those rules. This too proved to be true.

I could go on with this matter of coupling—how we enjoyed orgiastic pleasure, how seductive it was for us, but this is only a minor point in the story I am telling. I will conclude by saying that Welf and I—for the most part—paired off early on, and Derek and Garekyn also paired off, most of the time. And for us, love and loyalty always enhanced the pleasure. We never developed much of a taste for coupling with complete strangers. And there is no doubt that erotic coupling strengthened our sense of belonging to one another.

Before I continue, let me try to give you some idea of the language of Atalantaya. It was highly repetitive, and could be very precise, and was usually spoken in a sort of rapid chanting. For example, when they lifted me out of my bed and pointed to the portals opening on the forest realm, the Parents said things like “Behold the world, our world, the beautiful world of Bravenna, the perfect world of Bravenna. Behold it. Behold this beauty. Behold the world of Bravenna in which you have been created. You are children of Bravenna. Behold the trees, behold the leaves, the light of the sun, behold your Parents. Love and obey your Parents. You are People of the Purpose, born for Atalantaya and one purpose.”

It was like that continuously and we knew it was the language of Atalantaya before we knew what Atalantaya was. Their name for Earth was something on the order of “the blue-and-green planet with the mammals in ascendency,” with that entire packet of information contained in the word every time they spoke it. But “Earth” is just fine as a translation. And I think there was a number attached to their name for Earth, perhaps signifying one among many planets similar to Earth. Not certain. And no way to know their numbering system and they did not teach us arithmetic or mathematics. And they did not teach us any form of writing or reading at all.