The elevator doors closed behind them, and Kae pressed the button for the top floor. They felt the machine get into motion. She saw how Mi'oki almost couldn't wait to see what was on the other side when the door would open again. She knew it was only a short ride up. The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened to a large open hall, with a big screen in the front and a dome at the top from which you could see the stars outside.
“Welcome on the Bridge,” Kae said. “Here's where all the big decisions on the ship are made.”
“Cool!” Mi'oki asked. “Do you come here often, mommy?”
“Most of the time when they invite me to a staff meeting. I'm usually a few decks lower in Main Engineering. But sometimes I'm here behind one of these.” She tapped one of the consoles on the wall.
“So who's here then?”
“Well, there are some of the bridge officers standing at these consoles. The pilot is sitting there in the front, and there are some seats reserved for the first officer and the counsellor.”
“And the captain, of course,” they heard another voice saying. Mio'ki was startled and quickly turned around, and saw that the captain was standing right behind them. They lowered their head to Mi'oki's eye level, but the little boy was a bit intimidated by their appearance, trying to hide behind his mom.
“Oh, I didn't mean to scare you.”
“This is my boss, captain Cobenino Ceigh,” Kae introduced them. “He's a Hedseon.”
“Oh please, call me Cupcake if you like,” they said. “So, what's your name?”
“T-T-Turash-M-Mi-Mi'oki,” he stuttered.
“Nice to meet you, Mi'oki. How old are you?”
“Seven.”
“Seven? Wow, you're becoming a big boy!”
“Yes! I can already read, I can write and I can make sums at school.”
“That sounds good! Your mom must be proud of you!”
Cobenino quickly glanced up at Kae, who nodded approvingly.
“What's up with your head?” Mi'oki asked.
“My head? What about it?” Cobenino said, turning their head upside down.
“Why is it at the end of your tail? Something happened to you?”
“What? Oh, no no, nothing strange is going on. I guess you've never seen a Hedseon before?”
The boy shook his head.
“You haven’t had history classes yet?”
“He’ll start with that in the next grade,” Kae said.
“Hmm… Well, you see, kid, this is just how we Hedseons are. We have just two arms, unlike your four, and our heads free on our tail. But that must look strange for someone with his head firmly on their shoulders.”
“Can I… can I touch your head?”
“Oh, please do! I have a bit of an itch behind my right ear. If you could scratch right over there…”
Mi'oki stepped closer and reached out his upper left arm to Cobenino's head. He scratched right where Cobenino had hinted at.
“Oh yes, right there! Aaaaaaaaah! Lovely!”
To Cobenino’s surprise, it didn’t stop with just scratching, as they felt four little arms folding around his tail.
“Your fur is so soft!” Mi’oki said. “Like my plush Tkiru.”
“I… I don’t know what a Tkiru is, but I can assure you I’m no toy,” Cobenino said.

_________________________

This drawing is based upon the intro scene from an upcoming story I'm writing, introducing Kae's son Mi'oki, and his first meeting with someone from another world, the Hedseon captain of the ship, Cobenino "Cupcake" Ceigh. The anatomy of all three of them was quite hard to get right, but I had fun with showing off one of the uses of Cupcake tailhead. The world can't have enough hedsentales...

Cobenino is an AU version of : DuetSneplynx: 's Hedsentale Cupcake
UFIS story universe is by  Sabrina-taur
Hedsentale species by : Fweeblies:

Drawn in InkScape