Dylan swatted Morgane in the back of the head, “that was rude to say to their faces Morgane.” The Elder looked amused at the reaction and then said, “no I did ask what you thought our problem was. Morgane was correct in her statement, I believe she blurted it out due to shock.” The Elder was right Morgane was shocked that she had noticed the absence of children amounst the Apsaras people, but they hadn't hid the knowledge. The people all wore colored clothes, Morgane had guessed that the the colors were significant due to the male's reaction to what they were wearing. She knew the male was upset they wore those colors, she had noted that while all of their people had a purple on their garments. The males had blues while the females had red, granted the Elder had just purple, in a different shade than the others; Morgane guessed it denoted great age.

The Elder smiles again, “I believe Morgane has figured out the issue with your garments. Yes child the yellow and green denotes that to our people you are children, even if your people consider you to be adults. Our people have different considerations for adulthood, one of which is partnering for life.” Morgane noticed Aqua get uncomfortable slightly at the statement, the Elder continues. “I will go into more detail, but our people technically need children to be able to have children; that is the simplified answer. However it doesn't really explain it fully.”

Triton looked introspective to Morgane and Dylan speaks, “is it maybe a hormone that is release in your people if young are present within a community or is it something either more complicated or simple?” As a biological scientist it would interest him the most, though Morgane did wonder what the issue could be.

The Elder responds, “it is both more simple and more complicated. Complicated because even we cannot figure out exactly the reasoning behind this requirement, however the solution makes it simple. Morgane should have an inkling of an idea based on what she has found doing her work.” Morgane thought a minute on the items she dug up, as that could be the only thing he could be talking about. Especially since she had only just started working at the Site, from the Site notes she knew that the workers had been pulling pottery similar to what she had dug up for all these years. With the knowledge that they had sent the city via asteroid to a (any) world that they could 'connect' with means that everything in the city was placed for a reason. The pots depicted a celebration of sorts, where it appeared to (at least) Morgane's eye they were celebrating new life or a harvest. Maybe it was both, yet the key image was the children, they were the ones holding the items in the depictions.

Morgane speaks, “is it the festivals I saw depicted in the pottery? Do they have something to do with it?” To Morgane it honestly seemed far fetched, however you can never really know as we are discussing a different species from a world that has a different ecosystem that earth. Morgane had always thought it a stupid idea for humans to ascribe the details of their ecosystem to be the only one that could produce life, especially since according to science it was just random dumb luck that life existed on their world anyway.

The Elder nods, “yes it has to do with the festivals depicted. You thoughts that there were two different ones is accurate, like Earth we do have seasons. The one we are showing you is our summer season, we would hold a 'new life' festival in the spring season. The children would dance through the cities, towns, and villages with seeds and the first flowers. In the fall we would have a 'blessed harvest' festival where our children would dance with the bounty of our harvests.” Aqua steps out of the building at that moment looking upset, Morgane was going to follow when the Elder stopped her, “no child let her go. Aqua, as you call her; is our youngest she is 300 of your years old. She never, oh what is the term your species has; ah. She never 'went into season', and her life mate decided to do a very rare thing and broke off their partnership. For her being the last child our species had and never having children herself with what her former mate did causes her pain sometimes.”

The Elder looks out one of the 'windows' of the house and looks wistful and then amused, “the male was being very silly in my estimation. Since he cares enough to console her now even though a short time ago he argued with her.” The three of them looked at each other and Morgane thought, does that mean that male whose name had to do with mountain streams was to be her life mate? If he cares why would he end their partnership? The Elder turns to Morgane, “that my dear is a complicated question with an equally complicated answer. As he was the youngest of the males it was thought to be a good pairing for the two of them, our last grouping of children was three females and one male. He had invoked an old law of our people stating that if a female could not produce an heir for their mate that they could possibly end the partnership in favor of having a different one. However, in our society that couple cannot be paired back up with each other if they decide later to fix their relationship. Since females have the possibility of becoming pregnant twice a year, it was generally done within a year or two of the pairing so that they won't be as closely bonded to one another. The problem is however this is something that is so rarely done that it had to be looked up to discover it.”

The Elder pauses looking out the window again, this time he appears to nod slightly then looks back at the three of them. “Our people are known to have one and only one mate for life, and there is a high case of death when one of the pair dies. That is how close our bonding makes us, the reason I am still alive is that my mate made me promise that I would not let her death kill me; because my people needed me more than she wanted me to join her in death. She had died of a plague that burned through a great portion of our population, most of us in this village you are in now were not from this island. We are all survivors of different cities and villages scattered across our world, except for Aqua and her former mate. They grew up here, they were the last survivors of their village; so even before they were to have the official pairing up they were well bonded. The male thought that finding a way to have children was more important than his mate was, he has over the last few hundred years learned that was wrong.”

Morgane could see Triton's hands twitching, she wasn't sure if it was because he wanted to record everything we were told or him being upset over Aqua's not quite failed relationship. Dylan spoke up, “so a 'ritual' that your people had; I am assuming from the earliest dates in your history. Is the key to your reproduction, did you stop doing this ritual?”

The Elder looks at Dylan and reaches to to touch his face, “that my son is a few questions wrapped in one. I see why you are in the field you are in, yes for a period of time we stopped doing the ritual. At least culturally, we know a number of tiny villages kept it up when the larger cites stopped. This has to do with the species that existed on the moon, they were still a young people very rash and impatient. They had problems socially among their own people. To our reckoning they grew up from their larger cousins overnight, as a species that can live for a thousand years if we are in good health. Seeing a species grow up to basic space travel in a span of four thousand years is very fast, change for my people tends to be slow. Granted, we do; or rather did go through fashion fads at a rate equal to your people.”

The Elder pauses getting a bit of a far away look in his face, Morgane takes that moment figuring he was deep in thought over what he was saying; to go look out the window the Elder had been gazing through. Morgane smiled at what she saw, Aqua was being held by that spindly male who looked like he was talking quietly to her while stroking the fur on one of her arms. Morgane moved back away from the window and tilts her head toward the window and smiles Triton getting her hint goes and takes a quick look and then waves Dylan over to look as he walks away. When Dylan looks he nods slightly and moves away as well, Morgane thought well I do guess that is a good sign. I wish they could rejoin in their partnership, it would probably be more helpful that just having a shoulder to cry on.

The Elder comes out of what ever he was thinking on, “we decided when we saw their people struggling to survive and causing illness among their own people; to try and aid their people. To show them a better way more in tune with the world around them, we gave them better farming practices; which let them grow a great deal more food than they could produce before on much less land than they were using. We also showed them how to mine minerals without either using methods that would poison their air or harm their people.” The Elder looks sad then and sighs, “what we had not known was that they were afraid of our people. We hadn't done anything harmful to their people we had not even been threatening, we had shown them a way to contend with internal turmoil in a way like your city does. We showed them that having dueling matches would be a good method to solve disputes, we used them ourselves in the past when our population was greater. No matter how peaceful a people are, when they live close together there will be conflicts, it is easier to just have the 'hot head' fight it out in an organized fashion verses committing an act of random violence.” The three of them nodded in agreement since that is exactly what their city founders had decided.

The Elder continues, “sometimes after we thought the people of the moon were in a more stable position; it seems they had been watching our people to find a way to reduce our population. Since they had a few times attempted to duel our people and could not even manage to win against a child.” The Elder looked visibly shaken at the idea of a child fighting a duel, “they were testing how strong we were. Then when they discovered if they fought us they wouldn't win, they tried to find out if there was some way to get us to stop having children. They knew before we did that the two festivals were key to us having children. In our people's life cycle you are a child till your fifth decade then you are partnered to someone that you are well suited to.”

The Elder pauses again glancing out the window at the pair, “They suggested to the younger generation that following old outdated rituals of our culture was silly. That Rituals were not needed for such a high technological species, we were very foolish back then. Our people having achieved so much was very vain and the thought that following anything that was an 'old way' was considered out of fashion. “ Morgane felt pity for the Elder, she guessed that he may have seen some of the outcome of what occurred; though based on when the moon killed themselves off she doubted he had been alive for the actual beginning of their downfall.

The Elder nodded at her and continued, “the large cities didn't even notice no children had been born for two centuries. As I said some of the smaller villages had kept to the traditions, so there were children born to them. When the capital city finally realized that the Great council, our ruling party; had no children to take and fill the runner positions. Our Great council uses children to deliver messages to other cities about decisions they made that involve the people as a whole. It is a way for children to experience the mini cultures that different villages and cities have from those that they grew up in. At this point they were getting ready to ask the other major cities if anyone wished to be part of a delegation to visit the people on the moon who at that time were starting to spiral to the war that would eventually kill them off. However they noticed there were no children to send out with the messages, they then did a few things.”

The Elder pauses again looking pained, Morgane wondered if it was emotional or physical and should she go ask for help. Worry not dear one, it is an emotional pain; I am the only one here that can tell you this tale. So please forgive an old fool for getting upset by things that cannot be changed anymore.