A to Z 2026 - P - Contessina’s Collection of Human Treasures

“Some cultures seem to have characteristic gestures. I suppose all cultures do, but some gestures are easier to identify with them. Puck like to cross their arms. With us, it doesn’t come off as aggressive. I suppose it’s our diminutive size. I know when I’m with other Puck it’s easier to interpret what’s being conveyed. 

“Anyway, many observers have suggested our ships look a little like this gesture. Again, something that might be easier for an outsider to see. 

“I promise there’s a point to this, but we’re still a little ways off from reaching it.

“It’s a little unappreciated just how long we’ve been a galactic people. We predate the Danab quite handily. In fact, we reached Earth before the Tikanni did. At the time, we didn’t see what all the fuss was about, as later generations obviously did. Humans were a little more…sedate. Or maybe it was because of the communities we encountered. All over Europe, at the time (this was some four hundred years before the Tikanni), there were these monasteries that dotted the landscape, and there were humans huddled inside them, most of them spending most of their time in their private chambers.

“This expedition was led by Sgreth, mind you. If you’ve heard one tale of Sgreth you…you’re still not prepared for another. They’re each of them equally unbelievable…

“Sgreth had brought with him a generous helping of bodi knots. Puck love bodi knots. I don’t think there’s any food more closely associated with us than bodi knots. I think we’re probably the only advanced culture that invented our favorite food sooner than we did the wheel. 

“He encountered a monk who became curious about these bodi knots of ours. The monk wasn’t merely interested in eating one, he wanted to know how to make it. He became, well, about as obsessed with them as we are. Pretty soon he became well-known at this monastery for them. No one else knew Sgreth was there. They thought the monk invented them.

“Of course I’m talking about pretzels. Humans didn’t become quite as obsessed with them as we are with our bodi knots, but they’re not so far behind. Took me only a few days to have my first pretzel, when I arrived. I recognized it immediately. I happen to be almost as big a fan of Sgreth tales as I am bodi knots, so the connection wasn’t so hard to make. 

“Pretzels aren’t quite as good as bodi knots, but the best of them aren’t so far behind. I know some Puck have proven to be a little snobbish about it, and it’s just about the only point on which we aren’t so slavishly conciliatory toward humans. But they’re bodi knots. We’re particularly passionate about those things.”

“I’ve never had one,” Shelby said.

“I am not surprised,” Contessina said. “Try them! Try them! You’ll see.”

“Contessina, you let me be,” Shelby said.

“Not a chance,” Contessina said. “You started this. You were the one who was so curious. Now you’re learning why the Puck have endured for so long.”

(Collider, the book that begins the Danab Cycle, available in hardcover, paperback and ebook on Amazon…https://a.co/d/07sCy8ze)