Misunderstandings

You froze in your tracks. Lily was dying? For several seconds you stood there, trying to process what she'd just said. You knew that something was wrong since Lily hadn't eaten for the last day. You hadn't seen her anywhere since your encounter in the hall when you blasted her with the water, and she may have been holed up here ever since. Had you severely injured her somehow? Although you didn't like what she had done, you certainly didn't want her to die. You motioned the door closed, and turned back to Lily unsure what to do next.

"Lily, I had no idea," you said. "Do you want to talk about it?" You recalled the members of your family sitting by your maternal grandmother in the hospital in the days before she passed away, and somehow that seemed to help ease the pain for everyone. You moved closer and knelt down beside Lily, waiting for her to say something, anything.

Eventually, she leaned toward you, resting her head on your shoulder, and then sobbed, "Lily sorry. Lily was selfish," she apologized. "Lily scared. Lily not want to die."

"I'm sorry too," you replied. "I had no idea the water had that much power. Did that have anything to do with this?" you asked.

"The water?" she said as your question seemed catch her off guard. "That hurt, but not why Lily is dying." After a lengthy pause, she finally added, "Lily has the Withering."

Withering? If what Orphic had told you was true, he'd found a cure for Lily's early onset of the Withering. Was her therapy finally wearing off? What little you knew about it was from Orphic, and it might be awkward to reveal you knew something about the Withering or Lily's prior treatments for it. "Withering? What's that?" you asked.

"It disease that many Cunis get. Cause Cuni to rapidly age and die," she explained. "It is horrible and painful end." She completely melted at that point, and rested her head on your lap with her cheek on your Gargo dick, but neither of you was in any mood for a sexual encounter at this point.

"Can the doctor help? Is there some kind of medicine for it?" you asked.

"No need for doctor. No cure. Lily know she is dying," she explained.

Without the doctor's evaluation, how could she be that sure? You didn't know enough about Cunis to make an accurate prognosis, but from Lily's appearance, she didn't show any outward signs of rapid aging. Based on what you recalled from the Cuni roster, Lily was one of the oldest bunny girls aboard the Starpoint, somewhere around 10 years old, which would be roughly the equivalent to a 40-year-old human woman. Many women would pay handsomely to look as good as Lily who appeared closer to being in her late 20s to early 30s. "If you don't mind telling me, what indications of the Withering have you noticed so far?" you asked.

"Can't you see? It's hideous!" she exclaimed.

"Well, the lights are a bit dim, so maybe my eyes are not able to perceive it clearly," you replied. "If you don't mind turning up the lights a bit further, you can show me."

She grimaced and sat up. "No tease. It ugly," she ordered, and then motioned for the lights to increase to the normal level.

You looked over her naked body from head to toe. You saw some swelling across her chest, and even more around her crotch area where the jet of water had blasted her, but nothing else. "Lily, besides the areas where I hit you with the water, I don't see anything unusual."

"Sky must have bad eyes. Look here," she pointed toward the side of her face at one of her hairs. There amidst all of her pink hair was a single gray strand.

You almost started laughing but managed to contain it. "Lily, that's just a gray hair. Isn't that normal? I know my race gets them around middle-age," you explained.

"The Cuni saying is that when 'Pink turns to Grey, you've reached your final day'," she retorted. Amazingly, your universal translation implant had somehow converted that statement with correct grammar. Either that, or your brain was finally compensating for the normally broken phrasing of Cuni speech patterns. This was an unexpected development, but not relevant right now.

"Ok, but I still don't see how a single gray hair means you're dying." you replied.

"Here too," she said and pointed out another on the other side of her head. "And here," she added as she stood up and pointed at a tiny gray hair nestled with her pink pubic hair. Next, she pointed at a small dark spot on her arm and continued, "See this spot." Then she leaned toward you and pointed at the corner of her eye and said, "And wrinkles by my eye. These all signs of withering. Lily also feel very weak and stomach hurts."

"My species gets gray hairs, age spots and wrinkles too, but it doesn't mean we're dying. Are you sure these aren't just normal side effects of getting older? Also, if you haven't eaten all day, that could explain why you're not feeling well."

"No!" she shouted. "Lily is dying. This is the Withering. Lily will be dead tomorrow. Why Sky not believe Lily? You not Cuni. You not know."

Lily had made up her mind and you wouldn't be able to change that, but perhaps someone else could. "Would you at least let the doctor take a look?"