So, I can't help being curious about the Dyani and their history. You mention that they came from an island in the Caribbean and were hunted to near-extinction once they were discovered. Their resemblence to deer seems to be the obvious explanation as to why colonisers would jump to wanting to eat them rather than enslave them or anything else but, from the way you write Ayala, there does seem to be some desire or at least willingness to be eaten embedded in their DNA. Could it be that when the peaceful Dyanai first encountered the presumably hungry and tired explorers, one or two of them hospitably offered themselves as food and the explorers got a taste for their meat? Or was it just that they looked as much like deer as people so the human explorers just decided they'd likely be good to eat?