I sniffed the air. Except for the sweaty tang of fear, the beings smelled oddly sterile. I wondered if the scent of the unnatural silver ship rubbed off on them. How long had they been in there? Did they live in those things? There was so much I did not know.
I wanted to examine the newcomers longer, but the shortest creature—the one with light brown skin—shrieked. It fell backwards, staring at me wide-eyed, thrusting a shaky finger in my direction.
“N-n-n-newcomer!” it cried.
Newcomer? That wasn’t right. This planet was my homeland—these beings were the newcomers, not me.
But how did I understand its words? We couldn’t have spoken the same language.
Since communication was an option, I replied, “That is not correct.”
The other two creatures jolted and stared at me. The tallest one had pitch-dark hair and discerning eyes. It looked calmer than the panicking one on the ground.
But the third newcomer...
As I focused on him, my feelers went rigid.
Its skin was pale pink and looked soft to the touch. A tuft of dusty yellow fur sat on its head, and its eyes—
My feelers shivered. Its eyes were a cool jade green, the same as my scales.
What an absolutely beautiful creature.
“It talked,” the green-eyed one murmured. The sound made my spine tingle. Even its voice was perfect.
“Yes.” I gestured with my tail to the creature on the ground. “So did that one. How did it do that?”
The ground-dweller sounded flustered. “My name is Paz. And I’m ahe, not anit.”
“He?” I responded, testing out the strange sound on my tongue. “What does this mean?”
The three creatures exchanged glances, as if confused.
“Jaeyoung, try speaking without the interstellar translation module,” Green-Eyes suggested.
The tall one with black fur on its head tapped its ear. I noticed the newcomers all shared a curved, silver apparatus on a single ear. I had assumed it was part of their bodies, but the tall one removed it and began to speak. This time, a garbled mess of sounds emerged.
Green-Eyes tilted its head and asked, “Did you understand that?”
“No,” I said.
The tall one—Jaeyoung—replaced the silver ear device. “That explains it. Good to know our ITMs are functional.”
“What ishe?” I asked again, not comprehending that word.
Green-Eyes explained, “It’s a pronoun. The one we all use. So, the three of us arehe, notit.Does that make sense?”
“No,” I admitted. “But I will try to remember.”
Paz stood up and dusted off his coverings. “These newcomers must have different gender customs.”
“I am not a newcomer,” I interjected. “You three are the newcomers.”
Jaeyoung nodded. “I see. The connotation of the word—” He removed his device and said something likeay-lee-unbefore replacing it. “—must be different in their language. So, it translates as ‘newcomer.’ Compared to the wordhe, which does not exist at all.”
I stared at Green-Eyes throughout the explanation. He had long hairs that framed his eyelids. They reflected sunlight, making them glow. I did not yet know this stunning creature’s name. I was more interested in that than his cultural exchange.
“What are you called?” I demanded.
