She draws in a breath, and I can't help but notice the way her chest lifts. Like my brothers, I never expected to find a mate, but now there is a woman in front of me, and her sister likes Honeywarriors, I can't help but hope. Which means it's not the human tribe I am trying to impress. It is her.
"Can I start with your name?"
That is not what I expected her to say. "Tiril."
She repeats it, and I correct her pronunciation. "And what is your name?"
"Chloe."
I don't like the way the whisperer repeats her name in its flat tone, but I can't rip it off my ear, because otherwise I won't be able to understand her. I want to understand human words without relying on their technology. If they can take my language so everyone can understand me. Are they able to take away my understanding of them? I don't understand how their technology works.
Chloe walks over to the other side of the building, which isn't very far, and she opens several cupboards as if searching for something. It is enough for me to realize this isn't where she usually works. This was set up for me. The human soldiers didn't attack us to reclaim their women. They came for one of us.
The thought doesn't fill me with hope.
She pulls out some implements, and then something else. She taps it a couple of times before nodding to herself, then she looks at me. "I need to think about the information I gather."
"Why is that? Isn't all information useful?"
She considers me with her lips pressed together. "Yes, but the colony leaders will be interested in different things to what I want to learn. And everything I tell them might be used against you."
I take a moment to process the meaning behind her words. "You think your people will attack mine? There are only a few of us here. There are no tribes on this continent."
"Then why are you here?"
I consider telling her about the falling star but change my mind. "We are banished, and we grew tired of being attacked by the other tribes. We'd heard tales of this continent and set out to find it, not caring if we found death instead. We did not expect to find your kind here. Sabine said you sailed the stars."
She watches me when I talk, but I can tell when the whisperer starts translating my words as her head tilts and a small crease appears between her eyebrows. "She's right. We come from a planet far away. I was born on the ship."
I cannot imagine a voyage that long. Instinctively, I lift my head as if to stare at the stars, but overhead there is only the sharp lighting. They have no flame, nor do they have a soft glow like my markings make.
Chloe continues, "So your tribe, tribes, live on the other continent. And this one could be ours?"
I shrug. That is not my decision to make, but it seems logical. There is no reason for us to fight over land and I cannot imagine other honey tribes travelling over the ocean to settle here.
"Why are there no tribes here? If there are stories, someone must have been here before?"
"I don't know why there are no Honey tribes here. As for the stories, perhaps they are tales that other banished told after seeking adventure and mates."
She uses something black to write on the thing in her hand.
"What is that you are writing on?"
She holds it up. "This? It's a tablet. Instead of writing on paper. We write on these, and then the information is stored…" She gives me that look again as though I said something shocking. "You know how to write?"
"Of course I know how to write. Just because I'm banished doesn't mean I am uneducated." But I don't know what her paper is, or what a tablet does and how it stores what she is writing.
"What do you write on?"
"It depends on what the purpose of the writing is. If it is a permanent record, it will be written on metal. If it is a merchant, keeping count of stock, it might be written on clay or on old cloth, or even a piece of wood."
"And what do you use for ink?"
I frown, not sure what ink is. "Ink?"
"What makes the mark on the cloth?
"There is a bug that when crushed, creates a dye which is used for marking." I lift my arm. "It is the same in my skin."
