Serix spun around when he heard a low growl behind him. A new human had joined the group and with him was a large brown-and-black dog. The animal had its hackles raised and its head low. It bared its fangs at him hostilely. He tensed, ready to jump to his feet if the dog moved to attack him, but the human held up a hand and it relaxed, keeping its eyes trained on him but ceasing to snarl. He stared back at it, unwilling to look away in case it was still waiting for an opportunity to jump at him.

[b]“I’m Samuel,”[/b] the new human introduced himself. [b]“But everyone calls me Gunner.”[/b]

“Can you get your dog to back off some?” Serix said without looking away from the animal.

“Hmm, don’t think so,” the human called Gunner replied. “He’s trained to sniff out Lunairans. He’s not gonna let you outta his sight now, but don’t worry, he won’t hurt you as long as I don’t give the order.”

“Isn’t that reassuring?” Serix muttered, reluctantly turning away from the dog as another human came over to join them. He remembered this one to be Quincy, the male who woke him and Cassie up that morning.

[b]“Hey, guys,”[/b] Quincy said. [b]“Don’t forget, later tonight we’re having recreation. I was thinking soccer.”[/b]

Serix wondered what this “soccer” was. From context, it sounded like some sort of human activity, but Cassie had never mentioned it to him before. He listened quietly as the others went on to discuss it and Jerry turned to ask them if they were ‘up for a game.’

[b]“I haven’t played that since I was a kid in school,”[/b] Cassie said with a smile. [b]“But sure. Why not?”[/b]

“What’s soccer?” Serix asked.

The humans laughed and Quincy answered him, “Oh, you’ll see.” Serix frowned at the vague response, but didn’t press him. He doubted the human would explain more even if he tried.

After dinner, the group headed down to a large, spacious cavern where the other humans had already gathered. The floor was covered in strange painted markings and there were two big, netted boxes at either end of the room. Emily and Victoria went to sit off to the side with a young, light-haired female Serix hadn’t seen before, while the others joined a group of humans that were standing towards the middle of the cavern. Ryan and Jacob stood apart from the others with their arms crossed.

“Is this everyone?” Jacob asked.

“Think so,” Ryan replied. His eyes fell on Serix and he looked like he was about to add something else, but he just said: “With the addition of Cassie and the alien, there’re sixteen players. Do you want to choose first, Jake?”

“Sure,” the other male waved a hand at Quincy. “This was your idea, so I’ll take you on my team.” Quincy grinned and stepped over to join Jacob. Serix made the connection that Ryan and Jacob were the leaders in this game, and they were picking members to join their individual teams. He glanced at Ryan, easily predicting who the human was going to choose first for his group.

“Castiel,” Ryan said with a smile. “You’re with me.”

Serix squeezed his mate’s hand and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, “Knowing him, I can already guess we’re going to be on opposite sides, huh? Good luck, Cassie.” He glanced at Ryan. He wasn’t going to let the human keep riling him up over every little irritating thing he did.

“Good sportsmanship,” Jacob nodded. “I’ll take the Lunairan.” A few of the humans turned to him in surprise. Like Serix, they had probably been expecting him to be picked last. He hesitated for a moment, and then went to join Jacob’s side with Quincy.

Ryan and Jacob went on to choose the rest of their teams. By the end, Ryan had claimed Cassie, Connor, Jerry, Hunter, Gunner, Sally, and a male named Ron that Serix recognized as one of the humans who had been encouraging his fight with Hunter the day before. On the other team, Jacob claimed Serix, Quincy, Monty, Sarah, Ray, Charlie, and a male named Wes that Serix had only seen in passing. With the two sides equally divided, the leaders took their teams to opposite boxes at the ends of the cavern.

Serix caught up to Quincy as they walked to their side, “So, can I know what soccer is now, or do you expect me to start out blind?”

“Okay, okay,” Quincy laughed. “Because you’re on my team and it would be a pain in the ass for you to be clueless, I’ll fill you in.” He pointed across the room at the netted box. “That’s the target, see? The object of the game is to get the ball into that goal and keep it out of ours. You can hit the ball with any part of your body except for your hands and arms.” He gestured at the markings on the ground. “The lines on the outside are the boundaries. You can’t play outside of the giant rectangle we’re standing in. That middle line marks the division between our side and Ryan’s side, and the square around the goal is called the ‘goal box.’ You’re not allowed to go inside it unless the ball is in there or you’re the goalie, the person defending the goal. The other lines aren’t as important, so I’ll let you figure them out as we go.” He paused, thinking. “If the ball goes out-of-bounds, the team that didn’t kick it there gets to throw it back in. That’s the only time you’re allowed to use your hands if you’re not a goalie. Oh, and there’s three main positions: defense, midfield, and forward. Defense mostly stays on this side of the field to help the goalie, forwards are the people who go on offense and try to get the ball into the other team’s goal, and midfield is like backup for everyone. Since you’re new, I think we’ll start you on mid so you can get an idea of how this whole thing works.” He grinned. “So, do you think you followed all that?”

“Um, sort of,” Serix admitted. “It’s a lot to learn all at once. I think I’ll figure it out when we get started, though.”

“Good,” Quincy nodded. “Because I’m not explaining it again.” He turned to Jacob, who had taken up the goalie position. “We good to go, Jake?”

“Yeah,” Jacob nodded and called across the cave to Ryan. “We’re all good over here. You can kickoff.”