Azdrei’in noticed that Artemis was very observant of each and every Lunvalgan that crossed her path. When the other warriors had stopped by to bring his bed, she watched them closely, and he watched her in return. He was interested in knowing what she thought of everything so far. She had been displaced from her home and surrounded by an environment that was entirely foreign to her. When he’d come down to the earth, he’d been fascinated by everything he’d found. All the new sights and smells and other sensations that he’d never experienced before had been mindboggling. Now, their roles had been reversed, except she was essentially at the mercy of his people. He wondered if she was excited or frightened or both.

After the others left, he smiled amusedly at the human’s comment. “We don’t have meat,” he told her, folding his arms over his chest while his suspended bed swung lightly underneath him. “We have something else. I don’t know how to say it… It is good for us like meat, but it was made on the spaceship.” The substitute was synthesized in a lab, created by scientists to replicate the nutrition that they would have gotten from consuming raw meat. However, now that he’d tasted the real thing, he found the alternative to be bland. It had hardly any flavor, and the texture was unnaturally spongey. It was passable, since it was their only option when they were in space, but it was a disappointing food source compared to fresh, warm, flavorful meat from the hides of real animals. His mouth watered at the thought of it, and he swallowed reflexively.

When Artemis handed him the device, he murmured a word of thanks and ran a quick history search to open the sources he’d found to study English. “I think I know,” he nodded at her explanation of something she called ‘synonyms.’ “I will learn more words soon. It just takes time.” He shifted his weight on his bed to swing his legs up on the mat, making himself more comfortable. Now that he’d made himself familiar with the English alphabet and collected a basic vocabulary, he expected that he would master the language quickly. The hardest part had been getting started. From here, it was just a memory game. He would continue to perfect his grammar and memorize as many words as he could, and hopefully by the time morning came, he would be able to communicate far more effectively than he could today.

He glanced up from the screen when she asked him about her food. Understanding that she had brought along a tool to heat up her meals, he nodded and indicated a smoke detector in the ceiling. “I think it is fine if you are smart about it. Just keep it far away from that because it will call other people here. They will think we are not safe.”

While she cooked her dinner, he laid back on his bed with one knee up and his other leg crossed perpendicular across it. With a pillow tucked comfortably under his head, he skimmed through the virtual page he’d pulled up on Artemis’s device, reading new sentences in English and quietly reciting unfamiliar words. They would be meeting with the Om’phaers tomorrow, so he needed to learn as much as he could before that time. He paid particular attention to vocabulary he came across that had to do with medicine and science, since that was going to be the focus of their discussion. Even by his own people’s standards, he was a rapid learner, so he was confident that he would be prepared. He just needed to put in the work to reach his goal.

He focused on studying the language until the human’s voice distracted him, and he turned his head to look at her. “I hope you can help too,” he said idly, taking notice of her tension. “But don’t worry. Even if your help is not enough, we will soon have the whole planet to use. I think we will find something there that will also help. We will not let the problem kill us.”