Extraterrestrial Love

Safe?

The ride was indeed bumpy…and loud…and painful. But the refreshing views of a new planet (new to Birch) made up for it.

As they drove, Lee would point at things and shout their, assumed, names through the little window in the back of the cab. “Trees,” “corn,” “cows,” “horses,” the word horses soon followed by “OH MY GOD THE HORSES HAVE BEEN OUT ALL NIGHT!” 

All the while Birch focused on how shockingly fast the sun was rising. To him, it was unbelievably fast since his days and nights are entire seasons. Day is around a year on his planet and is simply called the hot season, night is around the same time and is referred to as the opposite; the cold season. The hot can get all the way up to 150 degrees fahrenheit, and the cold can drop down to -20 fahrenheit. They have extreme adaptations and ways of life for dealing with both. One of which will prove to be very…inconvenient for his time on earth.
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“Alright!” Lee says as the truck slows to a stop in the gravel driveway of his quante old school style cabin “My home!” He smiles at Birch as he makes his way around to the tail gate after killing the shotty engine. “I know you’re probably used to fancy-shmancy alien stuff but this is all I got.” he mumbles. 

In reality it is quite the opposite. Birch is used to pretty much fixed up and furnished caves. Furnished with things made all by hand with natural gathered resources in a cave inhabited by his family, and many of the tribe. It may seem primal but there are reasons they have to stay in such a way. But, still, they are extremely civilized. Arguably more so than humans. 

So, in conclusion, this is as close to comfortable he's seen since he left his home planet. 

“Safe?” Birch asks in nearly a mumble once Lee drops the tailgate. 

“Hm?” Lee furrows his brows in confusion.

“Home…” Birch grumbles searching for words •Is this place safe? It looks nice…looks comfortable. But is anyone else inside? Any more humans?!• He almost shouts in frustration with the language barrier. His tail whips up and down expressively showing his annoyance “Home…safe?”

“Oh! Sorry I just…” Lee sighs. The frustration is mutual “Yes. Home safe. No other people—no more humans.” He gives an assuring, kind smile and nod. Birch (kinda) gets it. 
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With an equal amount of struggle as they had getting Birch in, they finally get Birch back out of the bed. At the janky front door of the cabin Birch’s stance becomes defensive, ready for anything that could be behind the door. After all, humans are known to be untrustworthy. 

The door opens to…to just similarly formed seating areas, but these ones look much more soft. The whole place in fact, looks much more comfortable…besides the horned animal heads hanging on the walls. •What is that creature?! Why is it just—crawling on your wall?! How are you not concerned about this?!• Birch growls as the creature seemingly stares with live eyes.

Lee shoots his eyes down to Birch whose spines are now raising. He follows his eyes to his taxidermied deer mounts hanging above his fireplace. “Oh! Shit—Birch, it's okay! Safe!” he jogs over to the mounts ''Safe! Dead! Er—” he realizes that may cause even more concerns ''Fake!” It’s a lie, but anything to just make this beast of an alien calm down. He stands on his tip toes in an effort to touch the thing, maybe pry it off the wall a bit to show there's nothing but wood on the base of it. 

Thinking Lee wants the thing off his wall, Birch takes the situation into his own hands. Or, tail, for that matter. As fast as a whip he snags the mount and tears it off the wall, taking the nail with it and leaving a splintered hole behind. He chucks it onto the floor and one of the points on an antler snaps off.