Lavender & Ice

18. Exploration

"So what are you going to do today?" She asked him as they ate breakfast. He had made more of the tender meat and a fruity beverage he said had been settling overnight.  Now that she had explained to him what could happen if she tried anything new, he had panicked when she found the drink and insisted on trying it. 

 Despite his worry, she explained that she couldn't eat meat and one vegetable forever so she took a sip, watching him as he impatiently waited and watched her for any signs of a reaction. After a few minutes she decided to take the plunge. Once she got a taste, she wanted more. It was potentially the best thing she'd ever drank and she'd be happy to have it for breakfast every morning.

"What do you want to do?" He shrugged.

Her brows furrowed. "Me?"

He nodded. "Yes, what would you like to do?"

"I..." she opened her mouth and closed it like a fish. "I don't even know what my choices are. I've barely been out of this tent.... So definitely something that involves leaving the tent." She chuckled.

"Ok..." she watched him as he thought over what they could do. His face lit up and he turned to her with a slight smile on the corners of his mouth.

"That good, huh?" She chuckled. "Be careful smiling like that, I might begin to think you could actually be happy."

He frowned. "Get dressed, let's go." He said dryly. 

"If you keep reacting like that, I'm just going to keep picking on you."

"What does this mean?" He asked as he put on his boots. "Picking on you."

"Picking. Poking. Prodding." She shrugged. "You've shown a weak spot, something that gets a reaction from you. So picking on you means I keep doing the thing that gets a reaction from you, only because it gets a reaction. Does that make sense."

"Yes." He grumbled. "This picking on sounds cruel."

"In some ways it can be, if it's taken too far, but most of the time it is not meant to be mean. It is meant to be done as a joke to eventually get that person to laugh about it instead of getting upset."

"This makes no sense."

"Ehh, I tried." She shrugged as they walked out the door.

Now that the translator seemed to be working full swing, with just occasional untranslated words or particular phrases or metaphors, it was time for her to fill him in on how she had arrived in the lake on his planet. So that's what she did while they had prepared and ate breakfast. He had asked a couple questions but otherwise seemed to understand her situation.  

He explained that, yes, the Aerulians had made contact with their planet generations ago. But his people didn't really care about space exploration or relations with planets outside of their own. He didn't seem to know what that would mean for the future of an alien who accidentally crashed here, or if he did he didn't say. 

They left camp, heading west toward the forest again.

"Are we going hunting again?" She asked, dreading that he would answer with yes.

"No." Was all he said as he kept going.

Only a half hour into their walk, he changed direction and headed northwest. Ashima had been doing most of the talking during their trip so far. Now that he could understand her, it was like the dam broke and her mouth couldn't stop moving.

"So, what do you do for a living?"

"We are almost there."

Obvious deflection. Ok... "Is It dangerous?"