NaNoWriMo November 2020

November 1

Sunday, November 1- 3157 words (1940 words here + 1207 on another)

Warm Up Prompt: See character development in three characters. They are in a crowded market. Their emotional states, jobs, and hobbies must be shown, but not stated. There must also be a "dead drop".

Nali was exhausted. The high ranking officers were finally allowed to take leave. Their ship, Karlin 47-g, had landed on Hakkro nearly two weeks ago. Most inhabitants had been allowed off ship in the first two days, but Nali was unfortunately deemed too important for that. Her skills in both mechanics and diplomacy meant she was often needed on planets.

Sometimes, she just wished it didn't take so long. She sighed again, relishing in the free air and the fact that no one would reprimand her. She stretched her arms and shoulder blades, warming up and becoming more aware of her surroundings.

There were four other Fanli ships on Hakkro: Jabri 32-v, Hablon 89-d, Varox 42-a, and Lindon 67-m. She had met with their captains and a few officers. She recognized one of them, Yorah, from their shared time on both Voidia 13-b and the disaster that followed. They had been split up after that, but it had been nice to see him again.

She walked to one of the food stalls. Whatever it was, it certainly smelled good. The alien leading the stall was probably male, had greyish skin, a flat face, three eyes, and seven fingers on each of his four hands.

"Hello," she greeted (in Galactic common). "What is this food that you are selling?"

He grinned at her, which was mildly unnerving, considering he had two rows of teeth, most of them canines. "I got lots o' food, missy. What do ye like?"

Her face hardened into a delicate smile and calm appearance. "I would like to know what options of meat and vegetables you have."

"Quite a few. There's some grilled strips o' kohrr, fin, grell, and nat as meat options an' we have jelri and morina as vegetable options."

Despite not knowing what any of those six options were, Nali twitched her lips in what was considered a pleasant smile. "I will take grilled kohrr with both jelri and morina."

"That'll be 12 gyros or 27 harr, missy."

"Of course," she replied and passed over 12 gyros. She had a week before she would need to go stay on ship, so she was not going to spend the planet's native money so early on.

She took her meal, which turned out to be the meat and two other vegetables layered on four sticks. She sniffed it. It was odd. The vegetables smelled strange. She pulled out her scanner, just to check that nothing would be harmful for her.

It said that the food was fine, so she took a small nibble. Odd flavor, but not bad. She discovered that the meat was actually quite good. It was very rich. The high iron content was definitely noticeable, which was wonderful, as she loved the taste of iron.

She glanced at her watch, the time reading just after midday. She had plenty of time to reach the meetinghouse. She walked over to a bench and sat down.

The plants were lovely. There was one flower that looked like fyre. Another was silver, gold, and bronze. A third type was vibrant shades of yellow.

She wondered what it took to take care of them. She could probably rig something up in her quarters. She debated over it for a minute before deciding to impress.

She stared at the plant, pressing questions at xzir, She opened her mind to the answers xzi could give. It responded.

Xzi shared its dryness and hunger with her. Xzi shared xzir love for warmth.