I spent a long while with Lyraan, trying to learn the new language. We shared a few laughs, had more than a few misunderstandings, and generally helped each other practice.

I studied foreign language in school because it was a requirement, and I made decent grades. But that didn’t mean I knew how to learn a new language, you know? I didn’t know how to make up a lesson or what words were most important or if I should focus more on grammar instead of vocabulary. So I just started with the stuff in the room and hoped for the best.

After a long while, Draxar interrupted us and gave me a mug of the drink that I didn’t want to drink. I know my expression was something like, “This beverage is going to send me a trip I didn’t sign up for,” so I tried to ask for water again.

Draxar, of course, looked politely confused.

I sighed and massaged my head. “OK, um… This is a mug. Mug.” I pointed to the thing I held.

After a pause, Draxar repeat, “Mug.”

“Good. Um, this–” I tried to point at the liquid without touching it– “is what? What’s this?”

I shrugged my shoulders and almost spilled the stuff all over myself. Draxar quickly took the mug back and set it down, frowning at it.

Lyraan spoke up with another word in their language. I repeated it, and he corrected my pronunciation a few times. I’d realized, as we had practiced, that words that seem normal in your own language are really weird when you’re trying to sound them out for a non-speaker to learn. Maybe Lyraan felt the same.

“Diherg,” I repeated. “Diherg, diherg, diherg. Ok, so this diherg–” I pointed to the mug next to Draxar– “I don’t want to drink it. Um, no. No diherg.” I made gestures and pointed and really hoped I wasn’t committing a social crime by refusing to drink something.

Lyraan made the sound that I’d come to think of as “Ah-ha!” and spoke quickly to Draxar. Mr. Butler looked surprised and a little offended, which made me wish I could hide under the chair I sat in.

Then Lyraan said something in a different tone than I’d heard before, and Draxar’s expression became dark. Then he turned away and walked off with more upset than I’d seen from him before.

Lyraan spoke again, to me, and I think he was trying to be comforting. He stopped speaking when the bedroom door swished open and Xandria stepped out. We both looked up at her, and she bowed and gestured to me.

I stood up, wondering what Xandria wanted and if I was in trouble. Xandria bowed again and motioned for me to come in the bedroom. My stomach felt like I’d swallowed rocks, but I nodded and walked towards her.

Behind me, Lyraan said something quietly. I saw Xandria’s eyes flash over to him and a little bit of surprise cross her face. She nodded a little and bowed me into the bedroom.

It turned out to be an exercise session, which surprised me a lot. It wasn’t yoga, but Xandria led me through a bunch of different stretches and slow poses that actually made me sweaty and shaky. 

At the end of it, she had to help me off the floor. That’s when I noticed something that would take me a long time to understand.

When Xandria pulled me upright, she suddenly looked very pleased. Almost excited, you know? I was still a bit dizzy and shaky, so I couldn’t come up with any ideas of what made her suddenly happy. Whatever it was, her attitude towards me made a big change in that moment.

I, in that moment, wanted nothing more than a shower to rinse off my sticky, stinky body. I got myself over to the bathroom door and somehow remembered how to make it open correctly. Before stepping inside, I pulled off the jumpsuit, unable to hide my expression at how bad it smelled. 

When I finished cleaning up, Xandria was right there to help me get dressed. In no time, we were back out in the main room.

Whatever had changed in Xandria also seemed to have changed in the other two. They suddenly seemed more pleasant and less like they had been given the worst job in the world. In the galaxy? Universe?

Draxar gave me another mug, and I was happy to see that it was full of plain water. I took a careful sip, trying to taste for any more sedatives. However, the fact that I’d gone so long without drinking anything caught up to me, and I swallowed all of it in seconds. I felt awkward again, but the others seemed to think I was funny or something. Not like, being mean funny, but maybe like just a little funny. The kind of funny that doesn’t make you feel like other people are making fun of you, you know?

Draxar refilled the mug with more water, and Lyraan hurried over with some items in his hands. When he sat down, I realized he was holding something like a clipboard.

He held it up and started talking, but not so fast that his words all melted together. Next he showed me something like a digital pen and made some marks on the clipboard.

“Oh! Writing!” I said. Then I gestured and repeated, “writing.”

Lyraan nodded and said the phrase I thought meant, “Right, right!”

We spent the next few hours with the set of clipboards, showing each other examples of writing in our languages. Their language sure didn’t look like English, and I wasn’t sure there was a language on Earth that resembled it. But it wasn’t the computer-style writing used in movies, either.

I showed Lyraan the ABCs and he showed me their version of the ABCs. We practiced finding the letters in words and learned how they sounded. Good thing both our languages used phonics.