"No. Why do you have these questions?"

"I want to understand strangers well enough to know how it's safe to interact with you."

"We aren't here to hurt anyone. We're here to trade."

"Not safe for me, I'm fine, safe for you. I have a bunch of questions but I don't want to make you go crazy or something and I don't understand you well enough to guess."

"We aren't here to answer questions."

"Great." Sigh. Is their interpreter about -

Over there negotiating with someone on their behalf about chickens.

She'll wait until he's done.

Eventually the conversation pauses while the local goes to ask someone a chicken related question.

"Excuse me?"

"Hm?"

"How did you learn their language?"

"From my dad. And from them, some, I pick up new words sometimes."

"Do they make any sense to you? They're very peculiar."

"They're not like people, no, but they pay on time."

"Do you know anything else about them? Habits you've noticed, fights they've gotten into..."

"Why do you want to know?"

"I have a small one. It's compatible with me magically. It's very useful but sometimes I just can't understand what motivates it and I thought if I knew more about them in general I'd know what to expect."

"- where'd you get one? They don't sell 'em."

"Found it in the woods."

"That's weird. I've never seen fewer than three of 'em in one place."

"Ah huh. Do they try to avoid certain places or people or interactions?"

"That's a really vague question."

"I don't know what I'm looking for. Anything to go off."

A stranger taps the translator on the shoulder and murmurs to him. He says, "They're not gonna pay me to talk to you."