"Not these."

"You are human? Not-" she hasn't translated spirit yet, it's a hard word to get to with the materials at hand. "Not-human person?"

"I think I am the thing you are, a human."

"Where is Mars?"

...Tarinda draws the Solar system and puts an arrow pointing at Mars. "This one is Mars. This one is Earth, my people were from Earth first but now live more places. That is the - up fire? that the Earth and Mars go around."

Up fire? "The sun. In the sky."

"Our sun, that's our sun. I think your sun is different. So I think I am a human but I only think it."

"Oh." Eliko considers for a moment. "How did you get here?"

"Something happened to my going from Earth to Mars thing."

"Can you fix it? Go back?"

"No, none of it is here and I do not know what happened. I need to do something else."

"Like what?"

"There is... a thing, that I have... writing..." Wobbly gesture. "About. I need to do that. Then everything will be good."

"How long will it take?"

"I don't know. If you have some things not very long. If you don't have them I have to make them."

"I should go home soon. You can come back with me if you want. It might be dangerous, but probably more interesting than staying here."

"Yes."

"Okay." She nudges the badgermole off her lap and stands up. She taps out a short rhythm with her foot. The badgermoles give an answering rumble, and a few last-second licks.

"It's this way." Back down the tunnel they came by.

"Are badgermoles... do they... do they think humanly?" Tarinda wonders, following.

"They know family. I can earthbend, so I'm family."

"That isn't what I wanted to ask."

"They're still animals."

"Okay."

"There are... not-human people, sometimes. They not from here, like you. But they're not from the sky."

"Where else is there?"