"...Thank you. What do people have if not each other? ...I'll take you on a tour of the structures later. They do seem... Test-like... To our cultural references... One of them implies there's five tests. It's a large archway with five symbols. Three of the symbols are present on the other three sites I've found. ...That's five hundred twenty seven sleeping-and-waking- I sleep when the planet rotates such that the sun is behind it, and wake when it's above again."

Tromp tromp past the rocks and down the sand. She sets the travois down with a grunt and stretches her arms for a bit. Then she lays out an animal skin and focuses on the water. A large globule comes up from the sea and starts - spinning rapidly. Salt settles out of it, being flung onto the hide in a dusty spray. Eventually, the globule goes into a pot and she starts repeating the process.

"Theo is from the same planet as me, [Water], and this place resembles in some respects that planet. We arrived together. We're used to [seasons], orbit-variations of weather, that take close to a full orbit to play out, but the cycles on this island take twenty to forty [days] which is far too short and irregular for [seasons] to be a satisfactory explanation. There are temperate cycles, dry cycles, and storm cycles."

A second globule of clean water into the second of four pots.

"And that sleep schedule feels natural to you? Does your home planet also rotate, and at the same speed? Hm, Water, not [potable-water] - " Lin tastes the ocean and immediately spits it back. "What's wrong with the water?! What are you removing?"

"Yeah. I'm removing salt- The ocean is salty."

Lin takes another taste and throws it back just as quickly. "Huh, it really is just salt. That's how it goes, enough of anything can be harmful."

She taps a finger against her other hand, a bit slower than once each Earth second. "I call these divisions of time [seconds]. There are 50 [seconds] in a [minute], 50 [minutes] in an [hour], and 30 [hours] in a cycle. Is that about the length of the days? 

Because we, like you, have natural sleep-wake cycles. The length varies a little between individuals, but the distribution is the same for all of our species, and we know of no natural reason that it has to be that particular length. I think that we, or, to be precise, our oldest species, which went on to make the other species, was taken from a planet like yours."

"Didn't we already suspect that?"

"If our sleep cycles match, that would be more evidence.

The being that took us here might be different from the being that created [human] magic. They might have different goals."

"Maybe we'll get another magic if we pass the test!"

Calsa turns back to Erebys. "Does your home have stories like this? Where did your magic come from, and where did your species come from, if that's different?"

"Every medicine is also a poison." She nods sagely. "That amount of time sounds... About right? We use sixty seconds and sixty minutes and twenty-four hours..."

Third large pot is full now.

"We don't really know where all the specieses came from. They just kind of exist, and occasionally they die out- Dracotyrants did that a few thousand years ago, or so I heard. Hunted to the last in a war. If they caused someone pain, they could mind-control them, depending on how much pain... People have species magic, but you occasionally hear of someone having the destiny of a great hero or - finding lost artifacts of wonder or things like that, and getting more magic. Do you not have [days]? Are they a different length? ...I'm not sure how Theo will take this. I'm - excited. There's a new avenue to pursue here. But... We don't get along perfectly. --Oh, my name is Erebys. Nice to meet you two."

All four pots are now full. She squats and lifts the travois back onto her shoulders, grunting with effort at the weight. That much water, it must be several hundred pounds. The tree limb structure is bending.

"Glad to have your acquaintance, Erebys, even if I can't say I'm glad to be in the situation that caused us to meet.

We have stories about great heroes and lost artifacts but I'm moderately sure they're fictional. Our only real magic is species magic, and whatever made that first species.

Dracotyrants sound scary, but it's still sad that they were killed. I'm sure they had some good uses. In your world, are there only a few dangerous species magics? I've been assuming that you could easily drown me, but I suppose there might be some limitation on that? Sorry, maybe I shouldn't ask that! There are a lot of scary species at home on the planet [Rock] and we get along mostly fine."

"Yep, we don't have days! [Rock] doesn't rotate. Well, it rotates once per year, so that the sun doesn't move in the sky. Until a few minutes ago, I would have said that rocky planets capable of supporting life almost never rotate. That's what astronomers generally believe. But either they're wrong, or the 'big guys' like their planets to rotate and made an exception for [Rock]."

"Can we help with carrying?"

(Calsa is about 165cm tall and not visibly muscled. Lin is about 120cm and looks like she would pop if she stepped on a sharp rock, although she's been walking barefoot over the beach and boulders and jungle and it hasn't happened yet.)

"I'll be fine. I'm using magic to take part of the load. And I like the feeling of exercise, to a point... Maybe carry the skin with the salt on it? I have no idea what the 'big guys' could possibly want. Or rather, many ideas and no clue which is right. I could probably drown you. I'm not going to do that. Most species' magic is dangerous in some way? There is a species called Angels who can heal diseases with a touch, but also cause them. But - if you kill someone - that's murder, and you'll be executed? Or if there's a war- Wars are very bad. There is a Deeplin country that lives under the ocean where most other species can't get easily. And they attack and steal things from coastal villages sometimes. So my species is not - very trusted on the dry parts of [Water]."

Calsa takes the salt!

"Yeah. My magic is good for stealing things."

"And she could suck the blood right out of us from back there, but no one worries about that. Hurting people with magic is really bad.

Is there anything we can do to be less alarming to Theo?"

"...He stopped trying to leave much sooner than I did. And I'm not even stopped, just - paused. I don't really - understand why - and he doesn't like to talk to me about it. He's great at making tools and things? I think he was some sort of scholar back home..."

That sounds like a normal trauma response to her. In fact, Erebys trying to leave by raft seven - eh, six -  more times after it became clear that that approach wasn't allowed, that's just as much a sign of emotional disturbance as apathy is.

"He's given up? Our arrival means that things are still happening - he can't just keep doing what he's been doing?"

"I suppose so."

Back into the jungly path.

"...I think it'll be fine, just, neither of us are especially happy, I guess. Still, it'll be less lonely than before now. I kind of hate being glad someone else got sent here though, because it's not good for you necessarily."

"It's okay, I don't blame you for being glad. You didn't cause us to get kidnapped. Even if that were somehow possible, you can honestly feel what you feel about the idea, as a separate concern from deciding about actually doing it.

Huh, now I'm wondering if we did something to attract the big guy's attention. I was just at a place where there are machines for getting iron out of rocks and turning it into steel, doing exactly the same thing as all the catfolk next to me."

"What town?"

"Kef. It's a new town in the [drydark] out past Archer's Tabard."

"I must admit a lie, then. I used to live in Argolake, but I'm of Kef now. The magistrate has been secretly collecting a population of frogolds in the aqueduct, with some sort of peaceful integration planned."

That fits with Merta's grumbles about food and logistics. "That makes sense. Oh, my wife is a clerk of Kef, I guess that's slightly unusual about me. She's a werewolf and our [adopted-child] is a mouseling. If the big guy was watching for a while, maybe he saw that I could handle being thrown together with a bunch of new species? Specifically in a situation where we have to work together really closely, not just, like, being polite to the wroth who comes through once a year - Wroths can become insubstantial and smell people's insides to detect disease, and they can't speak aloud" she adds for Erebys. "And I'm a dumb wolfy cat. Uh, catfolk breed ourselves for intelligence, and werewolves breed themselves for [social-intelligence]."

"I wasn't doing anything interesting, either, just talking about [galois theory] with another frogold. I wonder if the big guy objects to catfolk breeding? I have some qualms about frogold breeding, or the lack thereof, which I hardly ever talk about, but he could plausibly know about that."

Calsa is a queer species-crosser, which is giving her an idea for a selection criterion that she will wait to mention until she gets a better read on Erebys, meets Theo, and studies the mysterious artifacts.

"Taking both of us from Kef suggests that he has at least one limitation."