"Maybe," says Tish.

"Suppose," says Haemi, "we give people who belong here a password and if they know it it's because we told them."

Headtilt.

...I think that would be reassuring!

"Okay! We can do that," says Tish. "Do you want to pick the password?"

I can't think of anything good. It shouldn't be easy to guess?

"How about, hm, 'kumquat glass'."

He bobs his head up and down (and also does the tail-nod).

It doesn't make sense, but that makes it harder to guess.

"Exactly. By this afternoon we'll have told everybody. You can wake us up or find a grey who does know the password if someone's trespassing."

Yes. I am too little to fight big people.

I want to learn music until my science tutor comes today!

Elsewhere, the other hatchling has been enjoying her forest wanderings, has claimed another rock and a blue feather that some bird left in a tree, and wanders further from the cabin every time she goes, looking for mushrooms to report. (She's helping!)

A twig snaps over - there, cliffwards of her.

-Freeze. Sniff sniff - that's downwind of her so she can't smell anything.

She slowly walks to the nearest bush for concealment, watching in that direction.

There's a group of three purples wearing backpacks and walking along the line of the cliff, a safe distance from the drop.

Oh, huh. Right, there's more other people than Pep and, and- TATHSEI, that was the name.

(She wants to fly off the cliff-! Nonono, bad idea, remember falling out of the tree, you can't fly yet.)

She follows their path curiously, staying a bit behind them among the plants a bit further from the cliff.

They don't notice her. They're talking about whether kiwis would be good in cake.

Food is a fun thing to talk about!

Wanting to talk about food fights with wanting to feel all sneaky for about ten seconds, then she decides to keep silently following them. Being sneaky is kind of fun.

"I saw a recipe for it."

"I saw a recipe that called for locusts, that doesn't mean anything."

"Ew!"

"I know, right?"

"Hang on a sec, got a rock in my boot."

(Insects are reasonably yummy but far too small, in her opinion.)

A small head with a few purple-blue feathers is just barely sticking out over a shrub.

The purple with the rock in his boot flings the pebble off the cliff, and they all watch it fall while he puts the shoe back on. They turn to continue and one spots her.

"Whoa!"

"What's that? Is that a bird?"

"Maybe? But no isn't this the park with an alien baby in it -"

Sneakiness: Fail! They can see better than she can apparently! The little head disappears almost as soon as they spot her. 

Run or hide?

...Wait, does she really need to do either? If it was something that wanted to eat her maybe, but Amentans don't eat people. So she pokes her head up again.

"Hi baby!" coos one.

"Oh she's so funny-looking! Like almost cute -"

"Do you think she can understand us yet?"

Yes! What's cake? Does it involve meat?

"Nah, cake doesn't have meat. Flour and sugar and eggs and butter."

"You probably wouldn't like it."

Butter might be good...

She walks around the bush and sits on the path, tail flicking about.

"I have some fudge, it's butter and sugar. And peanuts. You wanna try it?"

"Can the aliens eat that stuff?"

"I saw the footage with Seeker's kid - what's her name - River, and they didn't get a complete ingredient list before letting her try random stuff..."

I like tasting new things! Pep and Tathsei said that Seeker said that we can mostly eat the same things except Draak can eat kinds of rocks and shouldn't eat plants that smell funny.

The purple offers her a cube of fudge.