"I'm glad you like 'em! I don't know how to make them myself but I know who does, I could see if she wants to come visit. And you can keep these in the meantime."

"Awesome, thanks! I should get something for you too--one second!" And he darts into his house and comes back with one of his sparkly rock-shards, which he holds out to Apra.

"Aww, thanks!" She happily trades the box for the shard. "It's real pretty."

"You're welcome! So is this what you do all the time, just fly around and meet new people? What are other planets like? You said most of the ones with people were bigger than this."

"Mostly I fly around and meet new planets, actually! That's my job, I'm a starscout. I look for planets that are interesting somehow, like if they're pretty or if people could live on them, and I write down where they are and then I go put them on the big list of all the planets in the galaxy so other people can find them later. But usually if I find a planet that's not on the list already, there won't be anybody living there. And usually if a planet is this small, it's not good enough at growing things for somebody to live on it."

"Cool! What makes a planet good at growing things? Are you going to put mine on the list?"

"So plants grow in dirt," she says, "and different dirt is better or worse for growing plants in, and different plants like different kinds of dirt more or less. Like, there's no grass growing on that rock," she gestures at the pond, "because rock is really bad for growing just about anything. And really little planets are usually just made of rock, sometimes with some sand on it, and there's not much that likes growing in sand either. And plants need water, too, and really little planets sometimes don't have any. Do you want your planet on the list? If it's on the list then lots of people can find out where it is and they might come visit you."

"I'm not sure. Meeting you has been nice but I don't know if I want to be meeting lots of people all the time. . . . But some of them would have cool explanations of things like you, and if there are too many people I can just go in my house and not talk to them, so yeah, I do want to be on the list."

She thinks for a second, and then suggests, "I could just tell a few people about you to start with, and you could see how you like that, and if you want more visits than just a handful of my friends, I could put you on the list then?"

"That sounds really good, thanks!"

"Okay, I'll do that!"

"Do you want a tour of the planet before you leave?"

"Sure!"

"Okay, follow me! Over there is my house, and this way is the pond I like to swim in . . ." 

He gives her a tour of the pond and the berry bushes and the trees that make cool scaly seeds and the place he found the prettiest of all of his rocks and various other landmarks and in not too long they have gone clear around the planet and seen all the important tourist locations.

It's a lovely little planet.

"I like your house," she says. "Did you build it yourself?"

"No, I just woke up in it. But learning how to build things sounds fun! Did you build your spaceship?"

"Most of it! Some parts I got from someone else who put them together first."

"Woooow. Where did you learn how to do it?"

"Some of it I asked people, some of it I read about, some of it I figured out myself."

"I want to learn everything, but there aren't a lot of people to ask or any things to read so I guess I'll have to figure stuff out mostly. What are some good things to learn first?"

"Maybe how to build a house, in case something happens to the one you've got or you just want a bigger one, and how to grow more food, so you can have different stuff to eat," she suggests. "And how to read if you don't have that one down already. I could see about bringing you some books."

"Those all sound like good things! I would love to have some books, thank you."

"I'll bring some next time I visit."

"Awesome! I hope you have fun wherever you go next."

She laughs. "Yeah, I hope so too. Enjoy your apple pies!"

And she waves and climbs back into her ship and closes it up and zooms away.