WOW. They will try to get a normal amount of sleep but they really want to study the twig more.

Suusvu walks out with a wheelbarrow-style cart laden with bags and boxes in the pre-dawn light, chatting cheerfully with the hunter who watched the shuttle overnight as they pass.

In the morning the greens want to ask if the tree has any relatives? Other plants that are - weird?

Suusvu is the only one here quite yet. "The Well of Souls is one of the weirdest things around! We have the gods to thank for it. But here, I have things to sell you! Payment can come later!"

Sure, they've already notified their homeworld that the locals want metal and it's on the way, what's he got?

He has brightly decorated little knives, carved amulets of bone or odd-colored wood, scarves and wraps with geometric designs and tassels on the end, ceramic plates and bowls and cups with elaborate designs, a lot of polished wooden and stone statuettes mostly of local plants and animals, some live birds in cages that are sort of like small chickens, elaborately decorated leather sheaves and pouches, wickerwork baskets and bowls and hats and chairs. The craftsmanship on everything seems pretty good, if not to industrial precision.

How much does he want for all these things? Also they don't know if the birds will live okay on Amentan foods, which would make getting them to people who want birds difficult.

He names various weights of copper or much smaller weights of gold, and has the weights and scales he uses to trade with on hand so they can compare to their own. And he wouldn't say no to Amentan souvenirs to sell locally either.

"Kiki are sturdy! But that is a risk you would be taking if you don't just want to eat them or do science."

They establish conversions between the measuring systems and inquire if haggling is customary here.

"If there's a sign saying the prices it's not, but I don't have one of those, do I, mrr?"

They look up the commodity prices of metals on the Amentan market, convert everything into tap, and start trying to figure out how much these things are likely to be worth. They don't wind up haggling much except for the birds.

He'll let the birds go cheap. More where that came from.

"If I find 'weird' plants for you, is that worth something as well? Depending on what's so weird about the Well I have a few ideas there."

They explain that it's weird that it stores memories, but it also looks odd to other kinds of analysis. Of course they'd also like to see some other more pedestrian local plants.

"Mrr. I'll get you one of every crop and herb in town for the same price as three plates. What about animal parts?"

Parts aren't useless but they can learn more from live animals. They will also pay for animal feed, for small numbers of each animal to be studied onsite.

Well, the kiki are the only ones he could get on short notice. He'll get some feed for them. He probably won't bother getting them animals, they're a pain, but someone will eventually.

He's curious what kinds of analysis the Well tree looks weird to. Nothing else has quite the same colors or is so terribly hard to grow, but they probably have more technological things to do to it than just looking at it, yes?

Yes. Though some of it is just looking, see, there's this microscope.

"Hoh. I want one of these. I know someone who will think it's the best gift ever. After I file off all the labels, I mean. Is the lens... Mrr, hot-sand? Or something else?"

It is hot-sand, yes! They can get another microscope for... they look this up... yea much gold or yea much copper, or things worth that much.

"Yes, deal. I'm leaving today to get more souvenirs for you, I'll be back in a few days with several carts. Too bad I can't have a look around your village and see what else I might want to buy from you that easy, mrr."

If some Dwellin want to come to Amenta they can do that, they'll just have to be thoroughly cleaned first to make really sure no germs can spread that way - the Amentans here all did that before they landed, and sterilized their shuttle.

"Hoh. How long does it take to sail the stars? And what are germs?"

Depends how far apart the stars are - the Dwellin planet is about three days from Amenta. Germs are little creatures that are usually harmless but some kinds make people sick.

He might want to go, then. As long as he can come back home after a week or two, since they don't have any Wells. He'd get nervous going too long without touching one. And germs- Oh yeah, those. His friend the microscope is for talks about them sometimes. Though Dwellin don't get sick often, is it a big problem for Amentans?

Not anymore, but it was before they had modern sanitation! They live in much larger groups, so they need to be really on top of not letting any diseases get started; even if a really bad one got loose here it seems like it might barely affect a hundred people before dying out, unless it had some other reservoir.