Vines and branches part, drape around the head, pull it gently into him.

Ktk watch curiously.

He can feel it, as he has felt animals decompose within him before, salts and lipids soaking gently into him.  And he feels - something else, at once familiar and unrecognizable.  It takes him a moment to place it.

There are traces of a thinking and speaking intelligence, within the corpse of the ktk.  It's a thing he's perceived only once before, at the genesis of the new-thing that was made out of Alec Holland and the semiconsciousness of the Green.  It was a moment filled with so many alien sensations that he wouldn't have been able to pick this one out, until he experienced it again in a new context.

There is something within the ktk that it shares with the human Alec Holland, and no other species he has ever decomposed within himself before.  Something that other animals don't have, or something that they have in a form the Green does not know how to touch, or the new-thing that he is does not know how to touch.

He thinks he could take things from it.  Perhaps its whole mind, as Alec's mind was taken.

If he has understood the exchange he just had correctly, then the ktk seem to regard the remains of their dead as resources to be traded and used.

He doesn't want to take the creature's entire mind - he doesn't want to create an entire new being within the green, without that being's consent.  But perhaps with a light enough touch, he could make use of these remains to learn the language they speak here.

The Green, already so narrowed to act within a single body, sharpens still further, and traces over a new mind.

He has taken a hint more than he intended, but not so much that he cannot incorporate it within himself.

He seizes his right forearm in his left hand, and pulls branches and creepers back to dissolve his right shoulder.  He presses his newly detached arm into his chest, and vines rope around and through it to reintegrate it into himself.

From his bare shoulder sprouts a new limb, more slender than his remaining arm; two thorned claw-arms burgeon from the end of it, and an alien head blooms.

With his new ktk-arm, he imitates the bowing-motion they make with their claw-arms.  With his new second mouth, in their chittering language, he says, "thank you."

Well this is all pretty fucking remarkable!

"Can you speak Mkmktkt't'tkt now?"

"Yes," he says.  "Traces of the dead ktk's knowledge existed on its corpse.  I incorporated some of that knowledge into myself.  I apologize if this was not an appropriate use of ktk remains; I am new to this planet and do not well understand your ways yet."

The largest ktk speaks.  "The remains of Mkmktkt't's dead should be put to use for the project.  The project owed you for your gift of food.  Do you consider yourself to have gained recompense, in whole or in part, for that debt, by consuming part of one of our dead?"

"Yes.  Learning the language this way has saved me a good deal of trouble."

"Then it was not a waste.  Will you consent to interact further for a time?"

"Yes, I want to talk, especially if you're in charge."  He'd wanted to say I'm happy to talk but apparently that's unidiomatic in Mkmktkt't'tkt.

To the others: "You're dismissed."

One lopes off into the city, and one, the one who'd escorted him here, departs down the road into the jungle.

To him: "You are from space?"

"Yes.  This body was assembled out of this planet's vegetation, but my mind is from a planet we call - "

He pronounces the name of his home planet with his human mouth.

"It literally means earth or dirt."

"In Mkmktkt't'tkt we designate the planet Ktkplanet.  We've hypothesized about life-that-speaks-and-honors-ceasefires on other planets, but I do not know how they are likely to think."

"I'm in much the same situation.  Do you have a name?"

It looks at him oddly.  "Projects have names, ktk have designations.  You can call me Mkmktkt't-administrator or just administrator."

"I apologize if I've given offense."

"No," the administrator says.  "If your species has names for its individuals, will it aggravate you if I give you a designation?"

"No."  When in Rome.

"I will designate you the alien visitor."

"Accepted."  This seems to him a ktk way to respond.  "I am trying to find a way to return to my home planet and would like to ask ktk for assistance, if you are able to give it.  While I am here I am also interested in assisting your people in such ways as I can that do not rely on my indefinitely continued presence."

"We will brainstorm," the administrator says.  "Will you walk with me?"

"Yes."