Fika climbs one of the very big rock buildings. It's big enough that all of the amaliens in the Esteel Tree could live in it! Though it's not as easy to climb as the Esteel Tree, mostly it's very flat and sometimes has glass bits. Some of the glass bits are sticking out so there are ways to get in but not really enough to make it easy to climb. 

Near the top bits she finds an opening into a room with a cozy looking bed that has a bit of extra space and some soft looking blankets. She slips inside and cuddles up close it's a bit chilly outside.

The occupant of the bed is fast asleep and flops an arm over Fika without particularly distinguishing her from a pillow.

Coze! Fika falls asleep pretty fast, it's a comfy bed.

The occupant... yelps in surprise on waking!

Fika yawns without surprise!

"How did you get in here? Why are you in my bed?" says the Amentan, squinting at her pocket everything to reacquire Cryptophasia for the purpose.

She easily learns Cryptophasia, from the INTERNET!!

"I was looking for a place to cuddle up for the night and found a way in!"

"What way in? We're on the twentieth floor!"

Fika points at the window!

"- I took the screen out to clean it and passed out before I put it back but we're still on the twentieth floor."

Fika nods! She's proud of her for figuring it out. 

"The building's practically sheer!"

Fika nods.

"I don't know why though."

"- I think it reduces wind noise and looks shinier or - you climbed it? Or, oh, did a monster fly you up?"

"I climbed it!"

She demonstrates by clambering onto the ceiling, holding herself upside down from a light fixture. 

"Do amaliens have sticky lizard fingers?"

"No, unless we got honey on them."

"And a lizard."

"How do you - never mind, make yourself cozy, I need the bathroom and breakfast."

Fika flops from the ceiling onto the bed. She wonders what's for breakfast.

Crumpets, looks like.

Nom nom. She really likes them!

She has not been, strictly speaking, offered any, but the occupant of the hotel room doesn't especially mind after she thinks about it for a minute. "So what's your name?" she asks. "I'm Komo."

"Fika! Komo is a good name."

"Thanks. Did you pick my room for any particular reason or was it just that the screen was off - I should put it back, actually -" She goes and gets the screen out from where it has been drying in the shower and puts it back. "It was full of plaster bits, I think they did things in a dumb order when they built this place."

"Oh no! Did they put you up here before they finished making the building?"

"Huh? No, they just put in the screens before they were done with the plaster. Maybe it was buggy when they were working or something. Anyway I popped the screen out to wash it and left it to dry overnight because it wasn't buggy yesterday evening and I didn't expect anyone to climb the hotel."

"Oh. Why wouldn't people climb a hotel?"

She doesn't know what a hotel is but it sure seemed climbable.

"Well, that's not what it's for? And you're kind of not supposed to go in people's rooms without permission. - I'm not mad, I know you're an alien and everything. And it's really high up and if you fall I think you cry a bit and take a nap but if I fell from this high I'd probably die."

"I'm not an alien, you're an alien!"

Fika pouts. She should probably say sorry for the going in here since she didn't want that but she left a way in and also Fika's mad at her for calling Fika names.

"Sorry, I mean, like, you're a different species."

Fika nods.

"Sorry for yelling."

"Anyway you should probably not do that again. Even if you find missing screens. Somebody could be doing something private in their room, or just want to be alone."

"Oh, okay."

...

"Also sorry for going into your room when you didn't want me to. s'important to have alone spaces."

"I'm not mad. Just like, for future reference. How do amaliens do alone spaces, don't most of you live outdoors and the rest in a monster-village?"

"Lot of us have little nooks we live in for bits, even buildings sometimes. My old big tree would bend to make little bits that were secret and only one of us knew about so we could have our own spots."

"Oh, neat. Is the tree still there?"

"Mhm, she's been there for a while."

"How come you moved out?"

"I 'membered there was a pretty rock here!"

"- ah. I'm not sure it'll still be... here. Since there's a city here now. Do you want that one specifically or will any pretty rock do?"

"I want the shiny white one,"

She holds her hands apart to demonstrate that it's a couple of inches big.

"Okay, well, I'm not sure anyone will have noticed it specially while they were clearing the place to build a city, but nobody will stop you from looking, I guess. Do you need help figuring out the elevator?"

"If they didn't notice it was pretty where'd they put it? The elevator?"

"I assume they dumped all the extra rocks and dirt somewhere but I don't know where. And it's also possible it got buried and something was built on top of it."

"Hm."

Fika tries to 'member other times she's looked for rocks in places where a bunch of animals or people moved.

"I think if the pretty rock is under the buildings it would still be there in a while when the buildings are gone? So I can check the extra place first."

Fika is twiddling with her silverware a lil while saying this. They are fun sticks.

"...yeah, probably, if you're okay with... waiting that long... for your rock to turn up."

"I can come back later if I really really need to. But buildings don't usually last very long. A big ice chunk once picked up something I wanted to look at and it took superduper long to melt."

She screws up her face to think.

"I can't remember what it was that I wanted to look at that time though."

"These buildings might last longer than ones you're used to, though."

"Oh, why's that?"

She clinks the silverware together as a fidget some more.

"Because people are maintaining them. And they're made of glass and metal and stuff."

"Glass is very easy to break I think." 

She eyes one of the glasses on the table suspiciously. 

"- yes but mostly if something hits it, it doesn't rot."

Fika giggles.

"It's funny that you make buildings out of things that don't rot even though you do rot."

"Wood buildings can't be as tall."

"Tree I lived in was taller then this and wood. Not a building I guess."

Fika balances on one foot.

"Why do you like living high up if the outside is so hard to climb and when you fall you won't be able to nap like I can?"

"- well, I just take the elevator instead of climbing or falling."

"How many elevators are there to take?"

"I think this building has three shafts and a dozen cars, or something."

Fika has no idea what those words mean, so she ignores it.

"Lets go and take one and then find my rock together!" she says, grabbing the Amentan's hand to lead her. 

"- I'll help you with the elevator but I don't want to go looking for a rock, sorry." But sure the elevator is here and there's the call button and the doors open up.

"What are you gonna do instead?" 

"My job?"

Fika thinks that probably isn't any fun, but she'll leave her to it, going out into the city herself to look for her rock. 

The rock is not in evidence, but there are lots of Amentans doing lots of things, like cooking and trucking and walking and constructing and painting.

Oooh, painting!

Yup. These purples are painting a four story rowhouse that just went up; it's mostly sky blue, with dark almost-black green trim, and a brown shingle roof that someone is working on at the same time.

Fika dips her hands in the paint and helps!

"- whoa, hey, kiddo -"

"Not a kiddo, that's one of the -"

"- what do you want me to say, 'hey you' -"

"- look, this kind of paint isn't supposed to go on like that, 'kay?"

Fika will look at how they are trying to put it on and try to do that with her hands.

They're using paint rollers and brushes, so hands are not really the tool for the job. A purple hops down from a ladder to bring her a rag to wipe the paint off her hands. "Here, you don't want to get that on your clothes or anything, right?"

Fika boops the purple's nose with her hands to change its color.

"Boop!" says Fika, sticking her tounge out.

"Oh, boop to you too, little miss," says the purple, catching her hand and snorting and wiping paint off. "Make sure you don't get any in your mouth, I don't know what it'd do to you but it'd make us sick. Are you bored, there's a green school across the way, they'll have fingerpaints."

"I want to climb-and-paint. Do they have that there?"

"Probably not. I don't know a good place to climb-and-paint for fun; we're doing this to get the house to look right and you're not part of the work crew."

"How's it s'possed to look?"

"It's supposed to be blue on those parts and green on those other parts, see, and we're using these tools to make sure it goes on really smoothly - if you use your hands there'll be fingerprint shapes in the paint and you might accidentally touch part of the house with the wrong color and then it's hard to get off."

Fika pulls out a wad of hair and forms it into an impromptu brush which she dips into the green paint.

"I can be careful!"

"Nuh-uh, kiddo -"

"She's not a -"

"What the fuck ever, anyway you need to find someone who wants you to use their paint and their house, and that's not this paint or this house."

It's too late, she is already painting a bit that's supposed to be green on the second story.

"Kiddo, no!"

"Do we call mental health nuisance on an amalien -"

"I think maybe we call the boss and let her make the call..."

Fika is doing such a good job with the painting!

They call the boss. The boss says to take video and give the kid an impromptu painting lesson and try not to let her do anything that'll be hard to fix with another coat of paint later.

She gets a real paintbrush and a slightly exasperated tutor.

She is willing to use the real paintbrush, though she still uses the wad of hair for little bits. She's actually really good at this, and is especially skilled at climbing to reach hard to get to places, without disturbing any of the wet paint on the way.

...gosh. Okay. When she has all the necessary information she can just... help them paint the house, sure. They take turns getting video clips.

She would be happy they accepted it but actually she never noticed they had an issue in the first place.

Paint paint paint.

"You going to be here tomorrow?" a purple asks as they're packing up around the onset of dark.

"Dunno! Do you paint this house every-day?"

"Not this same one, but we're doing the next one tomorrow!"

"If you keep showing up you can get paid, you're good at it!"

"Why'd you get paid?"

"Because the person paying us wants us to do this and paying us is how they get us to."

"But it's fun!"

"Sure! But we need to make money, so if they want us to do this fun thing instead of a different fun thing they pay us."

Fika is confused about why they need to make money but she guesses that animals need to do lots of things amaliens don't need to do. 

"Oh."

"Also did you see a pretty white rock about this big?"

"Nope, did you leave it around here recently?"

"Yeah! I saw it but then this city got built here so I don't know where it is."

"If it was before the city I don't think it's going to be easy to find, sorry."

"I think I'm prolly a better finder than you, don't worry."

"Good luck with that, then."

"What's your name, anyway, little climb-and-paint-er?"

"Fika!"

Fika boops him on the nose with some paint and scrambles off.

"Yeep!" he says, but nobody's going to chase her.

Fika is getting pretty tired and should probably find a place to sleep again.

She scouts out some nice corners but they don't have people to cuddle with and she wants blankets and. She only knows one place with those.

Fika returns to outside the room she was at last night, but this time she knocks (on the window) and doesn't enter.

The yellow from before is there! Also the screen is back in place.

"- oh, hello. Did you forget something here?"

"No. I remembered something here though."

She points at the cozy bed.

"You... want to sleep in my bed again?"

"Yes please!"

"...with me?"

Fika nods!

"It's cold other places."

"Oh, poor thing - I don't know why me in particular but sure, if you don't have anywhere warm to stay -" She pops the screen off the window.

Yay! Fika cuddles up close for the night.

Snuggly kiddish alien.

Yes, the Amentan is a snuggly kiddish alien. So young but also so warm and cozy. 

Fika gets to sleep real fast.

They can sleep cozied up together no problem. Breakfast is crumpets again.

Nom nom nom!

"You're a very good cook."

"- these came out of a package, I didn't make them."

"Oh. Who's the very good cook then?"

"...the... Flour Whiz Bakery, I guess."

"Where's that?"

"Back in Tapa proper."

"Oh, how'd they get here?"

"On a spaceship, I guess. They don't have the farms producing enough to feed everybody here yet."

"Oh. I don't want to go on a spaceship right now so I guess I can't tell them they are very good cooks."

"You could email them, probably."

"How?"

"- can you read?"

"Some, not everything though." 

"Well, you'd need an everything and you'd get an email account and you'd find their email address and write them a note at that address and then it'd get quarantined to get all the Cryptophasia off it and subspaced back to Amenta."

"That's too much. You could find my rock with me today instead?"

"I don't want to look for the rock."

Oh well. Fika darts out the window and off to search on her own.

The yellow looks down to make sure she's hit the ground at a comfortable speed but then goes about her day.

She catches herself just enough to half fall half climb down, and off she goes! Time to look for piles of rocks.

There are decorative landscaping rocks being emplaced over there! They're a local rock type, but being crunched up into large gravel with a machine. (It is a Loudness Time today.)

Oh no! She tries to get close to the machine to see if there's anyone she can ask questions. It's so loud! The things she does for rocks...

There is a purple operating the rock machine! She waves at Fika cheerily.

Fika waves back and tries to climb close enough to ask a question.

"Whoa, careful, this thing can't tell the difference between you and a rock! Give it some space, all right?"

"it's okay, I can tell the difference myself!"

Fika is careful to avoid the dangerous bits.

"I'm looking for a pretty rock I saw here earlier, do you know where it is?"

"How big was it? What'd it look like?"

Fika holds her hands apart to show how big it was.

"It was pretty. And white. And a little bit shiny."

"Well, I can give you a chunk of quartz but as I just chunked it myself it's not going to be the same one. You want it anyway?" Chunk of quartz.

"It looked sorta like that! Cept more round and a bit dirty. Did you chunk one like that?"

"No, ones already this size I don't need to chunk."

"Oh. Where'd you put it then?"

"I haven't seen yours, sorry! You can have this one if you want a replacement."

"I want mine."

She takes the new one anyways - she can find it a good home.

"Good luck!"

Fika sets off to explore for older rocks, or someone who might need this new one.

She will encounter a café, a playground, an under-construction swimming pool, a hardware store that is open but still taking deliveries of half its inventory, and a bike rental rack.

Playground! She goes to climb on it and see if anyone needs a new rock.

There are a bunch of purple kids on the swings and slides, a grey on the seesaw with an orange, a green kid and a purple kid climbing trees, and a yellow sitting in the shade under a play structure with his pocket everything.

Tree climbing with new friends!!

"Hi!"

"Oh you're an amalien! I only saw pictures before!"

"I am! And you're a small like me!"

"We're kids! But you're immortal, right? You're like forever amounts of old."

Fika nods.

"Oh, I guess you probably havn't been kids forever?"

She's not entirely sure about how it works.

"Only since we were born!"

"I'm two. Probably she's also two."

"ACTUALLY I'm tropical so I'm kind of almost three."

"Can I be a number?"

"You'd have to know how old you are."

"We could guess. Maybe you're a billion. Maybe you're a GOOGOL."

"How much is a googol? Also is it good to be higher?"

Climb climb, swing, climb climb swing...

"A googol is ten to the HUNDREDTH power. It's super super super super big," says the green.

"It doesn't really matter how old you are," shrugs the grey. "Unless you wanna do something only grownups can."

"Like reach a tall shelf without climbing?"

"Then it just matters if you're TALL, not if you're OLD," says the grey.

"I want to go to the moon but my mom thinks it's bad for growing bones so I have to wait till I'm grown up for that," says the green.

"My dad grew up on the moon and he's FINE."

"Which moon?"

"The Tapai moon, duh. We're Tapai," says the grey.

"What's that?"

Fika didn't know there was a new moon!

"It's one of Amenta's moons. There's nothing on the moons in this solar system now. I guess maybe there will be later."

"Oh, I didn't realize you had different moons. Are they fun?"

She climbs over one of them on the tree, looking down and giggling while she does so.

"Well I don't know, I haven't been!"

"Me either! But they have low gravity so you can jump around so good."

"I can jump good here!"

Fika jumps up from a branch near the top of the tree and lands on another branch, without spraining her ankle this time!

"Yeah but you'd be BETTER on the moon."

"That's cool! Climbing on the moon must be soooo much fun."

"If you're REALLY strong you can put on pretend wing things and FLY there."

"Oooh. Show me!"

She claps excitedly. These new friends are really fun!

"- I can't, we're not there!"

"Oh, you meant fly on the moon. Not fly to the moon. I got confused."

"Yeah you can't fly TO the moon with wings, there's no air and you'd need a spaceship."

"How'd you get a spaceship?"

"Scientists invented them!" says the green.

"And pilots fly them!" adds the grey.

"Oh, I'm not either of those things."

"Yeah, 'cause you're an amalien."

"Are you either of those things?"

"I could be a pilot when I grow up."

"I want to be a scientist."

"What should I be?"

Fika likes this game!

"Well, what do you wanna do?"

"What caste do you count as?"

"I don't know! I like climbing and things? And making friends but lots of amaliens like that."

"How do I tell what caste I am?"

"Well you probably aren't ACTUALLY a caste since you don't have any parents."

"Is that sad, not having any parents?"

"You could still count as something though if you were going to get a job."

"Climbing is mostly grey if you're just climbing to climb."

"I don't think it's sad? Is it happy having parents?"

"I painted a house yesterday and also I helped friends talk to Amentans when they first came. Do those count?"

"Are you all greys cause you're climbing?"

"Well if I didn't have parents nobody would take care of me, you see."

"That could be a job, yeah."

"I'm a green. I'm climbing trees because plants are interesting. Also because if you don't exercise at all you get sick even if you aren't grey."

"Oh. Could you and your friends take care of you?"

"I don't think I want to do it everyday. Do I have to do my job everyday?"

"What's inter-esting about this tree?"

"I think if something happened to my parents my grandparents would take care of me."

"Most people do their jobs most days."

"This tree is a species from this planet! It's SHAPED like the trees on Amenta but if I look real close at the leaves they don't look like anything at all back home."

"Oh, are they better at hugging you then your friends?"

"I guess Amentans don't have that many days so maybe it doesn't get boring?"

"Oooh! How do they look different? Which is prettier?"

Fika is having so much fun and she gets to climb while talking to her new friends.

"...I need stuff besides hugs, like macaroni and cheese."

"If your job gets boring you can get another one or get a promotion or something."

"See how the veins on the leaf are going this way and then these ways? Ours don't!"

"Oh, how do you get macaroni and cheese? Also what is it?"

"I think that could work."

"Ooooh! Not all our leaves do that, sometimes they look like this instead."

"My dad makes the macaroni and cheese for me."

"How?"

"From a recipe, I guess."

"Do you know the recipe? I sorta want to try it."

Fika hangs upside down while saying this.

"No, my dad does it for me."

"Do you think your dad could make some for me?"

"If you came over to our apartment sure."

Fika nods - she is going to taste a new thing with her new friend it's so good!

"That sounds really fun!"

"Then when I go home I can bring you I guess!"

Fika jumps from one branch to the other excitedly!

"It's sorta nice to have new people with new homes I can go to!"

"Yeah! It's so so so cool that we found you guys even if you aren't like TV aliens."

"What are TV aliens like?"

"Usually they're weird but not in the being immortal kids way."

"Seems sorta weirder to be a person who changes into something else than to just be like an amalien but I guess cat-er-pillars are sorta like that?"

"Well we don't change like caterpillars, we just grow up!"

"I thought caterpillars also do that?"

"Caterpillars change shape. We just get, like, taller."

"And we spring."

"Yeah but we look the same after that."

FIka curls up and then jumps grabbing onto a branch above her.

"Is springing like that?"

"No, because we look the same, not different like butterflies."

Fika thinks that they look really different but maybe it's rude to say that? She's not sure.

"I think you look really different sorta?"

"I guess but we don't grow wings! We still have arms and legs."

"'less you're on your moon?"

"Those are fake wings."

"Oh, I think you should have real ones."

"...well, we don't."

Nod nod,

"I don't think I'd like growing up, it seems complicated."

"I never really thought about just staying a kid forever. It seems like it might not involve getting to pilot spaceships."

"I think I could learn to pilot a spaceship if I wanted to. Meelia might learn to do that - she likes adventuring."

"Maybe. They're all sized for grownups."

"Hm, I haven't noticed that that has stopped me from doing many things but maybe that's 'cause I haven't tried things like spaceships."

"I guess maybe you could get a spaceship built for your size if you were really rich."

"How'd you get really rich?"

"Well I'm not."

"You get really rich if you're super good at your job."

"Like making very yummy mac and cheese?"

"I guess if you ran the best mac and cheese restaurant in the whole wide world you could get rich like that?" says the grey uncertainly.

"Are there very good mac and cheese restaurants in the world?

"I dunno, I just always have it at home."

"Probably at a really nice restaurant they will make you mac and cheese if you ask even if it's not on the menu."

Fika nods.

"I can't wait to try it!"

Fika is happy to keep chatting and climbing with the Amentan kids for as long as the mac-and-cheese-home one is there. 

Mac-and-cheese-one is the grey and will, when collected by her dad, ask to have Fika over, and their dad says that sounds great and shows Fika the way to their apartment. They don't go in through the window.

Fika is really confused about this!

"Why don't you climb to get in like on the tree?"

"- there's stairs," says the kid. "And no handholds!"

"There are some handholds! It's not as hard as the other building I climbed."

She points out a window at a building that looks like the one she climbed.

"Looked sorta like that."

"...but we could fall if we tried to climb it and there's no belaying equipment."

"Oh! That sounds bad. I guess I've had more practice than you and also its not as bad if I fall."

"Also I don't know what belaying equipment is."

"It's safety stuff for if you go climbing! It's like, ropes and harnesses and stuff. I dunno, I do arcball and track instead."

"What are those?"

Fika sorta thinks the climbing equipment seems silly but she doesn't want to hurt the Amentan's feelings.

"Arcball is a game and track is running and jumping."

"Is arcball fun?"

"Yeah but there's a lot of waiting in it. I'm trying to be more patient but it's hard when a round goes on a long time."

"Being patient is really hard!"

"Aren't you a billion years old, I was hoping it would get easier!" exclaims the kid, as they reach the apartment door and open it up.

"I think I just got better at being okay when I'm not very good at it."

"What does that mean?" The kid flops on the couch in the apartment. Her dad goes to the kitchen and starts putting together something that looks like it might not be mac and cheese at all.

"I feel bad when I'm trying to wait for a thing and sometimes I feel worse if I don't do things while I'm waiting and I don't really 'cpect that to change and don't think I'm bad or need to change 'cause of it."

"Also is your big Amentan making mac and cheese?"

"No, I think he's doing something else. Dad what's for dinner tonight?"

"Chicken spinach pie."

"Oh. That's pretty good too."

"I figured it'd be a good time to have it since your mama's still in flight. There's enough for your friend too - what's your name -"

"Fika!"

"I thought your big Amentan was making mac and cheese?"

"He doesn't make mac and cheese every day, it's just my favorite."

"Oh. I don't think I want the other thing. Can you have him make mac and cheese for me if that's okay?"

"Why're you asking me? He doesn't just do whatever I tell him."

"We have some leftover mac and cheese from the day before yesterday if you like," says Dad Grey.

"I'd like that!"

"I don't know how I'm 'spposed to talk to other people's bigs."

Dad Grey dumps leftover mac and cheese in a bowl and sticks it in the microwave for Fika.

"Like you talk to whoever else I guess?" says Kid Grey.

"I don't think they talk to me like they talk to whoever else? Or I guess they might but they talk different than I think they would."

"I dunno what you mean," shrugs Kid Grey.

"I'm not sure either. Just is a thing my brain tells me I noticed."

"Well I think probably you can talk to them like normal even if they don't talk to you like normal. Because it might be 'cause you're an alien but it's not like it's a rule you have to talk that way to aliens."

"Hm. I can do that but do you think it's okay if I forget sometimes?"

"I don't see why not."

"Good, I'm not good at remembering new things sometimes cause I can remember so many old things."

"Why don't you write stuff down?"

"I'd have to write down soooo many things! Also writing things down doesn't last that long."

"Well not if you write on a whiteboard or something. You have to back up everything all the time."

"I've never seen a whiteboard. I meant writing on paper or leaves or with chalk doesn't last very long. How do you back things up?"

"You copy them to a cloud-storage-thing."

"Oh, like changing the clouds so they make the right shapes?"

"........no it's not like rain clouds. It's like computers."

"Oh. What are those?"

"Like pocket everythings don't have all the data ON them on them, they just get it when you need it from other computers."

"What's a pocket everything?"

The kid pulls his pocket everything from his jacket's inside pocket.

"Oh I saw one of that! Warm bed's big Amentan had one. What's it do?"

"Well, everything. That's why it's called that. I mean not EVERYTHING everything but most stuff."

"Oooh! Can it climb things? Give hugs? Make mac and cheese?"

"It can give you recipes for mac and cheese? And ideas for where to go climbing. And text your friends to come over and hug you."

"Those sound like really useful things!"

"Yeah, pocket everythings are great, you should get one if you have money."

"Oh, I don't have money. Some Amentan said I could get some by painting more?"

"Like green painting or like purple painting?"

"It was blue and green."

"- blue painting? - I don't mean what color was the paint I mean what color was the job."

"Oh, do you mean hair color?"

"Yeah."

"Why does that affect painting?"

Fika thinks for a bit.

"Oh! Do you use the same types of paint for your hair and your buildings?"

"No, it's like, greens do arty painting and purples paint stuff so it will have paint on it."

"Don't arty paintings also have paint on them?"

"Yes but so it will look like a flower or something."

"Oh. Your buildings can't have flower paintings on them? That sounds sorta sad."

"I dunno who'd do those actually. Dad -"

"Probably depends on the details," says the dad. The mac and cheese is warm; he puts a fork in it and gives it to Fika. Chicken pie goes in the oven.

Fika forgets about her questions because she is trying the new exciting looking food her friend recommended! 

It is... leftover macaroni and cheese :o

Delicious!

"This is really good!"

"Thanks!" says Dad Grey.

Nom nom nom nom. Fika is going to eat all of it even though it's a lot of food for an amalien.

The chicken pie takes a bit to bake and then the greys eat that.

Fika recognizes that smell!

"Did a bird fly into your fire when you were cooking??"

"No? It's just chicken pie," says Kid Grey.

"Oh. Okay."

She guesses that they found the chicken specially for it.

She continues nomming her mac and cheese. 

"I heard amaliens don't like meat and it makes you sick even though you're so immortal almost nothing makes you sick," comments Kid Grey.

"We get sick sometimes, though we arn't very mortal like you. I've eaten meat before and I didn't get sick?"

"Oh! What kind? I don't think we know what kinds of animals here are good to eat yet."

Fika lists different kinds of animals she remembers eating! It's a pretty long list.

"And probably lots more but I don't remember them all."

"Wow. I guess maybe only some of those would be good for us, since you're immortal and stuff."

"Mhm. I think some of them might have made me sick. Like the bull, though that one might have been dead too long and if we eat something that's been dead too long it sometimes makes us sick."

"Oh, ew, yeah, you shouldn't eat things that are rotten."

"Sometimes it's hard to tell."

"...well, if you just killed something then it hasn't rotted yet probably."

"I guess? But we aren't animals or monsters so we can decide not to kill things."

"Yeah, I guess if you don't have to eat you probably don't like go hunting because you could do whatever else instead. Climbing trees."

"... Oh you are like animals where you have to eat and don't get to choose whether you hunt things or not?"

"Well usually we farm stuff now instead of hunting but I go on hunting trips with my great-grandma sometimes back home! There's places that'll pay you to hunt their rabbits because they eat the crops."

"... Why?"

"...because they don't want rabbits to eat the crops. They're growing 'em for people to eat."

"Why don't they just keep the rabbits away then?"

"I dunno how you think they should do that? They try lots of stuff and one thing they do is hire people to hunt the rabbits."

"They can build walls and things?"

"Rabbits can dig!"

"You can build deep walls. I can show you how if you don't know how? Lots of amaliens grow carrots without hurting any rabbits."

"I dunno why they don't do that. Maybe it's expensive or something."

"Hm...."

Fika is confused about Amentans again but also now this little Amentan is being hard to talk to just like the big ones were.

"Want to talk about something else?"

"Okay! Do you want to RACE after dinner? I'm really fast!"

"Yeah! That sounds fun!"

Fika likes her new friend!

When all the food is gone out they go for more space to race! "Do you see the big greenish building there? When I say go we start running for it fast as we can, okay?"

"Okay!"

Fika darts off to the side, climbing across parked cars and trash cans on all fours. It's not actually faster than running but it's way more fun. She even climbs over a few big Amentans on the way (though she doesn't realize it).

A few people yelp at being climbed on.

The grey kid is quick but Fika is faster and more... maneuverable. She wins by a fair bit and the grey kid catches up to her, giggling. "I think you kicked somebody in the head!"

"Oh! I didn't mean to. I'm not used to heads being up that high."

This makes him giggle harder. "I think he'll be okay, he didn't even fall over. You're good at vaulting stuff!"

"Your good at running 'round stuff!"

"Do you wanna try again on the park lawn so it's fairer?"

"I like climbing better but I know other people like running so we can do that."

To the park! Where they can sprint laps!

Fika is not nearly as fast and loses these races.

This satisfies the grey kids' honor. Would she like to learn to play arcball? You can't do a whole game without teams but he can explain the rules.

Sure, though she's not the best at paying attention she'll try, cause she likes her new friend.

He will, with extensive miming and running around to demonstrate, explain the rules of arcball.

Fika loses focus pretty quickly but will enjoy running around with him - and eventually climbing on him while he runs around.

He can't really stay up with her on him the way a larger Amentan could often manage. "Hey, you knocked me over!"

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to but there was nothing else nearby to climb and I didn't want to walk away."

"Do you just automatically climb stuff even if it's people? That's silly."

"Hmm... Yes and yes."

"Silly," he laughs. "You could be in the circus. You could be the top of a people tower."

"What's the circus?"

"It's a show where people do acrobatic stuff!"

"Oh! I'm not way better than other amaliens at acrobatics but that sounds really cool and I wanna go!"

"I don't know when there'll be a circus here, this place is mostly just about figuring out how to live on a new planet."

"Oh. It's actually been here for a while though."

"It's new to us!"

"Oh. huh. I guess that makes sense. ... Want to help me find my rock?"

"Sure, where did you see it last?"

"By the side of a creek when it passed sorta by the big coral shell."

"Huh, well, let's go look there." The coral shell is over that way! "I'm supposed to be home once it's dark so I can start winding down and sleep enough and stuff but we have time to look a little bit."

"Oh okay. Sleeping is 'portant."

Off they go!

So first things first, is the creek still here? Running water is pleasant so quite possibly there would just be lots of little bridges over such a creek and it would be intact.

It is! It's burbling even better then before.

Then he will hop around on the rocks in the creek looking for the rock with her till the sunset begins and he has to race home. "Bye!"

"Bye!"

Fika looks for a bit longer before heading back to the cozy bed she likes.

By now the yellow she has been crashing with accepts that her life now involves snuggling a small alien all night. This is weird yet cool.

It's a very comfy bed and the yellow is a good to snuggle with Amentan. 

Fika talks excitedly to her about her new friend during breakfast.

"Aww, that's cute! Do you think you're grey, or - greyish -"

"No? My hair is brown."

"No, I mean like your personality, I know your hair's brown. It's just sorta hard to get used to amaliens having no castes, aliens in TV shows usually have some clues even if they're trying to mix things up."

"Oh."

Fika nods.

"It makes sense you'd find bits confusing cause I always find it confusing how the big Amentans are people and not just animals."

"...I don't super see how those are similar but okay."

"They're both ways our species are similar in each other but not to the other species."

Fika starts climbing the yellow since this conversation is taking a while.

"- you want a piggyback ride or something?"

"Yes!"

Fika has no idea what that is.

So the yellow arranges her piggyback style and does a lap around the hotel room.

"Weee!"

Piggyback rides are fun! Fika tells the yellow this while she clambers down afterwards.

"Oh good! I can't do it for too long but I can do it sometimes."

Fika nods and heads out - she's going to search for her stone again with the same grey person she met yesterday. 

The kid is actually in school today and not available!

Fika will just go to the school then!

The teachers will let her join in at recess but tell her that she cannot attend classes.

Fika is okay with that as she has no idea what either of those things really are!