A meteor streaks through the sky.

Its trail is thin; it's not very big. But the trail widens as it gets closer and closer to the hanged man's position.

By the time it arrives, it's not much more than a cloud of black specks, haloed in flame. They rain all around him, bouncing off the ground and the poles and the dead people, leaving small scorch marks in their wake. They range from barely visible to little chips not much bigger than a pinky fingernail, and it's only those last that are recognizable as having once been bone.

One of the larger fragments bounces off his jaw, and for just a split second, he can hear it screaming.

What the fuck.

What the fuck??????

No explanations are forthcoming.

After a few seconds, the biggest fragment stirs slightly.

A smaller one next to it flips over.

Yeah uh no.

He decides being tied up and upside down is not what he wants to do right now so instead he's going to not do that. And now that he's not doing that he'll... crouch really close to the burning sand, lower his face to almost touch it and... peer at the little thingy???

It's...

...growing?

A third fragment skitters haltingly toward the other two.

That's definitely bone, now, the charcoal flaking off to reveal ivory beneath.

He pokes it.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

He jumps away like he's been shocked and assumes a defensive position like he's expecting the bone to jump at him and attack.

Nah it's just chillin.

Other fragments are also beginning to wiggle toward it from the surrounding area; they all seem to be growing now, bit by bit by bit, gradual but steady. The growth is fastest nearest the center, where the first two fragments have joined together into a single larger bone chip and are increasing in size from there.

That's not Nai. He'd have recognised Nai even in incoherent screaming situations. But that's also not... not what he'd have expected to happen to Nai or himself should they have found themselves in a situation where they'd been reduced to bone chips. He might've expected more growth and less "bones wiggle back together" but what does he know, he's never been reduced to bone chips.

Another independent plant?

...another independent plant that had been on a ship which explored and then only the plant themself somehow managed to arrive here?

Except, no, now that he thinks about it he can't imagine that he wouldn't be able to just talk to another independent plant. Plus, whenever he's died he's pretty sure he was completely unconscious for the duration and not screaming in agony while healing. Hell, just now he was unconscious until he wasn't, and while there was some agony for the tail end of that most of it was just being dead.

Okay. Probably not a plant.

But then he's out of ideas.

Some other kind of alien? Most likely, actually.

Hum.

He goes over to the bone chip again and presses a finger onto it. [can you hear me?]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA??AAAAAAAAAAAA

There was an emotion there! Other than agony! He heard it!!!

[is there any way I can help??]

AAAAAAAAAAA???AAAAAAAAAAA

[I am psychic and you are bone chips! does that help with the confusion?]

In amongst the screaming there is a vague wordless notion of sweeping him into a pile. Though the chips seem to be making a good effort at that part all by themselves.

He can help with that! Bone chips guy will get a feeling of wordless assent and then psychic guy will get to work. He can get some clothes off the corpses—they won't miss them—and use those plus a stick to make a makeshift broom and then use that to try to push the bones together

Getting the fragments all piled up helps them connect with each other much faster, and also seems to speed up their growth. Soon there is a heap of mostly actual bones with only a few bits and pieces still wiggling around silently seeking their homes, and the actual bones begin to spread out and reorganize into the recognizable shape of an ordinary human skeleton, and then as each pair of bones links up into place, they start in on regrowing their connective tissue.

...it's still gonna be a bit. Ballpark a couple-few more hours, if the current rate of growth holds steady?

That's okay, he can uh. Try to project at this poor person? Some soothing feelings? Until this poor person can string thoughts together again.

Time crawls on. The bone-person probably appreciates the help, but it's a little hard to tell because being a skeleton is apparently very distracting. Eventually he starts regrowing some nerves, which hurts but actually seems to result in less pain overall because whatever he was using to feel sensations as a scattered spray of bone fragments lets the nerves take precedence and they're a narrower channel with less intensity available.

Organs and muscles construct themselves in the framework of his skeleton; blood vessels crawl out of a trembling heart to thread their way along limbs still mostly devoid of muscle. Then the layers of flesh intertwine with all that, and at last, to his immense relief, he gets skin appearing in patches that spread to cover his body.

...he's... maybe just gonna lie here for another minute, if that's okay.

Yeah uh this was fascinating from a scientific perspective but it sure looked excruciating. But also it was the most interesting thing to see for miles around (except for that one time a bunch of people rode by on large blue flightless bipedal birds, from whom psychic guy hid) so he's been watching intently.

He opens his eyes, lifts his face out of the dirt to look at the psychic stranger, groans, and puts it back down.

No. Okay. He's here now and should deal with wherever here is and whatever it's up to.

He sits up stiffly and gives a little wave.

He waves back. [hi. are you, uh, less in agony?]

So much less! He smiles about it. Not without some wincing; his newly regrown body is still a little tender and also he doesn't have any, uh, clothes, which would help with sitting his tender butt on the ground. But wow he is so very much not a heap of charred bone fragments experiencing being a heap of charred bone fragments, and that is a good way to be!