Deptka on the other hand hunches over as they eat, lifting food to their lips under the kerchief in a way that looks awkward. They eat quickly, turning off the fire and washing the bowls out through some kind of strainer when people are done.

Exactly two bites sounds superb, then.  - Is she not supposed to look at their faces?  She'll clarify grammar with her eyes closed, how about.

Look, Patik is an aspiring linguist, not an aspiring anthropologist. They offered food, because everyone needs food (unless you're Cretari apparently) but not everyone masks so they aren't going to mention it. Everyone totally knows about masking though, how could you not? Patik doesn't expect people to make sense. They do expect language to make sense and that not every language would make use of the exclusive we but not everyone knows what clusivity is. Patik will ask about Cretari grammar but won't think to ask if Zarian wants a mask unless someone points it out.

Patik isn't going to notice Zarian's eyes are closed, both because they're looking the wrong direction and because they're not big on looking at eyes anyway. 

Deptka also isn't an aspiring anthropologist. For reasons that are going to be entirely opaque to Zarian for the moment however, Deptka has put a lot of time and energy into figuring out the sometimes unspoken needs of deeply eccentric oddballs and takes pride in doing that well. Usually the oddball is Patik, and Deptka is perhaps overspecialized in figuring out what Patik needs, but the mental move is at least available.

So Deptka is going to notice that Zarian's eyes are closed. That's new. Is it too bright? The light hasn't changed much, though it's getting dark. Something she doesn't like looking at? The food and the tent are new. If Cretari don't usually eat, maybe eating is aversive. There's always the guess that there isn't anything wrong and Zarian just likes to carry on whole conversations with their eyes closed. The next best guess is that Zarian is overwhelmed in general, which would make sense after winding up in a different world.

"Question:," Deptka's voice is gentle, softer than it has been. "Is something bothering you?"

Zarian takes several seconds to respond.  But when Patik doesn't: "- Oh, me?"

"Yes."

"No, I'm really quite excited."

Yep, that tracks. Deptka is used to other people not knowing if whatever weird thing Patik is doing is because they're delighted or collapsing, and for now Zarian seems capable of doing their own translating. 

Having finished eating, cleaning up dinner, and leaving the can of uneaten food a short walk uphill, Deptka sits back and pulls out a small brown notebook. They're shortly engrossed in whatever they're working on, though not too engrossed.  when a black box at their hip buzzes they remind Patik to take a few pills, and when the box buzzes again (well after dark) Deptka is the one who starts chiding Patik to go to sleep.

Patik will talk language the whole evening if Zarian lets them. Once finished with dinner the mask comes back on and Patik turns around again, a position they'll stay in until Deptka prompts them to sleep.

Patik doesn't wear the mask to sleep. They grab some fresh clothes from the backpack, climb into the sleeping bag, and change in the bag, with the old clothes and mask getting set to the side of the tent. Once cocooned, Patik will still ask more questions about Cretari until Deptka, similarly ensconced, prompts them otherwise and the two start dozing off to sleep cuddled close to each other.

And now Zarian is left in the quiet, starlit night.

At some point she's really going to have to process this whole experience and the life it means she's lost, but in the cold and on the hard ground doesn't really seem like the best place or time for that.  She copies the sleep of whoever's having an easier time of it, and does so again whenever she wakes up.

Patik sleeps like the stars. Unchanging except for a slow rotation in the darkness, and no sign they'll ever change.

As dawn creeps over the horizon, Deptka stirs, emerges from the sleeping bag, and starts the small fire again to start making breakfast and, in about twenty minutes, silently offer Zarian tea. Unless Zarian interjects, the morning will be smoothly packing up the tent supplies after some oatmeal, then back on the trail.