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Bokyli comes leaping and inform us that they have returned, and I sign that we will talk at the balcony. As I get there, Bokyli greet me by hug-grabbing my butt with both hands and giving me a deep kiss, followed by taking a deep sniff of my neck. Oh boy. Bokyli gives me an update about Queral, while wiping my sweat off with her hands and licking it up. At least it is better than her using her tongue.

Bokyli and Vekalie are from more advanced cultures than the others so they had slightly easier to talk with Queral, especially as she and Vekalie don't seem threatening like Koru do, who is huge. We're all so big compared to Queral. And it probably helps that Bokyli and Vekalie eat leaves and branches. Queral is friendly, nice and eager to help, but she have no strength or stamina and she is so slow when moving around. Well, compared to Bokyli and Vekalie that might apply to Olympic sprinters too, but with Queral's short legs and not used to moving in rocky steep terrain, I am not surprised that Queral is 'so slow'. And from her thin arms and body I don't expect much strength either. After another kiss and hug, Bokyli leaves to tell Queral to have a talk with me on the balcony, and I quickly wash off with a bit of water from the water bottle and just wait. We should make a couple of good comfortable deck chairs to have here when Xuela moves out. We've already decided to add some benches outside the community hut.

"Lord Arne."

Queral stands bowing beside the door. Okay, she is not fast, but damn sneaky and quiet, and I was expecting her. Although there is work noise in the background.

"Please, just call me Arne. Which name would you prefer to be called by?"

"Queral, Lord Arne."

"Queral, I am no Lord, and you can stop bowing."

"Guardian Mistress Kima said I should always refer to Lord Arne as Lord Arne, and bow."

Kima is probably lurking somewhere close. Reiley did whisper that Kima just creeps the hell out of Bokyli and Vekalie, and Queral is terrified of Kima, which was a good reason to work down in the forest.

"Kima is scary, isn't she?"

"Yes, Lord Arne."

"I understand you, but Kima comes from a..." saying primitive seems insulting, and I also don't know where Kima is right now, "... different culture, and her cultural norms doesn't overrule ours. If Kima wants to live by them, so be it, but the rest of us won't. The same applies to your cultures social rules about using gloves and so on. We all have to adapt. So, please; relax a bit and come sit down. Lets have a friendly talk. Would you like a mug of water?"

"Thank you Lord Arne, and yes please."

I guess Kima really scares her. Then again Kima scares Koru, and she is a badass and far bigger than Kima. Queral comes over and sits on the stool beside the small table, and fix her dress to be proper and yeah, I catch her glancing at my naked arms and hands. If she could blush I bet she would. The nerd in me kind of want to call Queral a hobbit sized Elf as she can't be much more than a meter tall, and I must weigh at least 3 times more than Queral. I pour Queral a mug, and give it to her. It's a small gesture, but it's something to try and break the tension.

"Please tell me about yourself, your culture and home world."

It's the story that Reiley told me, and of course Queral doesn't think her planet is weird, but they don't really have astronomy, which makes sense when I consider it, since they don't have a night, so seeing the stars and wonder about them simply hasn't been a thing. Queral having basically no lowlight vision is understandable from an evolutionary view. Queral is used to a never ending day, so her society isn't hung up about time off day and use clock towers to signal certain 'fixed' points of time. Their sun is also more orange, and all the colours here are simply 'wrong', and so is the sky, the air and the vegetation. Her planet seem to have a liveable belt between dangerously warm climate in one direction, and dangerously cold climate in the other where the sun is low in the sky and there is snow and ice in the shade, but even there the sky is still bright and I believe their atmosphere is thicker than here. Years for her start with 'the small sun' rising for a new slow loop across the sky, because of course it is a binary star system too with another star in a orbit further out. So yeah, weird for most, but not for Queral, and I finally understand she is so uncomfortable with the whole subject, and there is no point in even trying to do a hours-days-years calculation, so I change the subject. I get why she freaked out and hid up in a tree the whole first day. What wouldn't I have done on her world? At least I have advanced knowledge of the universe to fall back on.

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"Queral, you know what a rainbow is?"

"Yes, Lord Arne."

"The colours we see is determined by how our eyes work, and light actually continue on both sides, and some people and animals see way more colours and shades than you or me, and they see the world very different from you. This sun and world probably have far more ultraviolet light than you're used to, which is my kinds term for invisible light far on the other side of violet and blue in a rainbow, and you're much lighter skinned than me, so you need to be careful about protecting your skin and wearing a hat, or you might get sunburned. I have to be careful, but I'm adapting. At least for humans getting sunburned is painful and makes the skin red, hurt and flake off."

"Thank you Lord Arne, but I'm already sunburned."

Queral shows me her 'neckline' and yeah, that is a sunburn line and she has even whiter skin under her clothes. Apparently she sunburn into a greyer shade, and also have a big black-red tattoo. And it will obviously take some time until Queral stops calling me 'Lord Arne', but then again, her culture seems to have strict social ranks and norms in all walks of life, and it will probably take time to get used to her weird new life. She will have a bigger adjustment than most. Queral has already understood about protecting her skin and have her gloves and so on, and she have started to weave a hat. Heat and moist air doesn't seem to be a problem for her, but demanding physical work is not her thing. Queral have of course understood that there is physical limits to what she can help with, and she is incredibly impressed that I carried big logs and stones for my hut up by myself. Her culture have had working animals way back and steam engines for many centuries, so steam engines are used for all kinds of task and machinery. I can understand how useful that is for people as small and 'weak' as her species. In a way they seem almost classic fantasy gnomish in their industrialization with simple steam vehicles and cranes, and they have mines and explosives and black powder weapons.

It's interesting that as a 'prisoner' she was given a pistol, but it's not like she could use it to escape since she was surrounded by hundreds of pirates on some remote pirate island. The pistol was a sign of importance, respect and self-defence against some drunk ruffian. Queral understands why I have taken her pistol from her and say she don't mind, but it is a small pistol with what I can estimate a likely small charge, and short range due to barrel length and no sights, so it pretty much have to aim for the head for it to be truly dangerous. Still, I might use it as an ace in the hole, but it will be a one shot thing I have to pray works if I need it. Queral knows what a crossbow is and is looking forward to be taught to use one, and she wants a 'big one'. Everything here is big, and she wants a big ranged weapon.

Interestingly her kind use echo location when moving in mines and such, and only have localized candles, oil or gas lamps or electric light where they work. I wonder if her monochromatic skin colouring and hair is from her kind actually evolved from living a lot in caves? Well, it doesn't actually matter, and Queral never did work like that and never got used to the dark. Queral's glasses are to see sharp very close, and most craftsmen or people reading books use glasses. She have not noticed any change in sharpness at distance, but Kima have told her some about this world, and Reiley and Bokyli have filled in much more. Queral understands that just like me, most knowledge she have won't be that useful here, but she knows some medicine and helped pirates with combat wounds and such, which is very useful. We will make more medical kit like forceps and scalpel in silver, and Queral will be happy to help make it, and use it if needed. Queral is very interesting in learning and helping with the written glyph language and will make a copy for herself. My plan is after all that those of us that can read or write gets a copy, with room to add a word or tiny text beside each glyph what it means in their language. So there is no errors. They can then make copies and teach others. My plan is also to collect a copy of all those words, just because it will be interesting. We talk about what needs to be done and what she can do to help, which quickly makes me ask:

"What do you mean you swore an oath to the spirits to be my servant?! When!?!"

"This morning after waking up, Lord Arne."

What?! I have no recollection of getting any message of that. Could I really have slept that hard?! Yeah... I could. Shit. Shit!

"Why did you do that?"

"I swore to pledge my life and service to Kima's Lord, Lord Arne."

"Do you mean that Kima got you to oath bound yourself to swear yourself to me?"

"Yes, Lord Arne."

Awh fuck. I mean feck. Kima did say that Queral was a gift to me. I guess she meant that literally. So I shout:

"Kima! Please come here!" It takes just a few moments until Kima hurriedly comes climbing in through the window, so yeah, she was close alright. And she need to learn that I prefer she use the doors. Although Kima did grow up in a cave which didn't have a 2D layout. "Did you make Queral oath bound herself to me?"

"Yes, Lord Arne."

I guess that is Kima looking proud. Shit.

"Okay, this applies to both of you. Don't make... Fu... Feck! Queral, have exactly did you swear?"

"I swore to be my Lords servant, Lord Arne."

"Must you follow my orders?"

"Of course, Lord Arne."

Shit. If it was just orders I could just not give her any, but at least 'being my servant' is fairly open, so we will see what Queral actually do and live. So I give Queral the same basic orders that I've given Koru and Kima about what is an order, and not deliberately hurting the others. I'm very close to ordering them to never oath bounding other people or even inform others about it, but I just make it clear I don't like oaths. Kima becomes depressed and apologise that she have failed her Lord and she needs to be punished, but she couldn't have known. She did it before she met me. To avoid further misunderstandings I inform them of other things I don't like, including my view of us being here and the damn alien bastards. Before sending Kima away to ask Reiley to come here, I forbid Kima from punishing herself. When Reiley arrives we inform her about Queral's oath, but Reiley quickly accept it as just an annoying thing and a done deal. For now, Queral will help with everyday things, with food preparation, crafts and so on, and she will live with the others in the community hut.

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