The Human sidestepped Chyrkrady effortlessly, like water, bobbing and weaving as Chyrkrady’s forelimbs snapped forward relentlessly at its head and abdomen.

Chyrkrady leapt again, arcing over the creature, he was going for its blindside, behind it, I prayed he succeeded, for I was frozen in place, too stunned to move or assist.

Just as Chyrkrady landed, the creature spun to face him, again, preternaturally quick. And then… they just stood there.

My eyes darted back and forth, my hearts were racing, spines flattened completely along my carapace. The whole exchange had lasted a mere instant, but it had felt like an eternity, and in my panic I could barely move or think…

Then Chyrkrady burst out laughing, and the Human seemed to do something analogous, letting out an irregular guttural whooping from its mouth.

“Eish! You are getting slow my friend! I almost had you on the second jab!”

“Haha! Not a chance Krady! I was going easy on you in front of the Nymph! Not to mention I had a huff of some Tsch’laxiyan Ether before you arrived, so I’m not exactly at my sporting best right now!”

And then that creature—the Human—grabbed each of Chyrkrady’s forelimbs near the joint, as Chyrkrady likewise grasped the Human’s joints—‘elbows’ I recalled.

Then they stepped into one another further, each reaching one limb behind the other and striking gently.

I realized finally that this was a traditional Human ritual, a way of greeting one’s familiars. They called it a ‘hug’.

“It is good to see you Krady.”

“Likewise you my friend. Now tell me, where is the Nymph in your charge? I have brought mine along. Don’t tell me I will have to subject the poor boy to solely your antics all day.”

In that moment I almost protested being referred to, for the second time that day—only the second time in 10 cycles—as a Nymph, but I thought better of it when the Human turned its imposing figure my direction and looked me up and down.

I only hoped my ceremonial garb would command some degree of authority.

“Oh right,” the Human said. “about that. Caleb will be a little late to our rendezvous. I may have encouraged him to drink a bit more than advisable yesterday. I told him to sleep in—ordered it in fact—and said that we would see him in the reception hall whenever he was feeling up to it. I hope you don’t mind.”

“I do not. In fact, this is a perfect opportunity for young Chakky here to acquaint himself with one of the more—how shall we say—‘acclimated’ members of your race. Not that your Caleb won’t also prove to be a valuable source of insight for Chakky here, but, if i might be so presumptuous, I take it this will be your Caleb’s first time see—“

“—first time seeing a Manni, that’s right. At least in person of course. He knows what to expect, but as you and I both know, that first time meeting another species in person can be…”

“Indeed it can be my friend, indeed it can be.”

“Pardon me sir,” I interjected. “What is a ‘Manni’?”

At that, the Human’s head cocked to the side, and after a pause another burst of irregular whooping left its mouth.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Oh right, sorry about that! ‘Manni’ is what my race calls yours. Well, informally of course. Officially we cal—“

“—Aren’t you going to tell him why you call us that?” Chyrkrady butted in. “I don’t think we cover ‘Fauna of Earth’ in any of our schools.”

“Right, right, okay, well, there is this tiny creature that lives, or lived rather, on my planet, no bigger than my hand, and we called it a mantis. And your lot looks quite similar to the mantis, albeit much much larger and scarier. So when we first saw your race, we took to calling you ‘Mantises’ and that quickly turned into ‘Mannies’.”

“Wait a minute,” I blurted out. “did you just say that we look scary to you?”

Again the Human laughed. “Haha! of course! That always surprises your lot doesn’t it? The mantis might have been small, but it was lethal. It was a savage wee beastie.”

“So this tiny creature hunted your kind?” I asked incredulously.

“Oh no no, it was much too small for that. I could easily crush one in my hand if I wished.”

“But you feared them?”

“Well, no, not quite feared, but we saw what they did to the things in their tiny domain. And it was easy to imagine ourselves in that domain with them, being hunted. And so…”

“So we look like a creature from your Homeworld that you are not afraid of, but would be afraid of if you were either small like them or if they were large like you?”

“That’s right”

“But we are large, and you said we look like these mantis, so do you fear us?

“Well, no, no not really. I mean, you are our allies after all.”

“But if we weren’t your allies, would you? Knowing what you do about your physical characteristics compared to ours, would you fear us?”

“Well, no, we wouldn’t, it’s just—it’s just that you resemble something that we could fear, given different circumstances.”

“But there aren’t different circumstances. Things are as they are. You say you don’t fear us, and wouldn’t fear us even if our enemy, yet as your known allies you still find us scary looking?”

The Human cocked its head and raised forelimbs in a gesture I wasn’t familiar with, letting out a long exhale as it did so.

At that, Chyrkrady cut in.

“Chakky, I suppose the feeling that our Human Ambassador is attempting to describe is analogous to the fear that you no doubt felt as we approached, that you no doubt feel this very moment.”

“On the contrary, they are not the same.” I blurted out, surprising even myself with a tone that in another situation might be seen as insubordinate. “Allies or not, the innate fear I feel right now in the presence of a Human is based in the fact that, to put it bluntly, this Human could tear both of us apart before we could blink. Whereas what your counterpart seems to be describing is the mere association between a threat, however hypothetical, and the superficial morphological characteristics of something that is anything but!”

I half expected a stern look of indignance or a curt order to stand at attention, but Chyrkrady just smiled and glanced knowingly askance at the Human, who was also baring his teeth in what apparently passed for a smile among his people.

“Heh! I never said we were the most rational creatures.” The Human said. “Just wait til you hear about the way some of my fellows react to the sight of the Spyds.”

“Spyds?” I said.

“It’s what the Humans so affectionately call the Skythtaayr.” Chyrkrady clarified. “They resemble a rather large and, as I’m told, unpleasant version of another tiny creature from the Human Homeworld known as the Spider. I believe I have that correct, yes?”

“Yep, that’s right.” The Human confirmed. “Human-Spyd Ambassador is probably the least sought after position in my entire society. There’s a bit of a shortage of applicants in fact. I don’t know, some of my kind just never quite seem to be able to get over that—that revulsion when we see one of the Skythtaayr. Same with you Mannies, albeit far less so. Anyways, maybe another time we can dig into the psychology of it, but as for right now, it occurs to me that I haven’t yet introduced myself to you.

I am District Ambassador Thirkle Kelby, but you can just call me Kel. I know ‘th’ is a rather difficult sound for your kind to pronounce. Your esteemed superior here has only managed it twice in our over 20 Cycles of working together.”

“Watch yourself Turkle,” Chyrkrady said. “Lest you find yourself awakening in one of the station’s waste recycling chutes.”

Apparently this blatant threat, not to mention extreme violation of protocol, was some form of joke between the two, as they both began laughing immediately afterwards, and the Human—Kel—extended one massive limb in my direction.

“It’s nice to meet you” he said.

I recalled the gesture as a ‘hand shake’, something that Humans did when meeting those unknown to them. I supposed that the ‘hug’ ritual was reserved for those on more familiar terms. Though I wasn’t exactly sure where mock-fighting fit in on the spectrum. I hoped that I wouldn’t be expected to engage in such a display with my counterpart, Caleb—if and when he ever made it to the meeting that is.

“It is an honor to meet you District Ambassador Kelby” I said as I awkwardly clasped my digits around his. “I look forward to a mutually prosperous relati—“

“Haha! My god man!” Kel laughed. “They really pushed the formal boilerplate at your academy didn’t they? Please, as I’m sure Krady already told you, excessive formality is unnecessary here. We are peers, equals. Speak your mind, and I’ll speak mine, and in time we, and both our species as a whole, will come to know and embrace the differences that make one another unique.”

“Yes sir—err, sorry—I mean, yes Kel, I will.”

“Heh, don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Caleb too I hope. I don’t expect that our ambassador education facilities have eased up on the formal-speak either, so I expect Caleb will be in the same boat as you.”

“Um, which boat?”

“Sorry, another Human expression.”

The Human looked down at his wrist tablet, which had just lit up.

“Well speak of the devil, looks like Caleb will be joining us directly.”

And at that, the entrance at the far end of the corridor opened and the new Vice District ambassador bounded towards us.