Mark, the human, had proven to be a pain in the ass to the kill team. But not only the kill team, the negotiators, researchers, clergy and other various government agencies had been having a difficult time putting a finger on what he was.

They knew who and what he was called, they knew where he was from. They did not know what abilities he had and what the standard personality for his species should be. In other words they knew he was a human but did not know what that meant.

The commander wished he had been able to retrieve the head of whatever this was, she would probably have more information on the strange humanoid.

The human did not know what abilities his species had either and they couldn't quite write out 'makes other species die instantly when startled'.

Take his squad mate for example, he could fill a room with fire and kill everyone inside. He was also immune to fire of his temperature, and thus his species did not know initially that breathing fire on people was a serious problem.

The researchers and those with proper social abilities have taken over. Calming music designed to keep him from lashing out or panicking, finding those with the proper abilities to help heal the dragonoid's mind as well as resolve any issues the other slaves could have.

They couldn’t exactly stick him into a concrete room deep below the surface, they wanted good relations with a potential new species.

More importantly, that hadn’t worked for his previous kidnappers.

The commander knew that there were some things they needed from the human before he could be released. First they needed at least a rudimentary understanding of his abilities, their dangers and how to prevent them from activating subconsciously. Second, they needed to ensure his god was not hostile. Many gods were not friendly and thus their people could be considered refugees.

The final thing they needed was a bit more simple, physical and psychological data on the human species. This one stated he was rather average, so they could assume humans were all roughly his height, weight and colored similarly though they still lacked more important data. They needed biological information, what kinds of diseases he was susceptible to, lists of what materials could be considered toxic and other important medical information.

Psychologically they needed a good ‘base’ for what a human was. A violent warrior? A perfectionist crafter? Were their responses to danger generally to go berserk or to attempt an escape?

That was why the commander had been reassigned to protect the human’s current domicile. A mansion constructed on an island off the coast of one of this world’s two continents.

They could not place him into a protective bunker and dissect him, because obviously that would be wrong, so instead they would isolate the human in a much shinier equivalent and allow the human to act as they wanted.

He sighed, one moment he had been the commander. The leader of this world’s most elite strike force. As powerful as a mortal could get before they stepped into the footprints of the divine. Now he was a makeshift security guard.

Though the decision was obvious. They didn’t know what the human did. He could be infected with something, so everyone the human had come into contact with had been moved to the same area. Him, his team, the dragonoid they found, there was even a handful of rats had been moved into a small laboratory slightly separate from the human’s mansion.

He eyed the road, the one route through the hills up to the sole artificial construction on this side of the island.

If only someone would try something.

He was itching to blow something to pieces.

~

Mark looked upwards toward what he was being told was an orc.

A gigantic green humanoid, though he was being told that it was categorized as a ‘moderately sized humanoid’ similar to himself.

They stood almost seven feet tall and his arm was almost as wide around as Mark’s waist. They were also holding a clipboard that looked comically small.

“So do you currently have any medical issues you know of?”

Mark shook his head.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The orc spoke again, “I need verbal confirmation please.”

“Oh.” Mark took a breath, “I do not have any medical issues that I know of.”

The orc wrote that down and then put a stethoscope onto the human’s back. “Okay, I need for you to take another deep breath in and then out.”

Mark did as told.

The orc assumed that his lungs were in good condition, mostly because there were no obvious issues and he didn’t know what a human’s lungs should sound like.

“Okay now I will be subjecting you to a cat scan, please continue taking deep breaths.”

Mark nodded, before remembering the proper response. “I understand.”

Then he nearly fell out of his chair when a giant lion person walked into the room and started looking him over.

They were slightly bigger than even the orc, a mane of golden hair surrounding its head and overlapping plate armor along its torso.

The orcish doctor casually leaned against the counter and as the lion person started to stare the human down. Mark flinched, raising his hands slightly without closing his fists.

The doctor wrote that down, open palm style?

Eventually the lion man stopped glaring at the human.

“He has three cavities, dandruff... I detect that he will have mild allergy issues with pollen and some bruising along his feet and tailbone. He also has some slight scarring along his left hand and a mild sunburn.”

The orc wrote that down, “He has a tailbone?”

“Yep.” The lion growled. “No signs of prior injury.”

“Thank you, you can go now.” The orc said.

Mark was thoroughly confused. “The cat scan was a cat person?”

“Ah.” The orc scratched his chin, “You probably haven’t met his species before, they can sense people’s weaknesses so we had him check you for injuries. Quick question, do you have, or have you ever had a tail?”

“No.” Mark replied.

“Have you ever met a human with a tail?”

“No.”

The orc scratched his chin, then took note that humans could possibly have invisible magical tails.

“Well we can see about fixing those issues, it might be a week or two until we can send a proper specialist up here. But I can get you some anti allergens and some special soap to help with your dandruff.”

“Okay,” Mark had no clue he even had cavities, “Are the dentists far away? I don’t want to make issues for you guys.”

“Oh it’s no problem, actually there are probably some proper healers who would love to study humans. We just don’t want to introduce more people to you until we know you won’t make them sick or something.” The orc smiled trying to seem friendly.

That was why he had called one of the soldiers stationed around the fence outside to check the human over instead of a dedicated team with complementary healing abilities, like what you would find in a normal doctor’s office.

“That should be all that I need from you.” The orc said, “If you feel anything amiss make sure you come and tell me immediately.”

“I understand.” Mark nodded, “Thank you.”

“And thank you, I know first contact is stressful and we should have had proper diplomats doing this but as you can tell…”

They hadn’t been able to make official contact yet.

~

Mark walked out into the hall, official medical checkup completed.

He was perfectly healthy, by human standards. A few cavities didn’t really mean anything.

Psychologically he was unable to create a proper ‘baseline’ for the researchers so there wasn’t as much they could do psionically.

They explained in detail. They didn’t know what a civilian human was like, only someone who had been kidnapped by slavers and sat in a room while they were mercilessly torn into pieces. Not to mention the fact that they had placed calming effects onto him to ensure he acclimated to the situation with minimal stress.

There were good odds that his species was warlike, in which he should have minimal issues from the entire event. Though apparently one of the other people who had been rescued were warlike and suffered issues anyway.

He turned a corner, the mansion was honestly enormous and he had gotten slightly lost.

“Need help?” A familiar voice asked.

He turned to see the same, deep red reptile-person he had met when he had been taken by that strange group of people.

“The halls are all the same color…” Mark had difficulty finding a decent landmark to help him navigate. Everything seemed to be made of marble with patterns of some other darker material. “I’m trying to find the kitchen, do you know where it is?”

He offered a hand, completely ignoring the size difference between them and the existence of those claws.

They were a predatory species, used to contending with giant monsters for food and capable of shrugging off attacks that would more than murder Mark.

But he was so calm right now he didn’t even consider that those claws could cut more easily than knives. He logically knew that they were friendly and didn’t want to harm him, thus he was not worried at all.

They however did not understand what the gesture meant, first they leaned all the way over to sniff at his hand and then they put their hand out completely opposite of his own.

He grasped them and shook, smiling and attempting to prove himself friendly.

They drew their lips back, showing every one of their teeth. Normally it was a threatening display but this time it had been adapted to mimic the bland friendliness of the human.

“I can show you to the kitchen. I never had a chance to thank you earlier, I’m Zirrilit.” They grabbed the back of his hand from the side and shook it back and forth for slightly too long. Attempting to copy what they had seen while missing the more important details.

Mark just went along with it. Friendliness.

“Thank you. It’s been a long day and I think it's about lunch time.”

Zirrilit nodded, “Right, so you are going to eat… A goat?”

The dragonoid could probably fit an entire goat into their gut, but the human on the other hand…

“No, I was thinking about chicken maybe.”

“Chickens? Birds right? So a couple chickens?” They tilted their head.

Mark considered for a moment, “I was thinking of a sandwich maybe.”

“Right. Right. I love sandwiches. I hunt them all the time! They are very… Meaty? They usually travel in groups? So it’s easy to find them?” Zirrilit showed their teeth again.

Mark giggled slightly, “Not really, they have some meat in them but mostly they are plant based I think.”

“Plants! You are an herbivore? That’s so weird! Are you part goat or something?” They gasped, “Wait, is eating goat offensive to you?”

That got another laugh, “No, no it’s fine. I eat goat sometimes too.”

“Oh, I usually eat like two or three at a time then go into a coma for a day or two-” They turned their head. “Kitchen is that way, I can smell the food.”