As Githaiy entered Nadine's chambers in the late morning, she was accompanied by two servants, each of them pushing a tray with food into the room, before taking a bow and leaving.

"Firstmeal!" the doctor said in a weak attempt at a joke. She then realized that the room was seemingly empty. Nadine was neither in her bed nor at the desk. Also, the wardrobe was open for some reason, even though there was nothing in it. After a few steps into the room, Githaiy finally spotted her. The small alien was... lying on the ground?

No, that was just how it looked at first. In reality, she was holding her body in a straight line, using one hand to repeatedly push herself upward while the other was resting on her back.

"What are you doing?"

"Training."

"Is that the "light exercise" you mentioned?"

"No, this is heavier stuff," she said without pausing. She gave herself a stronger push so she was now at a 45° angle, switched the positions of her hands, and then continued the exercise with the other.

"I am used to a stronger gravity. If I don't do this, then my muscles will deteriorate. It's also a good distraction from... ah, not important."

That remark made the doctor listen up.

"Distraction from what?"

"Nothing, it's fine."

"But why would-"

"I SAID IT'S FINE!"

The doctor took a step back, startled by the sudden outcry. Nadine's voice, even though it had been soft as always, had just gotten LOUD. Way louder than she had ever expected this meek voice to ever become.

The room fell quiet. Only a moment later, Nadine's eyes sprung wide open in realization and she scrambled to her feet.

"Ah, I-I'm sorry, I didn't want... I-I didn't mean to... I just didn't sleep well and... n-no, that's not an excuse, I'm so sorry, I..."

"It's fine," Githaiy reassured her as soon as she pulled herself together. "No harm was done. Let's just get to the taste testing. I also brought some of the guthra fruits you seemed to like yesterday, just in case none of the other stuff makes a proper firstmeal."

The corners of her mouth moved slightly upwards. Apparently, this so-called "smile" was a gesture that could mean a load of things depending on the context, but it usually stood for either friendliness or joy. It was one of many, MANY expressions the alien girl's face was capable of. Sure, there were endoskeletal races in the alliance, but none of them were able to move their faces that much.

Just how many muscles does her face have? Not to mention those color changes...

"You know," Nadine's soft voice pulled her out of her thoughts, "it is kinda interesting that the translator calls it "firstmeal", even though it is not exactly what my people would call firstmeal."

The doctor cocked her head.

"What else would that refer to? Firstmeal simply is the first meal of the day, I mean, it is literally those two words together."

One of Nadine's eyes seemed to close slightly, while the other opened further, before both opened all the way.

"Oh, so that's what you hear when I say..." She took off her translator and said a word Githaiy couldn't pronounce.

"The word in my language doesn't actually mean "first meal". Anyway, what I was getting at, my people usually eat firstmeal right after getting up, not multiple hours - sorry, invas into the day."

"Really? Isn't that a very long pause until lastmeal?"

"We eat three meals per day, so no."

"If you need food more frequently, you can just say so."

"Nah, don't sweat it."

Don't... what is "sweat" supposed to mean?

"It's not that I NEED it in that frequency, we just do it that way because it fits our daily routine. There are also people who skip firstmeal. Also, that meat stuffs quite a bit. Anyway, did you get some of those tikros? ...tikro? Tikri?"

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"The plural is also just tikro. Though I have no idea why you are so excited about those."

"Well, it's cattle feed, right?"

"Yes, especially onrics love it. Why?"

"Well, that means it's probably highly nutritious. Sure, they might need other things, but worth a try."

Githaiy pointed to one of the platters and took the lid off.

"If you want, I can give you the list of everything contained in the tikro. Here, the ones on the right are raw, the left boiled, just as you wanted. But be careful, the raw ones are quite-"

With a loud crunching sound, half of the tuber disappeared in the small alien's mouth.

"...hard. How strong is your jaw?"

"Not shure, I shink it wash around 80 kilogramsh, sho... ah, right, we forgot to weigh me." The small alien held her hand in front of her mouth and spit the piece she bit off back on the plate.

"Tastes like dry flour, bah! So, yeah, dunno how much that is in your units. But it's at least 700 veys."

Before Githaiy could comment on that, Nadine proceeded to take a boiled one. It had soaked quite a bit of water and was now bigger and a bit squishy. Taking a bite caused some of the water to get squeezed out and drip down her chin, but Nadine didn't keep that on in her mouth for long either.

"Ugh, how the hell can something be that moist, yet STILL taste like dry flour?"

The rest of the taste-testing didn't go too bad, Nadine could eat around one-quarter of the things prepared this time. However, Githaiy had one more thing for her.

"This powder contains sodium chloride, potassium, and the like. If you mix a bit with our normal tap water you should be able to cover a couple of your necessities."

"Wow! Thanks, Doc, that's-"

"But remember: this stuff is toxic to us, so be careful!"

"Don't worry, I'll be careful."

A knock on the door interrupted them.

"I have a package for Lady Nadine," one of the maids said upon entering. "Together with a message: "I tried to finish the first set as quickly as possible, the rest will take a bit longer"."

With a bow, she placed the small box on the desk and left. After the door closed behind her, it only took Nadine a few moments to practically rip it open. The first thing she took out was a strange, small wooden plate with leather straps on it.

"Would you look at that, those are actually proper sandals. And the rest... what fabric is that, it feels amazing!"

"Probably goan-silk, one of the highest quality materials you can find on Hohmiy," Githaiy explained.

"Okay, the baby blue thing is the top, and the mint green looks like a skirt. Let's see!"

Nadine jumped off her chair, ducked behind her bed, threw away her blanket, and put on her new clothes. The "baby blue" top covered her upper torso in a slightly triangular shape while leaving the shoulders free. The "mint green" skirt was fairly long as it almost reached her knees, and was held in place by a thin belt with three blue gems in the buckle. The "sandals" were apparently a kind of shoe.

When she finished dressing, Nadine's pale face became a bit more reddish.

"Wow," Githaiy marveled. "You really look like a proper noble lady now." Was that how parents felt when they saw their kid in clothes for the first time? Maybe finding out Nadines relative age had awoken some motherly instincts in her. After all, at sixteen cycles, she was already fairly old for an unpartnered noblewoman.

"You... sure?" Nadine asked, not sounding very convinced.

"Do you not like it?"

"N-no, it looks great, it just a bit... skimpy. I mean, it fits the warm climate, but it's more something a human would wear to a beach party rather than a noble's estate. Also, I'm not really used to having my midriff exposed."

"Really? To me, you look ready to be greeted by the king himself!"

Nadine's face became even redder.

"W-well, when in Rome... I'm sure I'll get used to it. Definitely better than running around in bedsheets."

Githaiy took a deep breath. There was no point in postponing it, she needed to talk about the things Kiyrtin had discovered, even if it was just to confirm they were normal for her kind.

"By the way, I never asked you about your sleeping habits."

"Sleeping habits?"

"Yes, just to confirm your needs are covered. Krsnelv for example need fairly large beds because they move a lot during their sleep." That was a lie, no species she knew moved in their sleep. "Do humans move as well?"

"Not really. Some do it a bit when they dream or have a nightmare."

The doctor cocked her head.

"Dream? What's that?"

"Wait, seriously? You guys don't dream? It's uh... how do I explain that... when we sleep, our brain processes the information it gathered. During that time we see things, sometimes lucid, sometimes weird, sometimes complete bullshit."

"So a hallucination?"

"Not... really? Or is it? Now that you ask, I wonder if that is similar."

"And that happens every night?"

"Yes, although most of the time you forget it the moment you wake up."

Githaiy nodded in fascination. Was her thrashing around because of a dream?

"And the other thing you mentioned, um..."

"Nightmare? That is a... bad dream. Imagine... imagine your worst fears coming true, and you are right in the middle of it. Your heart is pounding so loud that it feels like you're alarming the whole world of your presence. You try to hide, but you always get found immediately. You try to fight, but your arms are so weak you almost can't lift them. You try to flee, but your legs are so heavy that you barely move forward. You scream for help, but all you can muster is a faint whisper. And when it seems as if everything is too late, you wake up, but you are not fully awake yet and can still see the horrors in the darkness of your room, you don't know what is real and what isn't. Slowly, everything calms down and the dream starts to slip your mind. You can't remember what exactly you have seen, all you remember is the fear and despair you felt. You are exhausted, you want to sleep, but you dread what you'll see when you close your eyes again. You..."

With her head jolting up, Nadine snapped out of the trance she had seemingly talked herself into.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to... I... I'll take a walk, I need air."

With that, the small alien left the room. Githaiy said nothing. Even if she had wanted to say something, she wouldn't have been able to. She just sat there, not moving a single muscle. She was a doctor. Throughout her career, she had seen a lot of gruesome and horrible things. Never in her life could she have imagined that one day, mere words would make her freeze in fear.