Darkness fell and the bright globes that had been in the sky had gone away. Or disappeared. It was replaced by a darkening of all the colours and lots of smaller bright dots. Sometimes this sky was covered by something, which would change and move aside. Rock didn’t have a good view of it all, hidden as It was. To Rock there were lots of noises, the night wasn’t quiet at all like Sita had said. Animals and birds as they had been called. Rock wasn’t sure what to expect of this night thing. Sita had said it was scary and quiet. From the noises Rock could hear that everything making a noise was either really far away or really small.

A snapping sound marked a change. Rock still didn’t like change. Rustling and scraping sounds heralded something larger approaching. Closer than Sita even and Rock was already impressed with her size.

Rock remembered that he should not further comment on Sita’s size. She had grown angry with Rock when discussing size and mentioned something about not being fat.

While Rock was having his internal recollection, the thing was getting closer. His first animal close by. Rock might have hated change, but he was still curious about possibly interesting things. Rock could see it now. It looked very different from Sita. It had a very dark skin. It seemed to switch between crawling or running. And it had many limbs. If Rock remembered correctly limbs used to stand on the ground were legs and when used to grasp, handle or hit something it was a hand. Hands had arms or paws at the ends to hit or manipulate things. Rock was proud it had such a good memory.

The Animal as Rock dubbed it came closer. The top two limbs were used either in crawling or when balancing. The Animal had four legs, which were curved as it moved across the terrain, the legs pointed in 4 different directions. Its skin also wasn’t as smooth as Sita’s. And the clothes that Rock still didn’t understand were a shirt with dark spots and nothing else. Clothes, did that mean it was more like Sita than an animal?

Rock was going to talk to it. The animal had since continued stalking past the place where Rock was hidden. Guessing it was close enough, it tried reaching for the Animal, it sent a signal for ‘hello’.

Immediately afterward it froze. Persevering Rock felt confusion. Yes! Rock could talk again. It asked that question of who and what. More confusion came back. The Animal turned to see where the question was coming from. Rock could see its eyes narrowing when it finally noticed the place Rock was hidden and approached.

Rock felt more than heard the raspy hiss the Animal let loose when it saw Rock in its entirety. Curious is crawled around, confusion changed to curiosity. Rock shiny nature illuminated the Animal, revealing that the dark skinny was a deep purple. Rock waited for a bit, indulging the creature.

Remembering Sita’s lesson about greetings and rude bad people, Rock tried saying something again. “I am Rock, nice to meet you. What are you?”

A sibilant cough escaped the creature’s mouth, Rock guessed it was like a laugh. It spoke out loud, with that continues sibilant hiss sparsed in between, the words sounded grating and raspy. It was smiling in an odd way. Rock knew that smiling was good. “Who or what we are is an eternal a question we have been forever trying to answer, right?” It left a silence and continued stalking around Rock, making sure to take in all the details.

“Oh, so you don’t know who you are? Don’t worry my friend taught me about that.” An intake of air told Rock it was surprised. “Do share your wisdom, Rock, child of the earth. What wisdom concerning existence have you learned in your time?”, it looked at Rock with a sense of eagerness and anticipation.

“Well, since Sita was first. And you don’t know who you are, from now on, you are Two.”

For a moment Two blinked in surprise. Rock was sure it was stunned by the elegance of its name. Then Two started laughing. Again it didn’t sound like the bright clear sound of Sita, instead, the deep hiss resounded through Rock’s hiding place. The laughing lasted for a while. “Whether you intend to or not, I’ve just learned a valuable lesson in taking myself too seriously.”

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Two snickered a bit more and wiped something from his eye. Rock thought that it had stopped raining already, but apparently not. “So let us start a new. I greet you Rock. I am…”, another snicked sounded, “I am Two. And I am amazed that you can speak to me without sound.” Rock thought this was great, It already better at something than Two.

Two lifted his hand and raised it towards Rock, opening the fingers of his arm. Rock noted it only had 4 fingers on its arm. Grasping softly, Two lifted Rock with little apparent effort. The skin of Two’s arm was rougher and coarser than Sita’s. Rock preferred being held by Sita, but Rock decided it wouldn’t say so to Two, as that might upset it. “So tell me, Rock. How does a shiny Rock like you exist?”

“With little effort actually, it just happens.”, Rock helpfully answered. “Why, is it hard for you?”

The purple skinned creature flinched. Rock knew what that meant, Sita had made comparable expressions about her size thing. “Oh don’t worry Two, if you don’t want to talk it, I understand.”

Thinking for a moment, Rock asked, “Do you want to see what I can see? Sita thought it was great. And it helped me see things.”

Two cradled Rock in its two arms, and that peculiar smile of Two showed again. “Oh do show me.” At that, Rock reached out and connected Its senses with Two. A jolt went through Two’s body, and rock was almost dropped. “Sita was a lot better than you at this though.” An angry sibilant roar echoed in response. Rock decided to give Two time to adjust. Looks like Two was like Rock and didn’t like too much change at the same time. So it decided to look around Two’s senses in the meanwhile.

Two’s sight was worse than Sita. So were Two’s hearing, smell, and touch. Two had an extra sense however, it could sense things like warm and cold beyond its touch. Rock quickly familiarized itself with this sense and tried to emulate it. But it was hard. Harder than learning almost any other sense. Until Rock felt something give in himself. He felt himself change, but also whirl around inwardly. Sita had talked about funny feelings in the tummy. Maybe this was comparable. Rock’s awareness winked for a moment.

When it came to, Two was seated on the ground, its four legs folded in around themselves and was curiously poking and running its fingers over Rock in a curious manner. Its skin was now clearer to Rock, and It realized it could sense Two’s presence with something other than sight. Two was warmer than the stone around it, but not by much. Through the connection, Rock heard Two’s voice. “A curious power you have. One that Is worth a lot to those that have plans. You flash a bit of light, and then you can feel what another feels. Oh and let’s not forget the sense that you seemingly have copied. A trait normally unique to my kind.” Rock knew the answer, “Yes!”

“Yes? All of this power at your hand and no explanation for it?”

“No!”, Rock proudly said. “Oh and this bond also strengthens me, more agile.”, Two dashed to and fro in the small area. “Increased strength,” it stamped on the ground, reverberations echoing strongly. Rock helpfully interjected, “And smarter too! So you can finally understand me.”

Again the hurt flinch appeared on Two’s face. “I don’t feel smarter.”

“Well, you’re stupid if you don’t understand something. Now you can use my senses, and so you can understand what I’m talking about. Which means that you understand more. So you’re smarter now. Isn’t it great.” Rock noted that Two had developed a strange muscle movement above its eyeridge.

“And now we’re friends!”, Rock exclaimed enthusiastically. “Friends?”, Two asked questioningly.

“Yes, friends. We can help each other better now!”

A small chuckle and a laugh escaped Two. “Yes, we can help each other, indeed.” With a pause, Two rose. “Wait!”, Rock shouted, “What about Sita?”. Two paused, “Yes? What about this… Sita?”. “She’s coming back to pick up me up.”

Another chuckle came, “Oh don’t worry. I’ll make sure that this Sita will have a good welcome. In the meanwhile, you can help me, Rock. There are a few others like me that aren’t my friend, that I can now educate better.” Enthusiastically Rock said, “Oh! So they’re bad people? Don’t worry friend, I won’t let you down!” With that, the two bantered back and forth, with Two asking much about Sita. As they returned, a special kind of happy grin was on Two’s mouth. As they were leaving, Rock wondered why the things in Two’s mouth were more pointy than Sita’s.