When Lucius finally stopped running, he collapsed on the ground, gasping for air. It must've been at least a mile before he had stopped, hadn't it? The man surely wouldn't follow him for this long. He turned around, and the man was there once more. Lucius stared. He was too exhausted to do much else.

The other man spoke first. "I'm Lennox," he said, and extended his hand towards Lucius.

"Th– that's illegal," Lucius stuttered. "You're Ansondrian." He could tell based on the design of his uniform.

"And you're American." Lennox stared back at him. "What's your name?"

Lucius hesitated a moment, deciding whether or not to use his real name. He couldn't think of a different name to give, so he told the truth about himself. "I'm… Lucius." He took the other man's hand and pulled himself off the ground.

"I've been sent on a solo mission by my commander," Lennox said. "And, by the looks of it, so have you." Lucius squinted at him in silence. What is his deal? "I haven't seen another living being face-to-face in weeks. I figured I might as well have a chat with them once I saw them."

"Uh-huh."

"So, I wa–"

"How do I know you aren't a spy or something?" Lucius interrupted him.

"Well, if I'm a spy, I'd be doing a pretty bad job at it right about now." Lennox rolled his eyes. "I'm trying to get along with you, and you just aren't having it, are you?"

Lucius sat in silence for a moment, processing what the other had just said. "I guess. Anyways, I've always wanted to ask an Ansondrian this question before, do you mind if I ask?"

"No, go ahead."

"Why are some of you… animals?"

Lennox looked at him. "Why… are some of us… animals." He thought about what Lucius had said for a moment. He remembered being taught about ninganima in school, but he couldn't remember exactly what was told to him. "It's called ninganima, 'ningen' meaning 'human' and 'anima' meaning 'animal' . It's a special gene only found in Ansondrians. I don't really know a whole lot about it, though. Something about genes, y'know."

Lucius nodded. "So it's a gene, not a separate species? That makes more sense." Doesn't explain how it actually works, though. "I have another question. How come you speak English?"

"What do you mean?"

"Wouldn't you speak Ansondrian?"

Lennox thought for a moment. "I mean, I know Ansondrian, we're all taught it in school, but it's kind of a dead language. Nobody actually speaks it in practice. Occasionally you'll see a sign or something in Ansondrian, which generally means they don't want people from other dimensions in there. But yeah, nobody speaks it since English is the universal language."

Stolen story; please report.

Lucius nodded again. "Okay, okay, I have one more question to ask you – but it's kind of weird."

Lennox gazed at him in response, wondering.

"Would you… teach Ansondrian to me?"

Lennox looked at him. "Why?"

"Well– I just think it's a cool language." He glared at him. "It's fine if you don't want to."

"No, no, I can. But, like, I'm not super fluent in it, like, I can teach you, but it won't be as good as having an expert teach you."

"I'm fine with that."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They stood there, awkwardly, neither of them having much to say.

Lennox broke the silence first. "We can start now, if you want."

"Oh, alright."

Lucius sat down, and Lennox sat beside him.

"So, I guess I'll start off with some basic words, like I/me/mine. The words for 'I' and 'me' are the same, it's egome."

"Egome, got it."

"And 'mine' is egomin."

"Uh-huh."

"Can you remember that?"

"Probably."

"What's the word for 'me'?"

"E– uh…"

Lennox stared at him in disappointment. "Let's try again. Egome."

"Egome."

"Good, say it again."

"Egome. I got that, can we move on?"

"You're gonna say it over and over until you don't forget it."

"What?!"

"Say it."

"Egome."

"Again."

"Egome."

"Okay, fine, that's enough."

Lucius sighed. This wasn't going entirely as he planned, but at least he had learned a new word. "What's the next one?"

"Egomin, it means 'mine'. Got it?"

"Egomin, got it. Does Ansondrian have a special alphabet that it uses, or does it just use the Latin alphabet?"

"It had an alphabet, but again, nobody uses it, since we can just use the Latin alphabet for it."

"Okay, what's the next word?"

Soon, the sun began to set and dusk began to fall. Ansondrian nights were eerily similar to nights in America. They both had a singular moon, they both had dozens of stars. The clouds of Ansondria tended to be heavier and more prominent than clouds on Earth. Rain was common, especially during nighttime, when the cool air condenses the vapors into raindrops, which fall upon the earth.

"I'll see you back here tomorrow, right?" Lennox asked.

Lucius nodded. "Yeah, if you want to."

Lucius returned to the place he had landed his jet at. He unfolded the main body of it, revealing a rather large cavity inside the plane, equipped with a couch and a stall for a bathroom.

Sleep found him quickly that night.

It's strange to think that nighttime is the natural state of the universe.