“Okay class, we have a new student today. I assume that you’ve heard of the new species humanity?” Mr. Acinterin asked his students.

Mr. Acinterin was a well-respected teacher in the Institute of Learning on the planet Clevin 4, his homeworld, a semi-core world with a population of three billion. Clevin 4 had nearly all known races, big or small, as it was easily habitable.

Mr. Acinterin’s posh voice rang out throughout the classroom as his students looked up in shock. They understood what he was saying, and one student raised her hand.

“Yes Javqua, what is your question?” Mr. Acinterin asked.

A bipedal reptilian cleared her throat, fidgeting in her chair nervously.

“Do we...get to see a human?” Javqua asked hesitantly.

“Yes, yes, you will get to meet a human - not just meet, of course, we have a human attending this very school. If I’m correct, none of you have seen a human being before, and you’ve only heard rumors, correct?” Mr. Acinterin questioned.

The students made confirming gestures towards Mr. Acinterin and so he continued.

“We have ten minutes until they arrive. I’ll let you all converse till then.” Mr. Acinteran walked over to his desk, as the students began to talk.

The class of twenty students began to converse excitedly about the theories and rumors surrounding humanity that had spread since first contact not so long ago.

Only the diplomatic corps had actually seen humans, along with a lucky few that had seen them in public by pure luck.

Some murmured about humans being strong enough to rip apart any creature that tried to fight them, while others gossiped about humans having brains so powerful they could perceive time at a slower rate if needed.

Mr. Acinterin smiled - he hadn’t seen his students this excited in a long time. He had seen a human already, so he could prepare himself mentally.

There was a knock on the door and all fell silent - it was finally time. Time to meet this new amazing, yet terrifying species.

Someone fumbled with the door handle, and the classroom’s door slid open.

The headmaster walked in, and a few seconds later, so did a small biped.

As Thomas walked behind the headmaster who still hadn't said his first or last name, he was contemplating why he had agreed to be transferred to this school so far away from human space. Apparently, it was because of his mentality, whatever that was supposed to mean.

Walking through the corridor, Thomas was finding it hard to concentrate with the Headmaster making such a grating noise with each footstep - it was as if he was intentionally trying to irritate him.

As they moved onward, he could see that there were no other sentients moving through the corridors, making him wonder if it was supposed to be a surprise to see him or if everyone was just in class.

With around half a minute more of walking, the Headmaster turned to a seemingly random door and placed his feathered appendage on the door’s handle - turned it, and walked into a spacious looking classroom.

Thomas walked in as well, and as he looked around he could make out around twenty students- not a very large class, but it seemed to be a limit for the teacher to allow him to teach individually if required.

Making his way further inside, a sudden random thought came to him. Well… seems like I'm no longer tall.

Originally, he had thought the Xenos he had interacted with before were just taller than usual, but as it turned out, they were all just massive.

Looking more closely, he spotted his first predator among the herbivores - a female reptilian student. It was made quite clear that the short briefing he was given was not exaggerating in the slightest when it came to the differences between herbivore and carnivore races, and their view on the other.

There was a ring of barren seats around the green-scaled girl; with the others giving her quite a bit of space.

Javqua stared at the human. He was short - really short, standing at only around six feet tall. She watched as the human walked silently to the front of the class, which was intimidating, as all other species could be heard by their footsteps. Were all humans naturally stealthy? Or was it just this one?

She turned to look at her classmates, who were all just as shocked as her. This small, harmless-looking being was supposed to be the hellworlder. It didn’t have long claws, or a tough-looking hide, and Javqua could hear her classmates whispering to each other.

Is this a joke? Is this the right being?

Javqua leaned forward as much as she could, staring at the human until she finally saw. Muscle - lots of it, showing through the human’s skin-enough muscle to prove the rumors correct and then some.

“Okay class, this is Thomas Winters, as you can clearly see, he is a human. Humans are a hellworld species from the Sol system-feel free to ask him questions.” Mr. Acinterin watched as all of his students raised their hands, claws, talons, or wings.

Mr. Acinterin chose a bright blue Magistra to ask the first question.

“Not to be rude, but why are you so small and weak-looking? Aren’t you a hellworlder? You don’t even have claws.” Mr. Acinterin winced at the bluntness, but he let the human speak for himself.

Thomas looked a bit taken aback, but he cleared his throat and answered anyway.

“Well, I guess to you we are short, as compared to other species, but that’s because of our home planet’s heavy gravity - the other questions about us are much harder to explain since it’s because of our evolution and not something we can control,” Thomas explained.

The class was shocked once again, not by his explanation but by his voice. It was smooth - too smooth, his mouth seemed to be designed to speak complicated languages, and also very fluently at that.

The next question came from the back, originating from a small hamster-like being. “What do you humans eat? Just wondering because your eyes face forward but I can’t see any overly sharp teeth.”

“Umm...that’s a nice question,” Thomas said, pausing. “Yes, we are predators - omnivorous predators, that’s why we have both flat and pointy teeth-to eat plant matter and meat.”

Thomas pulled back his lips awkwardly as the entire class leaned forward to gawk at his teeth. “As you can see, I have small canines and other meat-eating teeth at the front of my mouth; they look flat, but they’re actually quite sharp. Apparently, humans are the only omnivores on the galactic stage.”

The class was eerily silent, and Thomas realized they were...scared of him. Everyone was, except for the teacher, and one student...the reptilian girl. She looked like she was suppressing a toothy grin-probably because she finally had a fellow predator to talk to, that wouldn’t avoid her.

After a few more questions, Thomas was assigned a seat.

Mr. Acinterin noticed how his students were intimidated by Thomas - although their attempt to hide their fear was terrible, they were still trying to look brave. So, he assigned Thomas one of the empty seats next to Javqua.

Thomas watched as the reptilian female brightened up as he approached, sitting up in her chair as he sat down next to her.

“Hello,” Thomas said casually. “Hello!” The girl replied excitedly. “I’m Javqua. Nice to meet you.”

Javqua extended a scaly hand in the universal greeting manner, which Thomas promptly took and shook.

Thomas felt dozens of eyes boring into the back of his head, and he turned to see his classmates staring at him in alarm.

Great. Thomas thought in his head. Now they probably think I’ve made some sort of alliance with the only other predator in the class.

As the class started, it went quite smoothly, as Thomas gave a lot of correct answers to Mr. Acinterin’s questions on biology.