Killerie couldn’t help but do a little dance as she looked through the dense window of the Khransis, intently watching the glittering silver and blue planet gradually growing larger. Grinatyz had never felt closer, but she knew she was still miles away from the ground itself. She was getting excited enough that a faint whine was gradually building in her throat.

Behind her, Madeline finished packing up the suitcase she’d used for the trip, which really only meant her recently dried swimsuit and a change of clothes. Killerie could almost feel the smile her mom was aiming at her, which did little to douse her excitement for the oncoming activities she was about to do.

“Are we tessering down?” Killerie asked, spinning around to face her mom, tails lashing in excitement.

“Probably.”

Flipping back to the window, she tried to make out some of the details on the planet. “It’s so big! Where are we staying?”

Madeline chuckled. “The shedlings have a hotel near the terminal. The plane ticket includes a room there for a week.”

Killerie’s eyes grew round. “We’re staying for a whole week!?”

A genuine smile lit Madeline’s face up, albeit a tired one. “Yep. Should be enough time to cross a few items off your bucket list, right?”

“I hope!” Killerie enthusiastically replied.

“Now, remember, stay close to me, okay? Ciar said Grinatyz is a busy place, and I don’t want you getting lost.”

Killerie nodded distractedly, practically vibrating in anticipation. “What are we doing first?”

Madeline laughed. “First we have to get down there, and then we have to check in, and then I thought you would want to get a few souvenirs. From there we can figure out what else to-”

Killerie had only been half-listening as she seized her suitcase, briefly thought back to the spider hopefully living its best life in her room, and charged for the door. “Mom, let’s go, we’re going to be late!”

“Late for what!?”

“I don’t know!” Killerie called back, bouncing from foot to foot. “I just want to go!”

Picking her suitcase up, Madeline walked over to her daughter and keyed the door open, gesturing into the hallway. Killerie hurried out, impatiently waiting for her mom to catch up.

It took absolutely forever to get to the tesser chamber, at least as far as Killerie was concerned. She internally groaned as she saw the line that had formed behind the clean white doors, the benches lining the walls laden with patient passengers, and gave her mom a pleading stare.

Madeline looked amused. “I can’t make the line go faster, bean.”

Frustrated, and fully aware there was nothing she could do about it, Killerie started looking around for anything interesting. She froze as she spotted a familiar face and started heading towards him.

“Hi, Jason!”

Her new friend had been waiting with two people who were probably his parents, with luggage in tow. A giant smile spread across the young boy’s face as he saw her. “Killerie!”

She skittered to a stop in front of him, antennae flicking about in excitement. “What are you doing?”

“Waiting!”

His dad snorted audibly at the chipper response. Killerie was undaunted. “Me too! Me and Mom are going to go shopping after we get there.”

“Not before we check in!” Madeline called from the line, and Killerie gave her a distracted nod. Jason’s dad seemed a lot more relaxed than most of the adults Killerie had talked to already, and she didn’t even know what his name was.

“So, you’re adopted?”

It was a strange thing to open with, but Killerie was happy to be talking to anyone. “Yeah! I’ve been living with Mom ever since I was little.”

“And, eh…” Jason’s dad drummed his fingers on his legs, considering his words. “Do you love her?”

Killerie didn’t even have to think about it. “A whole lot!”

He squinted. “Alright, but do you love her like a-”

“Killerie, it’s our turn!”

“Okay!” She called back. Looking down at Jason, she happily told him, “It was cool meeting you! Thanks for swimming yesterday, that was fun.”

“Yeah!”

She scuttled back over to Madeline, waving an antennae at Jason as she left. Jason’s dad had a complicated expression on his face, and his wife had a raised eyebrow.

They collected their luggage, and it didn’t take long to go through the tesser chamber after that. It was as uneventful as the last time she’d used it, but when the unassuming white doors next opened, Killerie was met with a new world.

Well, a new building, at any rate. White walls with purple accents awaited the vacationers, gold-lined scarlet banners draping from the ceiling. The expansive room was well-lit by electric lanterns set into the walls, and a pair of fountains quietly trickled to either side. A check-in desk waited a short distance away, with what appeared to be a rock attending it.

People flooded out of the tesser chamber, dispersing throughout the great room for a few moments to get some space. Killerie stuck close to Madeline, clearly remembering the rules she’d been given. Without any indication or request to do so, a line formed in front of the rock.

Killerie couldn’t easily see over the heads of the people in front of her without stretching, but she could clearly hear a voice quietly speaking beneath the chatter of everyone present.

“Mom, I think it’s another alien!”

Madeline chuckled. “We’re the aliens here, bean.”

That kept Killerie occupied for a few minutes.

The line gradually drained through the double doors at the end of the room behind the desk, and it eventually came turn for the shedling and her mom.

Contrary to what she’d seen, it wasn’t a rock waiting at the counter. It was several rocks, a large central one with a dense layer of green moss connecting two stones underneath it and four more on each side. A familiar white disc perched on the top. It was almost as tall as Madeline. For some reason, Killerie could clearly smell it, a weird combination of lime and… bleach? It stung at her senses a bit, her antennae twitching uncomfortably from the scent.

Despite its lack of eyes, Killerie clearly felt it was looking at her. “Shedling,” It flatly stated in a neutral voice, and then, “Human?”

“I’m her mother,” Madeline explained, neatly cutting Killerie off. “We’re here on vacation.”

The rock was silent for several seconds. One of the rocks on its side slowly moved under the desk. It came back up clutching a pair of bright red pieces of paper in tiny moss-made fingers. “Welcome to Grinatyz in peace, shedling and human.”

“Thank you!” Killerie brightly replied, tugging one of the pieces out of its moss with a brief twist of will. The rock made a grinding noise in reply before offering the other to her mom.

With that, they went around the corner of the counter, pulling their luggage behind them, and headed for the double doors at the other end. People were already filing through, a low murmur of chatter causing a buzz in the background. Before they went through, Madeline pulled her over to the side, rifling through her purse with a creased forehead.

Killerie’s excitement was ramping up to fever pitch, a slight buzz filling her ears. She’d already met her second alien! How many more would she meet? Ten? Fifty? A hundred!?

She couldn’t help herself and almost started dancing, wobbling from side to side as she alternated leg pairs.

Madeline gave her a warm smile. “All right, bean. You’re an alien now.”

Killerie’s mandibles twitched. “I still don’t think that’s how that works.”

Madeline shrugged casually enough, but she was watching Killerie intently. “Are you ready?”

She didn’t have to think about it. “Yep!”

Madeline still looked concerned. “Okay, but remember-”

“Stay right next to you, don’t talk to strangers, ask a shedling if I get lost,” Killerie impatiently recited. “Let’s go, I want to see more aliens!”

Her mom stared up at Killerie, worry scratched into the lines in her face. Taking a deep breath, Madeline allowed the tension to ease out of her shoulders. “Alright, let’s go.”

With that, she stepped out of the way, and Killerie went out into a new world.

Already tuned to the maximum, her already sensitive nerves were immediately besieged by stimuli, noises and smells and bright colors assaulting every part of her at the same time. With a startled yelp, she retreated back into the lobby. The doors must have had some kind of… soundproofing? Was that possible!?

Backpedaling somewhat, she looked down at her mom. “Can you go first?”

Madeline chuckled. “Of course. Do you want to hold my hand?”

It felt a bit strange for Killerie to allow one of her legs to be wrapped in her mom’s hand, but far from bad. She did have to keep track of how much of her body was raised, though - Madeline’s height was a good deal more consistent than her own. Bracing herself, Killerie took a deep breath.

More prepared this time, Killerie followed her mom through the door, eyes squeezed shut. Sounds once again battered at her, a weird striking sensation of smells stabbing at her senses. Ignoring them, she focused on the warm hand holding one of her legs.

She kept walking, blindly staying right beside her mom and hoping she wouldn’t trip over someone or something. Unable to pick out specific sensations, she was left snapping from one to the next, an unending leapfrog of things she’d never experienced, things she had no words to describe with, bringing a rising tide of feelings to the forefront of-

Something hard and flat touched her stomach, and Killerie’s eyes flew open in spite of herself. As her focus was drawn to something specific, the overwhelming stimuli surrounding her faded to the background.

Madeline was presenting some sort of… ornament. Three oddly shaped metal straws interlinking with each other, twisting and winding around in ways that were hard for Killerie to track.

“What is it?”

Her mom smiled. “It’s a metalwork puzzle. You’re supposed to separate the pieces. Do you think you can do that?”

Killerie frowned down at it, lifting it from her mom’s hands. “Yeah, it’s just… Okay, well you slide- wait, why doesn’t it…”

The persistent itch perpetually nagging at the back of her mind was snagged on the puzzle, and Killerie found herself fully engaged with solving it. The metal pieces didn’t actually work together nearly as well as she’d thought they had, and it was getting extraordinarily frustrating.

Madeline chuckled, reaching a hand out. “May I?”

Killerie took a half-step away, practically glaring at the puzzle. “Hang on, I’ve almost got it.”

Her telekinesis fully enveloped the pieces, her senses abruptly whited out, and Killerie suddenly could make out every nick and blemish on the surface of the metal. She could sense the oils from Madeline’s fingers in certain places, could practically see how pressure had distorted the shape from the hands of those who had solved it before. That pressure could be replicated.

The puzzle fell apart and the world rushed back into Killerie’s ears. She blinked, startled by the new experience, and then beamed at her mom. “That was cool!”

To Killerie’s surprise, Madeline wrapped her arms between Killerie’s segments and gave her a hug. Startled but not displeased, Killerie leaned into it. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” Madeline murmured, backing away. “I’m just… very glad you’re my daughter.”

That split Killerie’s mandibles into a smile. “And I’m really glad you’re my mom! You’re great at mom-ing.”

Madeline released an unladylike snort. “You’re great at daughtering. Now…”

She stepped to the side, gesturing at the sights of Grinatyz. The distraction had allowed Killerie to gradually get used to the overstimulation, and now she could better appreciate everything. The architecture was unlike anything she’d seen at home. No building looked the same as the next, and most weren’t even made from a similar material. One of them was floating, one of them was made from swooping chunks of concrete, and one of them might have been alive.

A great fountain sat in the center of the square, water ebbing and flowing from varied spouts concealed in shadowed areas to make it seem as though the very stone spat liquid. The road was built from perfectly segmented chunks of stone, cut with such precision that the mortar was all but invisible.

Booths lined the outside of the road, vendors of every shape and size and origin spouting off requests to purchase their wares. Killerie had never seen so many aliens, so many creatures of a distant design. It was almost a little unnerving how unfamiliar everything was… but it was also exciting.

Madeline smiled at the starstruck shedling before her. “Do you still want to get a souvenir?”