There I sat, listening to the elf’s heartbeat and observing her every movement. Not that she moved much, except an occasional scrape with her heel as she tried to push deeper into the solid stone.

Pretty soon she got tired again and quieted down. Having given up on the hope to push a kilometers-high massive structure away from her escape path, she began to look around, taking special care to not look at me.

Pretty soon I got bored of all that acting and opened my eyes. As if hearing a sudden and loud sound, she snapped her attention back to me and our eyes met again. With a “Hiiiiiii!” squeak she froze again, like a deer in the headlights. That began to annoy me - I did not have a mirror, so I guessed that my eyes might look weird, but to scare silly a member of a fantasy race, really?

Not closing my eyes now, I simply looked at the elf, and pointed at the cup of water near her and said - “Drink.”. Then I pointed a meat near the campfire and said - “Eat.” Then I simply sat and watched her

---

The white-haired elf seemed to be somewhat hypnotized by my eyes, but after a while began to calm down. As the tension lowered, her hands began to shake and her shoulders sagged. Interesting, adrenaline? Elves have similar anatomy and glands like humans, then? As I pondered about physiology of different species, I calmy observed as the elf tried to pick up the cup.

With great difficulty, she managed to rise the stone cup with both of her shaking hands as she attempted to drink. But she shook so badly, that as her pale lips touched the cup, she lost her grip and the cup slipped from her fingers.

For me, the cup dropped slowly. I was becoming accustomed to my direct world perception ability and extreme reflexes. And I could see, that elven reflexes were not far off too. White-hair immediately tried to catch the cup, and failed only because of the weakness of her limbs. But as the water began to splash out from the cup in slow-motion, I reached out and caught the cup. My move startled the elf, I guess especially so considering that I originally sat several meters away from her. I acted as if nothing happened and handed the cup back to her.

She did not reach out for the cup, but kept moving her gaze from it to my face and back again. I shook my hand holding the cup a little, and repeated - “Drink.”.

With a complex look, she tried to stretch out her hands to take the cup, but she was too weak and her hands dropped with no strength left. I really wanted her to drink the water herself, as I could not even begin to guess what sort of cultural undertones, taboos and meanings can be involved in the different worlds by being proactive. Especially with such essential action as

But, she looked at water, and she lacked the strength to hold the cup. And I was somewhat reluctant to make her drink directly from the water hole I carved into the stone, as such action could well be even more humiliating or degenerative. With a sigh, I sat down to match the height of the White-hair and brought the cup to her lips. Gradually tilting the cup, I let the water slowly flow into her mouth.

She slightly narrowed her eyes as she drank. Looking from the side, I was somewhat mesmerized by her looks. While I was not been inexperienced with girls on Earth, but my social contacts were a mess before my injury and after the injury I was just too busy with rehabilitation, studies and catching up with basic life. Not to mention the unknown amount of time spent in the pyramid. And here I was now in another world, taking care of a beauty of different race, who seemed to be scared witless by my eyes.

But damn, she was beautiful. I had no idea if that was individual or racial characteristic, but as I looked at her profile, I could see no fault in her face. Yes, the bone structure was looking alien and even somewhat eerie, with slightly elongated and sharp skull shapes. But in combination with spotless, smooth skin that did not seem to have any pores or unnecessary hair in wrong places, she looked just stunning. And the pure white, smooth undamaged hair together with same coloured elegant eyebrows and long double eyelashes only boosted the impression she gave off.

As the White-hair finished her water, she continued to observe me warily. Not being able to withstand her unblinking stare, I pointed at meat again. “Food.”, I said and took a piece myself before swallowing it after a few chewing motions.

After some difficulties, she managed to stand up and carefully moved to the meat, while keeping me in her line of sight. She picked up a piece of meat and carefully observed it first. I was worried she might be vegetarian, like so many elves mentioned in different stories. But as it turned out, she did eat meat. And quite a lot. Whatever elf species she might be, they were clearly realistic and adaptable.

---

After she finished eating, she drank another cup of water with my help, before silently saying, almost whispering - “Buiaciss-ort”. I raised an eyebrow, and nodded, guessing that she might be expressing gratefulness.

White-hair sat on the spird pelt and I sat in front of her. I kept my distance, just in case.

It was time to communicate.

“Hello”

“...”

Well, English was clearly not the language she knew. So I tried to learn her name, as calling her White-hair would clearly get us nowhere.

I pointed at myself and said my name - “Victor.”

Then I pointed at her and waved at her, prompting an answer. Not getting one, I pointed at myself again and repeated - “Vic-tor. Victor. Got it?”

Slowly, as if forming unfamiliar sounds, she mimicked me - “Vik-torr.”

“Yes, Victor.”, then I pointed at her, waiting for an answer.

“Es’eili”, a word was pronounced with a complex combination of whistling sounds in the middle.

“Eseili?” - I asked.

She grimaced, and repeated the peculiar “Es’eili” with those whistles.

I pointed at my throat and laughed, trying to whistle a bit. “See, no much hope in replicating such tricks here. I am no bird.”. I looked at her again, and repeated “Eseili”.

She sighted, and though a bit. Then she pointed at her and said “Eala.”

“Eala?”, I asked.

“Vik-tor.” she repeated.

Well, at least we got acquainted. But why did her thanks and the second name she gave, sound familiar to me?