Gabriel opened his eyes and stretched, he had slept well but had a bit of a headache. “Oh, well, nothing a cup of coffee can’t solve.” He sat up and looked down at the white covers. “When did I change the covers?” He distinctly remembered them being checkered grey and white. Looking up he saw that he was in a small room with white walls and a dark window stretching the entirety of the far wall.

“What the fuck?” Gabriel scratched his head and threw off the blankets. He noticed he was naked “What the fuck?” Looking around showed no sign of his clothes or anyone else for that matter. His bed was against the left wall looking from the window and there was another bed at the right wall with something colorful wrapped in a bedsheet. “What the hell?”

“I have no idea what you are asking,” The pile said carefully.

“Jesus Christ!” Gabriel responded and lept back.

The pile flinched back into the corner of the bed. “Th...that’s not my name”

“No, no of course not, that would be something though,” Gabriel said shaking his head. “Wait, what the hell is going on? Where even am I?”

“I...I don’t know” The terrified pile said.

Gabriel looked around the room once again, everything looked a bit off, the doors and even the windows were nothing he recognized “How did I get here?”

“...they brought you in a while back”

“Who did?” Gabriel walked up to the window and tried looking through, when that didn’t work he knocked on the glass.

“Qhizeaterans” The pile shifted and Gabriel saw some red and green fur under the bedsheets

“Cuis what now?”

“Qhizeateran” It repeated.

“Right, I don’t even know how to pronounce that, much less spell it” Gabriel closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands. “What country are these Cuisiterians from, and who has red and green...” Gabriel's head shot up and he looked to the pile “God, I’m such an idiot, was I kidnapped by aliens!?” he shouted, “Are you an alien!?”.

The pile cowered into the corner with a whimper. Gabriel immediately felt bad and sighed, “I’m sorry, but am I on earth?”

“...No” the pile said carefully.

Gabriel blinked as his brain tried to process this new information. He walked over to his bed and sat down “I don’t know if I should cry or laugh” He held out his left hand palm up. “Kidnapped from my home”, He held out his right hand “First contact with aliens, if no other kidnap stories are true” Then he weighed his options for a moment. “You know we had almost certain evidence aliens existed, strange energy signatures and whatnot”

Gabriel sat for a moment before deciding neither laughing nor crying was going to help at the moment and stood up. “Right, I’m sorry for scaring you, my name is Gabriel Walker, what’s yours?”

“Mhadeleaine Nioni”

“Madeline? That’s also a human name”

“Is it?” the sheet shifted a bit and Gabriel saw two yellow eyes blink at him.

“Yeah, probably not spelled the same but still, what a coincidence. Anyway, our circumstance notwithstanding it is a pleasure to meet you, Madeline”

“You too Gabrile,” Madeline said carefully, still sounding unsure of the entire situation.

“It’s Gabriel or Gabe” He smiled at the alien.

“May I ask something of you, Gabriel?”

“Sure”

“Can you cover up your nakedness?”

Gabriel looked down, he had somehow completely forgotten he was still naked. “Oh, of course, right, silly of me” He blushed a little as he grabbed the bedsheet and after folding it a few times before wrapped it around his waist like a towel. “There we go, sorry about that I was a bit distracted”

“I understand... I am glad you are not trying to eat me.”

“Why would I? Wait, how am I understanding you?”

“Translator installed behind your ear by the Qhizeaterans” Madeline said softly.

Gabriel reached behind both his ears and felt a small lump behind his right one. “Shit you’re right” Gabriel poked at the translator before looking up at Madeline. “I feel like I should be freaking out a bit more than I am, I feel like I should either be terrified to be kidnapped by aliens or excited to meet one” He put two fingers to his neck and checked his pulse.

“What are you doing?” Madeline asked and sounded more curious than scared.

“Timing my pulse, or trying to without a watch” After confirming his heart was strangely calm he scratched his hair and shook his head. “What are the odds that I still have drugs in my system?”

“I don’t know”

Gabriel chewed on his lip for a bit “Do you taste strawberries?” He ran his tongue around his mouth and caught a faint taste that was definitely strawberries.

“What’s strawberries?”

“Nevermind” He looked around the room once again “So...is there a bathroom or anything around here?”

An arm covered with what he thought was red and green fur, but now saw was small feather pointed to the wall at the foot of Gabriel's bed. “There is a round button there”

Gabriel walked over and found the button. “Who puts a white button on a white wall?” He pressed it and the door slid into the wall showing him a human bathroom “What the fuck?” He stepped in and just gestured vaguely. Everything was there, a shower with shampoo and toilet with paper and a built-in bidé. Even a mirror and sink with a trimmer and mechanical shaver, no razor but he didn’t really expect that. He turned on the tap and carefully tried some water which tasted normal.

Shaking his head he walked out. “I half expected a hole in the ground, to be honest, I’m pleasantly surprised, and not freaking out, something must be messing with me so If I start panicking in an hour or two I’m blaming drugs” He turned to Madeline and grinned. She/He? flinched away and Gabriel quickly closed his mouth “Oh, sorry, that’s me showing humor and...friendliness I guess?.”

“You are guessing?”

“Well I have never had to explain smiling before”

“But you are not showing aggression?” Madeline asked carefully.

“No, not at all, wait did you say you thought I was going to eat you before I ask about the translator?” Gabriel asked now that his mind had caught up.

“The Qhizeaterans told me you would”

“Do they think I’m just some savage animal or something? No, I promise I will not eat you or harm you.” Gabriel took a few deep breaths and sat down on the bed. “I’m not freaking out as much as I thought, but I am having trouble sitting still, am I talking too much?” He checked his pulse again to find it annoyingly calm. He turned to Madeline, “Can you please tell me something about yourself so I can just listen and stop talking?”

“Uh, alright” Madeline shifted a bit and turned a bit more towards him. “Well...I don’t know where to begin.”

“Would you mind showing me what you look like?, If you don’t want to I won’t force you but I have never met an alien before, not knowingly anyway, I can’t say I’m not interested.” Gabriel grinned again and then caught himself and stopped.

“I...alright, I know what you mean, and you have shown me after all” Gabriel thought he could hear a bit of humor in her voice. If Madeline was a her anyway. Could be him or they or anything else. She stood and Gabriel good a good look at her head.

The shape was similar to a human with eyes a bit further apart and rounder, the bridge of her nose was wider at the top but got thinner closer to her nostrils, so almost triangular and the nostrils reminded him of a squirrel or rabbit. She had feathers on the sides of her face and cheekbones with longer ones on the top of her head. All in red with green tiger stripes while the rest of her skin was a light brown, but without the pink of a human. Her ears were wider and pointier than Gabriel's own.

She took a deep breath and dropped the bedsheet. She looked to have strong arms and thick legs, which made Gabriel think of a tree-dwelling animal, maybe they evolved as climbers. Her hands ended in small black claws as did her feet with what almost looked like a raptor claw for a big toe, for climbing or catching prey he wondered?

He saw a thick feathery tail and her torso had feathers on the sides but her front from the top of her thighs to her neck was, “Naked, of course, I’m really sorry, I wasn’t thinking” Gabriel looked away as Madeline picked up the bedsheet.

“I don’t mind, you have been more courteous than I expected, or than I was told, and you didn't force the choice on me, but I thought it only fair” She wrapped herself in the sheet and sat down on the bed, leaving her head uncovered this time.

“Thank you, but me walking around naked was kind of an accident” Gabriel smiled at Madeline without showing teeth before continuing. “And I have a question, are you female, male, or any other gender? Again you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to but I’m a human male.”

“Why would I mind answering that? I’m a Zilgi female”

“I don’t know, I’m just going to assume I’m wrong about alien culture so I can be pleasantly surprised when I‘m not” Gabriel rubbed his temples, his headache was thankfully going away even without his standard coffee. “I’m just going to apologize in advance if I say or do something offensive, please tell me if I do”

“Then please tell me the same and we can both be offensive together,” Madeline said and the feathers on her head stood up.

“Was that a joke?” Gabriel looked up at her and held back a grin, choosing to smile instead. “Did I just hear an alien joke?”

Madeline’s head feather rose up and down once. “Was it good?”

Gabriel started laughing and leaned back against the wall. “Yeah, It was what I needed right now thank you”

Madeline had pulled back when he had started laughing “Was that also showing humor?” she asked.

“Yes, sorry if I scared you”

“I...” Madeline started before a door suddenly opened close to the window on the far wall. Gabriel and Madeline both stood up as four aliens in what looked like hazmat suits walked in. Two had rods with prongs on one end and the other two were carrying bowls and cups.

“Are these the Cuisterians or whatever?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes,” Madeline sounded nervous and backed up to the wall.

Gabriel, on the other hand, decided to try and get some answers. He took a step forward, “Hey! Who the hell are you and why the hell did you kidnap me?” The two ones carrying sticks held them ready and looked between each other.

They were looking nervous Gabriel thought, at least if they had been human they would be looking nervous. Gabriel opened his mouth again as Madeline grabbed his arm. “It’s dangerous please ste...” She got no further as one of them poked her with the rod and Gabriel heard electricity crackle as Madeline cried out and fell to the floor.

“Stop!” Gabriel slapped the rod hard and watched it bend and fly out of the alien's hands. The other one poked him in the chest and he felt as if he’d been slapped. “Ow!” His pectoral muscle contracted and he slapped that rod away as well bending it throwing the alien off balance. They all stared at him before rapidly retreating out of the room. Gabriel kneeled down next to Madeline, “Are you alright?” he put a hand on her shoulder.

Gabriel helped her up and to her bed. She sat down rubbing her stomach, “Yes, I’ll be alright.”

“I’m sorry for getting you into that position”

“It’s not the first time, I did the same...twice”

Gabriel smiled and walked over to the bowls which proved to contain something that could be described as food if you have never seen it before just heard the description though radio with a bad connection. Mostly it resembled blue oatmeal with yellow clumps. He grabbed the cups which luckily contained water and walked back to Madeline.

“I guess this is food?”

“Close enough to it,” Madeline said and accepted a bowl. “Thank you”

“No spoons or anything” He sighed and dug two fingers into the goop shoveling some into his mouth. It tasted incredibly bland, so much it was hard to describe. “This is...” Gabriel started before the window lit up. Three aliens wearing the hazmat suits were standing on the other side looking in.

Gabriel got up and walked over to the window. “I am Gabriel Walker, human from Earth and I want some answers!” Gabriel slammed both palms on the window and the aliens flinched. Gabriel grinned at them as his bedsheet fell off his hips displaying everything to his captors.

Gabriel looked down at his exposed groin “Well...fuck”