Myles’ POV

Elder Raad was right, this was making him extremely uncomfortable.

All eyes were on him, all topics of conversation about him, and for someone who enjoyed anonymity like himself, this was one step away from torture, and it was making it very difficult for him to remember why he’d agreed to it in the first place.

Despite the pretty big con he was presently experiencing though, Myles had to admit that Elder Raad’s idea had a fair amount of pros.

See, Elder Raad had figured that since everyone would soon know about his presence anyway, and since they had no reason, or intention, of keeping him secret, it would be best if everyone was gathered so he could, all at once, introduce himself to everyone and prevent any rumours about him from spreading. Not to mention this would have the added benefit of humanising him so people won’t get weird around him.

Myles had doubted it at first. Sure, the Seena (as he’d come to know them to be called) were pretty insular but it couldn’t be so bad, right?

As he felt the weight of almost a hundred stares press down on him though, Myles realised that disagreeing with the woman who was born here may not be his smartest idea yet.

They were in the cavern with the pool, apparently this was where they held all their gatherings; unsurprising really, as it was big, brightly lit, and beautiful.

“Calm down, everyone,” Elder Raad called and silence slowly settled, the only sound left that of the never-ending stream of radiant yellow pouring down into the pool behind him.

The old woman was standing next to Myles in front of the sitting crowd, and Myles was so glad that there was someone in charge and that it wasn’t him.

“First of all, before we address the stranger in our midst, I would like to inform everyone that Frezz, who went hunting with Atakarr, did not survive. This is a grave loss, and should serve as a reminder of why we stay down here in the tunnels.”

“I thought he fell and broke his neck?” A guy in the crowd “whispered” and the girl he was talking to elbowed him.

Elder Raad ignored the byplay. “But now on to other matters. As we all can see, we have an outsider among us. His name is Myles, and to confirm as some of us have no doubt heard, yes, he is a beyonder.”

The crowd seemed to draw in a collective breath, then conversations began to sprout every which way.

“Everyone, quiet down,” Elder Raad called again. “Myles has a talent for languages and so has already begun to pick up some Deran. In light of that, I think it would be best if we let him tell us a little about himself. Myles?”

All eyes once again focused on Myles, and he swallowed despite himself.

‘Faced by a crowd of naked aliens. It’s like some twisted version of that one nightmare.’ He sucked in a big breath of air. ‘Okay, Myles,’ he tried to psyche himself up, ‘you can do this.’

The system threw in its support by notifying Myles that [Mental Fortitude] had levelled up, and if it was a person Myles would have kissed it right then and there.

“Um...” Myles cleared his throat. “I is Myles. Myles Rend. I from Earth. And um, I not know how I be here. Atakarr say portal but I not know. No... know how come.”

Ding!

Congratulations! [Tongue of the Deran] has levelled up.

Tongue Of The Deran_ Lv. 2-->3/10

“Oh, thank you, Jesus,” he muttered aloud in English.

Seeing everyone’s confused stares, he cleared his throat awkwardly. “What I mean is, I have no memory of coming,” he said and many eyes widened at how much better he was speaking.

To be honest, Myles was surprised too; his speaking ability of the Deran tongue had improved by leaps and bounds with just that one level, he was guessing that with one more level he would speak the language as well as anyone ever did; which would mean the other six levels dealt with reading and writing.

Of course, all silver linings come with a dark cloud. Sure, he didn’t sound like a semi-educated caveman anymore, but his sudden improvement had caused even more of a stir.

Great.

*****

After over half an hour of what quickly became a question and answer session, Elder Raad cut in and told everyone to give Myles some time to rest, which he greatly appreciated. He appreciated even more Atakarr coming to sit with him, even though it seemed like Elder Raad had been the one to tell her to. Hers was the most familiar face here (which wasn’t really saying much), and having her sit with him made him feel a little less alone.

Myles just really wished she would sit with her legs closed.

“Why don’t you wear clothes?” Myles blurted out before he could stop himself.

Atakarr cocked her head in confusion and her ears did this weird twitching thing. Myles rather liked it. “Because I have none,” she said in a tone of voice that practically screamed ‘obviously’. “None of us do.”

“No, I know that. I meant, why don’t you make some?”

“With what?”

“I don’t know. Animal skin?”

“Do you know how to make clothes from animal skin?”

“Yes, I do. I saw it on wikihow. I think you first soak the skin in water overnight, then you—”

Atakarr interrupted. “You do know that that—” she pointed at the pool with a thumb “—is not actually water, right?”

“Oh, true,” Myles said lamely, then: “what is it?”

“We don’t know. All we know is that it comes through a portal.”

“Portal?” Myles looked at where the ‘water’ seemed to just appear out of thin air and his eyes slowly widened in realisation. “That’s a portal. Like the one I came through. The water’s coming through a portal.”

Atakarr hummed in agreement.

“But wait, I didn’t see a portal when I woke up,” Myles said.

Atakarr shook her head. “The portals can’t be seen,” she said. “And it’s possible the one you came through didn’t last long.”

Myles looked at the water again, where it ran down as though from an invisible faucet. “And how long has this one lasted?”

“Since before we came here?”

“And how long ago was that?”

“No one knows for sure. But Elder Raad’s mother’s mother had not been born when we came here.”

‘Whoa.’ Elder Raad looked to be in her sixties, at least. Even assuming the harshness of their living conditions caused her to age faster, that was still a lot of years.

A momentary silence settled between the two then, both thinking their own thoughts.

“It bothers you,” Atakarr said.

“What?” Myles asked, wondering if maybe he’d missed a bit of conversation.

“My nakedness. The nakedness of everyone. It’s why you keep averting your eyes.”

“Well... yeah. I mean, where I’m from it’s kind of a big deal. Hell, you can off a guy in a kid’s movie and nobody bats an eye, you show a woman in her lingerie though and you’ll have parents screaming bloody murder.”

Atakarr blinked; she clearly hadn’t understood at least half of what he said. “Right. Anyway, Elder Raad thought that our society might be a bit shocking to you, that you might find our ways difficult to understand, so she’s made me your guide. I’m supposed to resolve whatever queries or issues you might have, she thinks this will help you adjust better.” Atakarr almost sounded like she was asking for his permission.

“Oh. Well, thank you,” Myles said, genuinely pleased. “And thank Elder Raad too. I could use a guide.”

“You don’t need to thank me, I offered.”

“Oh.”

A few more seconds pass in silence, which Atakarr breaks by asking. “Is it because of how I look?”

“What?”

“I assume you Earth-people are sexually reproductive?” Atakarr enquired, and Myles was suddenly very uncomfortable.

“Um, yeah?”

“So, I assume that despite your culture you must find each other’s bodies sexually appealing, otherwise your species would have died out by now.”

Myles could see where Atakarr was going with this now, and he really wished he didn’t. “Yeah, we do... that’s kind of the problem actually.”

Atakarr asked, curiosity plain as day in her voice, “so, do you not find me sexually attractive then? Because even with your clothes I can tell that our physiques are fairly different. So do you maybe have some sort of biological aversion towards my form? Is that why you keep looking away?”

Biological aversion towards her form? Was she kidding? Despite the stick-figure model thing Atakarr had going, she was obviously attractive, and as for the non-human bits, well, Myles never really had the most mundane tastes in women anyway. After all, this was the same young man who had seen Zootopia and left the theatres with a crush on the bunny-cop, Judy Hopps; who had watched the animated movie, Sing and said to himself while watching the pig housewife, Rosita’s final performance, “huh, I’m into pigs now. Who knew?”; who had seen James Cameron’s Avatar and—you know what? Let’s just stop it right there.

“No, it’s not that. It’s just—” a sigh “—on Earth, you’re supposed to look away when a person has themselves... exposed. It makes people uncomfortable if you don’t.”

“Ah. Well, I don’t mind you staring. I’m sure no one does.”

“Huh?” Myles asked stupefied. Did she just give him permission to do what he hoped thought she did?

“This isn’t Earth, Myles. Around here no one cares about being nude, or who sees what. You’re going to have to get used to that at some point. I mean, what happens when you’ve been here so long that those clothes of yours have worn down to nothing?”

Myles said nothing, the reminder that he would not be seeing Earth again cutting deep.

To be honest though, it was funny that he felt this way, since he hadn’t exactly left anything worth missing behind. Except, of course, for the anonymity. Back on Earth, he had been just another black kid among millions, he blended into the background. Here, however, he was Myles Rend, Beyonder Extraordinaire.

Myles did not like standing out.

“They’ve brought food,” Atakarr said.

Myles turned, and saw that stone bowls were being handed out to people. It looked like some sort of meat dish.

Eventually, he and Atakarr were served too, and Myles stared at the contents of the very roughly carved stone bowl he was holding; meat and water. That was it. Worse, the meat appeared to be—Myles sniffed it—yep, it was raw.

Myles looked at Atakarr, who sat watching him, then back at the food, and back to her. “It’s raw,” he said finally.

“We have no fire,” Atakarr said. “Or alternative sources of heat.” She shrugged.

Myles’ eyes flitted from her to the bowl, and back again.

Atakarr sighed. “You have to eat, Myles. The water will sustain you, but it will only last for so long, eventually you will starve.”

“But it’s raw,” Myles repeated.

Atakarr sighed again, then she took a piece of meat from her bowl, chewed it, and swallowed. She gave him a look that said “see?”

Slowly, Myles picked a piece of meat from his plate, it shimmered faintly in the light, most likely due to the nature of the water it had been soaking in. It couldn’t be that bad, right? The boy thought, trying to psyche himself up. After all, Atakarr was eating it too. Myles took a bite.

It... actually didn’t taste bad. Sort of spicy, like the water, with a sweet aftertaste. It was chewy though. Myles just really hoped his stomach didn’t reject it.

The meal was soon over for the two, and Atakarr rose, asking him to follow, all eyes on them as they walked out of the cavern.

Atakarr picked up a glow-rock on their way out.

“What are those anyway? They sort of glow like the pool does.”

“That’s because the pool is what makes them glow,” Atakarr said. “If you soak anything in the water it will begin to glow after some time.”

Myles eyes widened in surprise and a little bit of horror. “We just drank that water.”

“It doesn’t make people glow.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

They had entered a narrow, dark tunnel now, one that was more like a deep crack than an excavated passageway.

“Where are we going?” Myles asked as [Sense of Direction] levelled up.

“You’ll see,” was Atakarr’s only response.

Barely a minute later, Myles did see, and it was amazing and terrifying all at once.

The tunnel ran to the island’s end, and as they stood at its edge, over a never-ending drop, Myles had an unobstructed view of space for miles around that took his breath away.

It felt different somehow, closer, from here. Even more so than when he’d viewed it from atop the trees. Or maybe it was simply a matter of perspective; then he’d been scared and confused, but now... well, he was less scared and confused at least.

Atakarr gave him several moments to appreciate the view, then she said, “the meat you ate, where do you think it came from?”

Myles blinked, completely thrown off by the question. “Um... from an animal? Where else would it have come from?” He asked confused.

Cool as a cucumber, Atakarr continued. “Frezz and I went hunting. I came back with his corpse on my shoulder. Where do you think the meat came from?”

Myles stared at Atakarr for several seconds, not moving, not breathing, not even daring to think. Then he hurled.