The kid casually placed the tray down on the floor, sliding it through the force field.

Mari stared, then quickly hid her thoughts about this new development. Instead, she shuffled over in front of the tray full of colourful, alien food.

Her captors were definitely a little... kookoo.

The kid said something and made hand gestures, urging her to eat.

Is this a test? Mari wondered. Do they want to see whether I'd eat it?

She pointed at the food that looked like a rainbow's horror child and innocently asked,

"What is this? I've never seen food like this before."

As usual, the kid's answer didn't really help. They needed to figure out a way to communicate somehow.

But for now, Mari had a decision to make.

To eat or not to eat?

Both options were equally bad. Eat it, and she might be ingesting highly radioactive or genetically mutated substances. Not eat it, and her captors might be more forceful and shove it down her throat anyway.

But what if it's a test? Mari paused. What if the correct answer is to eat it, to show my obedience....or maybe not? Maybe the correct answer is to show caution and not eat it....

Mari groaned. She hated having to choose between two equally good options. Or two equally bad options. No matter what she chose, she'd always feel like the other option would've been better after all.

The young man watched as Mari put her head in her hands, her mind endlessly extrapolating potential consequences and possibilities. He started levitating the tray away, worried that it had upset her.

"I've got it!" Mari clapped her hands together. Alarmed, the young man lost control of the tray and it dropped - thankfully only a short distance - to the floor again. Mari somehow didn't notice.

"I'll eat it! Yes, I will!" She muttered to herself, grinning. Not understanding what was going on, but relieved that Mari was in good spirits, the young man watched as she picked up the utensils, bowed her head briefly, and then began to eat.

She ate carefully. Tasting every bite, observing the texture, flavour and spices. She ate it all, draining even the red liquid in the cup, which tasted like fruit juice. Weird fruit juice.

The young man watched her. And he didn't know it, but she was watching him, too.

Finally, the meal over, Mari looked up and smiled at him. He smiled back.

"Your fly is open." Mari said.

The kid just kept smiling, totally ignorant. He didn't even glance down and do a microcheck.

"Just kidding." Mari retracted her lie, feeling a little guilty. There had been complete incomprehension in the kid's eyes. No twitch, no jerk, nothing. So. He wasn't faking, at least.

"Uzbekcha gapirasizmi?" She asked him.

He looked confused and didn't answer.

"Parli italiano?" She tried again.

No reply.

"Nihongo o hanasumaska?"

He said something in his language but it was clear he didn't understand. Mari kept going.

"Puut pasa thai repauka?"

Still no. Mari started just throwing out random phrases she knew.

"Nihauma?"

"Selamat siang?"

"Salamualekuum..."

"Où sont les toilettes?"

He recognized nothing. Mari wasn't sure he even knew they were different languages.

She sat back and sighed.

"Okay kid....we're gonna do this the old-fashioned way."

Mari started by pointing at herself.

"Mari. Maa-ree."

She pronounced her name. Then she pointed at the kid, expectantly. He blinked, and then his eyes glowed with comprehension at what she was doing.

"Schwephrtenhk." He said excitedly, gesturing at himself. "Sche-wephrrr-tennhk."

Mari had just a little trouble at pronouncing his name. In the end they settled with "Shwef" for short.

Next they exchanged words for simple objects.

The cup was 'hran'.

The fork was 'heish'.

The knife was 'shial'.

Together, the fork and knife were 'shial er heish', or 'helipash'.

But the cup and knife together were 'shial uk hran'.

And the cup and the fork together were 'heish uk hran'.

So Mari assumed that in general:

'and' = 'uk'

and the knife and fork pair just had some funky thing going on.

Shwef was learning things too. After the first couple words he had grabbed a strange glass device and would take notes of English words by tapping at it. Mari couldn't really see how it worked since it was tilted away from her, but she assumed it was a weirdified ipad.

Yes, wierdified. Like everything else so far.

Mari and her fellow learner exchanged more words by pointing at things in the room. It was fun! But Mari was getting very tired and sleepy. After her 3rd yawn, Shwef put a stop to their learning session, for which Mari was grateful. She was so tired! She sleepily watched as Shwef put his glass-ipad-thingy away, and by the time he turned back to look at her, she was fast asleep on the floor, exhausted from a long and troubling day.

And Schwephrtenhk, her summoner and captor, the source of all her troubles, levitated the dirty tray off the floor and left the room.

.

.

.

That is, until he came back, changed into his pajamas and went to bed himself.