Mari woke up the next morning with pain in her stomach and the intense urge to pee.

"Uurrrgh."

She was sleeping on her side against the hard wooden floor, and her neck was sore.

Wait...floor? Mari's face scrunched up in confusion as her brain tried to realign itself with reality.

Oh. Right. Kidnapped.

Mari didn't want to get up and deal with reality quite yet, but.....her bladder was strongly insisting that it needed to pee. It needed to pee now.

"Fine, fine...hgurk..."

She started to roll over-

-and whacked her elbow against the force field behind her.

"Oww..."

Everything seemed to hurt today.

Ignoring the pain, Mari got up and looked for a solution to her...bladder problem. There was nothing but bare floor in her little circle. Shwef was gone, and she noticed that the dirty food tray had disappeared with him. Too bad, she could've peed into the cup. Or heck, even the tray. Pretty much anything that wasn't floor.

Mari ran her hands along the perimeter of her confines, checking every section of the force-field like a fine-toothed comb. The food tray was testament that the force field could let things in and out. And right now, Mari really wanted out.

But there were no weaknesses in her circular cell.

Whatever mechanism had allowed the tray to leave the circle, it wasn't letting Mari leave now. She banged her fist at the invisible barrier in frustration.

Frustration soon turned to desperation.

"Please! Please let me out, I really need to pee...."

And bargaining.

"You really don't want pee on your floor, trust me. It'll probably stain the wood and smell bad. Like, reeeeallly bad. "

Mari felt a little silly trying to argue at her invisible captors through their (presumably) hidden cameras, but at this point she cared little. Nature was calling. She began to squirm uncontrollably.

Enter Shwef.

He had come just in time to see Mari do the Dance - a phenomenon most commonly seen in front of occupied toilets.

It was needless to say that her embarrassment was only outclassed by her desperate desire to pee.

Unfortunately, Shwef had never seen the Dance before, so he didn't understand its significance. He just stood there, holding a tray laden with a bowl of porridge and a cup of water. He was a little disconcerted by her behaviour, and asked her what on earth was going on - in Shwefish, of course.

Mari answered in English. "I need to pee!"

He blinked at her, not understanding. Mari groaned. How could she convey 'toilet' when she barely knew any words in his language? She wracked her brain.

And began to play a most desperate game of charades.

She pointed at herself.

"Mari."

She pointed at him.

"Shwef."

He nodded. Okay. He knew she was starting a word-exchange session.

She began to mime sitting on a chair. A toilet, to be precise. She outline the toilet seat with her hands. She pulled down her pants (not actually pull down her pants, just the hand motions). She sat down - as far as her tired legs would allow her to squat - and made awkward spraying-hands motions to symbolise the pee coming out.

Shwef laughed at the last bit, but he got it.

"Phlarkerhran," he said, still sort of laughing.

Mari made frantic hand motions, trying to tell him that whatever "Phlarkerhran" meant, she needed it, she needed to pee.

He quickly realised the situation and took action. The tray he was holding was placed aside and he began to look for something under his bed. Shortly, he pulled out a object that looked like a squarish stool, made of murky glass. He pushed it into the circle and swiftly made his exit.

Mari didn't spare a moment. Her frenzied inspection of the object revealed a handleless lid that lifted off the top. She removed the lid at top speed. The object had a rectangular opening into a hollow interior, with two flat bits on the side - evidently for sitting.

Mari dropped the strange chamberpot on the floor, pulled down her pajama pants (for real this time), sat down, and gave her bladder free reign.

Ahhh. Sweet, sweet release.

◇◇◇◇

Shwef knocked and came back in to find Mari peering curiously into the chamberpot.

The interior was hollow, and Mari could see symbols etched all around the inside, similar to the ones she had seen around the force-field circle. But the most fascinating thing about the chamberpot was her pee - her pee had transformed!

The liquid at the bottom of the chamberpot was no longer the golden, smelly liquid that she knew. Instead, it was crystal clear! And rolling in the liquid, half-submerged, was a deep-yellow marble.

"It's like magic!" Mari breathed, bewitched. She looked up to see Shwef unloading his arms of an assortment of objects he had brought. Mari called him over.

"Shwef, come have a look at this! What is this?"

He ambled over and peered into the chamberpot.

"Ker," Shwef said, seeing the liquid. He located the long-forgotten tray and picked up the cup, showing her the water inside.

"Ker."

Mari nodded. Evidently there was some urine-recycling action going on. Sorta like what they did on space stations.

It was still disconcerting to reach into the chamberpot and pick up the wet marble, though. Mari sniffed her fingers. No smell.

Shwef grinned as soon as he saw the marble.

"Phlarker buhlertan," he said, and started excitedly rummaging around his desk. Eventually he found the right drawer and pulled out a glass jar.

He showed her triumphantly. The jar was full of marbles, large and small-

All varying shades of yellow.

My goodness. Mari thought. He's got an entire collection of pee-marbles.