What's "Help!" in Naikuno?

Ziato, "The Morning"

   “… And lastly, Mr. Freeman, if you would come up here please?”

   Eric stood slowly, vaguely aware of the polite applause around him as he stumbled up to the head table. The Dean was standing there with a small certificate, stamped with broad gold letters stating the name of the award.

   Eric’s hand stretched out to shake the Dean’s, but it never quite got there. Eric’s shoes had become entangled in something furry. He was falling forward, the water surface speeding up towards him…

   THUD!

   Eric’s eyes snapped open. He groaned and lifted himself off the floor. Somehow, he had rolled off the low bed, and the floor was certainly hard enough.

   Reaching through the dark, he yanked open his bag and clumsily shoved several books out of the way. He pulled out his watch… then dropped it back in without reading it, remembering he was on a different planet. It would be pointless to know what time it was back on Earth.

   His hand drifted over another object, which he pulled out almost instinctively. Even without light he knew exactly what it was: a blue woven wristband decorated with tiny white seagulls. For what seemed like ages, Eric sat motionless on the cold wooden floor, staring through the darkness at the wristband, his mind kept blank from drowsiness.

   With a shudder, Eric’s mind snapped back into the present. Carefully replacing the wristband in his bag, he clambered back onto the bed and closed his eyes, yawning. I’ll have to get a new watch…

   He was asleep again in no time.

***

   Aejik awoke early the next morning, even earlier than usual. He could tell by the dim light filtering in through the skylight that the sun wasn’t up yet. Not one to waste time, he dressed and refolded the sheets on the side of the bed.

   As he walked down the corridor, he made every effort to make no sound; he wasn’t sure how well hiyumans could hear, and he didn’t want to wake Erik this early. Hiyumans need their sleep, Aejik told himself.

   He made his way to the top level, which was still completely dark. He brushed his hand upwards on the window. The glass buzzed slightly and became transparent, filling the circular room with fresh sunlight.

   Aejik paused to watch the last minutes of sunrise before lowering himself cross-legged onto a thin cushion, focusing all his attention on the sound of running water from the nearby fountain. And he sat silently, thinking of nothing but leaves on the surface of a mountain stream.

   By the time he finished the Water Exercise and returned downstairs, Ayina was up. She was hunched over the low table in the kitchen, scribbling absently on the tabletop with her finger and munching on some dried fruit. As Aejik watched, Ayina shook her head slowly and waved her hand over the table. The sketch vanished, presenting a clean surface again.

   “Ziato jin, Ina,” Aejik said at last. Ayina glanced up.

   “Oh, it’s ‘Ina’ again is it, Si-Si?” she said and switched the table off.

   Aejik grinned. “I always used to tell your mother your names were too long to say in the morning. She would just sigh and give me that look.”

   He laughed as Ayina folded her arms, tilted her head, and arranged her face in a half-concerned half-resigned expression.

   “Liru! That’s the one!” he said. “Here, let’s do something productive first, then you can glare at me.”

   Ten minutes passed and Aejik had finished preparing breakfast, while Ayina had gone above to feed the horses. He pulled two squarish bowls out of a low cabinet, filled them with some of the white mash from the pot on the stove, and set them on the table.

   Ayina came bouncing back down the stairs, with her cat, Rin, following close behind. “Ritoreg’s in a mood today. I think he’s jealous you didn’t take him yesterday.”

   She flopped down next to the table. Rin had disappeared.

   “Well,” Aejik said, “I could only bring one. I’ll make it up to him today. I have some errands to run.”

   “At remine nee…”

   “Don’t talk with your mouth full, Ina. I can’t understand you.”

   Ayina paused to swallow, then launched into an elaborate story about her friend, her friend’s friend, and someone’s pet fish. Ayina was talking so fast, Aejik could only catch every other word. When she had reached what seemed to be the conclusion, Aejik pretended to drop his bowl in shock.

   “Really! And then what happened?” he said.

   “Of course I told Neia what she said. And Neia was so embarrassed, she almost fell off her horse!”

   Aejik chuckled. “Now Ina,” he mock-scolded. “It’s not nice to spread rumors. Don’t you know that every rumor you start splits in two and comes back at you?”

   “Yes, Si-Si,” Ayina replied, but did nothing to hide her smile.

   Erakniv’s Ears, I couldn’t live without that smile! he thought to himself.

   The two turned back to their breakfasts. A moment of silence passed before Ayina spoke again. “Si-Si, why is it here?”

   “He.” Aejik corrected. “‘Why is he here?’ And because he’s going to be a teacher at the university.”

   “No, I mean why is he here? There must be another place he can stay?”

   Aejik sighed. “We’ve talked about this. He needs to stay with someone who can at least speak English…”

   “They have translators for that.”

   “…and a comfortable atmosphere…”

   “A hotel.”

   “…and your sister and I have agreed on it. Two-to-one, so sorry.” Aejik reached across the table to Ayina’s hand. “Just give him a chance. It would be good for you to experience a new culture like this. And as I am the one who will be working alongside him most frequently, it makes sense for him to become familiar with me. Fiya oru zi?”

   “Liru. I understand.”

   “Good girl. Now finish up. You have your Kiesei exercises to do before school.”

   Even as he heard the slow footsteps approaching, Ayina said, “Si-Si, the hiyuman is here.”

***

   Eric awoke again, much less painfully than earlier. He sat up slowly and stretched his right shoulder, feeling no trace of the bruise from last night.

   In the time he took to further wake up, Eric had a good chance to take in the surroundings. The small room was now lit by a pane of frosted glass set up near the ceiling, presumably light from outside. Directly in front of him was the door he had entered by, a large wood-and-paper door that demanded an entire half of the wall it sat in. The two walls to the right and left of the door were paneled with long slats of a rich reddish wood, with small letters carved in them right before the ceiling. Though he tried to read them, his half-sleeping eyes left them indecipherable. He instead turned to the wall behind him.

   The surface was almost entirely smooth--he couldn’t decide whether it was plastic or plaster--save for the engraving. Carved into the wall was an incredibly intricate drawing of a small flock of birds. Ravens, maybe? Some kind of crow? Eric couldn’t decide.

   Eric pulled on some clothes and staggered through the door.

   He shuffled down the hallway--which was paneled in the same red wood--towards where Aejik had said the dining area was.

   “Si-Si, hiyuman viu.”

   Aejik and his daughter were already awake, sitting cross-legged around a low circular table. Upon seeing Eric, Aejik rose to his feet and bowed.

   “Ziato jin, zir-Furiiman. Good morning.”

   Eric nodded his head slightly in answer and Aejik motioned for him to sit by the table. The whole time, Eric could feel the Eraknian girl watching him over her bowl, but she quickly looked down when he glanced over.

   “I apologize,” Aejik said. “I forgot that I did not introduce you last night. Erik, this is my youngest daughter, Ayina. Ayina, ksie jin zir-Erik Furiiman oru.”

   “Good morning,” Eric said to her.

   She merely sat and watched him, tilting her head slightly. Eric had a mental image of a dog listening to a strange sound.

   “Sorry, Erik. Ayina is only beginning to learn English.”

   “Oh, sorry.” How does this go? “Uh, ziato jin, Ayina.”

   Ayina continued to stare at him. Eric turned to Aejik again.

   “Did I get that right?”

   “Yes, worry not. She is a bit shy today. Siaikir kisé, Ayina.”

   Ayina stood and bowed stiffly. “Ziato jin, zer-Erik.” She then sat and refocused on her food.

   Aejik grinned and again rose to his feet. “Here, let me get you some breakfast.”

   Eric watched as Aejik moved to a stone counter set against the wall, along the middle of which looked like some kind of grill or stove. Aejik scooped something from a pot on the stove into a bowl, sprinkled some reddish syrup over it, and set it down in front of Eric.

   “Kiroga,” Eric thanked him and picked up the three chopsticks he had been given as utensils. This stumped him for a moment. Do I use them all in one hand? Or one in each hand? But there’s still a third one…

   His uncertainty must have shown on his face.

   “Do you need some help?”

   Eric looked up to find Aejik and Ayina both watching him. While Aejik was smiling kindly, Ayina’s expression was completely inscrutable as her eyes turned back to her bowl.

   “Sorry,” Eric said. “I haven’t done this before.”

   “Here, like this.” Aejik took his own sticks and arranged them in one hand. Two sticks were held like regular chopsticks, in a pincer-pattern between the thumb and pointer. He gripped the third one with his two slender fingers.

   Eric tried to copy this, without success. Finally, he just set the third one aside.

   “Probably safer with just two,” he said with a weak smile and turned his attention to his food.

   The substance in the bowl closely resembled mashed potatoes, but was thicker and tasted more like white rice. Except for where the syrup had fallen; that tasted more like a sweet fruit that Eric couldn’t place.

   “What is this called?” Eric asked, pointing into his bowl.

   “It is epir-zinfu,” Aejik replied

   “Epir? I think I know that… it’s a grain, isn’t it? Like rice?”

   Aejik placed his hands on his hips and tilted his head. “I know not what rice is, but epir is a grain. We use it for many things. It is very healthy.”

   “I haven’t had much experience with Eraknian food yet,” Eric admitted. “I’ve been living on pizza and ramen for a long time, so this’ll be a good change.”

   “What is ‘piit-za and ramin?’”

   Eric grinned. “It’s the staple of American college students. Cheap and quick food.”

   Meanwhile, Ayina had finished her epir and rinsed her bowl in a basin next to the counter. When she turned to leave the room, something darted out from under the table, causing Eric to jump. When the creature paused at the door to give Eric a haughty glare, he finally saw what it was: a small grey cat. Or cat-like animal rather. The snout was narrower and the long tail ended in an unruly bulb of fur.

   As she passed by it, Ayina scooped up the cat and disappeared down the corridor.

   “Aya,” Aejik muttered. “I told her not to feed Rin under the table.” He turned to Eric. “So do you have any plans today, if I may ask?”

   “I didn’t have any. I didn’t expect to have spare time yet.”

   “Well, our term officially starts next week. Zera-Gihekiré made sure to schedule your arrival so you and the other nine would have time to settle in.”

   “Well that was nice of her.”

   “You’ll find that most employers these days understand the process of adjusting to a different world. Eya, even some Erakni’vna’in these days are travelers coming from Earth.” He shook his head slightly. “I can remember the days before I heard of hiyumans. But I suppose I was very young then, and it has been fifty years or so…”

   Eric coughed slightly. Fifty years! He barely looks thirty!

   “Sorry, sir, but if you don’t mind if I ask how old you are?”

   “Certainly not. Sixty-six I am, looking at many years more!”

   “But you look so young!”

   “I think, also, that years on Earth are shorter than they are here.”

   “That’s right! So that would make you closer to… uh… seventy on Earth?”

   “That sounds about right. And yourself, if you don’t mind my asking?”

   Eric tried to do the calculation in his head. “Uh, do you have any scratch paper?”

   “Scratch paper?”

   “Just something to write on.”

   “Here,” said Aejik, flicking a small switch on the side of the table. “Use this.”

   “What, the table?”

   “Liru. Like this.” Using the back end of one of his chopsticks, Aejik scribbled across the tabletop, leaving black letters that looked like they were painted onto the surface directly. Aejik waved his hand over the letters and they vanished.

   “A computer?” Eric said, testing it with his finger. Sure enough, a lop-sided smiley-face was now staring back up at him from the tabletop.

   Amazing! “Oh yeah, anyway…”

   Eric began scribbling some numbers as Aejik continued eating. Let’s see, Eric thought. Twenty-six in Earth years… so three-sixty-five, divided by…

   “Looks like about… twenty-four…ish?

   “If you say so,” Aejik said. He switched the table off and the numbers in front of Eric disappeared, leaving nothing but clean white table. “Math has never been my strong suit. That is why I am in the culture department, aru? Anyway, just give me another forty years, then I will look old. Jun oru?”

   This last bit was directed at the doorway behind Eric where Ayina had reappeared, dressed in a plain white uniform and carrying a satchel and a long wooden stick.

   “Painifa a ziréu,” she said. The words were familiar to Eric. ‘Painifa’… class. She must be going to school.

   Ayina turned to go up the stairs, but Aejik cleared his throat.

   “Kinyilo Rin jin uizir a erzinyajai aru?” Today… something… house?

   Ayina hesitated before hunching her shoulders and pulling her cat out of her book bag.

   “Tiku,” Aejik said. “Erik a olir.”

   Ayina bowed low to Eric before disappearing up the stairs. The cat seemed to scowl at Eric and Aejik before turning back down the hallway.

   “I am glad she has that cat to keep her company,” Aejik said to Eric, “but frankly, they just seem to encourage each other…”

   Eric chuckled and turned back to his epir-zinfu.

***

   “Wé! Ayina, wait up!”

   Ayina slowed to a stop as Neia came jogging up. “Ziato jin,” she said as Neia approached.

   “Yes-yes good morning. Well?”

   “Well?” Ayina glanced sideways at her friend and continued walking.

   “The hiyuman! Did you see it?”

   “Yeah, I saw him.”

   Neia was fidgeting with curiosity. “And?”

   Ayina shrugged. “What can I say? He looks weird and has a bad accent. And he and father go on and on in the hiyuman’s language. They just talk talk talk…”

   I knew this would happen, she thought angrily. This alien burrows in where he’s not wanted and Si-Si will forget about us. About me.

   “And father even wants me to learn this… this… ipura’eksu so I can talk with them! I refuse!”

   Neia placed a hand lightly on Ayina’s shoulder. “Maybe… maybe that’s a good idea.”

   “What?!” Ayina’s hand whipped to her wooden sword.

   Neia held up her hands quickly. “Wait! Just listen! Think about it, the hiyuman must have a weakness, right? Something that it’s afraid of or ashamed of, right? If you knew what it was, you could use it to your advantage.”

   Ayina’s grip relaxed on the wood hilt.

   “But,” Neia continued, “you can’t count on it learning Naikuno--it is a hiyuman, after all. The only way to find out is to use its language.” She closed her eyes and folded her arms. “It’s classic military strategy. Get close, find a weak point, and strike.”

   Wiping her eyes, Ayina nodded. She smiled weakly. “Neia-fikuré, what would I do without you?”

***

   After breakfast, Aejik showed Eric around the rest of the house. He was already familiar with the bottom level (just the basic living necessities: bedrooms, washroom, kitchen, etc.) The next level up--the one through which they had entered the house the other night--looked very much the same as before, save that the large front doors were open, throwing the bright morning sun onto the wooden walls. Hanging from the top of the doorframe was a small glass wind chime that clinked lightly despite the lack of a breeze. The doors not leading outside contained a study, a library, a pair of closets, and what looked like a control room, lined with a bank of sophisticated monitors and switches.

   “I haven’t seen any appliances; does this house really need this many computers to run?”

   Aejik nodded lightly. “Well, this house is very modern, and there are many different functions monitored by these computers. Just basic things like climate-control, the windows, lights… everyday stuff.”

   “It’s very quiet in here. I would think there would be fans or motors or something.”

   “Yes, I noticed that about human technology. Most of it requires some rather loud moving parts. Eraknian machines are designed to be quiet before powerful. Otherwise they would be too disruptive.”

   From there, the tour moved up the next staircase to the upper level.

   “Whoa…”

   It was as it appeared from the outside: cylindrical with every wall made of glass. One half of the room was furnished with padded mats and low shelves crammed with books and scrolls. The other half resembled a small garden, with a few small trees, rows of purple and blue flowers, and even a small waterfall and pond.

   “This place is amazing.”

   Aejik lowered himself cross-legged onto one of the couches and invited Eric to do the same. “This is the eryinksu'li room. It is a place to just relax the mind and be peaceful.”

   “Very Zen,” Eric said as he tried to match Aejik’s crossed legs and folded arms. “I don’t feel like I’m indoors at all.”

   “That is what it is for. I have seen pictures of buildings on Earth. They look so closed off, so constricting. I could never live like that.”

   Eric closed his eyes and listened to the trickling waterfall. It really was very relaxing… until he heard a rustling.

   His eyes snapped open, fearing a sneak attack from Ayina’s cat. One of the trees was quivering ominously and Eric peered warily about the trunk.

   A shape rose from the base of the tree, stretched, and slowly sauntered over to where Aejik and Eric were sitting. As it cleared the tree-limbs and flowerbeds, Eric breathed in relief: It was not the cat.

   It was only a bit larger than Rin, and wore a magnificent fluffy red pelt. The features were very much fox-like, from the narrow jaw to the thick bushy tail. The creature wandered over to Eric and stretched again--long and gracefully--before tentatively sniffing his hand.

   “Ziato jin, Tessira,” Aejik said to the animal.

   “And who is this?” Eric asked as the animal allowed itself to be stroked.

   “This is Tessira. She belongs to my other daughter. She gets in much less trouble than Rin, even if she does seem a bit proud sometimes.”

   Tessira yawned purposefully and glanced sideways at Aejik. She then leapt onto the couch and curled up next to Eric.

   Aejik chuckled. “If it weren’t for Tessira here, Rin would have complete control of the house.”

   Tessira purred.