I emerge from the tent to the sight of a lot of strangers. Everyone’s gathered around the fire again—well, not everyone, but quite a few people are—and someone’s handing out steaming bowls of warm breakfast. Everyone’s looking at me with a mixture of amusement and pity and I really want to just crawl away and hide and never come out again. Mortifying. Absolutely mortifying.

“Want breakfast?” a woman says, holding a bowl out to me.

Even though I’m hungry, I shake my head and shyly retreat a few steps. Taking the food means talking, and I just want to hide with my shame.

I kissed Skarr last night. Like really, really kissed. Like porn-levels kissed.

And it was fun.

And I groped him.

And he might have two dicks, but that might also be the alcohol talking.

“Oh no you don’t,” the woman says, smiling. She marches over to my side and puts an arm around my shoulders. “I know you’re shy, but you need food. And we don’t bite! Come sit for a bit and I promise we’ll leave you alone. You’re safe with us.”

She steers me back toward the fire, and I want to protest, but my stomach rumbles again, loud enough to be overheard. So much for that. I slump and let her guide me toward the group, though I feel wildly uncomfortable.

“My name is Callie,” she says, her voice cheerful. “My mate is M’tok. If you see the one with the big tall horns that looks like he’s about to start some shit? That’s him.” She says it with a touch of pride in her voice. “And my baby boy is M’cal but M’tok is watching him so I can take my turn making breakfast. You want some? I made it sweet, because I like it sweet.”

I thump into the seat she more or less drags me toward and give the others nearby an awkward smile. Callie—who has dark hair and a beautifully embroidered leather tunic covered with flowers—serves up a bowl, slaps a carved spoon into it, and then hands it to me. She gazes at me expectantly.

Right. I take a small mouthful. The texture is a little odd, a bit like a paste with a few larger chunks of what feel like seeds, but it’s sweet and reminds me of oatmeal, or maybe even grits. I nod, managing a smile. “’S good.”

“I know, right? Sweeter is better.” She gives an older black woman near the fire a smug look. “I tell them if they don’t like the way I make it, ellos no tienen que comerlo.”

“That isn’t the point of making the community breakfast,” the older woman says with a friendly roll of her eyes.

“It is when I make it.” Callie pulls out a bone cup and dips it into a second bag, then pauses. “You might not be ready for tea. You want water instead?”

I blink. Why wouldn’t I be ready for tea?

The older woman sees my expression and smiles. “The best caffeine kick here is from shrimp shells. We steep them and pick the shells out. We call it shrimp tea, but it takes some people some getting used to.”

My hungover stomach rebels at the thought of picking dead shrimp out of my drink. My nostrils flare, and the mouthful of paste in my mouth suddenly feels like glue.

“Uh oh, back up,” Callie says. “She’s gonna blow. No tea for you.”

“Breathe in slowly through your nose,” the older woman says, coaching me. “Deep breaths, and look up at the sky. You’re not gonna puke. I’m Gail, by the way.”

I take several deep breaths even as my mouth fills with saliva, but I manage not to vomit. When I can breathe easily again, I give Gail and Callie an awkward smile. “I’m Vivi…but I don’t really remember my real name.”

Gail just nods. “Well, we’ll call you Vivi unless you wanna change it. You can go by whatever you like. Just know that you’re among friends.”

There’s a warmth to Gail’s presence that relaxes me, and I manage to take another bite of food as I watch the women. Callie seems nice, too, though she could be my age and it seems strange to think of her as a mother. Then again, the khui wants me to make babies with Skarr, so I suppose it’s not that strange.

I think about last night and how I touched him and inwardly cringe at my actions. It’s going to be really hard to convince him I don’t want resonance now, after I grabbed his dick…dicks. Maybe I was so drunk I imagined two. I don’t know if I find the thought of a double-dicked lizardman exciting or terrifying.

Both, I decide. It’s both.

I finish my food quickly and Callie holds a hand out to take the bowl from me. “Thank you.”

She waves a hand at my words. “Think nothing of it. The tribe works together. We make breakfast at the main fire each morning and anyone is welcome to come eat. Some people like to make their own meals, but for those that don’t cook or are going hunting, we rotate chores so someone is always up very early and making breakfast. There’s usually a dinner on the communal fire, too.”

I bite my lip. “I don’t think I know how to cook.”

“You can learn,” she says with a shrug. “Or if not, you hunt. Or you work hides. Or something. Everyone figures out what they’re good at and contributes in some way.”

It sounds really nice but also a little terrifying. “What if we don’t contribute enough? What if someone feels like we’re not pulling our weight?”

“You’ll know,” Gail says. Her expression turns sympathetic. “But really, we haven’t had that problem before. Not everyone’s a hunter, but everyone helps out. There’s no checklist of chores you have to complete to get fed, though. Just do your best. We all know it’s hard, especially at first.”

“It’s a lot,” I confess in a small voice, the reality of my situation threatening to overwhelm again.

Gail moves over a seat to sit next to me, placing a comforting hand on my arm. “We know. But that’s why you have everyone else to lean on. We’ve been through the same thing.”

“Are you a clone, too?”

She grimaces. “Okay, most of the same thing. But I was snatched from Earth, just like you. I was held captive by aliens for a few years before I ended up here. The point is, no one comes here well-versed in everything they need to survive. We all have to learn this place.”

Callie nods, gesturing at herself with the wooden spoon. “You got questions? You come ask me. I’ll give it to you straight. About resonance, about babies, about whatever.”

“I already resonated,” I add in a timid voice.

“Oh, it was you?” Her brows go up. “To the lizard guy? I heard he was kinda…a lot.”

A mortified giggle escapes me. “That’s a good way of putting it.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, my mate was an absolute shit to me when we first resonated and I wanted to choke him.” She puts her hands in the air as if to shake an invisible throat. “But we figured each other out and we’re happy. So don’t give up hope. The khui usually knows what it’s doing. And you’ll probably make pretty babies. He has nice hair.”

He does have nice hair, I have to agree. But I don’t want to point out that I’m not sure about the babies part. That I’m holding in my pocket what Flor told me—that the healer can turn things off if we need to. I got the impression that it’s the nuclear option, so to speak, but it’s an option at least.

“She doesn’t want to think about resonance right now,” Gail says defensively. “If she did, she’d be with him instead of sleeping with the other ladies. Give her time to figure things out.”

Callie looks like she wants to say more. She frowns in our direction and then shrugs and turns back to stirring the food. “Some of the other ladies should be waking up soon.”

It is rather quiet. I sip my water, glancing over at Gail. She has a basket near her old seat that looks like it’s full of sewing. Another woman approaches, this one freckled with red hair, and she’s leading a few young boys and has a younger child in her arms. No men, though. In fact, as I look around at the scattered huts, I see a few with smoke coming from their tops, and a person or two standing out by the shore, but I don’t see the other gladiators that arrived with us.