She used her valok rind to dig a small hole in the sand. She pretended to squat over it, then stood and filled the hole in with sand.

OK, seems easy enough.

I dug a small hole the way she had, then squatted. I began to relieve myself, sighing, only to realize that Rika was still staring.

“Jesus! Privacy not a big thing for you guys?”

She said something I did not understand, and I did my best to ignore her. It was pretty unlikely she’d ever seen anyone like me before. I couldn’t blame her for being curious, especially if she was some kind of doctor. I quickly finished my business and filled the hole in, tossing the valok rind down to the sand. Rika tossed hers, as well. Then we began walking back to the tents, me with my arms tucked firmly back into the tunic, my hair doing a mostly crappy job of shielding my face. If I was going to survive any length of time in this place, I had to go back to the ship for supplies – extra clothing, sunscreen, and spare boots.

As we walked through the tents, I noticed that everything was pretty quiet. Nobody seemed to be around. I wonder where everyone is. I tried to ignore the fact that by “everyone” I really meant Buroudei. I couldn’t stop wondering about him. There was an ache, deep in my abdomen, that had taken root. An ache I was pretty sure his absence caused.

I saw everyone else soon enough. A large group was gathered where the fire last night had been blazing. Approximately thirty men stood in a clump, and on the outskirts of the group was a much smaller collection of women and children. Something about the balance seemed off.

“Why are there so few women?” I blurted, suddenly realizing why the population seemed so skewed. Rika clearly didn’t understand my question, and she gestured to a tent just ahead of us. We kept walking past the group, but I couldn’t stop myself from staring. At the centre of everything, keeping everyone’s attention rapt, was Buroudei. He was speaking, his deep voice booming with authority, his arms outstretched in some massive gesture. His skin gleamed beneath his blades in the sun, his muscles tightening and rippling with every movement. It seemed like he was these people’s leader, and I’d heard more than one person refer to him as Gahn. I wondered if it meant something like “king.” Or maybe, considering all the blades strapped to his body, “warlord.” Despite the heat, a shiver ran through me to witness him – to see him commanding everyone with such power. Everyone, even the other strong-looking warriors, was standing still, deeply respectful and attentive as Buroudei spoke. My ears strained to understand him, even though I knew that would do no good. Alien language learning had been slow-going so far. Unfortunately. I chewed my lip as the group moved out of view. I really, really wanted to be able to talk to him. The intensity of that desire caught me off guard. This wasn’t simple curiosity about a new language. This wasn’t an academic thing. I wanted to talk to him. To learn about him, understand him, figure out what made him tick. Although, so far, it kind of seemed like what made him tick was me.

Rika pulled aside the flap of the tent we had reached. This one was different than the others. It was smaller, tall and narrow, with an opening at the top. She led me inside.

There wasn’t much inside the tent. A small pit was in the centre, and along the perimeter of the tent were random-seeming objects like small rocks and collections of dried grass and some other plants I hadn’t yet encountered. I stood, unsure of what we were doing here, when Rika bent and grabbed a couple of the small dark stones from the ground. She placed some of the dried grass in the pit, then smacked the stones together until a spark flew onto the dried grass, igniting immediately.

If I hadn’t been sweating before, I sure was now. It was already hot in here, and the fire was adding to it. I coughed as smoke began to billow. It didn’t smell like wood smoke – it was more herbal than that. Not altogether unpleasant, other than the fact that I was having trouble breathing. Eyes streaming, I felt Rika’s hand on my shoulder. She pushed me down to the ground, below the smoke line, and my vision cleared as I sat. Before I knew what was happening, she had pulled her tunic up and over her head, sitting before me totally naked.

My cheeks grew doubly hot as I tried not to stare. A quick look told me that her body was strong and powerful, though her skin was starting to show signs of age. She also seemed to be, apart from some decent pectoral muscling, completely flat-chested. A glance between her legs (she was sitting cross-legged, so it was kind of hard to avoid) told me that she was indeed female, though. No hair anywhere on her body, besides her head. She pointed to my tunic, her claw catching on the fabric.

When in Rome...

I yanked it off, crossing my arms over my chest.

Rika grabbed at some of the plants that were on the ground. They looked like succulents, similar to the valok plants, but long and thin where the valok plants were flat and round. She used her claw to slice the end off of one of the long green spires, then squeezed some milky green gel out, the way you’d squeeze toothpaste from a tube. She handed the plant to me, and I watched as she began rubbing the gel into her skin. It didn’t lather up, but it seemed to glide over her skin in such a way that it helped dissolve and remove dirt and oil. She reached over to what I had thought was more dried grass and picked up what was actually a rag of some kind, woven from plant matter. She swiped at her skin with the cloth, then waved the cloth in the air, drawing smoke towards her and over her skin. While it wasn’t exactly the shower I had been craving, there was something kind of spa-like about it all.

I squeezed some of the cactus gel into my hands, running it over my body the way Rika had done. It had a somewhat sharp, but overall pleasant smell. It reminded me of something from back on earth. Thyme. The sudden connection to my home planet made my eyes prick with tears, and I distracted myself by scrubbing the gel into my skin. Rika handed me one of the woven rags, and I used that until, all in all, I felt pretty clean. The cactus gel stuff had basically evaporated off of my skin, leaving it smooth and soft. I was still sweating from the heat, but I didn’t stink now. The only thing left was my hair, which I wasn’t sure what to do with, but Rika saw to that, too.

She settled herself into a seated position behind me, and squeezed the last of the cactus stuff onto my scalp, working it through my hair. She moved gently, tackling my sweat-sticky tangles with her claws. Once again, like I had been when she had brought me food, I was reminded of Grammy, and the prickle of tears I had felt a moment ago became a full-on deluge. This simple act of kindness – the combing of my tangled hair – in a place as hostile as this planet had turned out to be, was breaking my heart. I pressed the palms of my hands against my eyes, sobbing as Rika muttered soft words to me. I was so grateful that Buroudei and his people had found me. I only wished the other women had had the chance for that same kindness.

Soon enough, Rika was finished. I sniffed, hard, swiping at the last of my tears as she pulled my hair into a clean, neat braid. Like it had from my skin, the gel had completely evaporated off of my hair, leaving it feeling smooth and smelling halfway-decent. She showed me how to use the empty cactus husk to clean my teeth and tongue. When we left the tent, I felt weak and wobbly and oddly renewed.

The sun was hotter now, and I shielded my face with my hand.

“Where’s my jacket, and my pants? My boots?”

I pointed to the sun, then my skin, viciously shaking my head. Then I mimed pulling on a jacket and pointed to my legs and feet. I hated the idea of wearing those horrible bloodied pants, but there was no way I’d last out here much longer without my Canadian white-girl skin cooking in the sun. Rika seemed to understand my meaning, and led me quickly to the largest tent, which wasn’t far from the sauna tent. I ran inside, trying to get out of the sun, and almost smacked into another alien.