I licked the last remnants of the beetle from my lips as Neh’vahn knelt to draw more. Watching him work, I resolved to learn the common language of this world as quickly as I could, because this form of communication was neither quick nor comprehensible. His newest attempt at getting-something-across; a boxy-shape with me and him inside. “Neh’vahn,” he said, pointing to himself; he followed this with a rubbery sound. Then he pointed to the little stick-me. “Moffit,” he said, and repeated the same sound again.

A restless wind blew over us as I stared at his crude drawings a moment, hand on my chin. That looked… a little like a constructed living quarters. Ugly and squarish, but definitely a building -- and it appeared that Neh’vahn wanted to bring me to it. “Hom,” I repeated, trying to replicate the rubbery sound he made. It made my mouth feel weird. “Neh’vahn hom…” Ah! Seeing as I’m not entirely an idiot, hom clicked. Hom was probably his living space.

Well. It wasn’t as if I had anywhere else to go.

“Hom,” I finally agreed, bearing my fangs in a proud grin, pointing at my new biped friend. Lead the way! “Hom, Neh’vahn.” And, preferably, show me more of his squishy-sounding language while he was at it. I needed to learn the his word for ‘food’ as soon as I could; hom had better have some grub, because that tiny beetle was not doing enough for me.