27-43

s p l a y e d (Adjective.)

(especially of limbs or fingers) spread out and apart

Elain's eyes widened in surprise and continued to try to move away from Arcane. His grip only tightened, his sharp nails digging into her pale skin. She was definitely going to end up with bruising. Milo came forward trying to pull the man away. His second pair of eyes opened to slits and slid towards her assistant, all four of his arms latching on to the boy. He turned Milo's wrists up, but his skin was darker so Arcane wasn't able to follow the path of Milo's veins. The humanoid scoffed and dropped his grip away.

Both the biologist and her assistant watched with wide eyes as he began inspecting the beds now. He ended up flopping down on the bottom bunk with a happy hum. Neither saw as his second, slitted pair of eyes followed their movements suspiciously.

Milo went to to Elain and gently looked to see if she was bleeding at all. "Here I thought this was going to be easy research," Elain chuckled nervously. "Apparently, not." She pulled her arms away, moving to grab a towel so she wipe away the few bits of blood from where his nails cut too deep. "It will be fine, Milo. Don't worry."

Her assistant frowned, taking his seat once again. "Why would he even do that?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. He hadn't shown any destructive tendencies. Not including when he threatened me to bring me back to his people, of course, which is unrelated." She didn't count that, because they were foreigners invading on their territory. To which she had explained to Milo at one point as well and he begrudgingly agreed with her reason. "Would you email site 24-23? Get them to set up a community call, so we are able to get everyone's information about the situation."

The assistant did a mock salute, then got to work.

Elain sat just inside the laboratory walls, watching the rain as it tumbled to the site's muddied floor. She used to sit like this on Earth. Simply watching the rain as it did what all rain does, fall. The storm had been going long into the night, which forced them to have the meeting the next day. Arcane still laid on the bottom bunk, tossing and turning to get comfortable. The storm had no sign of stopping, so Elain took an opportunity to watch the cloud formations. They were extremely similar to the cloud formations back home, but they were a permanent maroon color. She didn't dislike the change.

"Alright. So, do we continue our work?" Her eyes flickered towards Milo and shrugged. "That wasn't the answer I expected."

Elain rubbed her face, sighing in an exhausted manner. "If we continue to work, that would mean more resources that we are wasting. Of course, we can still journalize our findings, but we shouldn't go out of our way to find too many more creatures. We don't want to use up the medical supplies we have." Then her voice dropped to a mutter, "I'm really regretting letting my curiosity get the better of me with the mushroom caps."

He frowned, but then nodded. Of course, they would have to rationalize their belongings, she had already told him that before. He just hadn't entirely realized what would happen if they did run out of supplies. Could they be able to rely on the planet's resources?

"Hey," Elain called after shutting the door. Milo hadn't even realized that she approached the alien. The humanoid in question grumbled, pressing himself further into her mattress. She crouched down to be eye level with him. She placed a splayed hand to her chest. "I am Elain." He lifted himself slightly, raising a brow. She repeated her reaction, then pointed towards her assistant without turning backwards to look at him. "He is Milo."

Arcane's eyes flickered between them for a few seconds, before focusing on her. "El'on?" He tried, that was what mattered. It didn't come out right at all, seeing as his vocal cords weren't meant to speak English. Then he repeated Milo's name, "M'lo?" Also incorrect, but good enough. She nodded enthusiastically, clapping her hands together in delight. Then he sat up, using his bottom pair of arms to keep him stable, a third hand pressing his knuckle to his temple with his other fingers pointed downwards to follow his face shape. "Brotte Shios."

"Brotte Shios?" The humanoid, whom she was no longer able to call Arcane, nodded with a neutral face. "It is nice to meet you, Brotte. I hope we are able to get along well." He tilted his head to the side, not understanding anything except his name. She remembered the female had called him by the name Shios, but she didn't know the customs for these people's first and last names.

"Era uoy, gniht ddo," Brotte grumbled. He laid back into her pillow, trying to ignore her wide grin.

"Finally!" She stood and took her seat beside Milo. "At least we have our stalker's name now. I was worried we'd never properly introduce each other." Her assistant sent her a weak smile at her attempt to joke around.