CHAPTER 1

“Surprise, surprise, I’d been adopted by aliens, of all things.  With the addition of a new species in the house-hold - meaning me, of course, there were a lot of things that all of us had to learn. To start with, human children are very different from little floogits.  Qantuu was not used to the  constant physical changes of a growing little human.

Floog do not change much except for the colour of their skin. However, I did change … slowly but surely.  One day, Qantuu noticed that my hair had gotten longer.  

Qantuu knew next to nothing about human hair.   Xerix recalled that he had seen humans wearing ribbons in ‘hair-fur’ that was longer, so he brought something out that would serve as a ribbon to make it more manageable.  I already had a comb that he’d brought back a while ago, as a souvenir from ‘Urf’.

He explained to Qantuu what to do with the ribbons.  It was a start, but I had something completely different in mind for my new look.  Nobody listened when I told them I wanted a man-bun.  Sheesh!   The stuff I had to put up with!  

Good thing I wasn’t on Earth.  Luckily, here on Gizmok I could look any way I wanted, with nobody the wiser.  I was a human.  I was supposed to look strange.  Still, it was a bit of a sore point.

CHAPTER 2

Early on, Qantuu’s grown-up son and daughter came for a visit.  Finally I was  introduced to my adoptive brother Wazo and sister Qiin. 

But right from the beginning there was something really weird about it.  For starters,  Maamel had left the translator off!  I had no idea why she’d do that.

I was introduced to the pair, but I had no idea what was being said.  Qantuu was acting a little nervous, which me me nervous as well.  I followed along as closely as I could, but right away, I knew something was off.

I could tell they were really delighted to meet me.  I suppose being an alien on this planet would do it.  I’d been told that Wazo, the son was a professor of linguistics at the University of Awatto in the capital, so he’d probably be interested my language.  The daughter, Qiin was a junior technician in the bio-diversity division at the Institute, also in the capital city.  They both had homes there. 

I couldn’t understand a thing being said, and they couldn’t understand me either.  If only the translator was on, but I had no idea where it was stashed or how to turn the stupid thing on.

They ooohed and aahhhed over me - a lot, trying to make me talk in English, and seemed to delight in listening.  It got a bit much after a while though.  Even the visitors my sister brought in so she could show me off, treated me like I was a pet!

I didn’t like that one bit, and was finally annoyed enough that I got a bit vocal.  I told them I was a kid, not a pet.  They didn’t understand me or take anything I said seriously, which made me even madder.

Apparently Wazo already knew some English words because I knew he recognized some of them.  He picked up on the word ‘kid’.

All at once the two of them started baaa-ing like a goat!  They thought I’d told them that I was a goat!  ‘Course, they’d think that, because ‘kid’ means baby goat.  That did it! 

  I started screaming that I was not a kid and somebody better turn the translator on, or else!  

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