"You're going to eat that?" Athe asked pointed to Nina's tray, laid with slices of seared yellow sea worm on a bed of some sort of grain, grilled water runner, and a bowl of green and yellow plants stewed in some kind of salty sour broth. "The kitchen will make you some human food if you ask."
Nina shook her head. "They made Dreen food for us when I was learning the language, it's not that different from what I grew up eating. It smells better than what the instructor made!" She smiled at Athe, who shook his head. Nina's tray was covered in condiment cups as big as soup bowls, Dreen servings and tableware being too large for humans. But the variety impressed Athe, as did Nina's appetite. "This is delicious," she said, slurping slippery tangles of seaweed through the sour broth as was proper, indicating that the food was so good she couldn't wait to eat it quietly. She speared pieces of a red vegetable on a skewer and took a bite, its crisp skin bursting between her teeth like a ripe tomato and filling her mouth with savory juice and hundreds of tiny seeds. "Fantastic!" The grilled water runner, a lizard-like creature with sand-colored skin and pink flesh, tasted like fresh white tuna and pork, black scorch marks adding a delicious smoky flavor. The yellow sea worm – the non-toxic variety – had been charred on one side and sprinkled with Dreenai sea salt, which was sweeter than Earth salt but helped to break down the tough worm meat.
"This is like sea cucumber back home," Nina said. "My nanna used to make this with mushrooms and rice." Nearby Dreen watched, fascinated, by the human's gusto as she put away all but a few bites of the yellow sea worm. "I had no idea humans could eat so much," Athe commented. He had eaten easily enough food to completely fill six or seven humans' stomachs to bursting.
"I don't know about the other humans you've met, but I can eat. Especially after diving. Are there any good diving reefs around here? Doctor Ardus didn't say much about what Dreen do for fun."
"Well," Athe said, toying with a piece of some yellow fruit that looked like a squash but smelled like carrots and was drenched in a green chutney that, when he offered some to Nina, tasted like sweet chili sauce with a hint of tartness. "I doubt he thought you'd be interested, the other humans mostly keep to themselves in their apartments on campus."
"Why's that?" Nina wiped her mouth with a napkin the size of a t-shirt. "I mean, we're on an alien planet, why would anyone want to stay at home?"
Athe looked around at the other tables. The other Dreen had lost interest in Nina's eating and were talking among themselves, but every so often a pair of green or yellow eyes would flash her direction and someone would whisper behind a hand or a napkin. "Doctor Ma'atanoa, surely you know about the...problems Dreenai has had with some humans. Namely, the incident at the Dreenai port of entry?"
"Oh," Nina's expression fell, "right... Well, we're not all like that," she said, glancing around at the other tables. Some of the Dreen looked away, and Nina felt a sadly familiar stab in her chest. "Most of us are good people. It's just...humans have always had that problem, where a few of them make a lot of trouble for the rest of us." She twisted her napkin in her lap. "I don't know if it's a species thing or if it has something to do with what stage we're at in our civilization. I've never felt the urge to hurt anyone, no matter what they look like, so I don't think it has anything to do with my species. Maybe it's just an evolutionary thing." She shrugged. "I mean, we still haven't outgrown the whole skin color thing, as stupid as it is."
Athe made a perplexed face, his flat nose-bridge wrinkling. "I've heard of this. Humans have such a bizarre outlook... You're all the same species, aren't you? If you were to," his pores briefly flashed pink, "if you were to have sexual intercourse with, say Doctor Yang, you could become pregnant, could you not? Even though Doctor Yang is of a different color than yourself?"
"Well, yeah." Nina twisted her napkin into a knot the size of her fist.
"And the resulting child wouldn't be a hybrid, but just another human, with the features of its parentage. It might have your skin color but have Doctor Yang's eye shape, but it would still be a viable, healthy human."
"Yes, exactly. Biologically, it wouldn't make any difference."
"So if you're all the same species, as we Dreen are all the same species, then why does it matter if you have brown skin and Doctor Yang doesn't?"
"It doesn't matter, if you look at it rationally, but not all humans are rational. Some are ignorant, which is one thing if you don't know any better, but some do know better and they still act stupid. I never understood it."
"Such a strange species," Athe drank the last of his drink. "Please don't be offended, Doctor Ma'atanoa, but sometimes I wonder if those humans who destroyed that cargo ship are the same species as you. In the few days I have known you, you seem vastly more intelligent than those who would harm innocent people."
Nina's grin spread across her entire face, her cheeks dimpling. "I have to say, I've never felt the need except in traffic."
Athe shook his head, amused. Then he looked up. "Oh, interesting."
Nina turned in her seat, her feet dangling a foot above the floor. "What?" She followed Athe's gaze and saw a familiar black shape, silent and dull among the bright colors of the Dreen. "What's the matter?"
"Doctor Ardus rarely eats here," Athe explained. "It's been...well I really think it's been at least a year since I've seen him in the commissary."
"Weird." Nina watched the head of the Biology department make his way along the outer rim of the great space lined with trestle seating and a few free-standing two- and -three seat tables. He seemed to edge along the walls, dodging chairs and Dreen with his dark face passive, his eyes avoiding the gazes of curious Dreen. Nina noticed a few ladies in scrub uniforms – probably laboratory technicians – watching him intently, some whispering to each other and breaking out into secret titters and bubbly giggles, their pores glittering yellow and pink. One turned in her seat and spoke to Doctor Ardus, but the doctor breezed by as though she didn't exist. The table shrugged, pores green and purple. He entered the line, grabbed a few things he could hold in his hands, paid, and left as quickly as he had come.
"Athe," Nina asked, stacking her plates, "how long have you known Doctor Ardus?"
"Oh, perhaps twelve or so years. He hired me when I graduated. Why?"
"I was just curious why he dresses the way he does. Everyone else I've seen wears bright colors and lots of jewelry, but he looks so dull. He isn't all...sparkly like you."
Athe's pores dimmed, almost darkening completely. He cleaned up his space with an awkward hesitance, fiddling with the arrangement of utensils and plates. "It's...not something I have any business talking about."
Her cheeks warmed. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know."
"It's understandable. Doctor Ardus is a...a private one. He's been at the university so long he's essentially a part of the campus, but he doesn't do much socializing."
Nina wondered at this. "He looks sad. You know, underneath that dark face."
Athe glanced at her, then swept her dishes up with his and carried them off to the receiving trays. At his return, he gestured to follow him. "We should get back to the office," he said, "I have errands to run for him and you have work to do."
Work, sure. More like busywork. Since her arrival, Nina had hardly done more than sit at her child-sized desk and read countless copies of old texts, wrestling with archaic Dreen dialects and colloquialisms that made her head ache with their floweriness and antiquated turns of phrase. Generations ago, when the Dreen had entered their version of the Industrial Era and began their age of science and reason, their language had been just as wandering and purple as Victorian English – though to Nina's ears it sounded much prettier. Poring over copies of tomes with names like On the Treatise of the Great Sea Worms and their Copious Species both Edible and Not; General Gaan's Observations on Great Eastern Grey Screamers, Their Migrations, and Their Predatory Habits, and An Examination of Evolution in Black Runners: Geological Evidence of Ongoing Physiological and Social Adaptations to Climate, Environment, and Dreen Sociopolitical Fluctuations in the Southern Hemisphere, Nina at some point began writing down less wordy translations and wondering if she would have had a better time plucking her fingernails out with her teeth. All the while, Doctor Ardus had either not been in his office or sat silently staring at some document, a look on his face so unpleasant and dark Nina wondered if he knew the author and was furious with them.
This day seemed to be no different, as when Nina arrived only a message waited for her: Attached. Opening it, she found a dozen or so pages of some dry description of a specific kind of kelp that grew in the tidal zone of the southern continent, not even the one she was currently on! "What's the idea?" she asked the empty room, "I'm a biologist, not a literary historian! I could be doing fieldwork, collecting specimens, anything but sitting here feeling my eyeballs go dry."
"Do humans not understand the importance of historical context?" said a deep voice from behind the huge, ancient desk. A gigantic blue-black hand emerged and flattened itself on the smooth surface, translucent webbing spreading out over the glass between long fingers up to the first knuckle.
Nina screamed and clutched at the arms of her chair, drawing her feet up from the footrest installed to keep her legs from going numb as they hung in space several inches from the floor. "Jesus fucking Christ!" she shrieked in English.
Doctor Ardus unfurled from the space between his desk and the antique map of Dreenai. "If it is no great inconvenience, please refrain from shouting in my office. I assure you I recognize cursing when I hear it regardless of the language." Pulling up to his full incredible height, his black clothing and dark skin ate light like a deep-sea abyss or the dark, silent, starless reaches of space. He frowned at her, his large eyes narrow.
"Could you please not do that?!" Nina gasped, her heart still threatening to climb out of her chest and leap from the nearest window in terror. Not even coming face-to-teeth with a Great White off the coast of Queensland during undergrad had given her such a heart-stopping fright. She hoped that the dampness between her legs was sweat from the humid planet's tropical climate. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Unlikely," Doctor Ardus pulled his chair up behind him, settling into the spotted leather of some seal-like creature that inhabited the equatorial waters. "Your most recent physical exam did not suggest you were at risk." He looked at her through heavy-lidded eyes, the bottom half of his sea-blue iris visible even from across the room. He leaned forward on his elbows, crossing his hands and tapping wickedly clawed fingers on the glass reading display layered over the ancient wood. Nina flashed back to her senior year of public school, when her history teacher Professor Ndewene had been horribly upset with her for not turning in her essay on the climate crisis of the early twenty-first century and its impact on Earth's five largest economies. Except Professor Ndewene hadn't been eight and a half feet tall with hands and feet tipped in talons like a leopard seal, nor had he been nearly as solemn. Doctor Ardus's quiet, huge presence filled the room, a dark and dangerous leviathan from the unknown deep.
"That...that's not the point." Nina's heart had finally stopped hammering, adrenaline still rocketing around her veins. She slowly let her feet down, hoping she wouldn't have to stand any time soon. She just might collapse. "You could've let me know you were in here."
"In my own office, during working hours." It was not a question. He turned one massive hand over and examined the end of one of those inch-long claws. Nina realized that he could easily grasp her entire head in one hand like a softball, and those claws looked like they could do serious damage. Instead, he covered his mouth as it split in a huge yawn – Nina glimpsed the points of enormous ivory teeth behind blue-black lips, and several of them. His hands were suddenly far less worrisome.
"I...uh, so, what were you doing down there," Nina grasped at any straw, "taking a nap?"
"A cable came loose. I was putting it back in its place."
"Oh..." Nina felt silly. Of course. "Athe could've fixed that."
He looked over at her again and Nina's toes curled as her knees crept back up to her chin. She forced them back down. Why was he so ominous? "I am capable of putting a plug back into a socket, Doctor." A hairless heavy eyebrow lifted, black sclera and blue iris boring into her like a dentist's drill and making her squirm. "Now, do you understand why I am having you read some of our earliest records of observational biology? Or have I mistaken your application for that of some other Doctor Ma'atanoa who does not ask pointless questions?"
Ouch. Nina winced. "No, you have the right one." She cleared her throat. No one would save her skin here but herself. "I'm... I was under the impression that I would be doing field and laboratory work. Historical context, however, would be very useful in understanding the Dreen outlook on Dreenai ecology. General Gaan's study on the Eastern Grey Screamer, for example, show just how little was understood of them after just four generations in the industrialized era." Nina pushed a strand of hair out of her face, wrapping it back around its loose bun. "It's like the disconnect humans developed between their daily lives and nature that led to the climate catastrophe of the mid-twenty-first century. Just a handful of generations separated living hand-to-mouth on farms and reliance on technological intervention for sustenance, which resulted in decimating economic and environmental collapse that lasted almost three hundred years."
Doctor Ardus nodded slowly, his eyes never once leaving hers as the incline of his head changed. "So, you are capable of extrapolating information from old texts. I hope you are not too put-off by the reading, as I have several more volumes for you to take in."
Nina assured him she wasn't, groaning internally. God damn it, it's undergrad all over again. Except the professor was terrifying, his manner and his face as comforting as hurricane clouds. At least the other Dreen wore brighter clothes and Athe was making an effort to be friendly. Nina gave herself a mental shake and went back to the attachment, Investigating the Properties of Surface Tension in the Common Black Sand Runner. At least this document was somewhat less flowery of verse and more conversant than General Gaan's seventy-some pages of his thoughts on grey screamer migrations. She glanced up at the huge map drawn on the faded grey screamer skin behind Doctor Ardus. The skin covered easily seventy square feet of the immense wall, being twice as long as the Dreen was tall and almost as wide. She looked back down and caught Doctor Ardus watching her from the corner of his eye. His gaze skipped away just as quickly and he ignored her. You're the alien here, she reminded herself. Representing Earth was turning out to be far more stressful and uncomfortable than she'd anticipated, and she thought she'd already made a bad impression. Ignoring him in return seemed to be the best course of action.
֎
Stop looking at her, Ardus chided himself. You are distracting her. He forced himself to look down at the reading pane, picking up a stylus to make notes on Meem's work. At least this report finally showed some promise – extracting the major painkilling components of red sea worm venom had been a terribly difficult venture, from the grant proposal to locating appropriate specimens. Now Meem was finally able to isolate the pain-blocking proteins and had begun documenting her findings. So far she had learned that combining red worm venom with the mucilaginous extract of yellow brineweed – a common folk remedy for sore muscles and minor irritations – yielded a sticky but effective salve, useful for large-scale application over the skin. However, the dosage of venom was extremely finicky. Too much venom and the black runner test subject became lethargic and refused food. Not enough, and the balm was ineffective at relieving even the mild discomfort of a sunburn. Doctor Ardus's knowledge of red sea worms' preferred environment and food was essential in keeping the red worms alive and healthy in a laboratory setting, producing venom at a rate that kept Meem happy and out of his barbels.
He glanced up at the sound of Doctor Ma'atanoa's sigh. She had not moved, but was reading diligently with her bottom lip pinched between her teeth, her long hair having somehow freed itself completely from the knot at the back of her head. It hung down over her shoulder and she twisted it in her free hand, absently running the long wavy strands through her fingers while she read. Her foot jiggled in midair, stopping when she fixated on a word or phrase and made note of it with a stylus. She is distracting me. He turned his chair to the side, facing his office door. He marked up Meem's report on a tablet, his claws clicking on the glassy surface. It would have been a more pleasant read if Meem didn't have the habit of praising him at every turn. "Thanks to the excellent care of the red worms by the esteemed Doctor Ardus, I was able to extract and isolate the venom's anodyne compounds" Ardus read, and rolled his eyes. Sea gods drown her, she forgets she has a whole team of chemists and lab techs at her call. Meem seemed determined to do all the work herself, and while she was capable of handling the material her research would go exponentially faster if she wasn't so keen on being in the spotlight, trying to impress him. He added a note reminding her that there was no need to mention his name more than once. Ardus read on for several more minutes, content with the silence until Athe returned from his errands and delivered a package to Doctor Ma'atanoa. Ardus ignored him.
"Another book?" Doctor Ma'atanoa said, tearing open the wrapping. The sound of shredding paper irritated, but her voice was soft as she spoke and he didn't mind that so much. At least she was able to stay quiet enough for him to work.
"This is a new edition of the text you mentioned reading on the trip here," Athe explained, tipping his head at Ardus. "This copy has a forward and some notes by him."
"Oh?" Doctor Ma'atanoa sounded interested, and Ardus could not suppress a glance in her direction. She was examining the book intently, flipping through the flyleaves until she found the forward. "Thank you, I'll be sure to start this tonight." She smiled at Athe, then nodded at Ardus. Her mouth had the most curious little curl in the corner.
"That will not be necessary," Ardus dismissed, "it can wait until you have finished this week's reading. I would rather you finished the articles by Professor Yuna."
Doctor Ma'atanoa nodded, folding the book closed and setting it on her lap. The way she ran her tiny hand along its cover, then tucked her loose hair back over her shoulder, seemed somehow more distracting than her jiggling foot. "I'll do that," she said, her eyes down. "I'm looking forward to this though, I've read some of your work before." She patted the book in her lap.
"Oh?" Meem's report slid into his lap. A heavy lump had suddenly appeared in his throat and Ardus coughed to clear it. "And?" Suddenly her thoughts on his published papers felt terribly important. Because we are working together, he reasoned, I should at least know her opinion. A human's perspective might be interesting. He turned his chair back, wincing at its ancient squeak.
Doctor Ma'atanoa's eyes raised to his, sea-grey and light, excited. "Well, the first one I read was a translation so it lost much of its nuance, but I thought your ideas about the environmental influence of red sea worms, that toxic prey can serve as a defense against large predators even for the non-toxic inhabitants, was more of a naturalist's view than a biologist. Later, I got a hold of some Dreen-language pieces you published in Naturalis – that's an Earth-based biology publication – and I thought they were, well, beautifully written." At that, Doctor Ma'atanoa's cheeks reddened in the phenomenon Ardus understood was called a "blush", and her eyes turned down and away again. "I know that's not a very professional opinion, but it's an honest one."
He blinked. Beautifully written? "I...thank you, Doctor. I have tried to keep the style more approachable than most. I am not unaware that some of the works I have given you to read might be...challenging." His chest was tight, his mouth strangely dry. Beautifully written? "I will credit you that, as you have said, I do have somewhat more of a naturalist's view of the world than some would consider professional. Perhaps it is because Dreen have spent several more generations re-cultivating that sense of connection with the natural world than humans."
"Some humans," Doctor Ma'atanoa corrected. She seemed more at ease now, more willing to maintain eye contact. "I grew up on an island like those out there," she indicated the seaward window, yellow-tinged afternoon sun filtering in through the tinted panels, "surrounded by the ocean. Not all of us are so disconnected." She gave a smile that made the lump in Ardus's throat swell. Those grey eyes, fringed by black lashes and skin the same rich bronze as the polished corners of his desk, glowed even across the room.
Athe coughed politely and Ardus tore his eyes away from the human. "Yes?"
"You have an appointment in twenty minutes."
He shook himself. "Right." Setting the tablet and stylus down he pushed back from his desk and stood, taking note how the human woman reacted to his movement and size. She didn't scream or even cringe this time, an improvement. "Let Meem know I approve of her suggestion to move the red worms to a larger tank. I am sure she will be by at some point today, wanting to discuss the grade of glass or something. Doctor," he nodded at the human woman and left.
Out in the hall, he took a breath he hadn't realized he'd needed. His tunic felt too snug around his neck, his chest hot and tight. Perhaps he'd stood up too fast. After meeting with the board, he would go for a swim to rid himself of the sense that he had too much energy and nothing to do.
Do other humans have such striking eyes?
֎
Another hour passed and Nina's head ached. Professor Yuna's writings on the ecology of tidal pools along the southern coast was interesting, its descriptions of the wildlife lively and evocative, but formal Dreen was a tricky language and their scientific terminology was like Latin and Greek upside-down and backwards. Nina set down her stylus and transferred the Professor's works to a tablet for reading later in her apartment. She said goodnight to Athe and decided that she was hungry enough to stop somewhere for something instead of cooking at home. Her apartment's kitchen was a challenge – even after having steps installed in front of every appliance, sink and counter, climbing up and down and on top of surfaces not made for a five-foot-eight human was exhausting. What she needed was a ready-to-eat meal she could take home and have for later several times over, as the Dreen hadn't quite learned how small a human portion should be. She left the campus, her bag on her shoulder heavy with books, carrying her shoes to walk in the soft warm sand, and went looking for food.
The community outside the university was stunning, a sprawling beach-front stretch of contemporary architecture built from the new sustainable materials scattered among ancient stone properties, atop the continent's solid bedrock and overlooking the sea. It reminded her of Greece with its hilly inland, peach-colored sand and crystal blue water, and island chains rising from the ocean topped with greenery and dotted with homes. Strange odors, new to her on this alien world, crashed into her nose in waves and left her somewhat reeling, the mingling scents of food, the bizarre and beautiful plants, and the briny, green smell of the ocean layered together in a salty, earthy, wet, kelpy confusion. Nevertheless, it was a massive improvement over some of the worst smells from Earth – the remnants of smog and smoke from coal-burning industry still tainted the air of some cities despite the hurried switch to renewables, and the slow-recovering environment still reeked of synthetic fertilizers and phosphorus.
Nina recognized another scent as well, that of the Dreen themselves – a spicy, woody smell that she realized came from the food they ate and the world they inhabited. Scent was as important to a biologist as an understanding of how the world worked, for scent told of an environment's health and so much more. Nina stood at the edge of a sandy path and breathed it all in, struck again by the realization that she stood on a different planet than the one she'd been born on. She felt noticeably small then, and it wasn't just the eight-foot-tall people walking around her, glancing curiously before continuing on their business.
Nina followed her nose to a stall tiny by Dreen standards – a measly fifteen feet wide – and climbed up the nearest chair. The menu was simple and hand-written, but it promised a good meal at a good price and Nina ordered a selection of things she knew she liked and one or two things she'd only heard of. The Dreen serving her looked askance, offering to make her something "more familiar", but Nina insisted. The Dreen were polite, but they couldn't seem to wrap their heads around this tiny creature who wanted to eat their food, speak their language and live on their world. She even paid in their money, though the stall-minder counted his change twice before letting Nina walk away.
The sky dimmed as she walked back to the university grounds, shades of yellow and green rippling through the thin clouds as the sun sank beyond the horizon. Working against the crowds of Dreen leaving the campus she dodged legs and swinging arms as best she could, calling out "Excuse me," and "Sorry!" when a calculated feint turned out to be a miscalculation.
She reached a choke point where the path narrowed and the vastly taller crowd bunched together and going against the current turned dicey. Her shoulder-bag snagged on someone's bracelet and she felt her dinner slide dangerously to the side as it caught someone else's leg. She turned to grab it and a massive knee caught her in the side. Nina went sprawling, her shoulder bag and shoes going one way and her food splattering on the ground just beyond arm's reach. A clawed foot just barely missed her face. "Shit," she cursed, angry and tired and dismayed. "Watch where you're going!"
"Perhaps you should."
Nina looked up from her ruined dinner. Standing – no, towering – over her, dark face impassive and his large hands tucked into the pockets of his loose trousers, Doctor Ardus blocked the crowd from trampling her further. Nina scrambled to get her things back together, snatching her shoes before they got kicked deeper into the yellow-streaked bushes lining the path. Her dinner was a total loss, splattered in the sand. The Dreen biologist bent and hooked a huge hand under her arm and steadied her while she got to her feet. Perhaps it was because Dreen were over four hundred and fifty pounds and three feet taller than the average human, but that hand was strong. He held her up as easily as if she was made from paper. "This is becoming a habit," he commented.
"No, it's not." Nina glared at her spilled food as it soaked into the sand and a handful of kitten-sized reptiles crept out from the decorative bushes to snatch pieces of grilled meat and skitter away again. "It's just bad luck." She looked up at him, craning her neck. "You can let go of my arm now."
Doctor Ardus blinked at her before his fingers released, and he hurried to get his hand back into his pocket. He looked horribly uncomfortable, his jaw tight and his shoulders curled inward. "Are you hurt?" It sounded more like a formality than an earnest concern.
"I'm all right, just my pride is bruised. And I lost my dinner."
"None of that is salvageable," he indicated the puddle on the ground. "It is full of sand. Where did you get it?"
She told him of the cart-vendor and he made a face, his nose-bridge wrinkling. "What?"
"You have a generous stipend, you should not waste it on cheap food."
"I thought what I did with it was my business," Nina side-eyed him hard. Doctor Ardus lifted an eyebrow again. "Sorry," she said meekly.
"There is a much better place down this street," he gestured ahead of him, an avenue much better lit than the one Nina had just come up. "Unless you would prefer human fare."
"I like Dreen food," Nina explained, "and it's fresher than the imported stuff. Everything from Earth is either freeze-dried or canned and so bland. I like my meals to taste like something, even if it's yellow brineweed." Why is that so hard to believe?
Doctor Ardus's flat expression changed. He regarded her with curiosity, his head tilting to the side. Those odd dreadlock-looking things that Dreen had in place of hair fell across his forehead, tinkling with wire wraps and glass beads. He wore significantly fewer than any other Dreen she'd met thus far. "Hm. I suppose it does not matter as long as it doesn't make you ill." He tossed his head suddenly, shaking the "hair" out of his face. "Come, I will show you where it is." He started off and Nina had to scramble to catch up.
As she followed him at a safe few paces behind, she stared at his broad back. What's with this guy? He seemed like a decent person, someone who probably did more thinking than acting unless someone was in immediate trouble, but his silent, dark, ascetic manner and quiet, methodical movements spoke of an unwillingness to interact as openly as what might be considered normal; he was the picture of the solemn academic. Really puts the silent in tall, dark and silent, doesn't he? Nina smirked. I guess Dreen girls like that too, she thought as she remembered the females from the commissary, tittering and whispering with mischief in their eyes.
By the time they reached the establishment he intended, Nina had built a whole narrative of the doctor and his reputation as the "hot professor" type she remembered from graduate school, the quirky quiet ones who it seemed every single female student considered "earning extra credit" with. She had to bite her lip at the mental image of Meem in her green outfit trying her best to flirt with the stoic, severe Doctor Ardus. Stop that, she chastised her own mind, he's your boss.
"Here," Doctor Ardus said, stopping in front of a softly lit place that looked like the ideal spot for a first date, an ancient structure with the dining space open to the street behind a low stone wall just short enough for Nina to look over. "They make an excellent baked eel. Good night." He abruptly turned on his heel and headed back up the street towards the glowing university grounds, leaving Nina to stare confused at his retreat.
Weird!
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