'Mmm, do you have another fruit like that for me?' I can't pronounce the name of the juicy one, but now that Zandr has given the green light and I've tried the Jbqalala (my interpretation for the name), I'm slowly becoming addicted.

Zandr frowns. At the same time, he has his arms folded and is tapping the ground with one foot. I think I should hurry more, but I enjoy a full stomach too much to be rushed. Because he makes no move to serve me, I search among the heap of food laid out in front of me.

The gentleman also seems to realize that I don't want to hurry and he signals to Simix, who leaves to carry out an order unknown to me.

At my request we went back to his house because I had to check something there, but I also made sure that I loaded our rug with treats from the Serailer layer. I think the bright blue fruits are gone now and that's a shame. Fortunately, I have already made a plan to get more soon.

When Simix returns, Malahkii follows him into the room and that finally causes me to abandon my search. With a primal scream I jump up and run to my friend, ready to hug him.

However, Malahkii steps back cautiously and examines me thoroughly. It makes me come to a hesitant stop and automatically look down to see if there's anything on my robe that shouldn't be there. I wipe my mouth clean with the back of my hand. I have eaten more neatly before.

'Why are you glowing blue?¹⁵' To be sure, he points to my face, as if it is not already clear to me who he is asking the question to.

I hold my hands in front of me and I indeed see that my normally pale skin has now turned a sickly blue tint. I blame the blue fruit. Perhaps it is better to stay away from that in the future.

'Nothing's wrong,' I say, shrugging. 'Just a Jbqalala.' I look at him with a raised eyebrow. By behaving confidently, others often lose the desire to argue with me.

'Huh huh huh,' says Malahkii. Now both of my eyebrows shoot up in surprise, but I frown when I realize he's laughing at me. He puts his claws – very humanly – on his hairy knees and he can barely get out of his fit of laughter. I end up laughing sour. It's always nice to put someone else in a better mood, it's just a shame that it's at my expense - and my apparently very bad accent.

I also see Simix bulking. He won't miss an opportunity to laugh at me. What disappoints me is that I even see a smile in Zandr and I give him a deadly look.

He understands the message and coughs briefly.

It's enough to make the others stop and I look at them arrogantly, letting them know I won't say anything until they're serious again. Simix lets out some giggles and Malahkii snores characteristically, but then they are finally quiet.

'Okay,' I start my plan. 'Take me to the cleaning room.'

The silence is almost comical and now it's my turn to smile as they process those words. It's taking too long and I'm almost in doubt. That's why I ask, just to be sure: 'Is there a cleaning room, isn't there?'

'Would you like to discuss your plan with us first?' Simix looks at me as if I belong to the People of the Dums, which I don't.

'You'll find out for yourself,' I say. 'I have to do some research first.'

If my thinking turns out to be wrong, I have to come up with something else. There are several million aliens living here on Serail, so I don't expect any major problems anyway.

'Take her to the purification chamber,' Zandr orders.

Simix gives me a dirty look, which I return with a sunny smile, and then marches off. I say to my friend: 'Nice to see you again. Do you feel like slaying a monster?'

Malahkii puts a heavy arm over my shoulder and nods enthusiastically, as expected.

I just manage to look behind me, where the cyborg is walking, and I nod at him, smiling. His black eyes spark their secret message and I decide to take it as encouragement this time.

'Your cleaning room,' says the Plantaan, who is waiting by an open door. The sentence is tinged with sarcasm, but I don't mind that. I prefer others to underestimate rather than overestimate me, because then I can surprise them positively. That's what I'm planning on doing at the moment. I thank him sweetly and pretend not to notice that his welcoming bow is meant mockingly.

For a house as empty as the cyborg's, he has a ridiculous amount of cleaning supplies. I quickly walk past the mops, cloths and other small items, to stop at the equipment. A dozen robot vacuum cleaners stare at me and I scratch my head for a moment.

'We have to open them all,' I then decide.

Simix gives me a scathing look and in the meantime I'm a bit fed up with his negative behavior. Ignoring the male humanoids, I crouch down in front of the shelf and begin my task. The three don't ask any questions, but they don't help me either, so I peek at Zandr, because I don't mind doing it alone, but he isn't supposed to leave. I'll probably need hem any minute now.

I haven't even thought about that yet, and an orange mist rises from the dismantled vacuum cleaner. Windy is not as dead as we all thought, but she is very pissed off about her captivity and I don't blame her for that.

I let out a cry for help and at that same moment I fall backwards. I do my best to immediately back up even further, but the angry cloud is desperate to injure me; I see that in everything. 'Zandr, help!' I manage to say. At that moment I somewhat regret that I kept my plans to myself, because my field of vision turns completely orange and at the same time the pain starts.

'Windy, stop,' the gentleman orders and I'm glad she listens right away, because I'm lying on the ground more dead than alive.

Windy buzzes cracklingly and although she does so in her own language, I understand the meaning effortlessly. 'Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?' I ask, but Zandr shakes his head and I realize that now is not the time for lame jokes. Plus the question came out pretty weak and I don't want them to feel sorry for me. I can already see Malahkii looking worried.

'I assume this was your intention?' Zandr says.

I scramble to my feet and nod with conviction.

'Perhaps you would now like to share with us the rest of your undoubtedly magnificent plan?'

I feel like shooting Simix and he's lucky that I can't find my cyber cannon anywhere.

***

¹⁵Prompt 15. 'Why are you glowing blue?'