Liberi Fatalis: The Theriantrope Chronicles

by Eddie-E

A crossover between Ace Combat, Katmandu and another, surprise famous furry comic. An epic tale trascending eras about the life & times of many heroes & villians fighting against an ancient evil from a very distant past. Rated M for language and mature situations.

20. HIGHLAND TRIBE

ACT XX: HIGHLAND TRIBE

---

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

Buddha

---

July 11th, AD 2299, Plains Area (Dry Lake), Unknown Planet, 01:45 PM

-"Hey, I think something fell into the trap."-

-"Yeah, let's take a look."-

Akane Araki had fell 15 minutes ago into what seemed to be an animal trap, causing her to partially lose consciousness when her head partially hit the ground; the only thing that prevented that fall from being fatal to her was that she had fallen into what appeared to be a sandbox at the bottom of that hole, which partially broke her fall.

Due to a combination of several factors, among which were the intense heat felt in the region where Akane was located, the impact of the fall, and the fact that the fall itself could have caused her vision to become blurred, at least during the time she was immobilized in that hole, the young African-Japanese soldier could only hear two male voices, most likely from people younger than her, approaching her position.

Unfortunately for Akane, she could not comprehend what they were talking about, since those two young men were speaking in a language that she had never heard before in her life, but it was very likely that those people were wondering what had fallen into the trap, most likely thinking that it was some wild animal that they were hunting at that time.

-"Hey, I think a person fell into the trap!"-

-"Really?"-

-"Well, it doesn't look like a herndon, as far as I can see."-

When both young men saw Akane's unconscious body, they could not avoid thinking the worst, in the belief that she might be dead, as she had fallen into the trap they had originally placed to hunt a larger animal.

-"Is that person dead?"-

-"For the Goddess' sake, I just hope not, I wouldn't like to think that we killed an innocent person while hunting game, even if it was an accident."-

To ensure that the strange woman had not died from the fall, both young men descended to the bottom of the hole; due to the darkness in that place, the two hunters could not distinguish Akane's physical appearance from afar, and she was upside down when they found her unconscious in the trap.

-"Make sure her heart is still beating."-

-"Understood."-

When one of the young hunters decided to turn Akane's body around to check her pulse, he stepped back violently when he saw that woman...

-"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

-"What happened, did you see a ghost or what?"-

The other young man reacted strongly, as he was busy looking at the huge backpack that Akane was carrying under her back, and which was next to her after the fall.

-"Ju-ju-ju-...JUST LOOK AT HER!"-

-"Her?"-

When the other hunter approached Akane and carefully looked at her body, that man realized that this woman was completely different from anything he had ever seen in his life, starting with her physical appearance. It was more than evident that those two young hunters had never seen a human being in their lives, and Akane's physical appearance started to scare them in a notorious way, though the first hunter seemed to be more scared than the second one with her.

-"She... she... she has no fur, her skin is dark like yours, her ears are small and she has no tail!"-

The other hunter looked closely at the human woman and noticed her physical features, although he also noticed other things about her.

-"You are right, and she is also fat."-

The other hunter did not find that crack funny at all.

-"We just ran into a person of an unknown race, and the first thing you think of to say is that she is fat?!"-

-"Well, we have to get her out of here, and if she's fat we're going to have a hard time dragging her out of this hole, don't you think?"-

-"I think you're right."-

-"In that case, let me see if her heart is still beating."-

The hunter put his hand on Akane's chest to check her pulse. Seeing that the human woman was still alive, the hunter breathed a sigh of relief that the trap did not kill her.

-"So?"-

-"She is alive, but the best thing would be to take her to the village for treatment; I would not like to leave her here alone and wait for help, besides I think her injuries are not serious."-

-"And how do you know that?"-

-"As far as I can see, she didn't break her neck, and it only looks like she hit her head when she fell into the hole, so I think she just lost consciousness; in that case, it's just safe to take her back to the village right away."-

-"Do you think the chief will say anything to us for taking a stranger to the village just like that?"-

-"And what do you think we should do then? We should let her die here or what?"-

The other hunter paused briefly, and then replied.

-"Of course not, at least the best we can do is offer her our hospitality."-

-"And let's just hope she's not hostile, at least."-

---

July 11th, AD 2299, ?, Unknown Planet, unknown hour

From this point on, Akane had already completely lost consciousness, even though before she fainted completely, she could hear something that those two young hunters were talking about. In addition, she remembered slightly that she seemed to be on top of some animal, but from that point on, she could not remember anything else, and everything that follows from this is based on the accounts of those two hunters who explained to her afterwards how they found her and brought her to their village.

-"I knew that woman is very fat, but I never imagined that getting her out of that hole even with your help would be so complicated; my arms still hurt from all the effort we made to even carry her on my riding lizard!"-

-"You don't say! And we also had to take out her bag that she was carrying from the trap, which weighs more than she does"-

-"Yes, and we have to tow that thing on the road using ropes; I don't think our lizards can carry something that heavy on their backs!"-

The hunters looked at Akane's backpack, which was dragged by their beasts using ropes, due to its enormous weight that prevented them from climbing that bag in an ordinary way. For more than obvious reasons, the weight of such a bundle was too much for those lizards, although fortunately for them, their home village was not far from where they were both at that time.

-"Hey, is she still alive?"-

The other hunter who had Akane with him on his lizard checked the human woman's pulse again and found that she seemed fine.

-"She's fine, we just have to hurry before she can regain consciousness; I wouldn't like to know what would happen if she wakes up and thinks we tried to kidnap her or something."-

-"Coming from you, I find it hard to believe you would say something like that, or maybe you're starting to regret it?"-

That seemingly innocent remark seemed to upset the other warrior in a remarkable way, which he let his fellow man know at once.

-"I DON'T REGRET ANYTHING!"- The other alien-sounding man replied with rage. -"And don't think you're completely innocent or anything like that, because you also helped me in all this!"-

The other hunter did not respond, because he knew that he was right in that observation of their shared past, and he could only lower his head, crestfallen before that memory from a past that he was starting to lament every day that passed.

The other warrior, upon seeing that his friend did not say a word, and upon seeing his face, which evidently denoted his remorse and shame at that past event, chose to look for a way to change the issue, which was too unpleasant for both of them to discuss.

-"Look, I don't feel like discussing this nonsense with you again; What happened, it happened unfortunately, and we can't do anything to change it."- The other warrior carrying Akane in his lizard said at his other friend. -"Now we must concentrate on how to explain to the whole village about this strange woman, and wait for her to regain consciousness."-

-"Right, and let's hope she doesn't try to kill us, or destroy the village by trying to escape."-

Fortunately for both young hunters, the village was only half an hour away, so they did not have to worry in case Akane's condition worsened or she regained consciousness too soon for them to take action, considering what would come next.

---

July 11th, AD 2299, Village (Unknown place), Unknown Planet, unknown hour (four hours after the last event, near sunset)

The first thing Akane Araki noticed when she was able to open her eyes was that her vision was completely blurred, and she could see almost nothing around her, which made her think at first that she might have lost her sight as a result of the hit she received on the head after the fall.

But after a few minutes, that woman's vision began to improve and the first thing she saw was that she was inside what appeared to be a tent.

-"Ughhh... Where the hell am I?"-

When her vision finally returned completely to normal, Akane realized several things that were not normal for her:

The first of them was that she was in what looked more like a kind of teepee very similar to those used by Native Americans, especially those from the cowboy movies she hated so much, and if that wasn't enough, the place was full of apparent Native American paraphernalia, including vases, clay pots, and other objects that wouldn't be out of place on an Indian reservation or in a Wild West movie.

-"What kind of place is this? Did I end up in the afterlife or what?"-

That was the only explanation that Akane could deduce, considering the place she was lying at the time, as hours ago she was in the middle of a desert, and the last thing she remembered was that she had fallen into what seemed to be a pit.

And that was the least bizarre thing about that place.

The second thing she noticied was that she was lying in a sleeping bag, completely naked, and when she touched her head, she noticed that she had a bandage on it. That meant that someone had taken her clothes off before she was put on that bed and had administered medical first aids to Akane while she was unconscious all that time.

-"What happened to my clothes? And who the fuck took my clothes off while I was knocked out?"-

She had more than enough reasons to worry about her lack of clothes, fearing that someone, exploiting her unconsciousness, might have raped her or tried to steal her possessions; the first thing she did when she contemplated the prospect of being raped was to ascertain if her physical integrity was intact. Seeing that everything seemed to be in order, she breathed a sigh of relief.

-"At least no one tried to prey on me while I was out of commision, that's for sure."-

But that was not even the strangest part about the whole predicament that Akane Araki was experiencing at that time, since the most surprising part of her tale was just about to begin...

-"Are you all right, mistress?"-

The African-Japanese soldier heard a very feminine voice, although with a certainly intense intonation, coming from her left side of the sleeping bag where she was unconscious a few moments ago. Akane could not understand her language, but she could deduce that the voice was asking about her physical condition and whether she was well.

Immediately after that female voice asked that question, Akane felt a hand touch her left shoulder, perhaps to comfort her, something that caused her considerable uneasiness, for various personal reasons.

-"Listen, I don't want to be rude with you, but I don't like to be tou..."-

When she politely tried to remove that strange hand from her shoulder, the first thing Akane noticed was that hand had a fuzzy texture, and it felt like anything else except being a human one.

-"What... the... FUCK... is... this...?"-

When she turned her head to her left, she noticed that there was a girl next to her, most likely someone who had stayed to take care of her while Akane was unconscious, which would have been great for the human soldier if not for several unusual quirks for that woman.

That girl next to Akane was about 18 years old, at most, but that was the least strange thing about her, but her physical appearance: She had blue eyes with a certain shade of gray, blond hair, her coat was orange with a certain shade of yellow and also with a white stripe of fur from her muzzle to her rest of her body, with three pale stripes on her tail, and cat ears.

Everything indicated that she was a humanoid cat, and she was not just any cat, but she possessed a quite exceptional beauty, if not that the clothes she was wearing looked quite dirty, and she didn't seem to have anything else on besides her sandals.

Seeing that strange feline-like creature in front of her, Akane began to blink her eyes as a sign of incredulity and astonishment, thinking that blow in her head that she suffered might have caused her to start seeing bizarre things. To her dismay, what she was seeing before her eyes was not a mind-boggling hallucination, but the very harsh reality.

-"Who the HELL are you?"-

And when she thought she had seen everything at that critical stage, she heard footsteps coming towards the teepee where Akane was recovering, and another person suddenly entered the tent.

-"It seems that our guest has already woken up, judging by her voice.."-

The first thing the human woman could notice about that other person was that she was also a woman, but just like the other girl next to her, she was also a humanoid feline, although she was older, judging by her face, through her coat was gray, with darker fur tones in her face, hands and feet, which made it look like she could be a Siamese cat or something similar.

-"Hello, stranger! I hope you are well and nothing bad has happened to you; my family found you knocked down in a trap in the desert and you were unconscious for several hours, so we brought you here to our village."-

Next, Akane heard more strange voices coming from behind that woman, most likely other people in her family who were curious to meet the human woman who was recovering from her wounds on that teepee.

-"Is our mysterious guest awake yet, Mother Sanna?"-

At that moment, more people entered the teepee to take a closer look at that human woman; just like the other two women who were with Akane in the tent, all those present were also humanoid cats, among them were two youngsters and a little girl.

But for Akane Araki, she was more concerned about what was going on there, who were all these strange people and why none of them looked human. If it weren't for the fact that she was completely sure that what she was experiencing before her very eyes was not the product of some bad dream, or some heat stroke-induced hallucination brought on by the harsh weather of that place, she could have sworn that all these anthropomorphic-looking cats looked like something out of a cheap children's movie.

Except that was not a kid's movie, but the cruel reality...

-"Where the hell did I end up?"- Akane cursed as loudly as she could, in order to get some kind of answers from those creatures. -"Did I wind up into fuckin' Zootopia or what?"-

The blonde female cat, who was on Akane's left side, seemed to understand, after seeing the human girl's worried face, that she was trying to ask what was going on. Like Akane, she and the other humanoid hosts did not understand anything the human female soldier from Japan was saying, so they tried to calm her down somehow.

-"Stay calm, no one is going to hurt you, we just want to..."-

But before she could do anything to reassure Akane, she realized two things that started to scare her right away:

The first one was that, in front of her, there was a huge pot with something cooking inside; because her sense of smell was somewhat altered due to the stress she was suffering at the time, she could not smell what might be inside, but she could not help but relate that pot to the second problem she was suffering at the time.

And that second problem was that Akane was stark naked; those beings had taken off all her clothes, including the weapons she carried with her, including her military knife and her tantou that she always carried with her as a backup weapon in case she could not use firearms or her swords, which meant that she was completely defenseless in case any of those cats tried to attack her.

Due to those two circumstances, to the stress produced by being in a severe case of close encounter of the fifth type of the highest level, and not being able to understand a single word that those strange feline-like beings were talking in front of her, Akane linked the pot, the anthropomorphic beings, and her nakedness with the most logical possibility.

Those cats seemed to want to eat her alive.

-"EYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"-

Akane Araki's cry of terror could be heard throughout the village as she faced the possibility that these aliens were trying to turn her into their meal of the day. For obvious reasons, the humanoid hosts did not understand what was wrong with that Earth woman, although they did understand that she was scared and terrified, and tried to do something to calm her down, to no avail.

-"Hey you, just calm down, we're not going to hurt you, please stay calm!"-

The old woman tried to calm Akane by trying to get close to the human woman, but she jumped out of that bed, not caring in the least if the others saw her naked or not, among them the little girl who was along with the two young men and they were behind of the old woman, and walked away from her as fast as she could, screaming as loud as Akane could to drive those strange humanoid felines away from her.

-"GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU FUCKIN' MAN-EATIN' BEASTS!"-

Without wasting any more time, Akane saw that on her left side was a clay jug, which she could use at least its fragments as an improvised knife; so, she took the jug and immediately afterwards, she broke it, and using a sufficiently large and sharp shard, she pointed that impromptu knife at the old feline woman and anyone who tried to come near her.

-"DON'T COME NEAR ME, YOU UGLY BITCH, OR I'LL START KILLIN' ANYONE WHO COMES NEAR ME!"-

One of the young warriors on the teepee where the events took place covered the eyes of the girl next to him, to prevent her from seeing Akane naked, and also to stop her from seeing a likely violent outcome to that volatile situation.

-"Why are you covering my eyes, big brother?"-

-"You better not see this."-

And he had reason to do so, because his other friend, seeing that the old woman was being threatened by that human being armed with a makeshift clay knife, decided to come to the old woman's defense with a hunting knife he had at hand, and he stood between the old woman and Akane, aiming to assail her should the need arise.

-"I don't know who the hell you are, you hairless, dark-skinned stranger, but nobody threatens Mother Sanna under my nose, and lives to tell about it!"-

Akane realized that feline warrior was willing to kill her with the knife he was holding, and judging by his attitude, she could not afford to let him out of her sight at any time, considering that she was at complete disadvantage, as she had no other weapon at hand, except for that improvised knife made of clay, and having no other body defense, being completely naked, so, if Akane wanted to walk out from that dangerous and volatile spot where she ended up, she had to figure out something, and as quickly as possible.

But even someone as pragmatic as she, being a woman, could not help but be in awe of that strange alien being in front of her, even though he intended to kill her at any moment: That young cat warrior had a deep black coat, white hair with also a white stripe from his muzzle to his chest ruff, orange eyes, and just like the young girl at her side, he could be about 18-19 years old, at least. All this would have been great for her in a totally normal situation, if it weren't for a small factor...

The angry, murderous gaze of that young alien feline was such, since, as a cat eager to pounce on its prey, he showed his sharp, enormous teeth, seeing himself ready to fight Akane in order to defend his family.

Akane Araki, on the other hand, was beginning to tremble with fear for the first time in many years, and for a good reason; Although she had trained since she was 12 years old in the arts of Bushido, in addition to training in mixed martial arts, and receiving special forces training when she joined the JSSDF Space Rangers, not to mention a brief stint with the U.S. Army Rangers at Fort Benning, Georgia as part of a joint training between the American Earth Rangers and their Japanese counterparts, nothing she had learned in Earth had prepared her to stand face to face with an angry alien, let alone an anthropomorphic animal.

As she contemplated all this in her mind, the young soldier couldn't help but think that she probably wouldn't survive that quarrel in the state she was in, something she pondered in the dimmest sense possible.

-"Hell of a way to die on this stinky planet! I want to picture what my gravestone will say when they find my eaten remains: Akane Araki, born in Eswatini as Ariana Mutombo, adopted by a Japanese couple, and died in a space shithole in 2299 after being the first human to have a close encounter of the fifth type with some beings that seem to have come out of a cheap Broadway musical, and being also the last. At least I would have prefer being probed by little gray-skinned, big-eyed men with big heads like in those movies about aliens from the 20th and 21st centuries than to end up being cat food on another planet."-

The other younger warrior, who was behind the old woman and the dark-furred one, noticed Akane's face and did a crack about her.

-"Hey, that girl looks like she's blushing; I think she likes you, heh heh heh..."-

The other warrior with the knife did not find that sight to be funny at all...

-"OH, SHUT UP!"-

For his part, Akane did not forget that the fact that that young alien warrior was handsome would not overshadow the reality that he was extremely dangerous and ready to skin her alive at any time.

-"All right, my furry friend, you may have a knife at hand, but let's see what you can do against a trained Space Ranger, and I'm going to warn you that I've fought bigger guys with knives than you, so don't fuck with me, you stupid cat!"-

The blonde cat girl, who was watching next to Akane, saw how things seemed to go from bad to worse, and that at any moment either of the two fighters could launch the first attack, and turn that situation into an unnecessary tragedy, and when she saw that the human soldier was starting to shake her hand due to fear, she perceived that something was not right with her.

And without any warning, she stepped right in between Akane and the other warrior with the knife, without the slightest concern that she would be hurt if either of them tried to engage in a fight with each other; the fearless spirit of that young woman caused Akane to be speechless for a few moments, and likewise, the other warrior was also struck by the rash attitude of that bold woman.

-"What the hell are you doing, girl, do you want to get killed or what?"-

Even though she knew Akane would not understand her words, the blonde girl spoke loudly but firmly, while also using mimicry to try to communicate with the human woman and ask her to calm down, before things got any worse.

-"Please... calm...down...we...do...not...want... to...hurt you."-

The other warrior did not appreciate the girl meddling in the conflict they were both involved in, and he furiously yelled at her.

-"Hey you, this is MY fight, stay out of this unless you want her to kill you!"-

Akane, on the other hand, began to see that the blonde cat girl was trying to tell her that they had no intention of hurting her, but for her that was very difficult to accomplish considering that the other warrior was more than willing to kill her at any second, and he didn't seem to enjoy it at all that the girl was meddling in that fight.

While this was happening, the old woman quickly looked at the pot behind them all at the bottom of the teepee, and as she looked at Akane, she realized right away what could have been the reason why the Earth girl suddenly became so hostile, as she related her sudden change in behavior to the presence of a pot with food inside it.

-"Wait a minute, stop fighting, you two!"- The old feline woman yelled loudly at both Akane and the dark-furred cat. -"I think I understand why that girl wants to attack us!"-

-"Huh?"- The knife-holding warrior said, without losing his sights on the human woman. -"You really know why?"-

-"Just look at the pot."- She pointed her finger on the aforementioned bowl. -"I think she thought on the most obvious thing."-

-"And what did this crazy woman think of that would make her want to kill you, huh?"-

-"Are you stupid, or WHAT?"- The old Siamese-looking old woman insulted back to the young warrior. -"She must had thought we were planned to eat her alive!"-

Hearing that part about the human woman thinking that they planned to eat her alive, the warrior quickly understood that the whole conflict was a huge misunderstanding, and he could not help but feel ashamed that he almost turned that situation into a major tragedy if rather than calm down that human soldier, the first thing he tried to do was trying to kill her, even considering the fact that Akane also tried to attack her alien hosts first with that makeshift clay knife.

-"sigh... I guess I almost screwed this up."-

-"Don't feel bad about this, I think anyone would have done the same thing as you, I think."- The other younger warrior said at his fellow one, while still holding covering the eyes of his little sister, even if the incident was already over. -"It is not every day that we see weird people like her around."-

-"Yeah, I know that, but you don't need to remember me that, damn it!"-

Akane, on the other hand, also realized, even without understanding anything of what was going on, that the whole incident was a misunderstanding, and that they did not intend to inflict any harm on her; meanwhile, the blonde cat girl made mimicry gestures in order to communicate with Akane and tell her exactly what was taking place.

-"Look...we are...your friends...we don't...want...to...hurt you...put down...that thing...please..."-

-"I think she wants to tell me that they're not going to harm me; guess it's was just a stupid misunderstanding after all."-

Immediately afterwards, Akane put the clay knife on the ground as a sign that she understood that what happened was a misunderstanding in the first place. Leaving aside all that incident, The African-Japanese female soldier wanted to know, using mimicry as well, what had happened to her clothes, which was what caused that incident to begin with.

-"What...happened..."- Akane put her fingers in her body in order to signalizing her clothes. -"with my...clothes?"-

-"I think she wants to know that happened with her clothes."- The black cat said at the old woman.

-"You mean her clothes?"- The old feline woman replied, and then she addressed Akane personally about the whereabouts of her garments -"Let me explain you, dear: when we brought you to the village, your clothes smelled horrible, so we sent them to the stream to be washed, and right now they are drying; I hope you brought at least a spare change of clothes in that big bag you carried and we couldn't open it."-

The old woman forgot that Akane did not understand a single word she was saying...

-"Oh, Goddess! I forgot you cannot understand a thing."- Seeing that the only way she could communicate with Akane was with mimics for the time being, she pointed her finger at the human woman's backpack, to imply that she should dress right away with some change of clothes she might had there.

-"I think she wants me to put on whatever clothes I have in my backpack."-

Akane mimed that she needed privacy before going to dress, while she covered the rest of her body with a blanket that the blonde feline girl had given her for that purpose while they talked.

-"She wants to be alone while she puts on her clothes, so we are at least going to honor her privacy, which is the least we can do after all this fuss regarding the food."-

-"That would be wise, but it would be good if someone stayed with her, in case there was a problem, for her sake and ours."- The other young warrior with the little girl said, knowing that letting that human girl alone could be a risk for them in case something went wrong.

-"You're right; I don't trust this woman after what she did."- The dark-furried feline said, without losing his angry sights on Akane.

-"In that case, should there be no problem for all of you, could I stay with her at her side?"- The blonde girl offered her help on regards of helping that human woman.

-"I don't see any problem, besides, from what I noticed about her, I think that stranger is not a bad person, she just got scared when she saw the pot, thinking that we were probably planning to eat her."-

-"I still can't believe anyone would be stupid enough to think such a thing!"- The young black feline with with white hair furiously replied, thinking that the human soldier could be an enemy or a hostile person, which would be a very reasonable opinion, in a very different scenario, that is.

-"Oh, don't be so dense, please!"- The old woman also angrily replied at the young man. -"Like he said, anyone in her place would have acted the same way she did, if you were in her place, don't you think?"-

A brief pause was done and then the man replied...

-"I think you're right."-

-"Well, in that case, let's leave the two of them alone, shall we?"-

-"OK, Mother Sanna."- Then the other younger warrior took his little sister along with him. -"Let's go, Panka."-

-"Oh, come on, I wanna see that woman up close, big brother!"-

-"You'll see her later when she finishes dressing, now let's leave her alone, shall we?"-

-"sigh OK."-

And so, everyone else, with the exception of the blonde girl with the beautiful eyes, had left the teepee. For Akane Araki, however, even if the presence of that girl was somewhat awkward for her, since she was a complete stranger at the eyes of that human woman, at least she was nicer than the people who came in a few moments ago, and she could have also caused a tragic mishap if she had not associated that pot with food with an attempt of cannibalism against her.

-"Great, I almost caused an incident between the human race and these Cats rejects, and that stupid black cat could had killed me as well if this girl next to me didn't let the things escalate to homicidal levels."-

Akane turned her head to see the feline maiden standing next to her as she dressed. The African-Japanese soldier could not stop looking at her, even though she tried not to in order to concentrate on getting dressed instead of trying to chat with her, as Akane did not understand her language and vice versa.

When she saw that the human woman was watching her very closely, the feline alien girl began to wag her tail back and forth, and she seemed to feel embarrassed about being observed by that stranger coming from another world. On her side, Akane, who understood some animal behavior due to her work experience in the army, understood that when a cat wagged a tail like that, it meant that the animal was upset or nervous, which was the case of the girl that Akane had in front of her.

But Akane also felt, because of her own morals and also due to her sense of honor as a warrior, that she should at least be grateful to that girl for risking her life in that way in case that warrior with the knife had tried to kill Akane, and thereby her.

But how could she tell that girl that she was grateful for what she did without her physical language being interpreted in a way that the alien could perceive it as an aggression?

So, Akane did what anyone in her adoptive Japan would do in that case: bow her head, and wait for the blonde humanoid cat to interpret it as a form of gratitude.

-"I hope you can understand this, but thank you very much for saving my life, whoever you are."-

The alien girl was surprised for a few moments by the physical gesture that human woman did to show her respect, but she quickly understood what that strange woman wanted to communicate with it.

-"I think you want to thank me, don't you?"-

Akane nodded with her head.

-"I understand, I guess I have to do the same."-

The girl, without getting up from the ground where she was, bowed her head to give back the same sign of gratitude that Akane did to her. The human soldier was very surprised to see that something as simple like bowing one's head was so universal even in a world as primitive and alien as the one she was in at the time.

-"I guess a lot of things will never change, no matter where you are, even if you are on another planet full of strange beings like her."-

Once she was fully dressed, Akane thought it would be a good idea to step off from the teepee so that she would know exactly where she was...

-"All right, let's see what this place is like, and where I ended up..."-

But when she saw that the human wanted to leave the tent, the girl quickly stood up from the ground, and she apparently tried to prevent Akane from leaving that place.

-"Hey you, don't go out there, you'll scare everyone in the village!"-

But Akane blatantly ignored what she said, and without a second thought, she walked off the teepee, not weighing the consequences of what she was doing...

---

July 11th, AD 2299, Village (Unknown place/Outside), Unknown Planet, unknown hour, near sunset)

If Akane Araki could have understood what the blonde feline girl was trying to warn her about, the culture and visual shock she and her hosts felt simultaneously would have been less severe.

-"What... the... FUCKIN'... HELL?!"-

When Akane thought that she had seen it all at that point, the first thing that the human woman noticed when she emerged from the teepee, was that tent that looked like a prop straight out from a Wild West movie was not the only thing that existed in that spot, but that the semi-desertical area where she was standing had many similar teepees surrounding the one where the African-Japanese woman was in recovery for hours.

And that was the least strange sight that Akane was facing at that time...

-"Hey, look at that weird girl with no hair and no tail."-

-"Looks like her skin is very dark, and she only has hair on her head."-

-"Mother! Who is that strange woman over there?"-

-"Please don't look at her, she might get angry!"-

Akane Araki quickly realized the harsh reality of the things on that planet where she had come to be, and she was witnessing it with her very two eyes:

The first was that she had ended up in what seemed to be an indigenous tribe very similar, in almost every single detail, to those that existed on her native planet Earth, especially in the United States and Canada, including similar clothing, which included buckskins, traditional skirts and the like, hairstyles, like braids, and even similar iconography, with the sole exception of their language, which sounded nothing like what she had heard on Earth.

The second, and the most bizarre thing of all these things, although she had witnessed it beforehand, but now that she was out in the open she could actually picture it more vividly with her own eyes, was that all the inhabitants of that tribe were humanoid cats.

-"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A PLACE IS THIS? Did I land on the Disney remake of The Last of the Mohicans' movie set or WHAT?"-

The presence of that woman who belonged to another species from beyond the world of those cats caused great commotion in the entire village; Akane Araki, who was completely different from anything they had ever seen in their lives, with her dark skin, small ears, the complete lack of a tail and her imposing physical presence, made the human woman look like a kind of curiosity that no one in the village could ignore.

Akane, on the other hand, began to feel awkward when she became suddenly the object of attention of all those felines, and the fact that all of them were talking about her, without Akane being able to understand anything of what they were saying, made the African-Japanese woman feel somewhat threatened, not being able to understand what they were all talking about her in their own language.

-"Shit, I feel like in those movies where the main character, usually a white dude, ends up in a native village and becomes their center of attention, save that in my case, I'm in a godforsaken planet made up of dinosaurs and cats out of a cartoon movie, and on top of that, I'm a black woman born in Africa, as if things weren't ironic enough for me any longer!"-

In the face of all this, Akane could only stand in front of the teepee from where she emerged, while the blonde-haired feline girl, who was her chaperone in a way until that moment, looked helpless and nervous in the face of the uproar that was taking place at that moment.

-"Okay, what's all the fuss that's going on here?"-

The human, even without understanding the language, could immediately recognize the voice of that person she heard in the distance, and it could not be otherwise.

That voice was the old cat lady who looked like a Siamese, who could not hide her anger at seeing Akane off the teepee, but what caught the human's attention was that the old woman's fury seemed to be aimed at the young girl next to her rather than at Akane.

-"Why did you let that woman leave the teepee, huh?"-

The girl stuttered a bit at the old woman's scolding...

-"I... I... I couldn't stop her, because she walked out without even warning me first!"

-"Well, now look what she has done with her presence here, because I didn't want anyone else to see her until I talked with the chief about what to do with her first!"-

-"I'm... I'm so sorry!"-

Akane, who saw what was happening to that young girl, quickly understood what was going on, and decided to return to the teepee to avoid any negative consequences for that girl as a result of Akane having done something detrimental to both women.

-"I'd better get back on the teepee to avoid giving this poor girl any more trouble over my own stupidity."-

---

July 11th, AD 2299, Village (Unknown place/Inside Teepee), Unknown Planet, unknown hour (near sunset)

Once inside the tent, both the old lady and the blonde girl entered together, and even though the old woman did not know how to speak Japanese or any earthly language to communicate with Akane, that was not an impediment for her to tell the human woman her displeasure for having her left the teepee like that.

-"Look, I don't know where you come from, but you can't just walk out of this teepee, since you are not from this land, and you can cause a problem if you walk around the village without supervision, so for the time being you will stay here in my tent until we see what we can do with you, is that clear?"-

The old woman used mimicry to make her message clear to the human soldier, which she could only half understand, but Akane knew that her presence had caused quite an uproar, for the simple fact that, as far for these feline beings were concerned, she was the alien for them, and they had more than enough reasons to be afraid of that human woman in the case the things went sour between them.

Interpreting all those messages, the human woman, having no other method of expressing her contrition for having unintentionally caused that incident, bowed her head again, this time to the old woman to signal that she was sorry for having left the teepee without her permission.

-"Why are you bowing your head, young lady?"-

The elderly feline quickly interpreted the message Akane wanted to send her by bowing her head politely, without saying another word.

-"I think I figured you out; you want to apologize for what happened, do you?"-

Akane, while interpreting the tone of the old woman's voice, nodded her head.

-"I see; no need to worry, you're not a bad person after all if you want to apologize, even if you don't know the language."-

Akane did not say or do anything else, except that she sat on the ground of the teepee in order to rest and listen to the old woman more closely, since she needed to be able to interpret her body language to understand what the old woman was trying to say to Akane and vice versa, something that was going to be more difficult for both parties, because the definition of body language of both species to which both women belonged was very different from what they were used to.

To begin with, Akane not only had to read the tone of voice of her alien interlocutors, but also had to look at factors that the human woman did not know, and that the inhabitants of that planet, on the other hand, knew from birth, such as interpreting the movement of ears, tails and other extra parts that humans did not have. The same went in reverse for her hosts, since Akane did not have a tail, nor could she move her ears, they had to interpret her intentions based mainly on the movement of her body, her arms, legs, feet and on the expressions of her face, as well as, of course, on the tone of her voice.

But at that time, Akane had another problem that required immediate attention...

GROWL

Her stomach needed food right away, something that both the blonde girl and the old lady noticed right away.

-"Oh, you're hungry, aren't you?"-

The human woman nodded with her head.

-"Don't worry about that, I'll be serving food right away, but I'm going to need you to wait for me here for a little bit."-

Without saying any more, the old lady left the tent, leaving Akane and the blonde feline alone again. On this occasion, the human was not going to venture to make another mistake that could be life-threatening for her if her intentions are mistaken in one way or another and she has to cope with a life-and-death scenario as a result.

-"God, now I am in a really big fuckin' mess, and I don't know how I'm going to get out of this alive."- The African-Japanese soldier cursed her luck. -"Not only am I in a place that looks like someone took Dances With Wolves, replaced the "wolves" part with cats, and took the cats part very literally, but also these cats are viewing me with suspicion, although I cannot blame them, to be completely fair with these guys."

Akane looked closely at the blonde cat girl next to her, and realized that she kept wagging her tail in a sign of nervousness, which also made the human woman uneasy in a noteworthy way, since the last thing Akane wanted was for those felines to perceive her as some kind of monster straight out from hell; also, Akane knew that if she wanted to avoid another incident like the one with the pot, the first thing she had to do was to let her hosts know her intentions in advance, and for that it was important that they should know who she was, where she came from, and anything they needed to know about their mysterious new guest from beyond the stars.

-"Well, if I'm gonna have to live in this shithole, I think I had better learn the names of the people I'm gonna be living with, because I'm probably gonna be here for god knows how long, and I better start getting used to this place as soon as possible."-

So with this idea in mind, Akane called the attention of her other alien hostess who was next to her pointing her finger at the feline girl.

-"Hey, you!"-

The girl looked at Akane as she heard her voice, which immediately caused her to raise her ears and stop wagging her tail immediately.

-"Who, me?"-

-"Yeah, who else?"- Akane said loudly at the girl. Then, the black woman pointed her finger at her mouth to let her female peer know that she needed to talk to her. -"I need to speak with you."-

Seeing that the human was making mimicry signs indicating that she wanted to talk to her, the blonde-haired cat girl walked up to Akane so she could understand what she was trying to tell her.

-"All right, I wonder what she wants to talk to me about? I can't understand her language, but I guess she at least wants to talk to me anyway."-

Then, Akane pointed her finger again at her mouth, and then pointed the same finger at her talking partner's muzzle to signal what the human woman wanted to know about that girl.

-"Name... your name... I need... your name...please..."-

The blonde girl tried to interpret her words about what Akane wanted to know about her.

-"You want to talk to me?"-

Seeing that the girl did not fully understand what Akane wanted her to understand, the human woman decided that the best thing was that she should be the one to give her name first, and not the other way around, so that her alien hostess could have the confidence on doing the same.

-"Name... Akane..."- Then, she pointed her finger to her face. -"Akane Araki... my name..."-

The blonde cat girl quickly understood what the foreign woman was trying to say, and she said her name out loud to see if she had grasped her words right.

-"Akane Aragi?"- The girl first understood the human woman's name as this. -"So your name is Akane Aragi?"-

-"ARAGI, NO!"- Akane replied annoyed when she heard that her host misheard her surname the wrong way. "ARAKI! A-RA-KI!"-

-"Oh, sorry! A-RA-KI, A-RA-KIIIIIIIIIII."- The feline girl repeated her surname many times in order to get the pronounciation of Akane's family name right. -"So your name is "Akane" and the name of your clan is "Araki", correct?"-

The human soldier nodded. Then, the alien girl pointed her finger at herself to make it clear if Akane wanted to know her name.

-"So, I guess you want to know my name too, don't you?"-

The human nodded her head again.

-"sigh...I guess it doesn't hurt that you know my name."-

The alien then pointed her finger at herself to identify herself to her human guest.

-"Name... Liska."-

-"Licca?"- Akane misheard the name of that alien girl, confusing it with the name of a famous Japanese doll brand called "Licca-chan", which caused the African-Japanese woman to have a rather naughty laugh when she heard such a name. -"Hoooooooly SHIT! As if it wasn't enough for you to be blonde and pretty just like those candy-ass dolls! HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!"-

The feline girl didn't find it funny that human woman mishead her name at all, much less making fun of it, and she quickly and furiously let that woman know that very right away.

-"No! Licca no!"- The girl named Liska responded in a very angry way, while she used mimicry to let the human female soldier know her anger. -"My name... Liska... my name!"-

Akane quickly saw that girl's angry face and realized that that seemingly innocent crack had caused that girl named "Liska" to be angry, especially when she saw that girl furiously wagging her tail and looking at Akane in a visibly enraged fashion for having made fun of her name in her face.

-"Oops, I don't think it was a good idea to make that lame joke about her name."-

Then, she addressed the feline girl once again, this time with a more serious tone, since she couldn't afford to screw up things in front of that alien girl.

-"OK, OK! I'm...sorry... I'm...sorry...!"- Then, Akane pointed her finger at the girl and then at herself, in order to confirm both names -"You... Liska... Me... Akane."-

-"Yes."- Liska replied at Akane in order to do the same thing on herself. -"You... Akane... my name is Liska"-

-"In that case, pleased to meet ya, Liska!"-

After having settled the matter with her, Akane offered her hand to indicate that everything was resolved, something that Liska did not understand at first, because hand greetings were not known in her culture at that time. Seeing the human woman's hand, she could not help but scratch her head as a sign of puzzlement at the foreigner's gesture.

-"Um, I don't understand exactly why you are offering me your arm..."-

Akane moved her arm up and down so that Liska could understand that she wanted to give her a handshake, something that the feline girl took a while to understand at first.

Seeing that Liska did not understand the concept of handshaking, Akane pointed her finger at her arm so that she would shake hands with hers, something she picked up immediately.

-"I think you want me to shake your arm, I see."-

Akane nodded her head.

-"All right, I'm going to do what you say, Akane."-

And so, Liska shook the human woman's arm and she did the same with her alien counterpart, something the blonde-haired cat found odd at first, as she had never received anything like this in her life.

But seeing and feeling the warmth of Akane's greeting to her, Liska couldn't help but feel good because someone like her, who at first she regarded as an unknown aggressor from out of nowhere, and that even her species was something she had never seen in her entire life, was taking the trouble to shake her hand as if nothing had happened.

But equally, Liska knew that Akane must have felt the same way about her, for she noticed that the human woman was noticeably uneasy in her presence, probably thinking that she and the other residents of the village where she lived were going to do her some harm.

But at that moment, all that that beautiful blonde-haired feline woman could do was thank that dark-skinned, dark-haired woman, and considering her social status, she had many reasons to thank Akane for her kindness.

-"Thank you, Akane."-

-"Guess I have to assume you said "Thank you" to me, Liska."-

Akane repeated her host's words of thanks, this time in her own language, trying to make a supreme effort to pronounce the words correctly, and pleading that she did not say something inaccurately that could be construed in a negative fashion.

-"Thank... you..."-

Liska was surprised at how quickly Akane had learned to say the word for "thanks" in her language, meaning that the human was willing to speak to her as soon as possible, and not simply rely on mime to communicate with her hosts.

-"You are a fast learner, Akane."-

-"Thank heaven I didn't fuck things up with this one!"- Akane said to herself after seeing that her host reacted positively to her words.

But as the conversation between the human and her new alien companion was growing lively between the two women, another female voice was heard on the other side of the doorway of the teepee.

-"Well, well, looks like you and our guest are getting along well after all!"-

The old feline lady entered the teepee again, causing Liska and Akane to be surprised by the unexpectedness of her presence...

-"Mistress Sanna!"-

-"Oh shit, it's that old hag again!"-

But the black woman noticed something different this time: The old lady was carrying six bowls, which would be used for eating, except that on the teepee, there were only three people at that time: Akane, Liska and the old lady.

That meant that three other people were going to eat besides the women who were present there.

-"Liska dear, while I talk with our guest, could you serve the soup in the bowls?"-

-"Yes, my mistress."-

Although Akane did not fully understand what both women were talking about to each other, judging by the tone of their voices, their body language, and other details, she began to deduce that there was something odd about the younger girl's behavior with the older woman, which meant that Liska was not part of her biological family, but was possibly more subservient to her.

Was that beautiful blonde feline girl a slave of that old woman?

For Akane, whose birth name was Ariana, a black woman born in Africa, a place that suffered for centuries the scourge of slavery, to see a girl, who in her world would be equivalent to a white woman, at least in physical appearance, be the slave of someone else, while Akane, a Japanese naturalized African woman, was treated with more respect than that poor girl, at least judging by the torn and dirty clothes that Liska was wearing, was the most bizarre kind of irony that she ever saw in her whole life.

-"Poor girl..."- Akane thought to herself, as she watched as Liska served the soup for her and the old lady. -"I never imagined, even in my wildest dreams or nightmares, seeing the day when a blonde girl like her would end up bein' someone else's slave; but to be honest, that's somethin' that even for me I wouldn't wish on my fuckin' worst enemy, not even as a sick joke!"-

Assuming, of course, that the old woman's plans also included to make Akane a slave as well.

-"Just hope that old lady and her tribe aren't plannin' on turning me into their tribal bitch, 'cause otherwise, old hag or not or whatever the fuck she is, I'm not gonna hesitate to escape from this Wild West-lookin' furry shithole, even if I have to goin' Rambo against them!"-

While the girl was serving the soup for everyone who was going to be present at the meal, the old woman sat down near Akane so that she could talk to her more comfortably, although the term "comfort" was more appropriate for that old female feline alien than for Akane, who did not feel in the least comfortable in front of that woman, for the reasons already explained with regard to Liska.

-"All right, I see that you and Liska have already introduced yourselves properly, so it's my turn for you and I to do the same."- The old lady said to Akane, while pointing her finger to her muzzle, and later to Akane's mouth. -"Your...name...say your... name"-

It was fortunate for the human soldier that she was learning the language of those humanoid felines fairly quickly, in part because she had to do the same thing when she moved from Eswatini, in her native Africa when she was 5 years old, to Japan when she was adopted, and she had to do it because the first few years she spent in her adopted homeland were very difficult for her, as a result of the bullying she suffered because she was African and black, and also because Akane has always had a natural talent for learning foreign languages quickly. The languages she spoke, in addition to Japanese and her native Swazi, included English, Russian, French, Spanish, German and even Okinawan.

Now, it was Akane's turn to bring into practice what he had learned so far.

-"Name... Akane... Araki..."-

...Except that things didn't seem coming across smoothly from the side of her hosts, as far as Akane heard, much to her dismay.

-"Akane Araragi?"- The feline old woman said with a devious smile in her face. -"Is that your name?"-

Hearing that the old woman had made the same mistake as Liska regarding her surname almost caused Akane to grow exasperated and she was a step on trying to correct that old woman by herself in a rude way.

But even someone like her did not have the courage to do such a thing, partly for fear of making things worse, as happened with the issue with the soup, and partly out of respect for that old woman, even if she was technically her enemy, owing to her own cultural traditions she brought from Japan regarding respecting her elders.

-"NO!"- Akane said aloud, but trying to avoid looking angry at the old woman. -"Akane... ARAKI...A-RA-KI"-

Regarding her last name, Akane also made sure, as she did with Liska, to use the Western order of her name, and not the Asian one, to avoid confusion in case her alien hosts used the former, instead of the latter. The last thing Akane wanted at that time was to indulge herself into a senseless debate with alien beings about why her family name should come first, as is common in East Asian countries, compared to what happens in Western and Middle Eastern countries; as long as they could learn her name first was more important for the human woman before anything else.

-"Oh, sorry about that, dear, heh heh!"- The old woman smiled at Akane, while apologizing for incorrectly pronouncing her name. -"So, your full name is Akane Araki, right?"-

Akane nodded her head at the feline old lady.

-"I see, that's a very nice name you have, Akane."- The old woman said. -"yet I think that kind of name sounds a little familiar to me."-

Akane clearly couldn't understand much of what the old woman was trying to convey to her, which made the black human woman frustrated that she didn't understand what the elderly alien was saying.

-"I guess I'm rambling unnecessarily, so let's get to it."- Then, the old feline Siamese-looking lady pointed her finger to herself. -"My name is...Sanna; pleased to meet you, Akane."-

-"OK, lemme check if I heard the name of this kitty hag right..."- Then, Akane switched to her alien hosts' language. -"You... Sanna, me... Akane."-

-"That's right."- The old lady nodded her head.

Akane breathed a sigh of relief knowing that she could understand her name on the first try, fearing that she might slip up just as she did with Liska.

-"Well, now that you know our names, and we know yours, let me introduce you to the rest of my family."-

The old lady stood up from where she was sitting, and momentarily walked off the teepee to talk to someone outside...

-"You three, you can come in anytime!"-

Suddenly and unexpectedly, three people entered the teepee; for Akane Araki, these three people, especially one of them, were too familiar to her to ignore.

-"Oh shit, don't tell me I'm gonna eat next to this black-furred asswipe who just tried to kill me on the spot, for fuck's sake!"-

Indeed, the guests at the meal were the two young hunters who had rescued Akane from the trap in the dry lake, along with a little girl who was also a relative of theirs; seeing them, The African-Japanese woman could not help but to smile awkwardly in order to disguise the fact that she did not enjoy having to see that young warrior again, although the other warrior standing beside him, who up to that point had tried not to meddle in the whole situation, and had limited himself to protecting the girl standing beside him to prevent her from seeing Akane naked, at least seemed to be friendlier than his black-furred sidekick.

-"Can we sit down?"-

-"Yes, of course."- Mother Sanna replied to the younglings, to which they immediately sat down on the ground. -"Make yourselves comfortable, boys, and you too, Panka."-

-"Thank you, Mother Sanna!"-

-"For what I can fathom, it seems that the little girl's name is Panka, I guess."- Akane said to herself after hearing the name of that little kitten girl from the old feline woman's muzzle.

-"Before starting the meal, I would like to introduce our guest, as she told us her name."- Mother Sanna began the presentations with the three members of her family. -"I understand beforehand that this must be very uncomfortable for all of us, because of her looks, her language and because of that misunderstanding a few moments ago, but she is definitely not a bad person, and she is more scared of us than we should be of her."-

-"For our sake, let that be so."- The dark-furred feline said with a distrustful looks in his face. -"And what is the name of our guest?"-

-"Her name is Akane Araki"-

There was a brief moment of silence among all three guests present, as they tried to assimilate the name of the human woman they had as an unexpected guest in the village, and that the two youngest adults had rescued her from the dry lake.

-"Akane...Araki?"- The two hunters replied in unison aftre hearing the name of the black human woman.

-"Yes, that is her name."-

The other warrior next to the one with the dark fur and white hair replied with some awe in his voice...

-"That's a... very unusual name."-

-"You are right,"- His other comrade responded by hearing how unusual that name was, as it was a name of foreign origin to them. -"the last time I heard such a name was from someone who seemed to come from the eastern lands."-

-"But she doesn't look like she came from the eastern lands... or a feline... for that matter..."-

Akane immediately perceived how both young men began to look at the human soldier closely, while she, without being able to fully understand the context of what they were talking about up to that point, began to feel very uncomfortable, believing that they might be planning something against her, when that was not the case.

-"Fuck, why are those two kitty idiots starin' at me like that?"-

Seeing the notorious discomfort of the human woman, Sanna decided to alert both young people so they stop staring at Akane that way, and have a healthier and more natural conversation for the people present.

-"You two, quit looking at Akane like that!"- The old lady raised her voice to the two young warriors. -"Don't you see that she is feeling uneasy about being looked at like a strange thing?"-

-"Oh, sorry about that, grandmother."-

-"Me too."-

After a brief pause, the chat continued normally...

-"That's better; now that you know her name, it is your turn to introduce yourselves to Akane."-

-"All right."- The black cat said with an annoyed expression in his face. -"In that case, who will start first?"-

-"Considering that you were the one who almost tried to kill Akane, you will be the first to introduce yourself,"- Sanna said at the young warrior. -"and apologize to her while you are at it."-

The dark-furred warrior growled at the sight that he would be not only the first to present himself to Akane, but also apologize to her for what happened, even though it was Akane who started the misunderstanding, but it was evident that the hosts did not feel completely innocent for starting the whole mess either, because if the old woman had waited until Akane was conscious to start preparing the soup, the human soldier would not have interpreted the food as an attempt to cannibalize her.

-"sigh... Well, I guess it can't be helped after all..."- Then, he pointed his finger to himself. -"My name is Rial, and I'm very sorry for what happened..."-

Akane was quick to grasp the name of that warrior, and immediately noticed that Rial wanted to apologize to her, as she saw his body language, which she immediately appreciated.

-"Thank you, Rial... I'm sorry too..."-

Rial was surprised to see that Akane could speak some words in his language.

-"Wow, you don't even have a day in this village, and you already seem to gradually understand our words, Akane."-

The African-Japanese woman only managed to smile as he seemed happy to see that Akane could speak his language, even if it was only basic words.

-"All right, now that you've introduced yourself, it's my turn to do it."-

The one who uttered those words was Rial's other friend who was at her side, and although Akane already knew how he was physically, until that moment she finally realized how handsome that young warrior was too, along with his other companion who was at his side.

That other young warrior, like Rial, also had white hair, but that was not the only thing that was of that color, but his entire coat, from head to toe, was completely white, and his eyes were an intense blue color. If it weren't for the fact that he was wearing a jacket that showed his naked torso and for the tone of his voice, Akane would have thought that feline was a woman. The little girl who accompanied that young man was very similar to him, though she had black stripes on her arms.

-"My name is Pyndan, and this little girl over here is my little sister Panka."- The white-furred warrior presented himself and his sister to Akane. -"Pleased to meet you, too."-

-"Me too, Miss Akane!"- Panka said to the human woman energetically enough.

Akane smiled at both siblings, and making an effort with what little she had learned of the language, she responded in kind.

-"Pleased...to meet you... Panka... Pyndan..."-

-"Now that we've all introduced ourselves, it's time to start eating our food."- Then, Mother Sanna gave some orders to Liska. -"Could you start serving us, dear?"-

-"Right away, my mistress."-

The young slave began to serve the food to the five people who were on the teepee, including Akane, while she also served herself, although she sat somewhere else away from the rest of the people, most likely due to her status as a slave, something that did not go unnoticed by Akane, who could not help but feel sorry for Liska, for more than obvious reasons.

But in the same way, Akane could not do anything for her, except feel sympathy for Liska, due to the circumstances in which Akane found herself and which at the same time were no better than those of that slave, assuming that the young human soldier could end up in the same situation if she was not careful with her words, so Akane had to be cautious enough not to offend anyone who might in the long run make her hosts change their minds about her.

In the meantime, the only thing that woman from planet Earth could do was to enjoy the food that her alien hosts had kindly offered her.

Akane Araki looked closely at the soup that she and her feline hosts were eating, and although at first she had her doubts when trying to eat it, fearing that the food contained some ingredient that she might be allergic to, or could not digest because Akane was a human, she realized that the soup had the same ingredients as any vegetable soup she had eaten before on Earth, so Akane could eat it without any problem.

Whether the soup was good, on the other hand, was another matter altogether; it was clear that Liska was not a good cook, and the taste of the soup, while not terrible, was neither great either. But that did not seem to matter to any of the hosts who were eating at Akane's side, for their standards of quality about the taste of a good dish were very different from what that human woman was used to on her home planet.

-"Geez, askin' this poor girl to cook like a chef from a Michelin Guide's three-star restaurant would be too much for her; though to be honest, neither can the rest of the people here ask for anythin' better!"-

Another thing the African-Japanese soldier saw was the way her hosts ate their soup: While Akane tasted that food directly from the edge of the bowl like anyone else on Earth would, her feline hosts ate their soup using their tongues like normal, feral cats, which was of mutual attention on both ends, because it was strange for both Akane and them at the same time to see each species had their own particular way of eating.

-"Why is everyone lookin' funny at me like that?"- Akane wondered to herself as she continued to eat her soup, without losing sight of the way her hosts tasted theirs as well. -"Could it be how I'm eatin' my soup? Just hope it was not impolite for them to have eaten this thing like this."-

But as awkward as Akane felt that her first meal on that unknown planet together with other people had to be with feline-like alien beings, she couldn't help but think that even in the harsh scenario she was experiencing, her hosts were doing their best to make Akane as welcome as possible, even though they were equally uncomfortable with the fact that she, for all practical purposes, was an alien being from another world, and her sheer presence was both frightening and disturbing to them on many levels; a better example of this would be the equivalent of an ordinary human family inviting one of those stereotypical big-headed, black-eyed, gray aliens into their home to eat.

To be fair to them, she never asked to be on that planet or in her village to begin with, and the only reason she was in that place was because her spaceship was destroyed by drones out of nowhere, and after her escape capsule landed in the middle of the desert and after walking for several kilometers on that planet, she was rescued by Rial and Pyndan after she fell into a trap that both warriors set when they went hunting.

Once everyone on the teepee had finished eating, Mother Sanna pointed her finger at her bowl and then at her muzzle to signal to Akane if she had enjoyed the food.

-"Did you... like... soup, Akane?"-

-"Yes."-

But for Akane, the reality was completely a different one...

-"I'll be honest: This soup tasted like rotten eggs; and I wonder how these cats managed to survive so far by eatin' this fuckin' crap."-

Needless to say, the human kept these thoughts to herself, and she made an attempt to pretend that she liked the soup, to avoid insulting her alien counterparts.

-"Next time I have to eat somethin', I'd better eat from my military rations I have on hand in my backpack, instead of eatin' the shitty food these cats serve me."-

---

July 11th, AD 2299, Village (Unknown place/Inside Teepee), Unknown Planet, Unknown hour, (night)

Once everyone on the teepee had finished eating their food, Mother Sanna and her family decided to let Akane rest on her teepee so she could have some privacy, or at least that's what it looked like, since Liska, the slave, stayed inside the tent to watch the human soldier and prevent her from leaving the place without the old lady's permission.

Obviously, that situation was not very comfortable for both women, and for many reasons: To begin with, neither the young feline girl nor the human could understand each other, and the fact that Liska was supposed to be Akane's official chaperone was not something she liked at all, especially when she had to sit for hours next to a woman who was as strange and alien to her as that naturalized African-Japanese woman was, and this was evident in her body language; She started wagging her tail back and forth, clearly indicating that she was angry, along with flicking her ears down to indicate her nervousness. It was evident that being there to care for Akane was becoming an unbearable torture for that young girl, who most likely never asked to be there in the first place.

And Akane Araki was no better off than she was, for the human woman was beginning to lose patience to sit there for hours in a place that was smaller than any home she had ever been on her native planet Earth.

Under different circumstances, Akane would have done the most obvious thing, like listening to music or watching a movie on her tablet, or even playing a video game to kill time; but according from what she learned when she was at the military academy, she should avoid engaging in any behavior that could be considered provocative for the hosts, especially if they were "primitive" people, or came from a culture where a person's honor and behavior were valued, and performing such acts, especially if a woman committed them, could be considered insulting to them.

-"Oh shit!"- Akane cursed for herself in her own mind. -"My legs and my butt are already gettin' numb from sitting like some bored as fuck feudal lord from the Sengoku period, and I want to get out of this junk to get some fresh air, for god's sake!"-

But what made that human woman most uncomfortable was seeing her hostess Liska, who was forced to take care of her, having her suffer the same as Akane, and it was clear that her tolerance was lower than that of the female Space Ranger.

-"And this poor girl no longer feels very comfortable being my fuckin' nanny, judgin' by her body language."-

And if that wasn't enough for her, Akane's stomach began to groan from hunger, thus giving her another source of very personal frustration...

-"And what the hell of a time to be hungry again, for fuck's sake!"-

In view of such an awkward predicament, Akane closed her eyes and crossed her arms, while she thought of a solution, no matter how silly it might be; she had to be careful about what might come across her mind, for she could be in danger that her intentions might be mistaken, and lead to another incident like the one with the soup they ate a few hours ago.

At that moment, the African-Japanese soldier thought of an idea that could help her to calm her appetite, in the same way that she would not have to wait for Liska to prepare and taste her awful food again.

And that plan involved her faithful backpack...

-"Wha-what are you doing, Akane?"-

Liska was quite puzzled when Akane walked up to her backpack, and began to draw several things out of it. Due to the enormous amount of stuff the human soldier carried in that bag, which included firearms, her collection of ancient Japanese weapons, samurai armors, kendo armors, clothes for several days and enough food to feed a platoon, Akane could not help but crack a joke about all the stuff she was carrying around behind her back until that time.

-"My god, at this rate I'm gonna look like Doraemon and his bag where he gets every kind of shit out of his stomach."-

Her feline friend, on the other hand, wanted to know what Akane was pulling out from that bag and her intentions.

-"May I ask you what are you doing, Akane?"-

The human woman did mimic, and with what little she knew of the language, Akane explained what she intended to do.

-"Food... me...too..."-

-"You want to eat?"-

-"Yes!"-

-"Couldn't you at least wait for Mistress Sanna to come and prepare dinner before you do anything, Akane?"-

-"Wait."-

-"What do you mean with that?"-

Akane pulled two bags containing MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) military rations from her backpack, which she would use to prepare dinner; both bags were labeled in Japanese with what was inside: Chicken & Saury Fish with Rice. Akane did not hesitate to brag aloud, taking advantage of Liska's lack of knowledge of the Japanese language, about the food she was going to fix right away.

-"Time for this kitten to learn about good Earth food, even if it comes from rations!"-

To prepare the MRE, the human soldier took out her respective flameless heaters from both bags, since Akane did not want to have any kind of conflict with Mother Sanna if she used her teepee fire where the soup was prepared without her permission.

Then, using water from her canteen, she activated the non-flammable heaters, which ignited due to a chemical reaction produced by mixing water with a mixture of magnesium powder, iron and salt; immediately afterwards, Akane put the containers in their respective bags for the heaters to cook their contents.

While all this was going on, Liska, the slave girl, watched closely and with feline curiosity how it was possible to heat and cook food from a bag using just water, something she had never seen before in her life.

-"How can she cook food just by pouring water into those bags?"-

Akane, knowing beforehand that her feline host was watching carefully what the human was cooking in the MRE ration bags, giggled a little as she saw her fellow woman's interest in her food, which was natural considering the unusual way, for Liska, about how Akane was preparing food without using fire or other well-known aids in her culture.

-"You really want to know the deal with this thing, don't you, dear?"-

Obviously, the slave girl did not understand a single word that Akane was trying to convey to her.

-"You may be thinking that this must be some kind of witchcraft or the like, although I don't blame you for that."-

But before the discussion went any further, the soldier noticed that the food was ready and all he had to do was take out the containers with the Chicken & Saury Fish and mix them with the rice that was included in the bags beforehand.

Once the meats were mixed with the rice, Akane gave the other food package to Liska, while she kept the other one for her personal consumption. The feline slave girl was deeply surprised to see that Akane wanted to share her food with her without even asking her, even though they only knew each other for a few hours.

-"Is this for me, Akane?"-

-"Yes."-

By sharing her food with her, Akane wanted to express her gratitude to that woman for defending her from Rial when he intended to kill Akane because of the confusion with the soup where the latter thought her hosts intended to eat her alive, in the same way as the Liska's tribe had shared their food with the human without a second thought, so it was only fair for Akane to look for a way to return the favor in some way.

-"Thank you, Akane."-

-"No problem!"-

The slave was about to eat her food when she noticed that that human food was very different from anything she had eaten in the past; she would have served that food with her hands in other cases, but in view of what she had in front of her for dinner, Liska did not hesitate to ask Akane, using mimicry, about how to eat the rice with chicken and fish.

-"Hey, Akane..."- The feline slave asked the African-Japanese woman, while pointing her food and her own muzzle. -"How I can... eat this?"-

The human realized that she forgot to tell her alien chaperone that the food was served with a spoon, which she forgot to give her beforehand. In response, Akane gave her a wooden spoon that came with one of the bags with the MRE rations; fortunately, Liska quickly understood what the spoon was for, and she quickly began to taste that food that was literally from another world.

-"Humm... tastes good!"-

-"Seems that she is enjoying the taste of a very good traditional Japanese food."- the black woman thought to herself, while she looked closely at the slave as she ate the food from the MRE rations she had gladly given her. -"It's funny, when you consider that this is basically cheap street food that we eat in Japan all the time after we get off work."-

Suddenly, quite possibly because Liska had eaten that human food too fast as a result of it being too delicious for her, she started having hiccups, since she had never eaten food as thick as the rice used in oriental food.

-"HIC!"

-"Damn it, girl, don't eat that shit so fast, or you'll choke your ass off; take this!"-

Seeing that her alien friend was having trouble digesting the rice with chicken and fish, Akane lent the feline girl her canteen so that she could pass the food down her throat.

-"Are you... right?"-

-"Uhhhhh...Thanks for the water, Akane, I felt like I was choking after eating all that stuff you gave me."-

-"No problem!"-

But while both girls, the human and the humanoid feline girl, were enjoying that meal with pleasure, a familiar female voice was heard very close to them.

-"What is that strange smell?"-

Suddenly and without much warning, with the exception of that comment, Mother Sanna suddenly entered the teepee again, where she saw Akane and Liska eating the MRE rations that the former was carrying in her backpack.

For more than obvious reasons, both girls panicked at the sight of the old lady, and for a good reason: The slave girl was afraid that Sanna would think that she had prepared food for Akane without her permission, and for the latter, the fact that she had also prepared food without the knowledge and consent of the teepee owner, considering her own status in the village, was not something that the human could easily overlook.

And for the old woman, it was not entirely to her liking that these two girls were eating on her teepee, right under her nose, without her consent.

-"What in heaven are you two girls are eating right now?!"-

Liska began to have a sudden bout of stuttering, as she knew that her punishment would most likely be severe if she did not give a convincing explanation for why she and the human were eating out of hours. Akane, on the other hand, gulped down the possibility that her friend with whom she was sharing her food might be punished because of her.

-"Well... just..."- The slave girl tried to say something to her master. -"Akane wanted to eat... and she shared her food in her bag with me; I had nothing to do with this, really!"-

Akane nodded her head, hoping that Mother Sanna would know beforehand that Liska was telling the truth, and that she would not be punished for eating with the black human woman.

-"I see..."- The old feline lady said at the blonde girl. -"So you brought food with you in your bag, right, Akane?"-

The female Space Ranger from Japan nodded her head again at her alien hostess.

-"Hmmm..."- Sanna looked into the eyes of that human, as if trying to deduce whether that woman from Earth was telling the truth, which in fact she was. Then, she crossed her arms with a serious expression in her face. -"I'm going to assume that you did it because you wanted to reciprocate her and all of us after we served you food, and you decided to do the same, didn't you?"-

Again, Akane Araki responded with a "yes" with her head.

-"That's very nice of you, dear, but tell me something, Akane:"- Mother Sanna pointed her finger to Akane's food -"Why does your food smell so strange?"-

Akane did not understand that question at all, because of how complex it was, being that she was just trying to understand the language of those natives as best she could, but with only a few hours of knowing them, the human woman could only understand a few words and could not yet comprehend complex contexts.

-"I do not think she has understood your question, my mistress."-

-"Oh, that's right!"- Then, the old feline woman pointed her finger to her nose and then to Akane's MRE rations in order to make the latter understand why her food smelled so unusual for her. -"Akane, why your food...smell so...funny?"-

The black woman, on the other hand, interpreted the mimicry of the old alien as implying that she also wanted to try the food that Akane had prepared for herself and Liska.

For her part, the human woman had no problem sharing her food with the old woman, but since Liska and Akane had already eaten the rations the latter had prepared a few moments earlier, the military woman went to her backpack again to bring out another bag with the same type of food, this time for Mother Sanna.

The old feline mistress was very surprised to see that foreign woman had no problem preparing food specifically for her, even if she had her doubts about tasting it, because the smell of that Earth food, although pleasant, was something she had never experienced in her long life.

-"Are you going to serve that food to me, Akane dear?"-

-"Yes."-

But what surprised the old woman most was to see how Akane could heat the food by just adding water to the bag, since she did not understand the chemical process behind the flameless heaters; to her and her slave, everything the human did in relation to that food seemed almost magic, if not witchcraft, yet she, out of education and respect for her guest, partly because she did not know much about the culture of that woman from Earth, chose not to ask any questions on the subject, to avoid any potential misunderstandings.

Once the food was prepared, Akane handed Mother Sanna the chicken with rice and fish to her, so she could taste it, with its respective spoon, of course; then, the old lady timidly began to taste that food of Japanese origin, and after a few seconds of tasting it, she realized that that food not only had a pleasant aroma: it also tasted just as good to her.

-"Mmmmmmm... It has a strange smell, but its taste is something I have never tasted in my life."-

Liska, who was finishing her course on her own, was also fully enjoying the taste of that typical Japanese street food, and she also gave her approval.

-"Surely, this is the most delicious meal I have ever tasted in my entire life!"-

Akane, who was observing very carefully the events before her eyes, smiled when she saw that these two alien women were enjoying the food she had prepared, even if it consisted on rations that normally not many people, including military personnel like her, would enjoy eating under better conditions.

-"Uggg... I need...some...water..."-

The old woman, like Liska, was also having trouble digesting the food, so the slave, who had Akane's canteen in her hands at the time, gave it to her immediately so that she could drink from it.

-"You should drink this..."-

Mother Sanna, without wasting a second, drank the water from the human soldier's canteen that her servant had in her hands, allowing the old feline woman to regain her breath quickly.

-"Ahh, that's better!"- Then, she pointed the canteen to the young soldier from Japan. -"Your food is delicious, my dear, but it is very difficult to eat without the help of some water."-

Akane construed the old woman's comment as a kind of reprimand, and consequently, she bowed her head in an apologetic manner. Sanna, on the other hand, seeing the human woman's body language, felt sorry to see that foreigner apologizing in such a notorious way to her, and made a clarification of what she said, followed by her respective mimicry.

-"Ooops! Sorry, I didn't mean to scold you, Akane, I was just saying that your food required water to drink so that you could eat it without choking first."-

But before the conversation went any further, other voices well known to all present at the teepee were heard from outside that place...

-"Hmmm... what is that strange and delicious smell coming from there?"-

The old woman quickly recognized who these voices were and she did not delay in welcoming them back to her teepee.

-"You may come in, kids."-

To Akane's surprise, but not that of Mother Sanna and Liska, Rial, Pyndan, and his sister Panka entered the tent, as they perceived the strange and delicious scent of the MRE rations that the African-Japanese woman was preparing for her two female hosts. The two male brothers were surprised, upon entering the teepee, to see how their grandmother, like the young slave girl, was eating next to the human woman that mysterious alien food which for them at that moment was completely strange for them, and they, especially Rial, the dark-furred one, wanted to know the content of that food that came from the Earth.

-"May I ask what you are eating with Akane, grandmother?"-

-"Oh, you mean this? Akane was kind enough to fix this very delicious meal that she had in her bag, because she was hungry."- Mother Sanna said, while using her spoon for pointing her food she had in her hand. -"She wanted to return the favor of having fed her, and she did the same with us."-

-"Really?"- Pyndan asked bewildered after seeing how a foreign woman like Akane would want to prepare food for strangers like them. -"That is... very kind of her, if you ask me."-

-"True,"- Rial retorted, while still looking at the MRE rations Akane and the other two women were eating together. -"but you can't deny that it smells delicious, although it looks a little bit strange, to be blunt."-

-"In that case, wouldn't you boys like to try this? I think you might like it."-

-"Really, grandmother?"-

-"Assuming, of course, that Akane has no problem cooking more food for three more people."- Then, the old feline lady pointed her food and then pointed to Rial, Pyndan and Panka. -"Could you serve...this food...to them, Akane dear?"-

The human female soldier quickly understood what Mother Sanna wanted her to do, although that did not stop Akane from cracking a joke about it.

-"Just hope this old hag isn't seeing me as her personal Gordon Ramsey, 'cause I don't have enough shit for everyone else here!"-

Nevertheless, Akane did not hesitate to take out three more bags of MRE rations with the same type of food for the three unexpected guests and she started preparing them right away. Rial, Pyndan and Panka, meanwhile, were amazed to see how it was possible to cook food just by adding water to those bags.

-"I can't believe it's possible to cook something using water to heat food, it must be some kind of magic, right?"- Pyndan said aloud after seeing the way how Akane prepared such food by adding water to the flameless heaters included in the bags.

-"Maybe she could be a witch, big brother!"-

-"Hey, don't call Akane like that, Panka!"- The white-furred man scolded his little sister. -"Maybe she has her own way to cook from which she came from..."-

-"Oh, sorry..."-

The little kitten girl was a bit ashamed for saying such thing about her human guest. Meanwhile, Akane, who didn't understand a thing of what Panka said about her, was busy finishing on cooking the rations.

-"There, I hope you guys enjoy this."-

And so, Akane Araki served the rations to her three new feline guests, with their respective spoons again.

-"I must assume that this strange... thing... must be eaten with a spoon, right, Akane?"- Rial asked to the human human about the way how the rice should be consumed.

-"Yes."-

Immediately afterwards, the black-furred warrior began to smell that food of Japanese origin, and immediately noticed that the smell was something he had never experienced in his life, although he had his doubts about eating that thing or not.

-"It has a strange smell... but at the same time, it looks delicious."-

-"And it tastes delicious."- Mother Sanna replied, trying to calm down her nephew's doubts about that alien food. -"But you need to drink water if you don't want choking yourself with it."- Then, she looked at Liska. -"Could you bring some water to them please, dear?"-

-"Right away, my mistress."-

The blonde-haired slave brought three cups of water for Rial, Pydan, and his younger sister Panka, to prevent them from having problems eating the rice from the MRE rations. Once it was ready, the three guests began to eat, albeit shyly, the food that Akane brought from Earth.

The latter was afraid that, unlike Sanna and Liska, they would not be very receptive to that traditional Japanese food; to the pleasant surprise for the African-Japanese soldier, they seemed to enjoy that food from military origins quite evidently.

-"It may smell strange, but..."-

-"...it tastes..."-

-"...DELICIOUS!"-

Rial, Pydan and Panka, in that respective order, gave their opinion about the Chicken & Saury Fish MRE rations that Akane Araki, the soldier from the JSSDF, brought from her home country of Japan, and they were enjoying like they had never did in their lives the taste of that traditional food. Akane, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief that they were enjoying that meal as well.

-"Jeez, I thought these cats wouldn't like this stuff as much as the girls, especially that stupid Rial guy, otherwise I'd be toast in no time at the hands of that asshole!"-

But when things just couldn't get any more complicated for that human woman, they suddenly became even more challenging, thanks to another "problem" that emerged all of a sudden.

Or in this case, it would be two problems that she would have to deal with immediately...

-"May we come in?"-

As they reached the door to her teepee, they heard voices from inside. They exchanged a brief glance before the other man silently opened the door.

Mother Sanna looked up brightly. -"Oh, you're just in time! I was just about to... well, go ahead and sit down, please."-

-"Thank you."-

Each of the visitors sat around along with the remaining people inside the tent. Akane, on the other hand, quickly perceived the sudden change in the body language of all those present who were inside the teepee; in fact, it was more than evident that those two individuals who entered the place were too important for both her and her alien hosts to ignore.

-"Oh great! by the looks of it, I think these two dudes are probably the head honchos of this joint."-

The first man Akane turned her attention to was the one whom she noticed to be the oldest: He was middle-sized and smoked with a pipe, not to mention having dark blond hair with gray tones, and his body fur was tabby with also gray color, black tiger-like stripes in both his body fur and hair, and white fur in his hands, abdomen, and below his muzzle just like Rial and Liska. He also weared a very different-looking sash, which meant his social status was very likely different from the former, and he weared a red shirt; Also, judging by his looks, he was about 40 years old, or more.

The other feline man looked a bit younger than the one next to him: He weared a bandanna, through his longer hair was lighter brown, brown eyes, and also a tabby cat, with the same fur color pattern like the older man at his left, except he had more black tiger-like stripes in his body; one might think, judging by appearances, that both men could be related, although that was very difficult to see with the naked eye for that human woman, the only thing she could notice was that that man was younger than the other one to his left.

-"Everythin' seems to indicate that the old man is the head of this village, judgin' the way everyone sees him."- Akane ask to herself inside her own mind. -"On the other hand, who the hell is that other guy with him? Maybe he is his son? Or maybe some kinda servant, slave or something else?

Then, Akane narrowed her eyes and cursed for herself, afraid that things could go from bad to worse to her.

-"Goddamn it! Things are gettin' more and more fucked up for me as time flies by."-

The elderly man asked some questions with Mother Sanna about Akane, the human woman she had as her guest, while the latter was somewhat worried about what's currently happening in front of her, for obvious reasons. The fact she barely understood a thing in that time didn't helped her to calm her at all...

-"So... this girl is our mystery guest who came to our village, I guess."-

-"Yes, that's right. Her name is Akane Araki, and that is all we know about her; we don't know where she came from, except that she accidentally fell into a herndon trap that Rial and Pyndan had placed in the dry lake, where she lost consciousness."-

The two aforementioned young warriors looked down with some regret upon learning that they had provoked the aforementioned accident, fearing that the chief would reprimand them for it. Fortunately for both of them, the chief was not interested in the incident itself, but in the person who had fallen into the trap, in this case, Akane.

-"Akane Araki?"- The old man said, while putting aside his pipe. -"Sounds like a name of someone hailing from the eastern lands beyond the plains..."

And then, the alien man stared at the African-Japanese girl, as he watched her very carefully.

-"...but she doesn't seem like someone from there... or even a feline like us, as far as I can see."-

The human military woman, on being closely watched by that feline man, was nervous about being looked at in that way, because she did not know what his plans might be.

-"Oh, my, just hope this old geezer isn't thinking about makin' me his slave or something, because otherwise I'm haulin' ass from here, even if I have to kick the shit out of everybody else to do it!"-

The old woman noticed Akane's nervousness, as she was observed by the village chief, since the human woman was trying to keep a prudent distance from the man and avoid saying anything that could lead to any misunderstandings that could be fatal to her, in view of her lack of mastery over the local language.

-"Are you all right, Akane dear?"-

The black woman avoided answering that question from Sanna with a yes or no, in order to remain as ambiguous as possible.

-"She looks really stressed out right now."-

-"I can't blame her for that, to be frank."- Pyndan said, after seeing Akane's face and her attitude at the face of that man. -"She must still be thinking that something bad might happen to her, and we want to do some kind of harm on her."-

-"From what I can tell from her face,"- The old feline woman said at the chief again. -"she must have thought we were demons, or some kind of unheard of, or dangerous beings to her, judging from what she thought at first that we wanted to eat her alive when she saw the soup I was cooking in the afternoon."-

-"It also doesn't help that she doesn't speak our language well."- Liska also explained about Akane, from what she saw so far about her human guest.

-"That is more than obvious."- Rial gave his own explanation as well, with a very bored gaze in his feline face. -"Although we would all be more relieved if she walked out of the village as soon as she can..."-

-"Don't be so rude with her!"- Mother Sanna scolded loudly her grandson. -"I doubt very much that girl has anywhere to go back to, since she doesn't speak our language, much less trade language, from what we can see! And that without mention that Akane is doing us a favor by preparing food as a way of thanking us for providing food to her."-

The black-furred young man lowered his head as a sign of apologizing for his bad choice of words.

-"I'm sorry for that, grandmother."-

-"Anyway,"- The younger man following the chief next to him explained in order to change the subject to another, less stressful one. -"the reason we came, besides meeting with our new guest Akane, is to find out what is that strange smell coming out from here."-

-"Oh, you mean this?"- The old woman pointed out the MRE rations Akane prepared for all the people inside the teepee before those two men entered there. -"As I mentioned before, this is a strange food that Akane brought with her; it has a strange smell and an odd aspect, but it has a taste that I have never experienced in my life."-

-"Really?"- Then, the chief cheerfuly pointed his finger to that food. -"Could there be a way for us to try that food too?"

-"I'm going to ask Akane to see if she can serve food to you as well."- Then, Sanna asked the human soldier about the possibility of serving more MRE rations to her VIP guests. -"Can you... serve... food... to them?"-

Akane, who was somewhat nervous, quickly interpreted the old woman's signals about serving food to the tribe chief and his companion on his right. With no second thoughts, she agreed to prepare more food for the two of them.

But that didn't mean she was any more comfortable preparing food for more people, much less VIPs, something she bitterly jokes about.

-"Well, looks like I'm gonna stay here in this shitty space Native American village out of a Western movie and be the motherfuckin' cook for these feline Zootopia rejects!"- Akane complained internally for her own self.

Resigning herself to the fact that she would probably have to stay the rest of her life on that planet, to be more exact in that village where those feline humanoids lived, not knowing if she would be able to return to Earth someday, assuming that anyone on Earth who looked for the JS Asuka really knew what happened and tried to look for survivors, the only thing Akane could do in those moments was to please her hosts somehow, so she could earn their trust and avoid further issues for herself.

To Akane Araki's fortune, all her hosts, including the tribal chief and his companion, were enjoying the military rations she had brought from Earth, and although she did not understand their language, she quickly realized that they were enjoying the simple, but delicious food they had never tasted in their lives.

In the same way, Akane was also reassured to know that the food had not caused any adverse effects on them, such as allergies or something that they could interpret as an attempt by her to poison them, or otherwise, because the last thing that woman wanted was to have to explain, at knife point, in the worst possible scenario, the reason why the food might not be edible for them.

Akane knew that if she wanted to survive on that planet, the first thing she had to do was learn the language of the natives as soon as possible, so she could get to know them better. She was lucky that they were also curious about her, and judging by her attitude, they also wanted to help her in any way they could, at least until she could explain herself better in their language, and thus make her intentions and those of her alien hosts known.

What Akane did not know at the time was that that first human contact with an intelligent alien civilization was only the first step in a plot that would involve her in many ways that Akane Araki never imagined in her life being involved, and that would change her and everyone around her in many ways.

Was that perhaps her fate? Or was it simply a product of sheer luck? Even at the end of her days, Akane never knew how to answer that question, even to herself, but what would ultimately happen to her, her new friends, and everyone else in that forgotten world would be the very thing that would change the foundations of their own existence forever.

END OF ACT XX

38