"So what's the Romulan word for 'river'?"

Deleth couldn't imagine why Efet would ever be discussing rivers with any other Romulan she'd ever encounter; in his opinion, she'd be better served learning the words for 'starship', 'warp drive', and any number of engineering terms. Yet she insisted on learning the most random vocabulary, and he had nothing better to do on this hot, humid trek through the jungle than to humor her.

"Atlai."

"Atlai," she repeated, trying the word out on her tongue. Her accent was still terrible, but Deleth had been impressed to find she never forgot a word once learned. Perhaps there was something to those Cardassian photographic memories.

They had set out for the river that morning. They both needed water, and as Efet was so fond of reminding him, they badly needed to bathe and wash their clothes. They still had no way to transport water with them on the trek to the nearest rock wall, a journey that Deleth knew would take him perhaps ten hours on his own, but probably a few hours longer than that if Efet was trailing behind him. Once they reached the wall, they still had to make it back to the river - with no water rations and living off whatever they foraged along the way. Efet had been no athlete in her old life, Deleth knew for a certainty. She did not complain, along he could tell from the strain on her face that her body ached from all the walking. At least she was in no danger of overheating - Deleth came from a hot climate, but his ancient ancestors had evolved on Vulcan, a mostly desert landscape. The jungle humidity that left him so miserable did not seem to bother Efet in the slightest.

"Yes!" Efet cried out in joy when she spotted the river. They both forgot themselves somewhat as they ran toward the roaring, churning waters. Although the flooding was over, the river was still wilder than usual, throwing white foam and swollen by the rains. They had to follow it downstream a ways until they found some of the calm pools made by spillover from the river. Efet and Deleth threw themselves to their knees and drank greedily, like wild animals.

Panting, Deleth sat back on his haunches and wiped his face. Efet was still sipping from the pool, strands of her silky dark hair having escaped her bun and fallen down around her face, the tips just touching the water. When she looked up at him, she cleared her throat in an obnoxious manner.

"Are you ill?" Deleth asked, his brow wrinkling in dismay.

Efet huffed. "I am not ill! I was trying to discretely request that you leave and let me bathe myself in peace!"

Oh. Oh. Deleth turned away from her. Another pool lay a couple meters away, this one a bit deeper than the one they'd drank from. An idea came to him.

"Let us turn our backs to one another," Deleth proposed. "We can undress in something approaching privacy and bathe ourselves. When I am ready to emerge from my pool, I'll call out to you and you can close your eyes while I dress myself."

Efet shot him a furious, narrow-eyed glare. "You want us to bathe next to one another, without even a screen for privacy? Have you gone mad?"

"I'm not wandering off into that wretched jungle for hours while you splash about in here," Deleth told her. "Besides, it's not as if I'd know when you were done. I could return and catch you unawares. This way, we'll both know when the other needs some privacy, and we won't have to split up in this dangerous place."

Efet seemed to weigh her options. At last she blurted out, "All right! But youcannot look at me."

This time, it was Deleth who was offended. "Why would I ever want to look at your naked body?" Efet ignored the comment as she turned her back to him and began unbuttoning her top. A bit flustered, Deleth quickly turned himself around and began undressing. It was really rather silly for her to be so hung up over her nudity, he thought to himself. She'd even seen him naked! Not that he was in the habit of being naked in front of females - or anyone else. His undershirt joined the rest of his clothing in a little pile, and then he waded into his pool, clenching his teeth a bit at the cool water. He could see the filth floating off his body, and somewhat embarrassed, he bent his knees and submerged himself to get his hair wet.

He emerged, shaking himself with a roar. Behind him, he could hear Efet's delighted giggles as she bathed herself. Resolving to ignore her, Deleth grabbed his dirty undershirt and dipped it in the water, wringing it out and then slapping it against a rock to clean it. That done, he next cleaned his socks, then his underwear. His outerwear was water and dirt repellent, designed for extreme circumstances, so he left that alone. More splashing behind him told him that Efet was, likewise, cleaning her garments.

"You just can't imagine how awful it is spending days like this," Efet sighed. "Cardassians so value cleanliness. We're a little mad about it! When I was a girl, just big enough to walk, I couldn't even touch the sandpit at the children's play area without my mother running to wipe my hands clean. I think she must've changed my clothing five times a day until I was old enough to keep myself tidy." The splashing ceased, and Deleth realized she must've gone still. "Is there anyone back on Romulus waiting for your safe return?"

"I have never been to Romulus," Deleth bit out.

"Oh!" Efet sounded genuinely surprised. "I had no idea. So you're from a colony world? Where is your homeworld?"

"That is not for you to know."

"Ah, you're just as cagey as ever. I'd love to know what your fevered imagination thinks I could do with that information." Water sloshed, and Efet said, "Close your eyes, I'm climbing out."

Keeping his eyes tightly shut, Deleth listened. He listened to the rustling of some cloth, then Efet's voice again. "You didn't answer my first question. About whether there's anyone out there waiting for you."

Deleth groaned. "That is -"

"- not for me to know?" Efet sighed, and said, "You can open your eyes now. I'm decent."

He cracked open an eye and looked over to see Efet wearing her jacket, which was zipped all the way up. Her other clothes were laying on some rocks to dry. She climbed up a little ways to perch on another rock. Her bare legs stuck out of her jacket; she had long legs, which seemed to be most of her height, and Deleth was astonished to see she had scales on her knees. He looked away from her quickly, trying to finish his own bathing. "Close your eyes," Deleth called up to her.

Gamely, Efet closed her eyes. Deleth kept watch on her as he slipped back into his underwear, but his other clothes were too wet to put back on. He clambered up on the rocks near her and sat, wrapping his arms around his legs to hold in his warmth. After a moment Efet cracked an eye open and, seeing him there, smiled brightly. She went back to combing out her long black hair with her fingers. Deleth fidgeted a bit and said, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"You never give me any personal answers, so..."

All right. "If you answer my question, I'll answer one of yours."

"Negotiation. Now we're getting somewhere." Efet was smiling again. She combed her hair into three sections and began braiding it. "I'm amenable."

"Why do you have another little... spoon... there at the crown of your sternum?" He touched the little notch on his own breastplate unconsciously. Her jacket, although modest enough, was cut just low enough for him to see the little ridge, the same size and shape as the characteristic Cardassian ridge on her forehead, nestled between her clavicle bones. Her clavicles themselves bore a little line of scales, which he supposed had evolved as a sort of armor. That seemed to make sense given the heavy ridges of scales ringing her eyes - natural protection for the delicate organs of the eyes. She even had little ridges running along the edges of her chin and jaw, and in almost all humanoid species these bones were some of the most easily broken.

His question seemed to have shocked Efet still and silent. She blinked three long blinks at him, then that sly smile appeared once more. "Deleth, I- well, I will endeavor to give you a very scientific answer. Not all Cardassians have this trait, mind you. I am from Andak province, where this is a dominant trait. I say this so you don't go asking any other Cardassians where their 'extra spoon' is." Efet had to pause to compose herself, but went on. "It is called a chufa, and it is a gland. To my people it has a certain... erotic appeal."

Deleth was certain his ears were bright green. He had never, not once, imagined himself mostly naked discussing secondary sexual characteristics with an alien woman. He had never even imagined discussing anything of this sort with a Romulan woman - a Romulan woman would probably have killed him for being impudent enough to ask her about anything involving sexuality and mating, but Efet was just giggling softly. "I see," he said at last. "I had imagined it was a vestigial sensory organ of some kind."

Efet's giggles bubbled into full laughter at the lameness of his response. Deleth wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole.

"All right, all right," she said at last. "Oh, I have to stop laughing! It's just... the look on your face! Oh! If I could take a picture." After a moment she seemed to have control of herself again. "My turn now. So, why do some Romulans have facial ridges and others do not? There are some I've seen in holos who I can't tell apart from Vulcans, but you have the 'classic' Romulan look. Remember, I answered you truly so you have to do the same."

Deleth was almost insulted by the simplicity of the question. "I am a Northerner," he told her. "My facial ridges are typical of Romulans from the Northern continent. The others you've seen who you say resemble Vulcans come from the Southern continent. But there are nowadays many mixed families, so nowadays some members of a family may have ridges and others do not. That wasn't so a few hundred years ago."

"I see!" Efet's piercing blue eyes sparkled with intrigue. "So it's just normal genetic variation then. Like my chufa."

"Yes, like your... sexual gland."

Efet's hid a laugh behind her hand. She seemed to be amused by how embarrassed he was, and perhaps some mischievous impulse drove her next question: "So, which do Romulan women prefer? Ridges or no ridges?"

Furious with embarrassment, Deleth stormed back down to his clothes and began yanking on his trousers. "Don't taunt me!"

"I didn't mean to taunt you! I'm just curious, is all. Please don't be cross with me, Deleth. Come, join me. Sit back down." Efet begged him to return, and she sounded contrite enough that his anger faded away. Deleth relaxed a little, and although he didn't return to his seat, his motions weren't as angry as before. He was reaching for his undershirt when Efet rose to her feet and placed a hand on his forearm. Perplexed, Deleth turned to her.

"What happened to you?" she asked him, and her fingers touched the jagged scar that completely wrapped around his left forearm, just under his deltoid muscle. He'd kept the arm either covered or facing away from her before, hiding it from her view, but in his anger Deleth realized he'd forgotten and Efet had seen it. "This scar looks like something wrapped around your arm and almost cut it off."

Of all the things he didn't want to answer, his scar was at the top of his list. "It's nothing," he grunted, shaking her off and yanking his shirt over his head.

He couldn't look in Efet's reproachful eyes. "Deleth, that scar can't be that old. I know Romulans must have dermal regenerators, so you couldn't have gotten that scar years ago. What did that to you?"

"Our discussion is over!"