Washing clothes was something Rose had to teach me to do. I’d never used a washboard on Earth. Once in an antique store I’d seen one, but that didn’t mean I knew what to do with it.


    Being the one to give directions seemed to solidify Rose’s determination. She’d used washboards with her grandmother. She took the lead and we washed our underthings together.


    The dryers seemed powerful, so we just waited for them to dry the thin fabric of our underwear. We’d both put our skirts and shirts back on as we sat talking.


    Seeing men emerge from the water startled us both and we shrieked. It had seemed we were alone, but we had been watched this entire time.


    “Rx, Sister,” Kein said amicably, shaking off the water, “we only need to get our clothing.”


    “You’ve been in the water the whole time?” I asked as the rest of the family walked up the stone steps toward us, followed by Basin’s and Stayne’s families.


    Rose ran to Basin and hugged him tight. I did the same thing and clung to my damp family one at a time as they dried themselves.


    “Yes,” Christof said pulling on his pants, “I have been attempting to tell Basin and his Brothers that humans can clean themselves.”


    I didn’t have an answer to that and watched Basin check Rose over. Christof made him stop.


    “She is free cousin,” Christof said forcibly. “Free creatures bathe themselves and take care of their own bodies. We have to understand this.”


    Basin argued. Rose had cried the entire time. She didn’t want to do it herself. My best friend needed her family. They should be caring for her physical self, she obviously couldn’t do it.


    “She needs you because you trained her that way,” Christof said softly. “Humans take care of their own needs on Earth, my offspring, Kennedy, has talked to us about this. The human women did not like it when we took this chore away from them. It caused them distress.”


    Basin didn’t like what Christof was saying. Rose was free, he argued, but she still needed them. I looked at Damien and knew instantly that he agreed with Basin. Christof obviously did not and I saw the pain it was causing my family. Rose and I being here was very upsetting.


    “We have to go,” I said abruptly, surprising everyone. “If Rose and I are caught with you, you all will be sent back. We need to leave now and you should wait a moment before you walk out.”


    Basin stared at me and I raised my chin to stare back at him. I felt like a quivering mass of jello on the inside, but I hoped it didn’t show. This was not a time to show weakness.


    Basin spoke in a low tone and I knew I should drop my eyes, but I did not. “You dare tell us where to go and what to do?” he asked.


    “It’s for your own good,” I answered reaching out for Rose’s hand. “If we stay with you here, we will be caught. Come on Rose, we absolutely must go.”


    The looks I was getting from the men were a mix of furious and amazed. Only in Christof’s eyes did I see pride reflected. They had never seen me act this way.


    “Go,” Basin finally said pushing Rose away, “go with your friend.”


    Once I had Rose I grabbed our underthings off the line and headed quickly for the exit. We each bundled our underwear into a ball and shoved them in our pockets. Just before we exited the damp cave we slowed our gait and walked slowly back toward our rooms.


    The hallways were getting busier with men now. Several stopped to greet us and introduce themselves. One family was piling the fire pits with fuel and lighting the torches. Those men even stopped what they were doing to be friendly.


    I walked with Rose back to the second floor and our privatecquered pots.


    “You have to wipe yourself when you are done using thecquered pot,” I whispered to her. “It’s not clean what you’ve been doing.”


    Rose nodded to me, but didn’t speak before she turned into her stall. She still looked shocked. In truth, I still felt shocked. I couldn’t believe I had stood up to a man on this world. It seemed impossible.


    After a quick stop in our room, we found the dining room again and walked in by ourselves. Arik and his Brothers were in front of us almost immediately.


    “Good day, Ciara and Rose,” Arik greeted us with a smile, “we have decided to not be offended by your assumptionsst night,” he announced proudly.


    “Thank you?” Rose said looking at me with a definite question on the end.


    “You know nts from Earth and we know nts from here,” Arik said. “We would like to trade with you. You tell us about Earth nts and we will tell you about Paterian nts. Some things may still exist in both ces, we wish to know what they are.”


    I had forgotten. Everything here was shared. I had thought Rose and I had little to offer. These men thought differently.


    We went through the line for the morning meal and having Arik and his family with us was surprisingly helpful. Rose and I barely remembered what Hannah had told us, so we thought we’d have trouble. We asked Arik and his Brothers and they were a wealth of information.


    It wasn’t that Arik’s family knew anything about humans, but they knew everything about nt life. If something was edible for us, they were aware. When it came to the meats, Arik introduced us to the men cooking, Abram’s family, and they knew more about that. For the second time in two days we had a thorough lecture on food while we picked out our food.N?velDrama.Org holds this content.