Cold & Native Ch. 02

He nodded, smiled and took pencil and paper from her, then began drawing. One woman, one man, lots of couples. He followed Hiiyehs conventions of drawing them, one of the couple was three-legged, the other got a bust. He separated the couples by quite some distance.

Hiiyeh's eyes went wide, she looked at the paper, then Ryan, then the paper and then Ryan again before she took the pencil from him and drew a few women next to one couple.

Ryan took the pencil back and crossed them all out again.

Hiiyeh looked at that, perplexed, then drew an entire crowd of women and asked Ryan to explain.

He looked at the crowd, then drew another set of males next to the women, making sure there were equally as many.

Hiiyeh looked at that, then drew more women. So Ryan drew more men. They did that at least twice and Ryan grasped that Hiiyeh's species must have a significantly bigger disparity between male and female than human's had.

Interesting.

Hiiyeh looked at that for a few seconds, then she had another question. She drew two humans having sex, then the woman got concentric circles from the centre of her abdomen and an unhappy smiley.

He'd used those circles earlier to explain painkillers to her, so the meaning was pretty clear. Did sex hurt?

That confused Ryan. He had been under the impression that Hiiyeh had enjoyed their shower tremendously.

So he took the pencil back and drew the two of them having sex and circles around Hiiyeh's abdomen, as well as an unhappy face, then looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Did it hurt for you? He tapped himself, then the stick man, then her sternum and the female horse person to clarify what he wanted to know.

Hiiyeh shook her head, smiling. Then she took the pencil back and crossed out the frowning face and drew a smiling face and used the eraser to clear away the concentric circles. Ryan took the pencil from her and drew a smiling face next to himself too. They both smiled at each other, slightly awkwardly, before Hiiyeh contemplated with a frown, looking around the room for inspiration. She tapped her nose with the pencil, frowning.

"Hmmm...."

Ryan gently placed his hand at her back, which brought her out of her reverie for a quick smile towards him before she set the pencil to the paper and began drawing again. A line, then half a circle on the left, intersected be the line, then a circle above the line, then another circle half intersected by the line from left to right.

She checked with Ryan, trying to see whether he understood, unsure of whether her illustration was clear enough. He looked at her and the paper waiting for more. She set down the pencil, unsatisfied and looked around the room again for more inspiration.

She quickly found it, then drew the wall clock next to the circles.

Ryan narrowed his eyes. A circle going up and down and time...

Oh, that was the sun!

He nodded, then took the pencil and added a few rays to each sun.

That perplexed Hiiyeh.

She shook her head, but Ryan mirrored the sun and drew the moon to explain that he had, in fact understood. He drew a few little craters and made the entire background black, then added a few stars with the eraser.

Hiiyeh nodded, then tapped the sun's rays and raised her eyebrow. Ryan shook his head, smiled and erased them.

Hiiyeh frowned, but then moved on and drew two horse people having sex again -- right under the dawning sun. Then she drew more and more underneath the entire day's length, then more under the night. After the night, she drew the female with pain from her abdomen.

Ryan counted all the couples having sex on his fingers, slightly exaggerated, so Hiiyeh could easily follow his count. He looked at her in shock. Fifteen times? Hiiyeh nodded. Then she drew the same result again, but this time more females and no pain in any abdomen, only smiles.

Ryan nodded. Then he drew about three human couples having sex, one during noon, another during dusk and one at night. He drew them both with smiley faces. Then he tapped the horse people's itinerary and shook his head.

Hiiyeh nodded. Then she took a look at the page again and tapped a human couple. Ryan followed her, then looked at her, waiting for more. She tapped the male, followed by his chest, then the woman and looked around, searching exaggeratedly.

Ryan gently tapped her arm until she was looking at him again, then shook his head.

He tapped his chest, then tapped the crowd of males.

Hiiyeh took that in. Then she tapped him, then the crowd of males and raised her eyebrow. Why?

Ryan had to laugh at that. Why was he single? Well, there weren't that many women around up here, were there? He remembered something along the lines of 70 % men up here.

He drew a small house, then gestured around him and pointed to it. House. Then he drew a couple more, a few trees nearby, clearly a village. Then he drew 7 men and 3 women next to the houses.

He reconsidered, and drew two couples and one woman by herself.

Hiiyeh seemed to understand well enough. She looked at the drawing for a few seconds in silence.

Ryan had another idea and drew another house, out in the sticks, quite far away form the village and then a man next to it and tapped himself on the chest, then the man next to the house.

Hiiyeh looked a bit perplexed, then slowly nodded. She took the pencil and drew a line from the house to the village, tapped it and looked at him with her eyebrow raised. Why do you live so far away?

Ryan scrunched up his face. How do you communicate author without saying author...

"Hmmm..."

He could draw paper with words on it. But no, that probably wouldn't mean anything to her...

He could draw books.

She probably wouldn't know what they do.

He could...

How do you communicate to someone from a significantly less advanced civilization that you have retreated in to solitude to come up with a story to tell that people buy as a book? Hell, did Hiiyeh even know what buying was?

Ryan started drawing himself and another man, with boxes going each way, an exchange. His box became a book with a few more strokes of the pencil, and the other guy's box got a dollar sign. He then drew another stick figure exchanging dollar for an apple. Did she know what an apple was?

This felt pointless to him. So he just crossed it all out and instead drew himself next to Hiiyeh and the house in the woods, with a big smiley face next to it and tried to lift his hand to her jaw to draw her in for a kiss, but she lifted her head out of his jaw and pointedly looked at the paper again, clearly expecting him to continue explaining.

Ryan pouted for a second, for effect, and Hiiyeh smiled, then lifted a finger to his lips and gently touched them. But she didn't seem like she would let up. So Ryan resigned himself to figuring out how to explain the concept of 'writer' to her.

It wouldn't be easy, he knew that much. He erased his crosses and continued where he had left off. He pointed at the apple and looked at her, asking her what it was and she nodded. Okay, she understood that. He then circled the book and tapped the line between the houses and the village.

'Because of this I'm out here. '

Hiiyeh looked at that, obviously not happy with the explanation, then tapped the book. What?

What is a book?

Ryan raised his finger.

"Wait."

"Ekey."

He got up and quickly moved through the hut and up the stairs in to the office, pulling the laptop off the battery pack he used to keep it operating. He was about to head back down, when he realized a paper book was probably a good thing to take too. He took a dictionary with him, then realized he should maybe take one of his works too and took his reference for the sequel he was working on.

Hiiyeh had been waiting and looked curiously at the books and completely ignored the laptop. Ryan tapped the book he had written and the book in his drawing. Hiiyeh looked at it, curious, then opened it. The letters seemed not to mean anything to her, so she flipped through it and then ended up at the rear end and saw Ryan's picture on the dust cover -- which stopped her for a second. She looked at him, then the picture and then him again and Ryan nodded. Yeah, that's me. Hiiyeh took a closer look at the picture, then Ryan again, comparing the too.

"Yeeeey..."

Ryan wasn't sure what that meant. Hiiyeh took the pencil and drew a few squiggly lines, then pointed at herself while drawing more lines. Ryan nodded slowly, not sure where she was going with this. Then she tapped the cover of the book and motioned with the pencil as if she was drawing, then raised her eyebrow. Was this drawn?

But then she looked around, searching for something... no, someone.

Who had drawn this?

Ryan smiled and shook his head. He set aside the dictionary, then opened the laptop. Hiiyeh set down his book, seemingly confused and intrigued by the slate that folded open for no good reason.

Ryan pressed the on button and the splash screen and then the BIOS started scrolling through. Hiiyeh jumped and her attention flickered between Ryan and the screen for a second before Ryan took her hand and gently squeezed it while looking in to her eyes with a warm and hopefully calming smile.

She relaxed somewhat. Ryan in turn concentrated on entering his password and waited a few moments while the operating system loaded his desktop.

After seeing Ryan go through the routine of booting a computer and not seemingly being even slightly alarmed or upset about anything happening, Hiiyeh went from cautious to cautiously interested.

Ryan opened up the camera app for the webcam and showed Hiiyeh the two of them sitting there on the couch.

Hiiyeh looked at the screen wide eyed, then raised a hand and waved it around, testing what would happen. She stared at her image on the screen, completely focused on it.

Ryan chuckled, which made her look his way for an instance, only to be drawn back to the laptop by the shutter sound as he took a snapshot.

Hiiyeh waved again, but her photography stood still. She waved again, as if to make sure that her image was frozen, then moved much closer to the laptop to inspect it.

Ryan then picked up his book around her back and pointed to the image, then the image of them together on the couch.

Hiiyeh looked at him as if he was an alien.

That made Ryan chuckle, so he gently placed Hiiyeh's Index finger on the space bar, then closed the picture of them on the couch. His pressure on her finger gently pressed space and the computer took another picture. Hiiyeh looked at the picture, then the space bar, transfixed.

Ryan closed it, then motioned for her to press space again.

She took her finger off the computer, looking uncomfortable. Ryan caught her eye and raised his eyebrow. She just shook her head.

Ryan nodded, then opened his text processor of choice, finding the manuscript for his book. He opened it, then opened another window with the manuscript he was supposed to work on.

He opened the same pages in the manuscript and the book, then showed them too Hiiyeh, who took a cautious interest as he showed her that they looked exactly the same, but she still seemed spooked and only checked that they were similar, then leaned back and away from the laptop and Ryan.

Her reaction prompted him to shut the laptop and to take the clipboard and paper with a clean page, then hold it out to her and to ask her why she was so uncomfortable with the machine.

She took the clipboard and gave it a close look, probably checking that it wasn't another laptop. She then drew a slightly bent over horse person with a a few rectangular slates, handling them. Then a few others and crossed all of them out.

Ryan tapped the laptop and then the slates, and raised his eyebrow.

Are these the same?

Hiiyeh obviously did not understand what he meant.

They locked gazes for a few moments, until Ryan dismissively shook his head. She obviously thought they were the same. So these people had laptops?That seemed like a bit of a stretch to Ryan.

Why was she so afraid of touching them, though?

He tapped the crossed out female horse person and raised his eyebrow. Why?Or more accurately, why not?

And Hiiyeh drew a female and then a few smaller horse people next to it, without gender, then crossed them out.

Ryan tapped the males, and Hiiyeh quickly adjusted the gender on the female without kids.

Ryan tapped the slightly bent over horse person, and Hiiyeh stopped, scratched her head, then looked around for the previous drawings.

She took the sheet with the sun rising and settling, then tapped that, the slightly bent over horse person and started making a lot of marks next to the sun.

Ryan nodded. That was an old person. Probably already had kids. Alright.

But Hiiyeh wasn't finished, she also drew a young person taking a slate and then another picture of the slate breaking, followed by a last image of the person being speared.

Ryan looked to her in shock. Why would you kill someone for breaking what was probably a flat plate of stone or something?

He tapped it and raised his eyebrow, and Hiiyeh just nodded. Then she drew another one, a picture of a female taking a slate and taking it away from a group. She seemed to struggle with explaining something, starting a few times, then stopping again. Finally, she just crossed it out. She pointed at herself, then at the cross.

She thought this was not to be done.

Ryan looked in to her eyes, seriously, then tapped the cross and nodded. Then he took the laptop and tapped it, then a slate and shook his head.

Not the same.

Then he tapped the drawing of it being taken away and shook his head again. Finally, the laptop again and then he used his flat hand and put it on his chest. This is mine. I didn't steal it.

Hiiyeh gave him a very long look, searching his eyes.

Ryan held his ground until Hiiyeh looked back at the paper, then started drawing again. A group of horse people, an old person with a slate and then a forest and a stream of water with more forest behind it. She drew two arrows, one over the water, another in to the other forest. She caught Ryan's eye, then tapped each arrow and raised her eyebrow.

Ryan, not sure what she was asking, was about to answer, but she continued drawing. A close up of the old one with the slate, obviously doing something with it, accompanied by Hiiyeh tapping the old one, then the slate and raising her eyebrow.

So the old ones asked the slates for guidance?

Ryan slowly nodded. Hiiyeh tapped the slate, then each of the arrows, then repeated the gesture. Ryan nodded again.

Hiiyeh crossed out the old person with the slate and then drew an arrow to an apple, which she crossed out. No slate, no food.

No food was bad. Taking or breaking the slate could have dire consequences. Maybe they were tablets of some kind? Unlikely. The old people were probably shamans of some kind.

"Wyhen."

He looked up and she pointed at the laptop, then at the apple, then at him. Laptop, food, Ryan. Right, the laptop caused him to have food, yes.

Ryan nodded, then shook his head.

Hiiyeh looked at him as he pulled another one of their sheets from the stack, then added to the drawing of him exchanging books for money. He drew himself, the laptop and then an arrow to a book, tapping each item in the process so Hiiyeh could follow.

He drew a direct arrow to the apple, then crossed it out again, shaking his head as Hiiyeh looked back up at him. She still seemed unconvinced, searching his eyes again.

Then she took the pencil from him, drew a human man with a rectangle and pointed at the laptop. She followed up with a few smaller humans without sex, then crossed them out, right next to the man. She looked at Ryan, her eyebrow raised.

Ryan smiled and shook his head.

He took the sheet of paper with the village and forest out and drew laptops next to every single one of them, as well as a few kids with laptops too.

Well, maybe not all of them had laptops, but they all definitely had computers somewhere near them.

Hiiyeh contemplated this, then drew herself with a laptop and a few kids next to her, which she crossed out. She looked at Ryan, clearly asking whether she would be able to have kids if she touched the laptop.

Ryan shook his head. Of course she would be able to. Why wouldn't she? Probably not with him, him being human and all that and her being whatever she was, but that shouldn't stop her from ever getting kids if she touched a laptop at some point. He wondered what those slates were made of, maybe something unhealthy?

It didn't matter.

Hiiyeh repeated her question, more urgently and Ryan laid a hand on her forearm and emphasized his head shaking. He was sure.

She looked down at his hand on her arm, then back up at him. He couldn't quite tell what was going on her head, so he waited.

At first, she looked at the sheet in front of her, then the laptop. Then she went back to the sheets in front of her, looking them over, trying to find something she missed, it seemed.

Ryan wished he could somehow communicate 'trust me' in some way, but that was a concept that was almost impossible to draw. Hiiyeh contemplated for a few seconds more, then seemingly caught herself. She turned to him and tapped the box with the apple on one of the sheets with a raised eyebrow.

That made little sense to Ryan so he raised his eyebrow in return, looking confused.

Hiiyeh pointed at herself, then the apple and asked again. Ryan was a still a little slow on the uptake, so she slowed down her gestures. You. Me. Food. Asking.

It clicked in Ryan's head and he smiled goofily and hid his eyes behind a hand in shame as he rubbed his head. He nodded, then took his hand away and saw Hiiyeh tentatively smile. He nodded again, then got up to fix something to eat. She kept her eyes on him as he made his way to the kitchen, clearly deep in thought.

Ryan went through his drawers, figuring out what he could make. He hadn't had pasta in a while. They were vegetarian. He'd need to add something. Pasta by itself was not exactly a terrific meal.

He could soak it in butter and add some spices, but that was more of a lazy day food.

No, he'd want something a bit more... elaborate.

Wait, hadn't he bought some frozen pizzas?

Well, that wasn't exactly a food to serve someone else who barely knew you either.

He started the water. First things first. Then he went on to rifle through his groceries. Tomatoes were a given, but what else could he use to whip up a sauce?

Hmm. Onions, onions were always good. She liked cream cheese. Maybe some carrots? A little bit of water, some spices... That should work out.

The cutting board and knife for this sort of kitchen work came out and Ryan started by rinsing the veggies before cutting them up.

"Wyhen?"

He was just about to put oil in the pan when she called out to him. The oil went in, then Ryan set the bottle down and walked out of the kitchen and in to the living room to see what Hiiyeh needed.

She stood next to the couch on her good leg again, steadying herself with a hand on its back, stranded in the room. She had draped his blanket across herself and held it up with a knot she had tied with her other hand. He inquisitively looked at her, but her squirming and pleading expression pretty much made it clear in a second that she needed the loo.

He lifted her arm over his shoulder and held it with his right, then looped his left around her back and looked at her, waiting for her to make the first step. Then they hobbled out of the living room and in to the bathroom, step by step, squeezing through the narrow walkway with Ryan grabbing a lot of unintentional side boob.

Hiiyeh made a lot of painful faces, but it didn't seem to Ryan as if she had the time to wait for more painkillers to kick in. He would give her some more after her bathroom break.