Talaskai looks like ke's considering falling over again, and gets momentarily distracted looking around for the trowel ke dropped.

"Hmm, you look a bit like one of those hairless cats, maybe we should try some dried fish first, they have odd reactions to some plants.

Are any of your people around, or are you lost? If you don't mind us asking, how did you get here?"

"Tasting the fish sounds like it'd be fun!" She smiles slightly as she says this.

"It wouldn't make sense for other people to be around. I got here... in a way I have no explanation for how could be possible... like black magic."

"That's what they would say," cautions Talaskai, who has not found kis trowel.

"Okay, let's go back to camp. Talaskai, I am quite sure that if they are the front runner of an alien invasion, it will make no difference if we hang around talking in a bush or go back to camp where we can sit down and have some snacks.

But you are going to stay here until you have found that trowel, because I do not want to tell Mel we've lost another one."

Jeeee moves a few steps away to see if the alien is going to leave the bush and follow kim.

"I can pick it up for you if that's easier!" She scans the ground, ready to pick up the trowel if they let her.

"...yes, if you can see it," agrees Jeeee.

The trowel probably fell into that clump of possibly-strawberries over there.

Cynthia smoothly moves over to pick it up, deftly holding it in her hands.

Talaskai looks like ke might be going to snatch it for a moment, then thinks better of it.

Jeeee 'subtly' gets between Talaskai and the alien and leads them back towards the camp. It's going to take a few minutes to get there.

Ke is clearly uncomfortable not talking and eventually says, "Billions, huh?"

"You can't just say that, clearly we have huge 'cities' just around the corner! With missiles and stuff."

The feel of the word 'city' is more of a theoretical concept than something that actually exists.

"Billions is a huge number of people! I love it, it means there's always someone cool and new to hear about!"

"What would you need missiles for?"

"Sometimes people are bad and you have to stop them."

"I'm aware, it's just... are missiles really the right tool? Wouldn't the bad people like. Be too close and the missile would just go over them?"

"Oh, no, you fire the missile at their boat. Then they can't hurt you back while you're doing it.

Unless they've got one too, I guess. But that's why you have to be quiet about things and not give the game away."

The last two points are clearly addressed to Jeeee, who is somehow so embarrassed by this conversation ke has shut up for once, or maybe is just concentrating on covering ground effectively and in the right direction.

"Oh. Boats use smaller missiles that go in the water! I imagined like. The really big missiles that go in the air."

"..."

Talaskai is now extremely worried about the really big missiles that go in the air!

"Sometimes torpedos don't have the range," interjects Jeeee. 

"Anyway, hopefully nobody will be blowing up anything!

...I suppose we ought to be wary about how word gets out though, in case someone decides you're a forward scout and they need to solve the problem."

"Hmm... do you know what a nuclear bomb is? They get used a lot for making dams deeper and things, to store more water, where I come from. People were thinking about putting them on missiles once, so it was maybe easier and faster than dragging it all the way where you needed it, but it would just waste money."

Jeeee and Talaskai exchange a slightly panicked series of facial expressions.

"So, uh, what do you usually like to eat?" asks Jeeee, in what is clearly meant to be a very nonchalant change of topic. 

"I eat lot of rice, and chickpeas and potatoes and pizza and chickens!"

"Okay, so rice is pretty exotic here, there's a mining facility that cultivates it because they're in a swamp and some people really like it, apparently it goes great with raw fish and a little vinegar.

Chickpeas are one of the things we were planting, though, and we, uh, some people roast the jungle fowl if they can catch them?

Whatever is letting me understand you is trying to explain what pizza is but there are several steps that we do not generally have available.

I guess you could use a normal flatbread and some people can eat tomatoes, getting that much cheese seems... unlikely.

At least there's potatoes, they keep well so we always have a sack around somewhere."

"Potatoes are wonderful. I'm a bit surprised that cheese would be rare, though. You're managing to get it to begin with, after all? What's stopping you from not just doing more of what you're doing to get cheese?"

"Well, first you have to find a herd at the right time, then you have to capture the lactating ones, then you've got to get the milk back to the cheese making facility - it's pretty involved.

People do it because cheese is really great - apparently, I've never had any - but you have to really care a lot or find tracking herds interesting or something."

Cynthia waves her hand around for a bit. "I'll do that. Where I came from, people just made and kept herds perfect for getting milk and cheese. I'm sure we could do so here too."