Xiaolang stiffened as the pair of eyes stared at him. There was someone here. A human, with a pair of green wings on her back enveloping her body. Her eyes were curious. She stared back, and Xiaolang held out his spear on reflex. She was not here yesterday. How did she get here? Why did she have wings? Could she fly? Did she fly here?
"Xiaolang? What's… wrong?" Lazarus peeked from behind him and was stunned.
"Huh? Why are you all stopping?" Laurel questioned still below the stairs.
"There is someone here," Lazarus whispered. Her words made the children fall silent.
A few seconds of silence passed. Sensing that the girl wasn't hostile, Xiaolang relaxed his guard and moved closer. The children followed.
"Damn! I thought we would meet adults. She is just a kid!" Lexus sighed in disappointment at seeing the girl, who looked even younger than the children.
"We don't know that," Shingo said.
"Ahem. Greetings. I am Lazarus. May I know your name?" Lazarus went closer. She kneeled and offered her a handshake. The winged girl stayed silent, staring at her.
"Yeah. We are not inside a game. She definitely speaks a different language from us," Shingo sighed when Lazarus' attempt at communication was ignored.
"She is naked. Let's dress her first. We have clothes here." Bob rummaged through a nearby cabinet and found a simple white tunic for her.
"Did they even wear clothes? I mean, she must be naked for a reason, right?" Lexus said. "Her wings seem to cover her body well enough."
"Well… There are clothes here. The skeletons we found earlier must have been theirs as well. So I assumed…" Bob was hesitant.
"And you are going to give her clothes from dead corpses?" Lexus cocked his hip.
"We don't have any other clothes, Lexus. If you don't have anything better, stay silent." Laurel took the clothes Bob had rummaged up and inched closer to the girl. Her steps were hesitant.
"Hm… This girl might have just been born recently," Xiaolang muttered. He had a wild thought. But the new, seemingly slimy eggshells around and below her seemed to convince him.
"Hah? This girl must be around 8 or even 9 years old. What are you talking about?"
"Lexus. Be quiet. Xiaolang, explain," Laurel said.
"Well, he might be right," Shingo interrupted. "I noticed the new eggshells here that looked different."
"Hmm… Does that mean her parents will be here soon?" Laurel pondered.
"She is like an angel. So beautiful," Anna muttered.
Then, the girl stood up. Her wings unfurled. She then leaped into Lazarus' embrace, hugging her. Her wings brushed against her hands; the feathers were soft and fluffy. Lazarus was stunned.
"Eh? What's wrong?"
"Au! Au!" she chirped like a bird, her voice twinkling like a bell. Lazarus turned to her companions, her eyes signaling for help, but she didn't get any. Her companions shrugged their shoulders. They were also helpless before the child chirping in Lazarus' embrace. Lazarus sighed and made the first move. Picturing the child as a younger orphan from the orphanage, she patted her head, accepting her hug. Giggling, the child nudged her head into Lazarus' uniform.
"... Well. Let's dress her and get out of here. We still need to find food." Laurel unfolded the tunic that Bob got and dusted it off. She paused, wondering how she should approach the girl. For better or worse, she was an only child and never had to take care of younger children.
"Let me do it." Lazarus took the tunic from Laurel's hand. The girl stared at the tunic, tilting her head cutely. Lazarus lifted her hands and put the tunic on her. The girl frowned at the new sensation on her wings as the tunic draped over them.
"We might need to cut holes in it for her wings," Lazarus said.
"This is her home. How come they didn't have clothes for her?" Lexus frowned.
"We don't know. All we know is that she is proof that there is civilization here," Laurel said.
"Don't act so haughty. We don't know that." Lexus shrugged.
"Let's go. We still need food." Laurel ignored her. Xiaolang nodded and left while Lazarus grabbed the girl's hand. She required no prompting and followed Lazarus as if she were her parent.
"Hmm… I wonder if she can swim…" Lazarus pondered before the lake. But the girl hopped into the water with no fear, claiming the first spot on the opposite end.
"Au! Au!" she chirped, waving at Lazarus to follow her.
"That answered your question. She is like a duck to water," Laurel said as she dived into the water. The children soon followed her example, crossing the pond. Xiaolang kept a close watch, but he found no scarabs nearby.
The sun began to set as Laurel picked up the last of the crystal watermelons for the day. Tonight, they would eat heartily. A feeling of accomplishment sprouted within her chest. There was a civilization. Someone was here. Moreover, they had computers. It was no longer a dream that they might even have gate technology.
"Shingo, does Mistral know our gate coordinates?" Laurel said. Her hopes were rising as they ate their dinner before the fire.
"Hm? Mistral, if we have a gate here, can you connect us to the Sol interstellar gate?" Shingo asked.
"Au!" The angel chirped.
"Say. Don't you think she looks a bit like Lazarus?" Anna said as she fed the angel a crystal watermelon. They had been starved for new contact so long that this girl was like a literal angel to them. They doted on her.
"Yeah… Now that you mention it, she does indeed look like Lazarus. I wonder why." Laurel inspected the angel girl with curiosity.
"Au Au" she chomped on the fruit Anna had cut. She perked up, then turned toward the lifepod.
[Yes. If the gate software version is 4.32551 or below, I have the graphical data required to make connections. However, to establish a connection, we need a signal probe. Without a functioning signal probe, the hyperspace tunnel produced wouldn't be safe.]
"Au~~" The angel chirped at the lifepod.
[Yes. If the gate software version is 4.32551 or below, I have the graphical data required to make connections. However, to establish a connection, we need a signal probe. Without a functioning signal probe, the hyperspace tunnel produced wouldn't be safe.]
"It's fine. Even without probes, we don't even have to use the gate. Once the other side realizes we are requesting a connection, they will be the ones who come to us," Laurel said. Her expression beamed.
"Hm? Why did Mistral repeat the message?" Shingo tilted his head.
[Because you asked twice.]
[Because you asked twice.]
[Because you asked twice. Multiple requests identified. Should I neglect the copied request?]
"Au~"
"I didn't ask twice. What the heck?" Shingo reeled. He ran to the lifepod. His face was pale.
"Say. Can this kid only chirp? Can't she say anything else?" Lexus walked closer and poked her cheek,, then he made a face, trying to scare her. "Whoa!"
"Whoa!!" The girl raised her hand, imitating Lexus' noise.
"Whoa, she can talk! Amazing!"
"Whoa, she can talk! Amazing!" The angel parroted Anna.
"I am Lazarus. Nice to meet you!" Lazarus smiled at the angel.
"I am Lazarus. Nice to meet you!" The angel parroted Lazarus.
"Hmm… She only copied your voice. I don't think she understands what we are saying," Laurel said.
"Don't worry! She will learn to talk in time. We just need to be nice to her," Lazarus said. Since she had taken care of fellow kids in the orphanage, she knew that children would absorb the language they heard.
"I hope so. She is our only connection to civilization here," Laurel said.
"I hope so. She is our only connection to civilization here. Au~~" The angel added a chirp at the end, making Laurel's stern voice sound cuter.
"Hmm… She is rather smart. To be able to speak like that even though it was only parroting." Xiaolang knew someone who spoke other languages such as Chinese and Russian, and he wasn't confident he could parrot an entire sentence after hearing it only once.
"I am Lazarus," Lazarus said as she pointed to herself.
"I am Lazarus!" The angel parroted, but she pointed at Lazarus.
"Say, don't you think she needs a name?" Anna said.
"Yeah. We can't keep calling her 'that girl' or 'angel'..." Lazarus frowned when she realized she couldn't introduce herself unless she gave the angel a name.
"Since she often says 'au,' like chirping, and she has wings, what if we call her Auscella?" Anna said, combining the "au" she often made and ascella, from Latin, which means wings.
"Auscella?" Lazarus tilted her head.
"Au~" The girl nudged her cheek against Lazarus. In these short hours, the girl had grown attached to Lazarus.
"Auscella, do you like it?"
"Auscella, do you like it?" she parroted.
"It's useless. She can only parrot, like a recorder," Lexus cursed. He munched on the rest of his crystal watermelon and left for the lifepod, sleeping shortly afterward.
"Lazarus!" Lazarus said as she pointed to herself. She then pointed toward Auscella. "AusCella!"
"Auscella!" She pointed to herself and nodded.
"Yes! You are Auscella!"
"I, Auscella. You, Lazarus!" She nodded.
"She understood!" Lazarus beamed.
"I am Anna! Nice to meet you!"
"I am Bob. Nice to meet you, Auscella."
"I am Laurel. I am happy to meet you, Auscella."
"I am Xiaolang."
"Laurel! Bob! Xiaolang! Anna! Lazarus!" The girl pointed toward the children one by one.
"Yes! You're right!"
"Yes! I am right!" The difference made it clear that she understood what the children were talking about.
Auscella then pointed toward the lifepod. "Au?"
"That's a lifepod," Lazarus said. Auscella then pointed to a rock, and Lazarus answered in kind. "That's a rock."
"The sun has almost set. I am tired. Let's sleep," Laurel said before she shoveled sand over the fire, trying to extinguish it.
"Yes. Let's sleep."
"Sleep?" Auscella tilted her head.
"Sleep means resting," Lazarus answered as she guided Auscella into the lifepod.
Auscella tilted her head. Lazarus merely smiled as she patted her head.
Mistral. My father went to heaven. Please don't leave me. Yeah. I know you are safe. Even if the computer were destroyed, I could simply install another one. But somehow, I feel you are different from your copy. This version exists only once. I will take care of you. ~Shingo