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That first night was an interesting one for each of us. You already know that I gained a minor concussion out of it and what Sharra experienced wasn't exactly a whole lot nicer. We were complete unknowns to each other, strange creatures of nightmare and imagination and that brought with it a healthy dose of fear. Despite the strange events that passed we were able to look back in the years to follow and laugh at our actions that night.

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A noise, that of movement accompanied with a muffled groan reached Sharra's ears from across the room and brought her fully awake with a jolt. She didn't even realize that she had fallen asleep. After everything that had happened during the night she didn't think that she would be able to. She had almost ended up sleeping outside.

Fear spiked and she froze, forcing herself to remain facing the corner when all of her instincts were telling her to get up and run away. She remained quiet and let her ears track the progress of the noises that emanated from behind her. After the initial groan and scuffling, there was a prolonged period of silence punctuated only by the sound of dripping water. Her ears strained into the silence and she sniffed quietly.

Was that the roof leaking again?

Her curiosity eventually got the better of her and she was about to roll over and seek out the source of the drip but new sounds from across the cabin interrupted her. She froze again and decided that it would better and safer to stay where she was.

There was some more scuffling and then there were a few vague mutterings. Her curiosity would no longer be denied and she slowly turned her head towards the sounds to see what was gong on. She was just in time to see the creature stand up. Her eyes widened in surprise, all of her muscles tensed and she was ready to explode towards the door in an attempt to escape but the creature just walked towards the door and apparently didn't even notice her curled up on the floor by the table. He had one foot out the door when he did finally notice her. Those smoky blue eyes met hers for a split second and then he was gone, leaving her staring in surprise at the now closed door. Gods was that thing huge, she told herself. It was one thing to see him lying down but once he was on his feet his head seemed to reach up into the rafters.

She blinked a few times and stifled a yawn. She had been wondering when he was going to wake up again.

Actually, she had been wondering if the stranger would wake up at all. It had been unfortunate for both of them that when he woke up the first time, it had been the middle of the night. He had started stumbling around and from there the situation had gotten a little out of hand. A crash and a loud yell of pain brought Sharra from dead asleep to awake and running in a matter of about half a second. The creature had heard her get up and move and he had stopped dead in his tracks. After a brief period of silence where her frightened breathing and pounding heart had seemed incredibly loud in her ears, the stranger had yelled out something that sounded suspiciously like 'who's there?'. At least that what she thought it had sounded like. Sharra was having a very hard time believing it though. There was no way that thing, whatever it was, would speak the same language as she did. For the moment she put it down to the fact that being rudely awakened at a stupid hour of the morning by a potentially violent creature nearly twice her size does strange things to a person's mind. She hadn't really known what to do about the whole situation and was trying to think of a way to escape unscathed when she had heard him step in her direction. Scared stiff and not knowing his intentions, she had scurried a little farther away from him, edging towards the door. At the sound of her movement, he had taken off abruptly in the opposite direction and ran into the wall, hard, and knocked himself clean out.

She shook her head and a bit of a smile came to her muzzle. Sure, she could look back now and laugh, but at the time, even after the stranger had knocked himself out, she had remained in the darkness of the cabin with her back up against the wall, ears straining for the slightest sound, terrified that he would get back up and come after her. Even the most docile creatures will defend themselves if threatened, and she really had no idea what to expect next. She kept edging towards the door and when she finally reached it she threw it open, sprinted straight off the porch and across the clearing in record time. With her heart hammering against her ribs, she watched uncertainly from the shadows for what seemed like an hour, but was probably only fifteen minutes. When the creature didn't try to pursue her and there were no further signs of life from the cabin she got up enough nerve to cautiously return. She crept in the open door, sniffing intently and ears at attention. Raspy breathing from one corner was the only sign of life.

Minutes passed with no change and Sharra eventually found the courage to light her small oil lamp.

The dim, flickering light had revealed the creature prostrate on the floor. He was bleeding from the cut on his head that had reopened as well as a new one received from his collision with the wall.

She had spent the next hour or so cleaning him up and was forced to use her last and precious scrap off cloth to bind his head wound.

She didn't think that he had hurt himself too badly, but he was going to have a big bump on his forehead now to match the one on the back of his head. Fortunately he hadn't messed up his arm again but she figured that he'd likely have a nasty headache the next time he woke up.

Daylight had finally arrived and the creature had finally returned to the land of the semi-conscious and Sharra was totally clueless as to how she should deal with him. All other things aside, at least he hadn't attacked her yet and with a bit of luck, he wouldn't remember the events of last night.

To further add to Sharra's confusion, when the stranger did wake up, he just got up and walked right out of the door, not even paying her the slightest bit of attention. She had expected fear and disorientation, maybe even anger from the creature. She had been prepared to run, perhaps even to defend herself but the one thing she had not expected was to be totally ignored. She had searched the stranger's face for any sign of emotion or recognition in that brief moment that his eyes had met hers but she hadn't seen anything there. However, the creature's lack of any outward signs of emotion could possibly have been an expression in itself. It suddenly occurred to her that it might be difficult for her to read the emotions and expressions on the stranger's face. He definitely wasn't Tokran and his lack of a tail combined with the fact that his squashed ears were apparently unmovable would make it difficult to know what was going on in that strangely shaped head of his. Sharra thought hard for a moment. On his way out the door, his face had been so utterly expressionless and those faded blue eyes so neutral that it was like he had never even noticed her at all. Maybe he hadn't.

One thing was for sure however. That pale furless hide of his made him look strange enough, but now that he had a makeshift and bloodstained bandage wrapped around his head and that unusual fur sticking out at such impossible angles from under that bandage, now that was really a sight to see. It was almost comical, but Sharra understood that appearances could be deceiving and that there really was no telling what may lie beneath that comical exterior.

She yawned then idly scratched an itch behind her left ear and wondered if she should go outside and see what the creature was doing. Probably not, she decided, especially after what happened during the night. He might take off into the forest and get himself lost. It would be better to let him adjust to his new surroundings on his own terms. She stifled another yawn then sat up and stretched the kinks out of her joints. She pulled her tail into her lap and grimaced at the sorry state that it was in. She straightened out the fur as best as she could while she sat there deep in thought.

What was she going to do now?

She wasn't able to think of an easy answer to that question. She let out a sigh and stood up. She stretched again then moved to the table and sat down in the chair with a thump. The only thing she could do was sit and wait until the creature came back, if he decided to come back. He might decide to run off into the forest for all she knew.

Her mind wandered back to the time when she had found him. Ever since the incident with the sphere, she had been plagued with a nagging feeling that everything just didn't add up. As she had done many timed before in the last couple of days, she carefully ran through every detail of her memories from that day, searching for something she was sure that she had missed.

She hadn't exactly behaved the way she thought she should have, but then how was she supposed to act when confronted with a situation and a creature so strange that they defied explanation? Still, something was bothering her, if only she knew what it was. She was starting to believe that the Gods really were playing some cruel trick on her.

She drummed her fingers against the table for a moment before her curiosity got the best of her. She went to the window and after trying to wipe away some of the grime with her hand, she looked outside. She was momentarily dazzled by the bright sunlight glinting of the snow but after her eyes adjusted to the glare she could see the creature leaning against the corner of the shed. He remained there for a moment then began to head back towards the cabin. She watched until he was about halfway back before she returned to the table.

Now what? A hundred thoughts ran through her mind at once. Would he attack her? Would he turn and run?

Her heart jumped up into her throat when she heard the sound of his footsteps on the porch. She tried to hide her nervousness and look as nonthreatening as possible. It took a conscious effort to keep her ears from going flat against her skull. The seconds dragged on until there was the creak of rusty hinges as the door was swung open. For a moment, time seemed to stop.

The creature stood there, silhouetted against the morning light streaming in through the door behind him and his eyes were locked on her. As Sharra sat at the table and looked up at him, she realized for the first time just how big he really was. He filled the entire doorway and that crazy patch of fur on top of his head nearly brushed against the top of the door frame. There was something akin to surprise showing in his pale eyes and for a long moment he stood there and looked her over, his expression of surprise giving way to one of disbelief? Or perhaps fear? She wasn't sure. And then slowly, he began to back out of the cabin.

Sharra cocked her head and gave him a questioning look, then with a tentative wag of her tail she stood up. The look on the creature's face was priceless. He let out a yell of shock and rocketed straight back out the open door. She was sure that if his eyes got any wider they would fall right out of their sockets. She moved around the table and slowly approached him. Every step she took towards him, he matched with a step back until he was in the middle of the porch. There was fear in his eyes and on his next step back there was air under his searching foot. His eyes widened further as he disappeared over the edge of the porch. A grunt and a thump followed.

Sharra rushed forward, hoping that the creature had not re-injured his arm. He sat in the snow, a rather strange look creasing his alien face. When he saw her at the edge of the porch, he looked up sharply, an even stranger look clouding his features. After a moment he stood up unsteadily and began to brush some of the clinging snow from his clothes.

Not knowing what else to do, Sharra decided to try an attempt at communication.

She spoke softly and clearly. "Are you all right?"

At her words, the creature flinched violently and stared up at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. He took a few hurried steps back and just stared at her as if she'd grown an extra head.

That wasn't quite the reaction that she had been expecting. The stranger continued to eye her suspiciously. Then he did something that she never would have expected.

He spoke!

I must diverge from the story here and say that our whole situation took an inexplicably weird and extremely unsettling turn at this point. I still can't quite believe what happened next, even thirty years later. It just seems so impossible, so damned unlikely, but also so necessary with what was going to happen in the years ahead.

Every preconceived notion that Sharra had about how and why this creature got here was tossed to the wind when he opened his mouth and spoke to her. What she heard was not any language she had ever heard before. His voice was deep and his words utterly alien, yet she understood what he said! The garbled sentence he voiced was somehow twisted around in her head until it became "I'm not sure"

She flinched and stared at him in shock. Cloudy blue eyes returned her gaze and a flicker of amusement glittered in their depths. One corner of his mouth twitched upwards and the look on his face softened. When after a moment or two she still hadn't found her voice, the creature spoke again.

"Judging by the look on your face, I'll bet that you can understand what I say even though you have no clue what language I speak, right?"

Sharra managed to gain enough control over her voice to squeak out a small "yes".

His head bobbed up and down a couple of times and another vague expression flickered across his face. "Huh. The same thing just happened to me."

She had no idea what to say to that. He looked at her for a moment, then heaved his shoulders up and down and brushed the rest of the clinging snow from his clothes with his one good arm. He glanced uneasily at her as he moved carefully past her. Sharra was still too surprised to do anything but move out of his way.

She craned her head and peered through the doorway as he ambled over to the table. He dragged one of the chairs beside the stove, sat down heavily and held his good hand out over the heat rising from the top of the stove. After a moment or two of this he turned towards her.

"Are you going to stand out there all day?" He asked. "Because if you are, could you please shut the door? You're letting all the heat out."

Her eyes widened in surprise then her ears and tail drooped as she realized that she was still standing out on the porch.

She didn't really know what else to do. The idea of turning and running passed briefly through her mind and did its best to stay for a while. After a moment she dismissed it and for some odd reason decided instead to return to the interior of the cabin and the unknown that was now within it.

At the sound of the door closing, the creature looked up at her again. A chill swept through her as she met his gaze. Those eyes, there was something about them that triggered a fleeting sense of familiarity. She couldn't put her finger on it but there was something about this unusual creature that nagged at her memory.

Momentarily confused, she shook the feeling away and slowly walked to the table and sat in the empty chair, her eyes never leaving the creature that sat in front of the stove. She felt stunned, like her brain just wouldn't work. Too much weird stuff had just happened to quickly for her to comprehend. The stranger eyed her uneasily and she involuntarily tensed up.

For a time, no words passed between them. Each studied the other and thought furiously about how to start the inevitable flood of questions that was sure to come.

Sharra paused for a moment in her thoughts. How long had it been since she had last talked to anyone but herself? Over two years? Almost an eternity. She had almost forgotten what it was like to not be alone.

The creature had finished warming his hand over the stove and now sat facing her across the table, watching her intently. Curiosity shone in his eyes and after a moment, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Where am I and how did I get here?"

Again that impossible translation took place and it made Sharra shiver involuntarily. Of all things, why did he have to ask those two questions? She didn't quite know the answer to either one of them. She took a deep breath and considered her words carefully before replying.

"I cannot tell you where we are because I do not exactly know." She paused a moment before continuing, wondering if this next part was going to sound as strange and crazy to him as it did to her. "As for how you arrived here, I am uncertain of that as well, but I can tell you that it was the most unusual thing I have ever seen."

Those two odd strips of fur above his eyes drew together and the corners of his mouth turned down. What did that expression mean? Confusion? Or maybe disbelief?

After a moment he nodded his head. "Go on."

Sharra took a moment to collect her thoughts and then began to tell of what she had seen two days ago.

She wondered if he would believe a single word of it.