Anyway, that was what he kept telling himself, over and over.
A truly deafening cacophony of mewlings, howls, roars, peeps, twitters, hisses, and scratching sounds filled the air when the exhausted clouds finally cleared for a while. Able at last to slip out of his rain gear for a few hours, Hasa carefully laid his attire over smaller branches in the hope it would dry out a little. The human, however, did not stop there but continued disrobing until he was completely naked. Squatting down, he set out a small emergency light and began eating his evening rations. In a wishful dream, the light would be seen by any skimmers or aircraft that happened to pass overhead.
Unaccustomed to the sight of an unclothed human, Sakuntala and Deyzara contemplated their naked companion. Hasa was completely oblivious to their stares. He would have reacted exactly the same had he been traveling with a dozen of his own kind. In the Viisiiviisii, any inhibitions vanished as rapidly as did clean clothing.
After a moment’s hesitation, Masurathoo removed what remained of his own brilliantly colored but badly tattered attire and laid it out as neatly as he could manage over the same welcoming branch, alongside the human’s garments. Jemunu-jah observed this procedure in silence. His own strappings were as comfortable wet as dry and were designed to reflect his status and wealth rather than enclose his body. Of course, he had his fur to keep him comfortable in the constant rain and damp. Deyzara and, with spotty exceptions, humans had no such natural protection and were forced to make do with bulky, binding coverings of artificial fabric. He felt sorry for both of them.