Hasa half closed his eyes, blissfully indifferent to the affront he had just delivered to their absent host. “On a report about what happened to us, yeah. We also have to decide what to say, or what not to say, about what we’ve discovered. Specifically, the pannula.” His gaze shifted from Sakuntala to Deyzara and back again. “Are you going to agree with me that it’s an intelligent organism? Or are you going to continue to reference it as a purely reactive ‘forest spirit,’ or just a dumb hunk of fungus?” Rising from the suspension seat, whose swinging he did not still, as would have been proper, he headed for the doorway into the main house.
“I’m gonna take a walk. The rain’s not bad, and I’d like to see the rest of the village before we’re lifted out of here.”
Masurathoo fixed him with both bulging eyes. “Hoping to chance upon some useful undescribed plant or animal the knowledge of which you can steal from the locals?”
As Hasa looked back from the portal, it was clear that he had entirely missed the point of the Deyzara’s sarcasm. “Well, of course. That’s what I’m doing here. I’m not proud. I’ve got no problem with letting some dumb native do the dirty work for me.”
As he watched their companion depart, Jemunu-jah bristled at the human’s offhandedly offensive manner. “We save each other’s lives, but I do not like Hasa. He is poor representative of his species.”
Masurathoo was slightly more understanding. “If nothing else, I have to say that I find his xenophobia remarkably consistent. You should not feel singled out, my tall friend. Bear in mind that he hates his own kind as well.”