Lev stared at the girl and the girl stared back at him with eyes filled with curiosity. She tilted her head, causing Lev to tilt his head in response, thinking it was some sort of greeting. The girl then extended her hand as if asking for something.
As usual, Lev didn't know what that gesture meant. He already made a mistake about the fist bump and now he's been introduced to another greeting. This time, the greeting involved an open palm facing upwards.
'What do I do?' Lev asked, pursing his lips. In the end, he opted to do one of the most normal tricks that dogs learn when they become domesticated— shake hands. Before the girl could say anything, Lev approached her and placed his hand on top of hers.
"..."
"Are you an idiot?" The girl mumbled. "Only domesticated animals do that. Then again, I'll allow you to be my pet if you ask for it."
His heart rate spiked, and he almost felt like smashing the girl into oblivion when he caught himself. He sighed, regaining his composure as he shook the girl's hands. "I intended to shake your hands. I'm surprised, you can speak."
"Of course, I'm already twenty-two years old, how could I not speak? Only idiots are that dumb." She said, crossing her arms. The last thing she wanted to be called was a little girl since she certainly isn't one. She may be small but her proportions made up for it.
"Wait... you're twenty-two years old?! You're older than me. Wah~ and here I was, thinking you're just on your pre-teens or something." Lev cleared his throat and returned to his seat. "Sorry about your planet... and for dragging you all the way out here. What's your name?"
"Titania Cressida V. Don't worry about the fifth on my name though since that doesn't even matter anymore." She sighed, removing her clothes.
Lev felt like his tongue was rolling over to his throat when he saw Titania remove her clothes.
"Wait wait wait! What are you doing?! We can't do that yet! We just met! No matter how you look at it this is morally wrong!" Lev screamed, rushing towards the door.
"What do you mean?" Titania said, her shirt halfway buttoned down, revealing the outline of her perfectly rounded bosom. "Here," She continued, pointing at the necklace that rested on the valley in between.
Upon closer inspection, Lev realized that she has a primitive necklace with a small tusk by the end of it. The tusk had engravings that resembled a couple of intricate spirals all over the tusk. "What's that."
"You don't even know this? And you're part of the voyage? You're very interesting, you know that." Titania said, buttoning her shirt once again, wincing as she did so.
Lev's eyes didn't know where to look but he maintained his composure. Even though Titania said she was a year older than him, he still couldn't believe it. 'Time is relative, a year on their planet may be two years on my planet. Or maybe their concept of time is different altogether.' He kept on overthinking.
"Every planet uses the Main Earth's time. But if you don't believe me, point that communications device and ask for my age. I'm sure it will give you my age. Also, this necklace is proof that I'm a royalty of the Caixian Tribe. No one's allowed to wear such an ornament lest they'll be executed through stoning."
"Wow, stoning still exists."
"Yes, it is blasphemy to assume you're royalty when you're not. But then again, it's not like being part of the royalty is all that good either."
"Right," Without further ado, Lev pointed the device towards Titania and it really showed that she was twenty-two years old. "Then... next question, why did you follow me? Why didn't you stay on your planet? Oh wait... that's such a weird question. Of course, you'll do what you can to live. If I were in your shoes, I would've done the exact same thing."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... your planet's dead, right? Isn't that why you followed me? You didn't want to die with your planet?" Lev asked, confused.
"What? You know what... are you an otherwolder?" With a skeptical gaze, Titania got up from where she was sitting, wincing once again before approaching Lev. "Now that I look at it... you're an otherworlder, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?" This time, it was Lev who asked the question.
"Never mind, it's not like you'll outright admit to something like that." She continued, returning to her seat. Quite frankly, the reason why she didn't want to pry was that she was too tired to stand up. "Our planet's dead but it's still inhabitable. The only downside is, now that the Yggdrassil is gone, we can only stay underground since the atmosphere is unstable. But after a few decades, another Yggdrassil will sprout once again and the atmosphere will return to normal. We're used to living underground so even without the tree, nothing will change over there."
Hearing the good news made Lev sigh in relief. He was convinced that the planet was dead for good. Fortunately, such wasn't the ca—
"— then why did you follow me? If nothing would change and you didn't have to go through such great lengths just to live... then why did you grab my leg back then? Why did you risk joining the very people who invaded your land?"
Now that everything was made plain to him, Lev just couldn't think of a reason why Titania would risk her life for no reason. 'Was it because she's too carefree? Did she want to live a life of hardship? Was she curious about what a space cruise looks like?' All those questions plagued his mind but he couldn't get it. Why? Why did she come all this way?
I... I didn't have any future back there. As I said, I'm fifth in line for the throne." She plainly reasoned. "Also, you smelled good. I know for sure that you're not a bad person."