Welcome, Ambassador

Curtis looked around with a puzzled expression. He felt like he'd been sent through a wind tunnel. When they spoke, it took him a few seconds, but he began to understand what they were saying. The language was weird, but oddly similar to English in some ways. He looked at the prince, then at his sister, feeling a little amazed at the fact that he could suddenly understand them. As they spoke, alien words began to take shape in his mind and became familiar. Concepts took on a solid form in his mind's eye and their speech had transformed from an unintelligible babbling to easily grasped words and phrases. His own words came out slowly and tentatively at first, as he got used to speaking a new language for the first time.

"Wha... What room?"

Curtis stood shakily; that little knowledge tap had left him a bit out of breath.

"Look, if it's all the same to you, uh, Mr. Nilh, I want to see how I can go home. Even if it's not ready, I want to at least take a look at whatever or whoever will send me back."
 
The Prince and Princess both watched Curtis, and then Nilh answered. "The portal device needs to be pulled out of storage. It'll be several hours, at least, until it's cleaned for research to continue." He smiled at the guest in his sister's room. "As for the room, it's the guest room you'll stay in if you end up stuck here overnight." He phrased it carefully, as though uncertain.

The Princess raised an eyebrow at Nilh, then looked to Curtis. "He's being nice. It'll be some time before the portal is finished, and you are going to need someplace to sleep. You can use the guest room we've prepared for you, or you can stay in my bedroom, if you'd prefer to have someone near."

"That's a good idea." Nilh smiled and nodded.

"Nilh, you should go, though. You have things to do today." She smiled, and her brother looked confused a moment, then sighed and nodded.

"Alright, I get it." He walked from the room, shoulders slumped.

"Princess, is it really safe for him to share a room with you? He has a... dangerous thing." The woman in grey pointed with an open hand toward the gun as she spoke quietly.

"It'll be fine. He doesn't plan to use it on us, Ehla." The Princess waved a hand.
 
He was starting to get the idea and it helped calm him down a bit more. Pieces were falling into place. Of course, most of the other pieces were all over the place and beyond repair, but at least some had fallen into a somewhat correct spot and things made a little more sense than they did thirty seconds ago. If they had some kind of device that could send him back, there was still a chance.

"Alright, well. I'll be taking that spare room, I guess."

He felt kind of awkward agreeing to a room when he'd been freaking out and pointing rifles not too long ago. However, he was starting to realize how tired he was. He could use a shower and some rest. He wasn't sure about what Nilh was supposed to be understanding, but he decided ignorance would be less tiring at this point.
 
"I sent a servant already to help you wash-- our facilities are different than you're accostomed to, I think. While we have showers, they are built differently, and we don't use the same cleaning tools." She paused thoughtfully. "Loofah..." She spoke slowly, tasting a foreign word on her tongue. "Earth has unusual bathing tools..." She trailed off, then shook her head and looked to her maid briefly, who sighed and nodded.

"Yes, Princess." She looked toward the soldier that clearly frightened her. "Please, follow me, Curtis. I'll lead you to your room." Though she was polite, she was clearly rightened. "The Princess would lead you herself, but she needs to get ready for a very long day today." She curtsied to Curtis, then motioned with an open hand toward the open doorway before she began to walk.

The stairs began immediately to the right, and spiraled gradually as they went down. They passed a doorway like the one above, but this one opened to a massive sitting room that even had a pool, and then continued. Ehla walked quickly down and down, and then the spiral became more narrow, and the walls no longer curved, but were straight.

An open doorway led to a narrow hallway made for people the height of these natives-- for people five and a half feet and smaller. She walked through easily, her drab grey dress brushing against the walls on either side of the hall-- a hall that seemed made entirely of glass. He could see down to a garden where a man with shaggy hair and grey clothing napped on a hillside, surrounded by flowers, bushes, and even a decorative paved path of stone.

Above, he could see a beautiful morning sky, with red clouds that gave way to white.

To his left, he could see what looked like the architecture from the Jetsons, but modeled after elegant jellyfish, and with no sharp angles. Each looked like it was made from massive pieces of mother of pearl that reflected the light with fiery brightness, and though there were balconies around each of the towers, none were plain or boring.

The tower he had just come from was the second highest, and connected to the rest by so many webbed hallways like the one he currently walked through. below the towers, a shorter structure sat at the center, a dome built into the ground. Several other domes surrounded it, unconnected to the towers.

To Curtis's right, a city extended out to the horizon, with lovely, if simple-looking homes made of a hard-to-guess material. The sun was in that direction-- if this was like Earth, that made East that direction.

The maid continued, oblivious to any wonder the soldier might feel, either through willful determination, or eagerness to finish her duty.
 
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