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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/allature on 2026-02-06 21:36:36+00:00.
There was a tense silence as Researcher Skai’s office as he pondered on the situation.
“This is a real conundrum, my scholar…” he mused as he absently rubbed his talons on his wooden desk. “On one wing, Adwin is absolutely entitled to getting more freedom. And if the human mind is anything like ours, staying inside too long is definitely psychologically unhealthy.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.” Tski responded. “Even with his small size, the tents are rather confining.”
“Yes…” he allowed. “But there’s also the security aspect.” the Researcher sighed as he got up and walked to the window. “We’re almost certain there are Pitang spies out there, among the populace.”
“Project Frost-Fae is on a secluded, secure compound though.” the scholar reminded her researcher.
“And spies have telescopes.” the researcher reminded his scholar. It was a bit paranoid of him to imagine a scenario of spies hiding in trees just outside the compound, especially with how remote the forest they were currently sequestered in was. But he had an above-top-secret project to administer, so a bit of paranoia was not out of place.
“Perhaps you should flap it to higher winds?” suggested Tski.
Not a bad idea. Getting a general or someone in Lord Capield’s office to make a decision instead would at least shield him in case something goes wrong. However… “They would take the better part of a season to get back to us.” he sighed. Kingdom bureaucracy always took an almost obscene amount of time to process. Which was probably why he, a highly respected and loyal servant of the kingdom, was given such a level of autonomy on this project. In the end, he was expected to make these kinds of decisions himself.
So he pondered on it a few clegs more. “Has Adwin slept recently?” he asked.
Tski, mildly confused about the nature of the question, answered “No…” then checked her timepiece. “I believe he will enter his rest period in just under two bels.”
“And his rest period lasts about thee bells, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Okay. I’ll have the soldiers comb the surroundings while he sleeps. If they give the all clear, we can let Adwin out for one bel after he wakes up.”
“Yes sir!” Tski chirped. “I’ll let him know!”
» » »
No one could have picked a better time to explore the outside. The winds were particularly low, just a comfortably light breeze blowing about the region. It was also rather sunny, despite the rains just a few bels ago. Almost everyone was gathered by the compound entrance, Tski, Skai, Nalor, T’veo, Pito, and several others chirped excitedly as they watched Adwin carefully walk out. His bare feet tested each stone and red blade of grass he stepped over. He looked heavenwards, putting his paw perpendicular to his forehead to shield his eyes from the sun’s intense light. With a contented smile, he inhaled deeply and stretched his arms upward and outward. And then, he ran.
And ran.
And ran.
He ran laps around the compound for almost five whole driks. Until he finally slowed, then stopped. He let himself drop into the grass, soaked with a mysterious moisture, panting heavily, but happily. Happier than anyone had ever seen him since he arrived.
Tski felt a sudden pang of guilt for keeping Adwin cloistered in that tent for so long. Clearly, humans were built to run. Aside from the psychological toll of staying indoors for too long, she had somehow failed to consider the physiological effects. Any lifeform as physically powerful as him would likely require regular exercise. It was honestly embarrassingly obvious in hindsight, but the scholar, no, the whole team, was just too focused on the project. They should have treated Adwin as a person, instead of a specimen.
Still, it was remarkable to see how far and how fast he ran. Clearly, humans were built for this, just as te-visk were built to glide, and fish were built swim. He recovered fairly quickly, standing up and swatting the back of his trousers to dust off a thin layer of dirt that had accumulated there from his short rest on the ground.
“Thanks you.” he said to Tski.
“You’re quite welcome.” she replied sincerely.
Adwin gazed off into to a nearby glade of trees, their natural crimson beauty beckoning to him. He turned his face back toward Tski, the unspoken question of further exploration practically screaming from his eyes.
A steady, disapproving glare and slight head tilt from the scholar responded clearly in the negative, letting him know not to push it.
The human acquiesced a with a shrug and mischievous smirk; it was worth trying regardless.
Cheeky attempts to get more out of this outing foiled, Adwin was content to turn around and return to his tent for now. A short while later he cleansed himself in the sanitation station, which was quite welcome as he had developed a rather… distinctive odour, after his run. After that the team continued their research for the next few bels as normal, until Adwin took another long sleep.
When Adwin woke again, he was quite prepared for another run, or at least there would have been, were it not for the heavy rains. Everyone was quite disappointed, but no one can control the weather.
On Adwin’s next cycle, the weather was much more agreeable. So he ran again. This time the team was well prepared to measure the speed and distance he ran. Honestly, these exercise periods provided the research team with much more biometric data than any of the experiments conducted in the tent. They discovered that the odorous fluid that accumulated on his skin after physical exertion was called “sweat”, and it facilitated cooling via evaporation. It was one of many ingenious adaptations that allowed humans to regulate their own body temperature.
And so the time passed, deep rest cycle after deep rest cycle.But on one occasion, Adwin had asked to go out a second time, a bit later than usual.
“Oh, do you want to exercise again?” asked Tski.
The human shook his head “Want to seethings.” he clarified. “See…stɑːz.”
“Schtar-zuh…?” the scholar echoed. Definitely a human word. Perhaps a word for tree? He did seem interested in them several cycles ago. Well, no matter. Tski asked him to wait for her to confirm with Skai. A few short driks later, she returned with a positive reply, and Adwin was allowed to go out again.
Strangely enough, Adwin didn’t look over to the trees when he walked out. Instead, he looked up, towards the sky. He shielded his eyes from the sun’s rays as usual, but there was a grimace on his face this time. He looked at his phone, then at Tski, confusion and disappointment clear on his features. He looked up again for a moment, then re-entered the tent with a defeated air.
The next cycle, he asked to go out a second time again. This time, it was a lot closer to the time he usually rested. Again, when he exited, he seemed disappointed with the heavens.
Three more cycles this continued, with Adwin wanting to leave the tents to peek outside at random times, once even interrupting his sleep cycle with his phone’s alarm function. Each time he grew more distressed. Eventually he stopped trying to communicate his frustrations with Team Frost-Fae, instead he just rambled his rage his native tongue. Naturally, Professor Pito was called in.
Researcher Skai, Professor Pito, Scholar Skai, and a couple security officers had gathered in Adwin’s tent. The human sat on the floor, his legs twisted under him in a way no te’visk could imitate. He was fidgeting, his unspoken agitation manifesting physically.
“Adwin, wɒts rɒŋ?” the linguist asked in human.
The human didn’t respond immediately. All this time one of his paws drummed his digits upon his leg in a rhythmic sequence, while his other paw cupped his disquieted face.“Aɪ dəʊnt nəʊ haʊ lɒŋjədeɪz ɑː.”he finally muttered.
Pito seemed to have trouble understanding the sentence. “Deɪz?” she named the untranslatable word.
“Deɪz!” he repeated irately. “Ðə taɪm ɪt teɪks fə ðə sʌn tu--” he stopped himself abruptly, then closed his eyes for a moment as he deliberately exhaled. “Ðə taɪm ɪt teɪks fə ðə wɜːld tə spɪn.”he said, much more calmly, while making an arcing motion with his arm.
The linguist sat in silence for a few clegs, digesting the human’s strange words. Then she turned to Researcher Skai. “He seems to think the world should…” she tried to find the right word in phuratan. “… rotate?”
The researcher and his scholar looked at each other. “That’s impossible.” Skai replied flatly. “We would have noticed some kind of physical evidence if it did.”
“Like the sun moving perhaps?” added Tski.
The researcher looked at his Tski with stunned pride. “Yes! Very good my scholar!”
While Tski’s fore-feathers flared fromher researcher’sadulation, Pito tried to forward the scientists’ conclusion to the human. “If wɜːld spɪn, ðɛn sʌn muːv.”
“Yes!” barked Adwin. “Jɛs, ðə sʌn ʃəd bi ˈmuːvɪŋ!”
Professor Pito blinked. Then turned to the scientists. “He says that the sun is supposed to move.”
The scientists were silenced.
“How often does he see the sun move?” asked Tsk...
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