For lilfluff‘s Prompt, with thanks to @inventrix and fourteen minutes for the names.

The humans hadn’t been the first to Landfall-Etrian, but they hadn’t been latecomers, either.

The lush, Earth-like planet had been discovered in a prime location in a solar system not all that far, as galactic scales went, from Earth; the Fordante had discovered it (at the same time as the Ngedik, and totally ignoring the Exxonoth who were native to the planet).

(Actually, humans could be grateful to the Fordante and Ngedik, because without them “inviting” other races to “their” planet, the potentially-sentient status of the Exxonoth would have precluded their settlement. But that’s another story).

The various races had their own settlements, their own towns, their own desires from this beautiful, resource-rich planet, but in the two main port cities, they all came together, melting into a messy, loud, fragrant salad of multi-culturalism, governed by the Fordante and primarily financed by the Ngedik. And in these port cities, there grew up a human-town, ripe with the flavors of home and all the variations Landfall-Etrian could provide.

“What is this?” The translation program wasn’t perfect yet, but Alukri could get the gist of the Ngediko’s question.

“It’s called sushi.” She stretched the word out, enunciating the sounds the Ngediko’s mouth-parts could handle and not leaning too hard on the susurrations. Most of the Ngedik called it loo-lee, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that. “It’s fish – lina-in-the-sea from the Rion Ocean here in the port – wrapped in rice and seaweed. Try it; it’s a human delicacy.”

“You humans eat the strangest things,” the Ngediko muttered, but it wrapped its mouthparts around the spicy tuna roll, clicking in appreciation. “Wooo! This is almost as attacks-the-mouth as the [5] yll-yoll-loll! You should try some of that, human.”

“After you try our bomber roll. We imported the wasabi roe from Earth. Here, just one…” Alukri smiled wickedly, knowing that the Ngediko would not translated the gesture properly. Tourists were the same wherever you went.

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