Page 11 of Snowed in: With the Alien Tentacle Monster

Despite everything, Logan found himself laughing. "Shut up and enjoy your cultural experience."

"I shall."

Logan dipped a cracker in his soup and looked out the window. It had begun to snow, fat white flakes. Just wonderful.

Eating his cracker, he turned back to Valen, contemplating how little he still knew about this alien. "How old are you?"

"In Earth measurements?" Valen's topaz eyes flickered with consideration. "I do not know how your planet marks time."

"How do you measure it on your world?"

"We measure by the resonance cycles of our binary stars." Valen's tentacles moved in what might have been a scholarly gesture. "I have existed for approximately three-quarters of a full harmonic convergence."

Logan stared at him. "That means absolutely nothing to me."

"How do you measure time?"

"We..." Logan paused, realizing how arbitrary it might sound. "We measure how many times our planet goes around our sun. That's one year. I'm thirty-four years old."

"Your measurement is based on planetary rotation?" Valen sounded fascinated. "Primitive but... elegant in its simplicity."

"Thanks. I think." Logan stirred his soup. "Where exactly is your planet, anyway?"

"Nexa exists in what you would call..." Valen made a series of musical tones that definitely weren't English.

"In what I would call what?"

"Your language lacks the proper sounds."

"How far is that from Earth?"

Valen tilted his head thoughtfully. "I was in… sleep… when I crashed so I can't be sure. My ship's instruments… They are no longer useful."

Logan nodded. "So… if your people do come for you, how long do you think it'll take them?"

"I still don't…" Valen cut himself off, frustrated with something. One of his tentacles reached out to touch Logan again. Logan got the impression of a clock, an hourglass, days turning into nights. "Seconds, minutes, hours, days…" Valen mused. "I think I understand."

"What do you understand?"

"Your time." Valen withdrew his appendage. "It would take… a few days?"

That might not be too bad. "Your people travel fast."

"They're already traveling," Valen corrected. "I was not alone. Alone in my pod, but there were other pods."

"I see." Logan set his half-eaten soup down and ran a hand through his hair.

"Am I… a burden to you?"

"It's just a lot to process." Logan sighed. "Yesterday I was alone in my cabin, and today I'm bonded to an alien prince from a faraway galaxy who thinks Campbell's soup is a cultural experience."

Valen's skin brightened slightly. "This soup is very… exotic."

"You're a snob, you know that?"

"I'm discerning."

Logan snorted. "Right. So what's the food like on Nexa?"

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