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Sprig leaps down the stairs to his home’s ground floor. His new friend Anne is alien and weird (not a surprise given she’s human) but awesome and cool and badass and exciting and fun to hang out with! He laughs in glee as he enters the basement, where she set up shop after Hop Pop took her in.
“Kit tongue,” he hears as he descends the stairs. He raises an eyebrow; Anne is kooky weird, not speaking gibberish weird. “Kan yak glab baan.”
He waves. “Hey, Anne! The heck are you saying?” She snaps around and gives him the most venomous glare, imbued with acid and fury and a caustic rage; he understands why when he sees her bloodshot eyes. He walks over and sits with her and puts a hand on her thigh.
She sighingly turns her phone to him, revealing a picture of older brown humans he suspects are her parents. “คิดถึง means ‘I miss you’.” Dang, she’s strong! Her voice is quiet and shaking but she refuses to cry; he would if he were in her shoes, stranded from Hop Pop and Polly in an alien place. “ฉันอยากกลับบ้าน means ‘I want to go home’.” Her entire body shudders as she sniffles; he wishes he were taller so he could give her a hug.
“I’m sorry,” he murmurs back while squeezing her thigh. “Is that how humans talk?”
She chuckles and wipes her tears with the back of her hand. “Some. It’s Thai.”
He smiles slyly. “Thigh, huh? Where do they live, Thighland?” He slaps the relevant body part to accentuate.
“Stop it!” she laughs before punching his shoulder and leaning down to hug him. “My parents did; they immigrated to give me a better life. Not that I’ve done much with the opportunity,” she mutters, her head drooping.
“Anne… you don’t have to tell me—”
She laughs again and grins. “It’ll help. They lived in this fantastic place called Bangkok—I’ve visited once or twice. It’s got the biggest buildings and the nicest malls and the spiciest nightlife and the tastiest food…”
Like he said: awesome and cool and badass and exciting. When she gets home he’ll ask her to take him to Bangkok, the wondrous city of rivers and thighs.