Heading inside

Jentorra shifted her weight from foot to foot, arms still clutching her own body, twitching as she turned her head from side to side. She moved in darts, crossing from branching brown spire, to waist-high edifices with ‘trash’ written on them, whatever that meant.

Veb’s translator wasn’t perfect when it came to writing, especially when Cassie seemed to be the only person here who’d drank him.

“Can we move a little faster?” Jentorra murmured.

“Oh! Sorry,” Cassie said.

Jentorra was just a couple of steps behind her, following Cassie through this strange place. It still felt too open, and she could still feel the stares she’d earned. Even her normal garbed looked as though it would have been out of place here - though that, at least, would have been less embarrassing. Instead she was exploring a new frontier in nothing but a hairband.

She kept an arm crossed firmly over her breasts, conscious of each shift, though it felt all too inadequate as cover. Her other hand was able to hide the patch of dark hair between her legs, but that was all - no covering her actual legs, no hiding her butt, no hiding the fact she was actually, unavoidably, totally exposed.

Even the air felt wrong. It wasn’t rhythmic, moments of cooler breezes that made her jump, like the breathing of some vast organism - if not for Cassie treating it as normal, she’d have been far more on-guard.

And then Cassie approached one of the large, looming blocks. Jentorra shrunk back - from this angle, she could see the glass doors, and see people milling around inside. Her face was already burning, passing by yet more people didn’t seem like something she wanted to do.

Cassie glanced back at her, apparently still adjusting to the situation herself. Jentorra, meanwhile, just squirmed. Standing in the middle of a walkway and waiting for a guide was not something she wanted to do nude.

Jentorra fidgeted.

“You live in this building?” Jentorra said.

“For the semester, yeah!” Cassie said brightly.

“Can you ask it to open a door closer to your room?” Jentorra said.

She looked inside nervously. People were already staring out here, but somehow it felt like they’d stare all the more in there - maybe it was just the baffling interior environment, the bizarre blue floor and sturdy walls, or maybe it was how much her skin-tone would contrast against those colours compared to the walls out here.

Or maybe she was just on edge.

“Our buildings don’t really… Ooh!” Cassie said, voice trailing off for a second. “I can sneak you in through the window? That might be easier than explaining why I’m bringing you in.”

Cassie gestured sideways - there was a grey, solid pathway that led to the door, but apart from the door, there was another sort of ground that divided the grey from the building’s walls. It was black, all sediment, with odd branching shapes growing up from it. They looked like some kind of odd sister-species to the brown spires Jentorra had been trying to hide behind before.

“You can hide behind a bush?” Cassie said. “I’m three windows that way. Just give me a second to get in.”

“I can do that,” Jentorra said.

She glanced back. Lingering in the doorway had definitely drawn more attention - or at least her butt had. Looking the direction Cassie had pointed, Jentorra ducked sideways, squeezing into the narrow gap between the building and ‘bush.’

She crouched, leafy branches trailing against the bare skin of her side. Guessing that the glass squares were what Cassie had meant by ‘window,’ Jentorra counted them, crouch-walking down the gap.

She felt a little less exposed here anyway. Though she didn’t hugely appreciate the branches digging into her side. Jentorra carefully moved forwards, only standing a little straighter to get her bearings, glancing into one of the ‘windows.’

Someone was on the other side. They did a double-take - Jentorra promptly crossed her arms back over her chest and crouched back down, face flaming.

Once she’d reached Cassie’s window, she curled up, trying to fit into as small a shape as she could, hoping no one looked too hard at the bushes.

After a few minutes, she heard Cassie’s voice. She looked up, to see the glass window pushed open.

“Jen- Oh! Jentorra!” Cassie said.

She looked down at the naked warrior’s back, before offering a hand. Bracing herself, Jentorra stood up, accepting Cassie’s help to be pulled up to the window - it was almost at her shoulder-level, but she had strength enough to awkwardly pull herself up, clambering onto the windowsill, legs awkwardly jutting out and kicking the bush noisily, probably drawing a last burst of attention as she slipped into Cassie’s room.