It was a group of ten. Young Human men and women, all watching me like I wanted anything to do with them at all. I sighed in disgust and looked at the cliffs.

The Ari Maspai had been flyers. I didn't see how to get up to their city, not yet. I was faced with a natural wall of stone that started at the beach, went straight up and ended with a jungle at the top. I could hear birds up there,

"Radio, how do I get to town?"

"Owen knew there was a tunnel entrance to his right. No, his other right."

"I see it." It was partially hidden in a clump of shrubs. It wasn't a natural formation; this was an actual stone arch someone had built. Huge stones with active Runes marched up the sides, and the apex of the arch bore a strange thing, a confusing stone sculpture. An alien face, maybe. The whole thing looked older than my own civilization back on Earth, and considerably sturdier.

I started walking for it. "Anything to worry about in there? Does it go up? Alien traps and horrible lingering death?"

"Before he offended his dear friend the Green Radio, Owen remembered that the Radio would never have sent him into a deadly situation."

"It likes to talk," said one of the Humans.

I turned to see who was bothering me. It was a Human male, smallish, with outrageously large glasses. He grinned hopefully at me. I struggled to remember his name.

"Ezra," the Radio said helpfully.

The Human male goggled and looked ecstatic. "It knows my name!"

"Oh sure, it knows lots of stuff," I said. I'd almost said lots of useless stuff. "It'll talk your ear off if you let it."

"But what is it?"

I shrugged. "It's old. It's smart and sarcastic. It plays music." I headed for the tunnel entrance.

"Thank you," it said. "And now, Caravan by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra."

Ezra scrambled to keep up. The rest of the Humans clustered on the beach, watching us. Planning on hurting one another, impregnating each other, realigning their social status, whatever Human people find amusing.

"What should we be doing?" called a serous-faced young woman.

"Schmendrick said to not get killed," I said. "So avoid that." I turned to the tunnel, and saw that it had by-gosh Human-friendly stairs carved into the stone, ones I could use without falling over.

"Owen had a feeling of trepidation about entering the tunnel," the Radio said. It played one of its dramatic musical stings: Dun-dunnnnn.

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I stopped. "You said it was safe."

"The tunnel was safe. The source of Owen's new anxiety was different: he was suddenly seized with the realization he was being an asshole."

Ezra snickered.

I frowned. "Crap, Ezra, is that true?"

"Maybe a little." Something was up with this glasses. They flexed and moved a little on his face. Magic. But he seemed okay, now that I looked at him. Smart. Friendly.

"Sorry, man. Okay." I turned back to the herd of Human. "Come on, amigos. Let's go on Schmendrick's field trip."

We trundled up the stairs, all of us. The Humans were whispering, colluding, conspiring. Socially positioning. It was annoying. Ezra kept near me, though. I suspected he was too much himself to fit well into a social group. I sure remembered that feeling.

The tunnel wasn't a black stony pit. Every twenty feet or so a little window, irregularly shaped, was in the wall. Vines twisted and and grew there, and the windows let light in.

Ezra was quizzing the Radio on anything that came to mind. The Radio seemed to be digging it. "Owen and Ezra knew that the stairs weren't built for Humans or the Ari Maspai, but for the Tribe of the Canopy."

"Wow. Wow." Ezra was breathless, and not from going up the stairs. "That's amazing. How long ago were they here? What were they like?"

"Give it a rest, Wormy," came a male voice further down the tunnel, behind us. Ezra, hearing it, clammed up, curled in on himself like a sad question mark.

Oho. Now we got a game. I looked to see who would be calling someone Wormy. I looked because I hadn't had access to a good old-fashioned school bully in forever, and I'd been missing it.

My Human readers won't believe this, but here we are: it was Taylor. I'd watched him die at the hands of Mandy. I remembered killing him myself in another lifetime, though he himself didn't remember it or he'd likely have stayed home. And that had kind of been an accident when I'd killed him, sort of. Give me a break, all right?

He was down there, trying to look cool while going up stairs. He had two emergency backup bullies; dudes who looked like him whose names I would never want to learn. They were down at the end of the line, looking too bored to be here, carefully inspecting the butts of the girls ahead of them.

How had I missed Taylor? Were all Human faces blending in with one another to me now?

"Radio, I need to talk to Schmendrick."

"Owen was on the air!"

"Schmendrick, tell me about the people on this expedition please."

Her voice came to me over the roar of the engine. "It's his last time," she shouted. "If he lives it would be more educational for him, Owen!"

"Than if he gets killed? More educational than if he gets killed, are you saying that to me?"

"Yes! You can do it! Radio, go away!"

"Schmendrick had ended the call."

"Oh god dammit…" I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. All the Humans stopped, watching me. Taylor did not; he raised his nose, looked away at the wall.

I was suddenly into this.

"We're going to form teams when we get to the top," I said. "Start thinking about what you're good at, and how it can help deal with a ruined alien city. Remember that you're being graded on whether or not you live or die." I waved my hands, trying to convey wisdom. "If you die that means you fail," I said. "In case that's not clear."

Wide eyes from everyone. Taylor, not so much, but he did flick his beady gaze my way. He was a big boy, of course, with genuine muscle. He was barrel-shaped and looked strong, strong. Confident in a way that hid so very much.

I slapped Ezra on his bony shoulder. "Come on, dude, you and me."

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