"No," he said. "I can't perceive."
"He's not like them," Mag said flatly. "If you'd ever been among them, you'd know their ways."
"I've never seen a man before, up close," Lisa said.
Her eyes pleaded with him, and suddenly he knew why he pitied her. It was because she felt helpless before him, and begged him not to harm her, and thought of him as something above her, more powerful than she, and dangerous. He looked across at her and felt protective, and it was a new feeling to him, absolutely new. Because always before, around the normals, even around his own parents and Walden, he had been the helpless one.
He liked this new feeling, and wished it could last. But it couldn't. He couldn't do as the old women expected him to, leave the valley and his parents, leave the books and the museum and the ship, just to hide in the hills like a beast with them.
He had come to find his people, but these three were not they.
"You two go on off and talk," Mag said. "We're old. We don't matter now. You've got things to settle between you."
She cackled again and got up and went into the hut and old Nell got up also and followed her.
The girl shivered. She drew back a little, away from him. Her eyes never left his face.
"Don't be afraid, Lisa," he said gently. "I won't hurt you. I won't even touch you. But I would like to talk to you."