Again they were silent. "My Earth," he said presently, "do you know much about it?"
"A little. I have been told."
"It seems so far away to me now."
She gazed up at him. She was smiling. "Is it? To me it seems quite close." She gestured. "Just up there. It seemed far to you, I suppose—that was because you were so small, for so long, coming here."
Like a man the size of an ant, trying to walk ten miles. Of course, it would be a monstrous trip. But if that man were steadily to grow larger, as he progressed he would cover the distance very quickly.
"Well," Lee said, "I suppose I can understand that. You were born here, Aura?"
"Yes. Of course."
"Your world here—what is it like?"
She gazed up at him as though surprised. "You have seen it. It is just a simple little place. We have not so many people here in the village, and about that many more—those who live in the hills close around here."
"You mean that's all? Just this village? Just a few thousand people?"