"Well talk about nothing then, like girls do," he said impatiently. "What's the name of that moon?" He pointed overhead.
Tension left her and she smiled a little. "Morwenna," she said. "That one just setting into Lundy Forest is Annis. You can tell Annis by her bluish shadows that are never the same."
"Good girl! How about the other two, the ones that aren't up?"
"One's Cairdween and the other, the red one—oh, I daren't talk about moons either."
"Not even moons? Really, Miss Vignoli—"
"Let's not talk at all. I'll show you how to walk, you do look so funny all spraddled and scraping your feet. I was born off-planet and I had to learn it myself."
She showed him the light down-flex of the foot that threw the body more forward than up, and he learned to wait out the strange micropause before his weight settled on the other foot. With a little practice he got it, walking up and down the moonlit path beside her in an effortless toe dance. Then he learned to turn corners and to jump.
"Pia," he said once. "Pia. I like the sound, but it doesn't suit this rough planet."
"I was born on Tristan," she murmured. "Please don't ask—"
"I won't. But no reason why I can't talk. May I call you Pia?"