Author's Notes:

I cannot do much editing here, because of all the restrictions, so if you want to read the novel as it should be (with right colors and explanations of weird words that you've never saw before) you should check my website - link on my profile.

And chapters here will always be behind in schedule, so if you want the newest chapters, check my website. But fyi (for you information) newest chapters are updated as soon as I finish writing them, so often they're full of errors (which I correct later after re-reading them).

End of Author's Notes.

The Test

POV is "green":

While I walked with him toward the meeting place, he asked me a question.

"I don't get something."

I turned my face toward him.

"You said that you cannot inflict any type of pain on someone else, but wasn't that inflicting pain?" By that he meant the electricity I used.

"Unlike Earthians, Halfirians have a way to decide whether it's a "pain" or not. We have a scale we use to measure the inflicted pain, and if the pain is below a certain number then it is not considered to be painful."

We were almost at the door.

"I said any pain to make it easier for you to understand, but eventually you'll learn about the details."

I stopped in front of a door that opened right in front of the two of us.

"Now you have to go alone, but I'll wait for you here."

POV is "blue":

I felt a wave of anxiety sweep through me, but I decided to fight it. Somehow I had a strong feeling that if I lose this chance to start a different life then I'll lose a chance that I've been always dreaming about.

I stepped forward and soon the door closed after me. The corridor led deeper in. As I was walking I passed the walls shining in a sea-foam green colour. It felt somewhat magical. The colour was calming down my soul and as I advanced forward I felt less and less afraid. I wouldn't say that I felt any courage. It was more like my mind calmed down and I was prepared for whatever was awaiting me.

Eventually I got to the end of the corridor and as I approached the wall in front of me, it opened to the side and I was standing in a big room with a round walls and a ceiling. The floor was the only thing that was flat, but the most amazing was that everything around me was made of glass and we were underwater. In this room I was surrounded by nothing but the water and its inhabitants - the fishes.

The door behind me closed and the magical underwater universe showed through them. Did the corridor disappear? Was I teleported somewhere?

I didn't have time to wonder, because there were people waiting for me. In the middle of the room there was a round table made from the floor dented inward and a donut-shaped seat, made the same way, around the table. On the seat there were five people watching me closely. All of them were dressed in that white costumes which covered everything, even their eyes. I really wanted to know how can they see anything.

I moved closer to the table. They watched me intensely. I sat down and turned around with my legs high above the seat, so I wouldn't dirty the seat while seating myself toward the table. Once my legs were back down on the floor I waited for them to do something.

Since they weren't doing anything except watching me then I decided to make my move. I opened my mouth to speak but then I realized that I don't speak their language and I had no idea whether they speak mine, so I decided to close my mouth and wait.

Finally one of them moved in his seat. Next to him he had a box that he opened and took out a ball out of it. He put it on a table and with a little push send it to me. I caught it with both hands wondering what I should do.

They were watching me, possibly expecting something, so I started investigating the ball. I was turning it around and around trying to find something about it that would be unusual, but I found nothing. It had a perfectly smooth surface with nothing on it.

In normal cases I would possibly take something and hit it open, but using physical strength wouldn't be considered intelligent, so I decided to give up and put the ball on the table. For a while nothing was going on. They were just staring at me, so I decided to push the ball back to the same person who send it to me.

I did it and the person caught the ball. I stared at him and he stared at me for a bit, before he draw an "8" on the ball and the ball opened showing another ball inside that was much smaller but filled with something that looked like candies.

Then he closed the ball by poking the two sides, and send it back to me again by rolling it on the table. I caught the ball and immediately drew an "8" on it. It opened again and I stared at the inside of the ball, while five figures were staring at me.

I carefully touched the small ball inside with one finger. It didn't do anything, so eventually I took it out of the bigger ball and into my hand. It was the size of a big orange and felt like made of glass. Inside there were smaller balls, that could be taken for a candy. Each one was a different colour but they were the exact same size and shape.

I stared for it for a while, and then I was thinking that maybe I should draw another "8" on it if I wanted to open it. I decided to give it a try, but it didn't work, and the ball was closed. On Earth a closed ball like that would mean that it's not meant to be ever open, but the bigger ball already proved that a rule like that doesn't apply here.

I moved the ball in my hands for a while until I was going to give up when I realized that the outer layer was somewhat different from when I took it out from the ball. I looked at it more closely and saw that it was melting. Possibly from the heat of my hands, but it didn't turn into water. Rather, it evaporated straight from being solid while omitting the liquid phase.

I put the ball down and decided to wait. As I thought after a while a thin "glassy" cover that surrounded the smaller balls disappeared and all of them were lying on the table. I took one of the smallest balls between two of my fingers, but it slipped out, hit the table, broke and a powder of the same colour spilled from inside.

I stared at it for a while, then I looked at the people who were watching me. I didn't get it but what was the point of giving me something like this. Two of them stood up and left their seats, eventually one more followed them and the three of them left the room without saying anything. The fourth told something to the other one who was still sitting, and when he finished he also stood up and left. Only one of them was still in the room.

The last one stood up, jumped over the seat and walked toward me. Then he sat next to me and took off the cloth that covered his head. He didn't look unusual at all. He had dark hair and brown eyes, and looked perfectly Earthian. He took one of the smallest balls on the table and put it in his mouth. For a minute I just stared but then I decided to copy him and chose a purple ball to go in my mouth. Then I felt a taste of something sour-sweet, but it was way more sour than sweet.

"How does it taste?"

"Sour," I answered, then it struck me. "You speak English?"

"I do," he said. "I'm from Earth after all."

I looked at him taking another "candy" in his mouth.

"This whole machine is Halfiric chocolate box. A kid must first figure out what symbol opens up a ball if they want to get to the candies. The candies are in another box so they don't accidentally crash all over the floor and the powder spills from inside them."

He took another candy.

"The best part is that what Halfirians find as sweet, we Earthians find as sour. But what we Earthians find sweet they find tasting like crap, so you won't find anything sweet on this planet."

He grabbed few more and went toward the door.

"Oh, and by the way," he turned around for a moment, "you passed."

POV is "green":

I waited for David outside, while surfing the net. It was already over an hour, but that's how it usually went. The test was simple, but it tested the most important qualities of the intelligent beings. Also it tested the personality, and the longer it took the more likely the person was to pass.

Ten minutes later I saw the HAT members leaving. The fifth one stopped in front of me and said, "That kid has more potential that he thinks."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we'll put the results on his record within few hours, so you'll be able to look at it. But what I mean is that his ability to adapt is outstanding. I think I've never saw anyone taking this test so calmly. It felt like giving this test to another one of us who are already used to this world."

"You mean he could be in HAT?" That wouldn't be so surprising since about 20% of foreigners who pass the test get to pass the requirements.

"Nope," he said. "I doubt that. He's not one of us. If I have to compare, he's more like Cheryamaran. Rare."

He went forward.

"Wait," I had to know more. "By saying that he's like Cheryamaran, you couldn't mean that... I mean he shouldn't be here."

"I guess you're right. If he's Cheryamaran then he belongs to Earth. I don't know why would he be here, but who knows what the Universe is planning. Why not ask him?"

After that he left and I've been wondering what should I do next. He doesn't know anything yet, and already such a big deal is coming up. Well, but that is only in case if he is actually a Cheryamaran and that is not certain yet.

A minute or two later the door opened again and he came out with candies in his hand.

"Do you want some?" he asked.

I took four candies from his hand. I guess I should leave difficult topics like that for later, for much much later.