Skylar leaned closer as Emily's fingers peeled away the thin, nearly translucent skin around the clove of the herb she called garlic. The scent was different, deeper, more earthy than some of the other things they had tried.
With a crack Emily broke off one clove, the small half moon shape sitting in the middle of her palm. She set the rest of the bulb aside.
“So,” Emily started talking as she held her hand out towards Skylar, “this is the part we eat.” Skylar reached out, picking up the hard plant part. “We use it in-” Without further ado, they popped the clove into their mouth like they had seen John and Emily do with grapes. They bit down before really tasting it, and breaking the clove in half only intensified the acrid flavor overwhelming their senses. Skylar spit out the garlic, drool following and pooling on their hand.
Their translation and informational device informed them spitting out food was rude. Though when necessary it usually included excusing oneself, or otherwise hiding the actual act. Skylar was a little busy worrying about the lingering pungent taste on their tongue. They coughed, unused to how the shaking of their body in this more solid form.
“Um,” Emily's fingers brushed Skylar's arm before finding their shoulder. “Did you just... try to eat it raw?”
“Untouched by fire or heat?” Skylar held her chest, the coughing disturbing the alignment of their organs. “Yeah. And it is horrid. Terrible. Awful.” There were plenty more synonyms being provided by their translation device, but Skylar had an important question. “How do I get rid of the taste!” Skylar stuck their tongue out and rubbed a palm over the human organ dedicated to speech and tasting.
“Hey Alexa,” As Emily spoke, Skylar looked around, not seeing any other humans nearby. A small device on the counter lit up. “How do you neutralize the taste of garlic?” The device blinked a blue light, before an almost familiar robotic voice answered.
“I have found that mint leaves can be used to fight garlic breath.” A primitive version then, of Skylar's ship computer.
“Wait, my breath will taste like garlic?”
“Smell.” Emily corrected. She rested a hand on her cheek. “Hmm... I don't have mint leaves, but I have some mint gum.” She pulled a small, mostly black package from her coat pocket. Flipping it open she pulled out a shiny green stick. “Hopefully this will help the taste.” Out of the shiny wrapping came a muted green rectangular stick. “Chew it, but you aren't supposed to swallow gum.” Skylar put the stick horizontally between her teeth and bit down. As they continued chewing, something they were still getting used too, the bright pop of flavor they assumed was mint, started to overpower the garlic flavor.
“Oh thank goodness.” Skylar grinned, rolling the sticky mint substance around to neutralize the garlic taste. “This is much better.”
“Good.” Emily sighed. “Next time, let me finish.” Skylar nodded.
Word count: 497
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