Chapter #2:
She awoke in a sort of large nest. Melissa examined her situation, she was high up in a tree, and the sun was just getting low over the horizon. "I must have been asleep for hours!" She said to herself.
"Yes," said a voice, "you have." Melissa looked wildly around and spotted the creature, lying on a network of branches above her, leisurely switching its tail back and forth.
"Who are you?" she asked nervously, "Where am I?"
"I am a Sira, of the Shyrea clan. And you are in my nazae." It said.
"What?"
"I am a Sira, of the?"
"No, I mean, what's a nazae?" she interrupted.
"Oh. Well, I believe you would call it a 'nest', or 'aerie'." It replied slowly.
"Oh." she said. "How do you know my language?"
"Well, I've been watching your kind for quite some time."
"Why?"
"I knew you were coming, I wanted to be prepared."
"You knew I was coming?! I didn't even know I was coming!" Melissa exclaimed.
The creature looked very calm and relaxed. "You weren't supposed to know." It said.
"Do you have a name?" she asked.
"I am a Sira."
"No, I mean what do the members of your species call you to tell you apart from the others? You have to have a name or something."
"Oh, that." It said, with a flip of its tail. "You humans have strange customs. We don't have or need names to tell us apart, we use scent or markings to discern one from another."
"What about when you're talking to someone about someone else? How do you refer to them?" Melissa asked
"We send a mental picture of them of course." It said, as if she should know.
"Well I can't use scent or markings or telepathy, or whatever, to tell you apart, so I'll call you, umm?" she thought "how about Shyra?"
"And what is your name?" Shyra asked.
"Melissa." she said