Nashatyr

      Zoya awoke abruptly: in a half-sitting position, she began to turn and slid off her backpack into the damp grass. Thick twilight was encroaching from all sides. The night air spreading around was moist and cool. Nevertheless, her clothes had almost dried. The chills were gone, and she felt tolerable... Nashatyr?..       Zoya listened and realized she was completely alone. The leaves rustled, rustling and splashing sounds came from all around - the usual forest noises at this time of night. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and began to slightly make out the outlines of objects illuminated by the dim light of the moon hiding behind clouds. Massive tree trunks and hanging vines; slumbering undergrowth sparkling with diamond-like droplets... And behind it all, the hiding black belly of the midnight selva... It would have been very beautiful... if it wasn't so scary.       A piercing shriek cut through the silence and abruptly stopped. Zoya started shaking again. She automatically grabbed her backpack and began blindly rummaging at the bottom. There were still a few glow sticks left somewhere. After feeling around and fishing one out, the woman frantically cracked the tube, mixing the poisonous yellow glowing substance. There, at least a bit of light. What the hell was that sound?..       There was a rustling in the bushes and, before Zoya had time to get scared to death, Nashatyr tumbled out of them. An interesting detail: when he needed to conceal his presence, he moved completely silently - it was hard to believe that such a large organism could be so quiet. But as soon as he "relaxed," not a trace of his previous carefulness remained. However, it's possible he was making noise intentionally to signal his presence. Something like a sign of trust. But again, these were just guesses.       Shining the light in his direction, Zoya saw that Nashatyr was dragging something on his shoulder. The next moment, he threw a still twitching peccary[1] practically at her feet. Before starting to butcher his prey, he approached the woman and gestured for her to hand over the chemlight[2]. She had to give it up. Now he'll crush or break it again... But Nashatyr merely tore off a wide leaf from some plant and, wrapping the tube, returned the now dimmed light source to Zoya. Who are you so afraid of revealing yourself to, big guy? You could take down any enemy in any number with one hand tied behind your back...       Sitting back in her previous spot, Zoya began to watch, mesmerized, as the alien set about butchering his prey. It must be said, he skinned it incredibly quickly and neatly, like a professional taxidermist, using a small but apparently very sharp knife for this purpose. And he seems to be right-handed, the researcher noted with surprise.       Nashatyr needed just a few minutes for the whole process. He gutted the pig with the same astonishing speed. The Hunter carried out these manipulations, by the way, not on bare ground, but thoughtfully laying down the same wide leaves. When finished, he easily separated the hind leg of the piglet and hospitably held it out to Zoya. The whole thing. About six kilograms.       "Ahem..." was all the woman said. How to explain... She shook her head and used her fingers to show the approximate size of an average steak. Then she took out a lighter and demonstratively flicked it. To this, the Hunter, in turn, shook his head. Well, well... And you're going to eat raw meat yourself? Well, good luck... I wonder how often he gets treated for worms, the researcher thought maliciously. Or maybe Earth worms didn't scare him?       The Hunter sighed heavily under his mask, obviously disapproving of human gastronomic practices, but didn't insist on his way. After hesitating for a while, he seemed to come up with a solution. Cutting off a few thin strips of meat and laying them out in a single layer on leaves, he took out a narrow long object from behind his belt that turned out to be a portable burner giving off a very pale blue flame. After carefully searing the resulting fillet, Nashatyr moved back, looked at Zoya and made an obvious inviting gesture. She didn't need to be asked twice. She had never tasted such exotic food before. Hell, she hadn't even seen anything like this in science fiction movies: an alien saved her from bandits, warmed her with his body heat and cooked her dinner. God, what's next?       The Hunter watched attentively as the woman approached to try his culinary masterpiece, and seemed to be waiting for approval. Zoya carefully picked up a piece of meat with her fingertips to avoid burning herself and tried to take a bite. Well, it was charred on top, slightly undercooked on the bottom, and of course unsalted... But considering it was the first food she had eaten since the day before yesterday...       "Tasty! Well done!" she mumbled, chewing the treat diligently. The Hunter quietly purred in response - apparently quite proud of himself.       I wonder how he's going to eat in that spacesuit, a thought flashed through Zoya's mind. Or did he only bring food for her? Can he even digest anything from Earth?       But she didn't have time to form any guesses on this matter, as Nashatyr suddenly stood up to his full height in front of her without warning. Zoya, startled, jumped up too. What was he up to now? The Hunter stepped back and froze. He seemed about to do something but hesitated at the last moment. For several seconds he wavered, shifting from foot to foot, and then resolutely began to remove his mask.       Seeing what he was doing, the woman froze. She abruptly stopped caring about how her companion was going to eat and how he planned to breathe during the process. Something else took center stage. She watched with wide eyes and waited. And her heart was pounding so wildly it was ready to jump out... Now, right now... She would see his face. What would it look like? Similar to a human face, like his whole physique? Or would there be a lizard muzzle? Or something resembling the mask itself, something bird-like?..       Meanwhile, Nashatyr unclasped invisible fastenings along the edge of the helmet and pulled out two tubes from the temporal area one after another. Under slight pressure, some kind of white gas escaped from them. It looked more like steam than gas. The mixture supply automatically stopped, and the hoses hung on the powerful shoulder. The Hunter grasped the mask with both hands and began to remove it slowly, almost theatrically. If he wanted to impress the Earth woman by doing so, he succeeded. If the idea was not to scare her, then it failed, alas. Because when the whole set of jaws appeared from under the mask, the only thing Zoya could whisper was:       " Goddamn..."       What she saw took her breath away. She had always considered herself a person of no small courage, but what appeared before her eyes now was just too much... All horror movie creators could boldly go on vacation. Four oral appendages with long curved fangs at the ends firmly riveted the gaze of the stunned woman. They were folded crosswise and connected in pairs, upper with lower, by skin membranes, and behind them a lipless toothed mouth was visible. Hell, not a mouth - a real maw! As far as the meager lighting allowed to judge, the mucosa was colored dark brown. Two canine-like teeth protruded on the upper jaw, and between them gaped a wide diastema[3], into which the lower row of smaller teeth, sharp as a stockade, fit perfectly. Instead of a nose, there was a horizontal fluttering skin fold, above which something like a wide flat nasal bridge was still visible. The eyes were small and deeply set, in the dark they glowed faintly, not so much in the center[4] as along the edge. The Hunter's severely furrowed brows were covered with horny plates and spikes, running in rows up to the temples and forming a high crest above the steep forehead.       Zoya felt the hair on her head stand on end and even, apparently, start moving... But she pulled herself together. She couldn't show that she was scared... After all, she had been communicating with this monster for almost a day now, and it hadn't killed her yet, either intentionally or accidentally; it had even managed to work as her personal heater and tried to feed her... Really, why be afraid of it?       And he's breathing, it suddenly dawned on the zoologist. That is, Earth's air basically suits him. Maybe he needs the mask more to hide this terrible face? Although something was still being pumped by those hoses...       Standing two meters away from the human, the Hunter watched her behavior attentively. Obviously, he expected some negative reaction in advance, which is why he was in no hurry to reveal himself... But, making sure that his companion wasn't fainting or about to run away screaming, he risked approaching her again. Or rather, not quite her, but the meat that remained lying between them. Zoya couldn't take her eyes off his terrible oral appendages for a minute. One thought persistently pulsed in her head: how many times had THIS already come almost right up to her face, separated only by a thin layer of metal...       The next time an involuntary shudder shook her was when Nashatyr spread his jaws. He apparently had gotten quite tired of keeping them in a pressed state under the mask. The upper appendages were shorter than the lower ones and could, apparently, move into the maw, to the side and up. The lower ones, when moving down, spread apart, and they also had an additional joint allowing them to straighten and stretch forward. It was difficult to understand what was located deeper in the maw, as vertical folds closed behind the alien's front teeth. And if Nashatyr's physique mostly corresponded to "Earth standards," the structure of his mouth raised a lot of questions.       Horror gradually began to give way to curiosity. How, one wonders, did evolution come to this? The jaws themselves were more like the gnawing mouthparts of insects, but overall the Hunter had many more features in common with vertebrates. Of course, we were talking about an extraterrestrial organism, but it was difficult for the human mind to comprehend this.       Here Zoya had to be distracted from her reflections again, because Nashatyr, having put aside his mask, proceeded to eat. And the woman instantly lost her desire to eat "at the same table" with him. First, he critically assessed the taste of the pork, quickly touching the chosen piece several times with a flexible forked tongue that unexpectedly appeared from his maw. At least now Zoya knew he had a tongue... Apparently, this organ was hidden in a deep fold, like a snake's, which is why it wasn't visible at rest. The fact that it didn't constantly jump out suggested a somewhat different purpose for its forked shape than in snakes[5].       Meanwhile, Nashatyr, sinking his teeth into the raw meat like a beast, began to tear off large pieces with his sharp lower incisors and push them deeper into his mouth with the help of his oral appendages. He didn't chew the food but swallowed it whole, raising his head and carefully jerking it, like a hungry alligator. The herpetologist had seen how these aquatic predators dine more than once, so the mechanism was familiar and simple to understand. Nevertheless, alligators didn't qualify as intelligent civilized beings, and Nashatyr definitely had such claims.       The whole carcass - albeit of a small - peccary was disappearing right before her eyes. But this, as it turned out, was not the whole show. When the alien's oral appendages began to crush the tubular bones with the force of hydraulic shears, getting to the bone marrow, Zoya just turned away.       "You eat a lot..." she said, stunned, when the crunching subsided.       The alien tilted his head to his shoulder as if to say, "What did I do?" And immediately caused Zoya another shock by starting to lick himself. Not just lick himself, but thoroughly clean all his oral folds and membranes smeared with blood with his tongue. It looked simply terrible... Although the poor creature, endowed by nature with such bizarre jaws, apparently had no other choice - essentially devoid of an oral cavity, this being could maintain the hygiene of protruding parts only in this way.       Finally satiated, content and washed up, Nashatyr sprawled languidly opposite, leaning on his elbow and shamelessly examining the human. The upper oral appendages rose and froze in a sinister semblance of a grin, his eyes were squinted. Barking shortly, the Hunter pointed to the "roast" the woman hadn't finished eating. Although her appetite was gone, she still stuffed a couple more pieces into herself. It must be said, Nashatyr had cooked for her generously: even if it had been normally prepared meat, she still wouldn't have been able to handle such an amount. Well, apparently he judged by himself...       Feeling she couldn't eat anymore, Zoya put the meat aside and, calming all her conflicting feelings, risked moving closer to Nashatyr. She took the leaf-wrapped glowing chemlight with her. The Hunter sat up with interest. Oh, his oral appendages were moving again, how it looked...       Gathering her courage, the researcher knelt down a step away from the Hunter. It was time to establish some kind of interpersonal contact. Pointing at herself with both hands, she introduced herself:       "Zoya. Zo-ya. Zoya."       The presumed interlocutor abruptly tilted his head to the side and quietly rumbled.       "S-s-soy," he finally pronounced, horribly mangling her name. But the woman nodded with satisfaction, as if to say, excellent, well done. She nodded and froze, frightened - she had forgotten again that this might offend him... However, Nashatyr took it quite calmly this time, apparently understanding what was what.       And also, possibly, he had just eaten and was in a better mood. Moreover, he was in such a good mood that he tried to say something else to his companion. Actually say. Until now, Zoya had only heard various spectra of growling from him, racking her brain over how an intelligent being could have such a primitive language at all, but now real words came from his maw. Only a few, but still something. His voice was muffled and bass, with vibrating notes, like a crocodile's love song. The dialect sounded extremely strange to the human ear. Overall, it gave the impression that due to the structure of his mouth, Nashatyr spoke quite inarticulately. The big guy did best with hissing sounds, but sounds requiring lip work to pronounce were apparently absent in the Hunter language, as were the lips themselves in this biological species. The mucosal folds behind the front teeth seemed to take only minimal part in voice formation - they hardly moved when talking. They seemed to be needed mostly just to keep debris from flying into the maw. The alien pronounced vowels gutturally, rumblingly, and they came as if from the chest, which suggested the presence of an analogue of the bird syrinx[6]. At the same time, the joke about "burping the alphabet" involuntarily came to mind each time. The lost part of familiar speech sounds was more than made up for by growling, grumbling, crackling and howling, but here it wasn't always clear where exactly were words and where just expressions of emotion.       First of all, patting himself on the chest with his palm, the fanged one introduced himself to the human. In the complex name that Zoya heard, there were hisses, clicks and guttural sounds that she, try as she might, could not reproduce. Distantly it sounded something like       "Ch'fko-ofgr-r" and something else. She made several attempts, each of which caused a storm of either amusement or indignation from her interlocutor. In the end, giving up on this, the woman affirmatively and clearly, even separating into syllables for significance, pronounced:       "Na-sha-tyr!" And pointed her finger in his direction. And again repeated: "Nashatyr!" The Hunter grunted in surprise but didn't object. With that, the topic of this simple conversation was exhausted, the alien didn't utter another word.       After resting a bit, Nashatyr, to Zoya's great displeasure, extracted the skull of the killed bandit and, laying out incomprehensible instruments and reagents around himself, became completely immersed in processing it, no longer paying any attention to the woman. She struggled and struggled and eventually decided to abstract herself from his actions. While the mysterious companion was busy, Zoya had a unique opportunity to examine him more closely. The zoologist's inquisitive mind was very interested in the unique jaws of this life form. Mentally, the researcher tried to divide them into separate bones, and gradually the guesses built up into a single quite plausible picture.       Despite the fact that Nashatyr's oral apparatus at first glance differed strikingly from what nature had equipped Earth vertebrates with, it turned out to be quite easy to draw an analogy. After all, jaws actually consist of two halves, which is explained by the bilateral symmetry of animals. During the individual development of an organism, they fuse together.       The upper jaw is formed from the maxillae[7] located along the outer edge, bearing teeth, as well as paired palatal bones and vomers in the center. So Nashatyr's upper oral appendages were most likely freely ending maxillae, or rather, some analogous bones that could be called that for convenience. The unpaired upper jaw, which looked almost like a stump, could consist of something like palatal bones. That is, the "puzzle" remained approximately the same as in Earth animals, but was in a disassembled state. Only two fangs were visible on the "palatal bones," although potentially there could be many more teeth there. It's unclear, of course, what was going on further in the maw, but given that the Hunter didn't chew his food, there might not be anything there at all. The unpaired lower jaw, apparently, was transformed from toothed remains of gill arches, as once happened in Earth fish. The lower oral appendages, by analogy with the lower jaw of vertebrates, could be conditionally called "mandibles" and consist of analogues of angular and dental bones connected by a joint. If you look at a snake's lower jaw, you can see a very similar structure, only without a joint. Two halves in snakes, by the way, also don't fuse together, although they are connected in the "chin" area by an elastic ligament - very convenient for swallowing large prey.       Obviously, in the ancestral forms of this unusual species, a mutation occurred that disrupted the fusion of the external jaw bones and thereby turned the oral apparatus into a dangerous weapon. There was no doubt that in the past (and maybe in the present) these formidable hooks were used for attack and defense. Zoya had already had the opportunity to witness the force of their compression and didn't want to test it on herself at all.       Perhaps due to the same mutation, the nose area was formed so strangely from a human point of view - there wasn't much to form it from. Speaking of the nose, or rather, breathing... Nashatyr had been breathing atmospheric air for several hours now - noticeably a little deeper than when he was in the mask, but without wheezing or difficulty. Zoya concluded that the alien still consumed oxygen, if only because he manifested himself as a typical carbon-based life form and ate the meat of Earth animals. Then his use of a breathing apparatus could indicate either an insufficient amount of oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere, or the general gas composition being poorly suited for constant breathing. And also, possibly, even in the tropical forest Nashatyr's lungs lacked humidity. Now, during the rains, the air might be more suitable for the Hunter, so he was managing without a spacesuit, but at other times he needed additional injection of water vapor. In favor of this version was the fact that there was nothing resembling tanks visible behind the fanged one's back, but there was some kind of unit that could well turn out to be an evaporator. And if Nashatyr was still breathing some kind of gas mixture, its supplies would have long since run out...       If this creature's gas exchange was exactly as the zoologist assumed, then the high oxygen content coupled with increased humidity and, most likely, high temperatures (as hinted at by the temperature of the heating net) gave a very interesting idea of his home planet. Apparently it remotely resembled Earth of the Carboniferous period. In that case, it's not surprising that the Hunter felt so confident in the tropical thickets.       So, humid and hot... Most likely, small freshwater bodies all around; lots of precipitation, fogs; impenetrable vegetation. Not much of a resort, but there's definitely some charm to those places. Zoya sniffed the air. Maybe Nashatyr inherited a primary aquatic mechanism of ammonia excretion from his ancestors? Hence the smell. Again, if we turn to analogies, the skin of Earth reptiles is practically devoid of glands, except for musk glands. Therapsids, which gave rise to mammals, had glands. Nashatyr, more similar to the latter by all criteria, possibly had something like sweat glands - and why save water on a planet where there's plenty of it anyway? But you can quickly excrete toxic ammonia. And it was necessary to excrete quite a lot, apparently, if it was normal for Nashatyr's congeners to consume such a huge amount of meat. But so far the only evidence was the smell. Whether the Hunter sweated or not was unclear because of his skin constantly wet from rain. Again, considering that his smell willingly remained on everything Nashatyr touched...       Zoya surreptitiously sniffed the sleeve of her jacket. She was completely soaked in this, with permission to say, aroma! Great. Well, you are what you keep company with... You transplant pythons - one of them will definitely poop on you, you drag oversized crocodile cubs - one of them will definitely pee on your leg... As they say, every profession has its own smell, but don't touch our profession.       By the way, as another option, the cause of such a sharp smell could be the protein composition of the food consumed on Earth, unusual for the alien. Even if the biochemistry of all organisms in the Universe obeys common patterns, some variations must still be present. It's doubtful that this creature digested everything eaten here so perfectly. But apparently his civilization also hasn't invented "hunger pills" that humanity dreams of yet. In field conditions there's no choice, you'll eat anything when you're hungry. Sometimes, however, it will come back to bite you later...       Nashatyr tore himself away from his occupation and raised his gaze to Zoya. Apparently she had been staring at him for so long that it made the Hunter tense. But, making sure that the human was sitting calmly, he snorted, changed his posture a little and returned to working on the trophy. The skull was already cleaned inside and out, the polished bone beginning to shine. The master touched the glossy surface with undisguised reverence, checking the quality of the processing. He even began to growl softly with pleasure.       Zoya herself didn't notice how she was distracted from the jaws and began to observe his hands. Now that there were no embarrassing elements left in the form of brains and gore, the process seemed much more civilized. At first glance rough and clumsy, the reptoid's hands nevertheless very deftly manipulated the instruments. Somewhere the Hunter also used his claws. His palms looked smooth, calloused, their back side covered with rows of rectangular plates extending to each finger.       Quite unexpectedly, the observed spectacle awakened old memories in Zoya. The last meeting with Grandpa Seryozha... That evening he was working on a carved medallion for moose antlers. Along the way he was telling stories, jokes; a couple of times he almost cut off his finger. Zoya got scared each time, and Grandpa chuckled, saying if he cut it off he'd carve himself a wooden one. He was joking like that... An avid hunter and fisherman, the life of the party... He was a famous taxidermist, animals and birds came out looking almost alive from his hands. Fifteen years ago he didn't return from hunting. No, he wasn't torn apart by wolves or bears and wasn't hit by a stray bullet, everything was more prosaic. Grandpa died stupidly and suddenly - in a car accident on an empty night highway. He had shot some grouse that day... How stupid: in order to get a couple of birds, a wonderful person said goodbye to life. And you, Nashatyr, are you really ready to give your life for these bones?       Although who is Zoya to judge? She herself hasn't gone far. She almost died because of a couple of elusive lizards. And maybe death still awaits her ahead, so it's too early to calm down. The most annoying thing is that she found something much more interesting than Cercosaura hypnoides, but will anyone know about her discovery?       Oh, Nashatyr, it's a pity you can't become a living trophy for me, Zoya thought. The dimensions and strengths are too unequal. However, perhaps it's for the best. He'd be taken apart if he ended up in some research center. And if Zoya herself understands that Nashatyr is not just an interesting living organism to study, but a personality, albeit a very... extravagant one, how many other scientists would want to understand this?       "Let's agree that no one is a trophy for anyone, okay?" the woman said quietly, addressing herself more than the fanged one. Nashatyr again cast a puzzled glance at her and raised his maxillae.       "S-s-soy, hr-r-r-r, ch-ch-ch-ch. U-u-uohf-f-f," he uttered, as if that could explain anything. He was just burning the skull with the burner already familiar to Zoya, most likely using it now for its intended purpose.       This imperturbability, by the way, was quite surprising. Here he sits and polishes human bones. And he's completely calm about the fact that his companion has settled down nearby and is watching this. Perhaps where he comes from, they have a much simpler attitude towards remains than in the human world? Or does he think that Zoya, like many animals, is unable to distinguish the remains of her own kind? Or does he think that since it was a hostile congener to her, everything is fine?       A strange thing, by the way... There were about twenty-five people in that camp, Nashatyr sent them all to meet their maker, but he only took the leader's head. What's the point? Maybe because he only fought hand-to-hand with him? Or is it some kind of ritual? In any case, it's good that it's like this... For a second, Zoya imagined Nashatyr hung with two dozen bloody skulls, and she didn't like this sight.       The woman made herself comfortable and continued to observe the actions of the incredible creature sitting before her, pondering what it might ultimately represent. In an absolutely incomprehensible way, the Hunter combined the most archaic and progressive features. Nashatyr growled like a beast, had claws and was dressed like a barbarian, but at the same time he used technologies that, to Zoya's uninitiated eye, surpassed all human inventions in their level. Everything he did, he did skillfully - he fought, hunted, navigated the forest, polished bones... But this was only one side of his life, the field side. But what do the everyday life and relationships of such beings look like? Or is hunting all they do? What about science, production, medicine? All this must exist by definition, but it doesn't fit at all with Nashatyr's image...       He's intelligent, speaks some language of his own, makes contact, but at the same time attacks people and tears off their heads, and selectively at that. He doesn't eat people, but reverently makes souvenirs from skulls. He's emotionally unstable and curious like a monkey, but at the same time he carries himself with such pathos that it makes you shudder. He's now merciless, now strangely compliant, as if trying to both ingratiate himself and intimidate at the same time. Illogical. At the very least, it's strange for a representative of a civilization that has gone through its own path of formation. So maybe it's some kind of artificially created organism? Or a representative of a rather primitive tribe that received a technological "upgrade" from someone? It's still difficult to imagine that these crooked paws can solder boards and assemble high-precision weapons - this isn't skinning a skull... And the owner of these paws himself, despite all his wonderful features, seems a bit dumb... But since there is one species of aliens, there are surely others. Those who take "under their wing" underdeveloped peoples, teach them, share developments... After all, there is an opinion in some circles that humans also didn't build civilization on their own. That is, we doubt even about our own origin... And with this fellow there are even more doubts.       Or are there still workarounds? And if hands are itching to invent something, then no claws on them will interfere? What if these mysterious warriors are just internally too sentimental and so sacredly honor traditions that they can't afford to deviate from them and put on normal pants? And Nashatyr is actually very smart, but his type of thinking is so alien to humans that Zoya is unable to understand it? Well, anything is possible... Maybe so. She's allowed to be mistaken in such matters, after all, she's an expert on lizards, not on extraterrestrial civilizations. Notes: [1] An animal very similar to a pig but belonging to a separate family. [2] Chemical light source. [3] From Greek - "distance", "gap"; space between two adjacent teeth. It can be both a developmental disorder of the dental row and a species characteristic in some animals. [4] In Earth vertebrates, especially those that lead a nocturnal lifestyle, a special layer called the tapetum is developed inside the eyeball. It reflects light and contributes to night vision. Thanks to this, animals' pupils glow in the dark if you turn on a flashlight or photo flash. Along the edge of the eyes, of course, it doesn't glow at the same time. But the predator is different ;-) [5] A snake's tongue is used as an organ of smell. The forked shape helps to "take samples" of smell from left and right and navigate better, since snakes have poor vision and no hearing at all. In a calm state, their tongue isn't visible, as it's placed in a kind of skin sheath at the bottom of the oral cavity. [6] Birds don't have vocal cords, their vocal organ is called a syrinx, it's located at the base of the trachea and gives the ability to produce a huge variety of sounds. Nightingales use it to trill, and parrots use it to imitate human speech. [7] Maxillae, vomers, hyoids, etc. - bones of the facial skull, first appearing in fish and morphologically transformed from the gill arches of ancestral forms. Interestingly, in vertebrates, the lower jaw itself is called the mandible, and the upper jaw is called the maxilla. In insects, on the contrary, the upper jaws are called mandibles, and the lower jaws are called maxillae. Since the Predator is definitely a vertebrate organism, in principle, the same terminology as for Earth vertebrates is applicable to it, with the caveat that the origin, structure and number of its skeletal elements may be completely different. However, the origin of the oral apparatus from something like gill arches seems quite likely here as well.