Astrum

My eyes flew open, and it took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the new lighting. I appeared to be lying on a bed of some sort. I stared at the white ceiling that was covered in several different pictures, a few with the boy from earlier in them. I slowly eased my way into a sitting position, still sore from the crash. I took in the room’s appearance. Several articles that looked to be some sort of clothing were strewn about on the floor, and a few books were placed on the table next to me as well as a bowl of what looked to be water with cloths. I took in my appearance, noticing the faint scratches covering my body, but otherwise I appeared unharmed. I slowly and silently stood up from the bed, trying to listen for any other life forms that could be in the area. I heard the faint murmur of voices coming from underneath me. I slipped my knife out of the pocket on my thigh, and quietly crept out of the room.
A set of stairs were placed on the opposite side of the new room with railing surrounding the stairs and opening in the floor. I padded around to walk down, but stopped when the first step creaked. I listened for any sound of alarm from the voices, but continued on when I heard none. I gripped the knife tighter in my hand as I approached the room where the voices were coming from. Creeping into the doorway, I saw a boy and a girl talking frantically as images of pods flashed on the screen in front of him. The boy was the one from earlier, judging from the pale skin and dark hair. The girl had lighter skin than Tori and Luc, but it was still a beautiful dark shade, and her dark hair stopped at her shoulders. I listened intently to their conversation, waiting for my language chip to pick up on the language. The boy gestured to the doorway I was in, causing the girl to quickly glance over. She stopped when she saw me standing there, causing the boy to look up too. He stood up quickly, taking a few steps towards me before stopping when I raised my knife to stop him. He held is hands up in defense and stepped back.
“You’re awake! How are you feeling?” the girls said. I stared at her, trying to assess the tone of her statement. When I didn’t reply, her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly.
“Look, we aren’t going to hurt you,” said the boy. For the first time, I truly took in his appearance. At first glance he seemed extremely lanky, but upon looking closer, I saw the underlying muscle.
“Can you even understand us?” he asked. I felt what could almost be described as a click in my brain as the rush of information flooded my brain. As I replayed their words in my head with the new knowledge of what they meant, I slowly nodded my head in the affirmative.
“Yes. I can understand you,” I said at last. They both looked at one another and then back at me.
“My name is Mabel, and this is Noah. What’s your name?”
“My people call me Arden.”
“It’s nice to meet you Arden,” smiled Mabel.
Glancing down at my knife, Noah said, “You can drop the knife, you know. We aren’t going to hurt you.”
I studied him for a moment longer, and finally decided that he was telling the truth. Keeping my eyes on them, I slowly crouched down and put the knife back into its original pocket before standing back up straight.
“Where do you come from, Arden?” asked Noah.
“My planet is called Luthari,” I replied.
“So, what the hell are you and the others are doing here?” he inquired with a slight glare. I remained silent, weary of his sudden hostility.
After a few moments of thick silence, he finally said, “If you don’t tell me what you’re doing here, then I will call the number on the screen right now and tell them to come and get you. Then they’ll probably cart you off to some military base in the desert and experiment on you or something.”
Mabel looked at him, and then rolled her eyes.
“Don’t mind him. He’s just an idiot,” she said.
“Hey!” Noah shouted, causing Mabel to wave her hand dismissively.
Smiling at me, she continued, “Honestly, Arden. You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.”
I studied them again before letting out a small sigh.
“I am looking for a forest.”
Mabel and Noah glanced at each other before turning to give me identical looks.
“You’ll have to be a little more specific,” Noah griped. Without saying a word, I unhooked the small sphere known as a Betacast from my suit, bounced it once on the ground, and watched as several holographic screens popped up in the air. I heard gasps leave the two people in front of me, but ignored it as I scrolled to the map. A single red dot glowed to indicate my current location, and a single green dot glowed to indicate my target location. I pointed to the green dot for them to see.
“That is where I am supposed to be.”
Noah took a few steps closer to look more closely at the map.
“That looks like you’re supposed to be in Redwood National Park,” he murmured.
“That’s like a ten hour drive from here,” stated Mabel.
“Do we have sufficient transportation to get there?” I inquired, turning the Betacast off.
“We should. I’ll have to contact a friend to check,” she replied.
“Hold up. What I don’t get is why you need to be there. Why is it so important that you get to Redwood?” questioned Noah.
“That is none of your concern right now. You’ll just have to trust me,” I replied, turning back to Mabel.
“No way. You can’t just expect us to trust you after you and a shit ton of others dropped out of the sky onto our planet. Now, if you want us to help you, you’ll tell us what’s up in Redwood,” he snapped.
Defeated, I responded, “We are here to gather weaponry and knowledge that was left by our ancestors thousands of years ago.”
“And you expect us to help you get these weapons back?” Noah nearly shrieked.
“They aren’t going to be used against you, if that is what you are thinking. They are to help us in the fight against the Nocen.”
“The No-who?” asked Mabel.
“The Nocen. They are a large group who broke off from the Alliance, and they have been attacking the Alliance as well as Luthari.”
“Well, shit,” murmured Mabel, leaning against the back of the piece of furniture behind her.
“Are they going to show up here? On Earth?” Noah questioned.
“They attacked us before I crashed, so there is the possibility,” I admitted.
“What are we going to do?” Noah inquired, seemingly to himself.
“I think we should help her,” stated Mabel.
“Of course you would think that,” snapped Noah.
“Fine then. I’ll just call Drew and he’ll help me take her to Redwood. You can just stay at home like a good little boy.”
“Who is…Drew?” I asked.
“Drew,” began Mabel, “is a friend of ours. He’ll be more than happy to help you.”
“Look, if my parents knew that I was helping an alien, they would flip.”
“We get it, Noah! You’re too much of a baby to stand up to you’re parents who aren’t ever around anyway,” she growled.
“Don’t talk about my parents like that, Mabel!” Noah shouted in return.
“It is alright,” I said, earning surprised looks from the pair in front of me.
“What?” asked Noah.
“It is good to honor your parent’s wishes. You don’t have to help me. I understand.”
Noah stared at me expressionless for several seconds before sighing and pursing his lips.
“You know what? Screw them. I’m in,” he sighed.
“Good,” smiled Mabel, “I’ll call Drew then.”
“Speaking of, where is Drew?” asked Noah. Mabel was silent, and Noah stiffened. Turning slowly to face her, Mabel cringed slightly.
“Where is he, Mabel?” he asked slowly. Mabel blew out a deep breath before finally answering him.
“He’s at the party.”
“No. No way. There is no way in hell I am showing up there, Mabel!” he hollered.
“Excuse me,” I spoke up, causing them to look at me. “I hate to interrupt you two, but is there a place I could clean myself?”
“Um, yeah. The bathroom is the first left down the hall,” answered Noah.
“I’ll see if I can’t find anything of Mrs. Brennan’s for you to wear, Arden. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb wearing that full body suit,” Mabel spoke, already heading down the hall.
“Who is Mrs. Brennan?” I inquired. Noah gave me a strange look.
“My mom?”
“I see! So her name is Mrs. Brennan?”
“No, Arden. Brennan is my last name. Don’t you have last names on Luthari? You know a name that belongs to your family,” he said.
“I suppose,” I replied, shaking my head. “Each family group has an additional name, although we rarely use them. My family has the name that would be translated as Silverwing. ”
“Oh.”
The room was filled with a stiff silence, so I gave him a small smile before going to find the bathroom. I found Mabel already in there adjusting the water in the basin, and clothes sitting on top of the counter.
“I have everything ready for you, so all you have to do is use the washcloth and get changed!” she chirped.
“Thank you,” I smiled, grateful for the kindness being shown to me.
“It’s no problem. I should really be thanking you. This will be good for Noah. He’s always worried about what his parents will think and forgets to live for himself every once in a while. This will be really good for him,” she explained. Not knowing what to say, I simply nodded at her slowly to show that I understood. Smiling, she patted my shoulder once before leaving and closing the door behind her. I slowly and carefully began to take my gloves off, cautiously putting them off to the side before continuing to disrobe. Once I had finished, I wet the cloth and began to wipe away the dried blood and sweat. The water felt good against my skin, and I thought about the situation that I was in. While not ideal, I felt that Noah and Mabel could be trusted, but their friend Drew could be another matter entirely. Finishing, I set the cloth on the side of the basin before emptying it. I put the clothes on along with the boots that Mabel had left on the floor. Gathering up my suit and gloves, I walked back into the room that I was last in. Noah and Mabel looked up at me as I entered.
“Are you ready to go?” asked Noah, walking towards the entryway.
“If I may,” I began, “I’d like to see if I can salvage anything from the pod.”
“Um, I guess that would be okay. Follow me,” he said.

A few minutes later, I was rummaging inside the pod. Putting my hand on the communications screen, I attempted to relay any type of message to the main ship. Receiving only static in return, I leaned back in the chair with a sigh.
“Any luck?” asked Mabel, poking her head through the door.
“None,” I replied, rubbing my eyes with the back of my hands.
“Is there anything you can use to help you at least?” asked Noah, coming up from the other side. I shook my head.
“Everything was in my brother’s pod except for this stun gun. We were supposed to come down together. We had no idea we would be ambushed.”
“That seems like it wasn’t a very smart move,” Noah muttered, shooting him a glare, I powered down the pod, and stepped out, locking it.
“It can not be helped now. He should not have landed far from me. Are there any other crash sites near here?” I asked.
“This is the only one that I’ve heard of in the area. Are you sure he landed near here?” asked Mabel.
“I do not,” I sighed, feeling a wave of despair wash over me. “None of this was supposed to happen.”
“Hey, it’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out,” said Mabel while putting her arm around my back.
“Yeah. As soon as we find Drew, we can find your brother too,” smiled Noah. I gave a small smile in return, not knowing if their words would turn out to be true or not.