For Alex

Smashing the door of the car shut, Jane hurried to the smoking spot, switching on her flashlight. Her breathing was rapid, but the run had little to do with it. The excitement, curiosity and maybe a bit of apprehension were the actual cause. Why, this night had seemed to be still and peaceful. Such things as flashing lights, thunder, smoke and violent wind should not be happening without a warning in the middle of the New Mexico desert at midnight. Unless certain conspiracy theories were true after all…

She stopped at once as something on the ground came into the light. For a split second it appeared to be moving, and it gave her a start. But no, it was… well… a maze of lines in the desert dirt? Could it be?

She was about to take a hesitant step forward when a voice spoke. Its tone was mild and not entirely unfriendly, but the place and timing were so utterly wrong it made her scream and drop the flashlight. Wheeling about frantically, Jane was looking here and there, but with no particular outcome. The lights of her car were blinding her, and the moving veils of dirt gave life to a thousand twisting shadows.

"Wh-what?" Jane managed in the end. "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

"Looking does not always mean seeing, does it?" the voice noted somewhat mockingly. It was clear and distinct, with a distinguished accent, but appeared to be coming from all directions.

"If this is a joke it's a bad one." Jane commented, still struggling to catch a glimpse of who knew what. Or who.

"Truly?" the voice answered with a hint of disappointment. "I am rather fond of jests. I would hurt me badly if I ever made a bad one."

"Well, I'm afraid this is the case. This… jest is one of the worst I ever experienced." Jane said and decided to stop moving.

A shadow came before the lights, shielding them. It was someone tall who was holding a long staff, wearing a long billowing cloak and boasted two curled horns on his head. Jane's heart skipped a beat, then skyrocketed. He moved.

"Can I have a question?" the horned man said, approaching her. The lights of her car and the flashlight went off. A dim, blue-green light emitted by the man's staff illuminated the place in their stead.

Finally, the stranger stood right in front of her. She had to look up to view his face. He was towering above her, but his eyes appeared to be curious and smiling. His skin was pale and shimmered with something ethereal in the dim light. His cheekbones were high, his features perfect, noble and beautiful.

Jane opened her mouth to speak. "Horns?" she said, unable to resist asking a question first.

"Ah." He said after a second of silence, his eyes rolling up. "You mean those. Are they scaring you?"

"I think… No, not anymore." She answered simply, quietly. "Who are you?"

"Oh, wait! I wanted to ask a question first. You'll get your turn, if I'm satisfied with the answer." His eyes twinkled. Jane could not help noticing they were green… So green.

"That I cannot grant, but come on, ask me." She prompted.

"Bold, aren't we? No, that wasn't my question…" he added quickly, "Um, what might be a little woman like you doing in such a lonely place at midnight?"

"I…" Jane raised her eyebrows at the question. She had to replay the words a few times in her mind before she fully grasped the meaning. And then she struggled to recall where she was in fact and what was she supposed to do here. Buying some time to sort out her thoughts, she bit her lip. And then a single word came to her. "Stargazing." She replied, searching his eyes.

He blinked. "Stargazing, you say?" he repeated. His eyes then shifted quickly to the side and back to her. "With a looking glass?"

"You mean telescope?" Jane furrowed her brow lightly.

"Hm." He made a hesitant sound. "Can I see it?"

Jane frowned even more. "Yeah. But may I ask my question first?"

"Later."

"But I answered as best as I could!" Jane protested.

"I know, little woman. You have done bravely. But I fear my answers to your questions will… bother you."

Silence.

Jane chuckled. "Bother me? In which way?"

He shrugged. "I'm quite sure you will not believe me."

Jane sighed, smiling. "Try me." Folding her arms in front of her, she dared him. "Or wait! Wait!" She beamed suddenly. "Let me guess!" Grinning, Jane shook her head. She got it now. She knew what was going on with this guy. It was clear as sunshine. "You're an alien, right?" she stated, pricking a forefinger into his chest.

"I come from afar." He half-confirmed with a smile.

"And you're all lost and desperate here and seek help. Right?"

He bit his lip (in quite an interesting manner) and narrowed his eyes in thought. Jane waited for the answer she thought she knew.

"Not at all." He said with a little victorious smile.

Jane frowned again. "So what is it you want?" she asked, starting to feel lost and desperate herself. "Rape me?"

This time his face grew stern and unreadable. "No." he said after a tense moment. "Neither did I come to kill you or kidnap you or do you any other harm. I could, and very easily, but I do not mean to. Is that clear?"

"Yes." Jane peeped, staring.

"Good." He nodded lightly, his features softening again. "Now, where were we?" he asked then, and the pleasant, playful tone of his voice was back.

A thousand thoughts, ideas and questions flooded Jane's mind at that point, screaming at her, whirling and melting into one another. This was absurd. She was trying to make herself believe that it was just a weird dream, but with little effect. She knew that if she closed her eyes and opened them again he would still be there. It might have been a bad joke, it might have been absurd, but it was real. He was real.

"I think it was stargazing." She recalled then.

"Precisely! The telescope. Where is it?"

Yes, Jane, where is it? She could literally feel her facial muscles assume the wild panic-position. Her eyes widened with horror, her jaw dropped. Her precious Dobsonian she had built with her own hands and rebuild many times over the years, her beloved friend, her treasure… it was facing the starry sky somewhere in the distance, over that rocky hill, in the darkness, all alone and abandoned…

"Is some disaster coming our way?" He asked after a moment, watching her expression warily.

"It's lost. I left it." Appalled, Jane blurted out finally.

"Left it?" He repeated, somewhat confused. "Where?"

"It's somewhere over this hill. And all alone!" She replied, flailing her arms. "Because of you and this stupid trick of yours or whatever it was that made me jump into my car and leave it!" She exclaimed, and scowling accusingly, she picked up her flashlight and marched to her vehicle.

"Where are you going?" He demanded, turning after her.

"Where!" Jane snapped, annoyed, waving her hand as if to chase away the light of his staff that followed her. "I need to find it." she said simply and opened the front door, tossed the flashlight onto the passenger seat and climbed in.

She gave a sigh of relief as the engine finally roared with life. Next thing she desperately hoped for was that the GPS signal weren't too poor here. She could at least try to backtrack her movements and find the location. Else she would have to wait till dawn, and that would be just… Oh, please, work, crap! She prompted her smart phone rather harshly.

"Do I see a lonely, abandoned thing amidst the desert dirt?" He called out all of a sudden.

What? Jane looked out. She searched for the dim, blue-and-green light his staff emitted, but could not locate it… but it was there somewhere, she was sure. And yes, it was. Jane gazed a little higher, and whether she believed it or not, the stranger had obviously climbed up the rocky hill in the meantime. Oh yes, he was standing atop of it, viewing something in the distance.

She turned off the engine. "You can see it? And how the hell did you get up there?" She shouted into the night.

He turned around, his cape whirling about him.

"Yes, I can see it. And I climbed." He replied, and it sounded like he was smiling.

"He climbed... I might have never thought of that option." Jane murmured to herself. "Can you see it clearly? Is it far?" Looking out of the window, she asked loudly, but failed to find him atop the rock this time. She squinted into the dark when no answer came. Could it be he fell? Her heart sped up uncomfortably, and hammered wildly when his voice sounded right beside her.

"The plain beyond the hill bathes spectacularly in the moonlight," he said calmly, his tone just a little mischievous. "So it can be easily distinguished that a certain poor thing stands there all alone. And it is surprisingly close." He explained as he closed the remaining distance that separated them.

"Okay." Jane breathed then. "You know, this is going really weird and scary, but – could you navigate me?"

"Very much so." He confirmed.

"Good." She nodded. "Get in. Please." She invited and removed the flashlight from the other seat.

At her command, he rounded the car and climbed on the passenger seat with no obvious difficulty. Jane observed him. "Um, where's your staff? And the horns?" She inquired, viewing him with curiosity.

"In my pocket." He smiled.

Jane kept observing him for a moment, somehow growing tired of being shocked, and then just shrugged. "Yeah, where else."

"Shall we move?" He viewied her.

Jane sighed, resigned.

He had not lied, that was for sure. Just as they had rounded the hill Jane saw that her precious telescope had been waiting very close, indeed. Not to mention she could also make out the shape of the device as it reflected the pale, eerie moonlight serenely.

Of course, the Moon! Full moon, to be exact. Just how could she have forgotten? She had come here to view it in the first place!

And so she found herself stroking the surface of the well-known tube gently, and even managing a few words of gratitude. She adjusted the position of the telescope then, inspected the view of the Moon and played with the focus for a while. "We have great conditions to watch the details tonight." she announced, and then stepped carefully but swiftly back to make way for him to take a look, too.

"Come on!" she urged when he was hesitant to move.

"May I?" He asked, his dark eyebrows rising.

"Yeah, yeah, go on!" she gestured eagerly, grinning, and then watched him step closer, lean down and look through the eyepiece. And perhaps it might have been just an illusion, or her silent wish, but it seemed to her that he held his breath for a moment.

"So?" she asked, too curious to hold the words back any longer.

"Poor thing, this Moon." He said, staying still, his eye wide open as he watched. "I never imagined it was so battered."

"Yeah, the craters." Embracing herself as the cold crept up her spine, Jane agreed.

"There are so many of them," he continued. "I must admit this is a wonderfully sharp view, though." He pointed out after a time. "Excellent."

"Thank you." Jane smiled widely, glad he could not see her blushing.

He gave her a look. "You build this yourself, didn't you?"

"With a little help." She admitted, her grin widening. "Yeah, and then rebuilt it many times."

"I see." He said with a tiny, yet unmistakable touch of respect. "It's a good work, I think. The view is just… magical."

"Oh no. It's science." Jane corrected.

"Magic or science… does the term truly matter?" He wondered, straightening, and the dim light of his staff poured over the place once again.

"Well, yes, I think." Jane inclined her head to the side, looking up to him. "They are completely different things, aren't they?"

"All it takes is the point of view." He explained, stepping closer.

"Really?" Jane lifted her eyebrows. "But you see, I don't believe in magic."

"No? And what you believe in?" He asked quietly, towering above her.

"In… in things that can be explained and defined. Magic is…"she gave a shrug, "neither."

He listened to her carefully and then gave her a light smile. It looked so nice on his face that Jane just had to smile back.

His eyes shimmered like two emeralds reflecting firelight. "Then I fear we must part, my brave." He said quietly.

"Part? Why?" She asked, her smile fading. But was that possible? Did she truly feel the disappointment? Well, yes. It just could not end that way. She had to know –

"But before we do, I have a little brain teaser for you." He said, his forefinger pointing at her.

"Yes?" Jane breathed, intrigued, her features brightening.

"Watch carefully." He commanded and then held his hands before him. A light appeared between them, just like that, out of nowhere. It grew brighter then, and finally popped out into the shape of his horned helm. He held it then, and donned it. Simply and peacefully, just as if nothing extraordinary had happened.

"Now, was that science, or magic?" He asked with a faint, but self-confident smile.

"How – how did you do that?"

"Science or magic?" He appeared adamant about this question.

"It was... No! No it was… a trick. Of sorts." Jane tried. Yes, it was a feeble attempt, she knew.

"I'm sure you'll find out." He smiled once again and started walking away.

She watched him, disconcerted and confused. "Wait! Where are you going?" she called out and ran after him.

"To the spot of my landing. I need to get there to get home." Undisturbed, he continued his walk.

"Home? And where is that? And… Hey, you haven't even told me your name!"

He stopped at that and turned around so suddenly she could not avoid bumping into him. She wanted to blurt out an apology, but he was faster to speak up. "I can only reveal it when you're ready to answer my question."

"But..! Wait, you're coming back?" Jane asked, hopeful.

"What do you think?" He answered with a question, his eyes glittering green.

Sighing, Jane rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. She meant to reply to that, she had the words ready, but well, there was no longer any one to speak to.

"Hey!" She cried out, her own echo coming back as the only reply. "That's just not fair, you know." She added to herself then.

The lightning and smoke and roar followed soon, the same as before, and all she could do was watch.

No, those things were not supposed to be happening. Certainly not here, on a clear night in the middle of the New Mexico desert.

AN: Initially I wrote this as a one-shot. But plot bunnies suddenly popped out, as is their custom, and refuse to leave me be. I need to work on my other Lokane story now, but should you demand that I continue this fic, well, I'll see what I can do ;)