Violento y orgulloso, conquistaron a sus vecinos, y gobernaron con un puño de hierro
I woke up around midnight to the sound of rain at my window.
With a yawn, I sat up and blinked sleepily at the water staining the glass, creating runny patterns that stayed for only a moment before they slid away. The stars outside shone down brightly through the gently downpour.
Transfixed, I pushed back my chair and put my hands against the window. The glass was cold and chilled my hands and my breath. Daring, I opened the entire window and stuck my head out into the rain.
" I'm going to catch a cold." I told myself gleefully. I really didn't care at this point.
Wiping the drops away from my eyes, I turned my attention to the stars above me. They were small and pretty, twinkling delicately on the navy-blue canvas of a sky, slightly misted by the rain clouds. Every star was almost exactly the same, except for a single, big red star directly in front of me.
Curious, I watched the star for a bit. It looked like a very small sun.
" Odd..." I mumbled. " I've never seen that star before... Maybe it's in my astronomy guide."
I turned away from the window to rummage through my small library. When I found the book, I opened it to the ' Night Sky' page. As I flipped, the water from my hair dripped onto the pages, soaking it in different spots.
" No..." I said after a moment, confused. " It isn't even mentioned here. Maybe it's an airplane? But it's too large to be an airplane, and it doesn't look like one."
I went back to the window to observe the strange object.
To my shock, I realized that it had gotten much bigger since my absence.
" Oh, it's a meteor!" I said, pleased that I knew what it was now. " That's why it' red, that's why it's not on the charts, and that's why it's getting closer!"
I smiled for a moment in my victory, when I realized there was another problem.
The meteor was getting closer.
The smile shifted off my face. Every minute, the object got bigger.
It was heading straight for my house.
Panic set in. I wanted to run to my mother's room and warn her, but I couldn't bear to tear myself away from the window. I needed to watch the meteor. I couldn't avert my eyes.
" Oh no..."
The object got closer. By now, the ground beneath me was shaking slightly. The trinkets on my shelves bumped against each other. It was like an earthquake.
An earthquake that got bigger and bigger each second.
I shrank back away from the window. The fire surrounding the meteor lit up my room, illuminating everything in a red light. The shaking was so strong, I struggled to stand.
" Help!" I cried, but the hum of the incoming meteor was louder, and drowned out my already squeaky voice.
It was close enough now for me to see its circular shape, and its size. It was about the size of a tank.
With a whimper, I curled into a ball and covered my head with my hands.
'BOOM!'
The entire house shook with a force so great, it knock the books out of their shelves and shattered glass. The explosion swept me off my feet and threw me halfway across the room. Luckily, I landed on some pillows that had been pitched off of my bed, so I wasn't hurt.
The shaking and the sound lasted only for a moment, and then it was gone. The rain outside fell in through my broken window, soaking my bare feet.
Trembling, I stood up. Glancing around, I noticed that my house was intact, however messy.
" What happened?" I wonder aloud. " Where's the meteor?"
Curious, I poked my head outside of my window. A huge plume of steam blew into my face, causing me to choke.
Steam is cause by water evaporating, like when it hits something really hot... I thought.
It's raining. The meteor was on fire. So, when water hits the meteor, it creates steam and extinguishes the fire around it.
A sudden thought cause a wave of excitement.
The meteor must have crashed in my backyard!
Energetic, I ran to my closet and pulled on some pants and a long shirt. Slipping into my black rain boots, I raced out of my room and swiped a jacket and a flashlight from the kitchen. The silence in the house told me that my mother was still asleep.
Wow. Sound sleeper...
I opened the front door and pulled the jacket hood over my head. The rain had turned into a downpour now, turning the ground into mud.
I flicked on the flashlight. A small beam of yellow light appeared at the end.
" Right." I said to myself. " Follow the steam."
Slowly, I splashed my way through the mud, keeping my eyes protected against the hot cloud of steam. The flashlight provided little help, but it felt comforting to hold it in my hand.
Finally, near the very, very back corner of my property in a place where my mother and I never went, I almost died. The edge of a crater was inches away from my feet before I noticed it and pulled back.
" This is it..." I said. I peeked over the edge of the crater, and was disappointed to discover that due to the huge plum of steam rising out of the hole, it was impossible to see the bottom. I sat down in the damp grass.
" I can't see a thing with all this steam." I said. " I'll wait for the meteor to cool down before I take a peek."
I waited for about five minutes before I noticed that the steam was beginning to thin out until it was only a veil. I crawled to the edge of the crater.
" I think I can look now..." I said. I swallowed down my excitement and slowly raised my eyes over the rim.
A scream forced its way up my throat, but I managed to hold it in as I shot away from the crater as fast as I could.
Laying a few feet away, I gasped and clutched at my heart, trying to ignore the horrible sense of panic in my body.
In a few moments, I managed to rid most of the fear from my mind and slowly crawled on all fours back to the crater. Slowly, I looked over the rim again, staring down in pure fear, curious wonder and nervous panic at the thing sitting in the middle of the crater, because the meteor wasn't a meteor.
It was an alien spaceship.
It was battered and burned, but I could still see the design and structure well enough to know that it wasn't from this earth. It wasn't one of those cliché saucer-like UFO's that were on every ' They're Coming!' poster or in most classic sci-fi movies. It was more sphere shaped, with two small, downward-pointing 'airplane turbines' on each side. It was a maroon color, with a large black symbol on the back. The symbol resembled a triangle cut in the middle by a circle, with two smaller triangles on the top. The symbol was scratched and singled. The long scratch marks couldn't have been caused by the crash: they looked deliberately done, as if they were chiseled. It looked like the pilot wanted to remove the symbol, but the paint was too permanent to remove completely.
The steam was almost cleared now. The ground beneath my stomach was squishy and wet. I ignored all the discomforts and continued to stare in awe at the spaceship beneath me.
Finally, after a long while, I worked up the courage to make my way slowly down the side of the crater. The mud underneath my hands made my fingers slowly sink into the earth, and I had to stop many times to yank my boots from out of the ground.
" Stupid, stupid, stupid..." I softly growled to myself. " Why am I doing this?"
Insane curiosity got the best of me. Inching my way slowly forward, I reached out a hand and hesitantly touched the metal of the spaceship. It was still warm, but incredibly smooth. Curious, I rubbed my hand along the chiseled marks on the symbol.
" Hand-made alright..." I said to myself, gently feeling the shredded metal grooves. They were too straight, too deep and too parallel to be an accident.
" Someone must really not like this symbol. Maybe they stole the ship."
At this thought, I remembered that the ship must have been piloted by someone, and nervousness sank in.
This isn't a human ship. The metal isn't from earth. The design isn't from earth. The symbol isn't from earth. The pilot must be an alien.
I was frightened. I remembered every alien movie I had ever seen. Most of the time, the aliens were grey-skinned, ugly, large-black-eyed little naked men. I shuddered.
" They might experiment on me." I said to myself. " Or I might release them and cause the damnation of earth."
I wanted to go back to the house and phone the police, but something stopped me.
I remember telling Lani that I didn't like the alien movie because it made the aliens look like monsters. Everyone has a stereotype vision of what extraterrestrials look and act like. What if they're friendly? What if they want to be friends, and I call the police, and the police take them away and experiment on them, and if they escape they'll be angry and hurt and want to kill all life on this planet in revenge...
I slapped myself across the face when I realized that I was ranting.
I touched the back of the ship. Engines were usually on the back of a plane, and I couldn't see any sort of place for someone to look out of. Besides, if it had crashed, the ship would have been pointing forward and the front would hit the ground first. I needed to go around the ship to see the front.
Bad idea... said my inner conscience.
" Shut up." I said. " Just go take a look..."
Slowly, I pressed my back against the hull of the ship and moved my way along it. My heart was pounding in my chest.
What if the aliens ejected before the ship crashed? They should be running around the country side by now.
I don't know why, but there was a sense of hope that the ship would be empty.
That hope was broken when I saw the windshield.
It was made out of glass. It was probably the strongest glass in the universe, because the crash hadn't even left a single crack. Of course, it was dented and grooved just like the metal. I had a suspicion that it was a mixture of both glass and a strong plastic, giving it a sort of flexibility against crashes.
In any case, the glass was completely intact, and still fused onto the ship. There was not exit point or hole for someone to crawl out of.
That meant the alien was still on the ship.
With a groan, I leaned against the hull, trying to figure out what to do. Something caught my vision and I turned, curious to see what it was.
A strange substance was smeared on the inside of the glass. It was a deeper, richer color, and looked a lot thicker than a human's, but I immediately knew what it was.
Blood...
" How could I even assume that whoever pilots this space ship survived the crash?" I said to myself, staring at the blood, horrified. " Maybe there's a body in there!"
My dry throat constricted as I considered the possibility. And yet...
What if whoever pilots this thing is hurt and needs help? Could I just leave them here?
Pity and concern won, and I made an important decision.
I was going to break open the ship and help whoever was inside, no matter what they looked like.
It was risky. I could be attacked, or hurt, or burned, or stabbed. There was also the problem of how I was going to open the glass, if even a crash didn't break it open. However, I decided that it was better to try than possibly let someone suffer.
I wiped rain away from my face. The storm was fierce now. Lightning cracked against the sky, and the heavy drops splashed over my head like buckets.
Because of the downpour, it was hard to find something sharp to break open the glass with, so I ended up with a gardening spade.
As I walked back to the ship, I realized that I needed to be careful. Simply smashing the center of the glass would send shards flying at the person inside. I need to find a side way in.
I observed the edge of the glass. It was an almost flawless fusion between it and the metal, but I eventually found the thin line where the two of them connected. It was just large enough to stick the tip of the spade inside.
As a clap of thunder struck across the sky, I began to panic a bit.
Every second I waste means that the person inside is more moment closer to dying.
I pulled the spade back like a crowbar. I pulled hard, but the glass didn't budge.
" Come on!" I cried. " Come on!"
I pulled harder. Slowly, the glass began to fold back.
" Yes! Come on..."
After a few minutes, (It felt like an hour. Or maybe it was?) I had made a hole large enough to crawl through. Setting aside the spade, I peeked inside curiously. It was too dark inside to see anything. No light was entering the hull, as the glass windshield was mostly buried in the dirt. I gave a growl of frustration.
" Dang it. I can't see-"
I could have slapped myself.
" Stupid!" I scolded. " You have a damn flashlight!"
My hands were shaking as I flicked on the narrow beam and aimed it inside the hole. At first, I couldn't see much. The light only gave a few feet of light, and it mainly uncovered a shredded pilot chair, sparking wires hanging from the ceiling and tore scraps of metal coming off the walls. Even in its destruction, I marveled at how elegant and beautiful the ship was. Everything was perfect and angular.
As I passed the light over the chair for the hundredth time, I heard a noise which made me jump back.
It sounded like a moan.
Frantically, I swept the light over everything in the ship, but I couldn't find where the sound was coming from.
It must be coming from the back of the ship... I thought. The part where my flashlight can't go.
I inwardly groaned, but I knew what I needed to do. Turned off the light, I placed my head through the hole and squirmed through. It was a tight squeeze, and for a moment I was afraid that I was going to be stuck. Luckily, I manged to get through and I tumbled into the spaceship.
The air was warm and dense inside, and I landed in a puddle of liquid. When I raised my hand, I watched the fat drops roll off my fingers and I knew it was blood. Sick in my stomach, I wiped my hand on the pilot seat and began to crawl to the back of the ship. It was large enough to stand in, but I felt more secure when I was closer to the ground.
The flashlight was still stuck in my pocket, and I was too frightened of making noise to pull it out. Groping in the dark, I crawled over pointed sheets of metal and sharp wires that cut my hands. The ship was silent besides the electric sparking of the broken cables hanging from the ceiling.
I paused for a moment, sitting back on my heels to rub my bleeding wrists.
The ship was a lot larger on the inside than it had appeared on the outside. It could have fit five people easily, and about eight snugly. I couldn't help but be impressed by the design.
Suddenly, I heard a noise. It sounded like a soft moan, just like the one I had heard before.
It's still alive... I thought.
" Hello?" I called hesitantly. The moan quieted, and then started again.
" Hey? I'm here to help you." I called, following the noise. The moans stopped, but I could now hear a rhythm of raspy, broken breathing.
Licking my dry lips and swallowing down my fear, I flicked on the flashlight and aimed it where I thought the noise was coming from.
The flashlight dropped from my trembling fingers. With a gasp, I scrambled backward in terror.
After a moment of siting terrified in the dark, I bent over and grabbed my flashlight. Trembling, I switched it back on and stared in twisted awe at the creature in front of me.
It was caught in the cables, its arms being suspended into the air and its head lolling onto its chest. It had a vaguely humanoid shape: A torso, arms, legs, a head. Shadows covered most of its features, but I could see that it had three fingers on each hand and a pair of eyes and a mouth. Ears and a nose were absent. What startled me the most, and what gave the creature a look of hideousness, was the thick red slime covering its body. It trickled down its limbs and face, like dark, sticky mud.
I shuddered as I stared at it. It looked unconscious, and I knew that if I was quiet, I could sneak out quickly.
I stopped myself and remembered my promise. Slowly, I crawled up to the alien, and even more slowly, reached out my hand and touched it on the shoulder.
The red, sticky liquid ran down my arm, and I realized what it actually was. The alien was covered in a thin layer of dust, rust, and blood. Its actual skin was hidden underneath the mixture. The coating also made the creature look bigger than it actually was.
I could have sighed in relief, but then I realized I had another problem.
My touch had woken up the alien.
Its head slowly lifted off its chest, and the goo on its face shifted as the creature opened its eyes.
I was spellbound, held in captivity by their amazing color and size. Opened halfway, they were the shape of crescent moons and were a beautiful, deep magenta. It almost blended in with the color of the blood encasing the alien, but they held more depth and the spark of intelligence.
The alien and I locked gazes. It stared at me like I was about to kill it, fear and panic flooding into its half-closed eyes. It tried to jerk away from me, straining against the wires that sliced its flesh.
" Stop! I'm trying to help you!" I cried, taking a step back to calm the creature. The alien, however, was not so easily won.
" ©´† å∑¥ ƒ®øµ µ´, ¥ø¨ ˙ø®®ˆ∫¬´ ˙¨µå˜ ƒ´µå¬´!" it cried, gnashing a pair of vampire-teeth at me. The language consisted of many complex noises made in the roof of the mouth. It sounded like an almost Arabian-like language spoken very quickly and with multiple tones and pitches.
I held out my hands in a neutral fashion.
" I'm not going to hurt you. I promise! Here..."
I reached over and grabbed hold of one of the wires. The alien shrank back from me.
" ©´† å∑å¥!" it hissed, but its voice was becoming weaker as it began to suffer from blood-loss. I gently unwound the wire from around the alien's wrist. As it finally snapped off, the cut it had made began to ooze fresh, lighter blood than the gunk surrounding the alien's body.
The alien didn't pull away or say anything as I moved around it and unwound the wires trapping its other wrist. As it finally got free, its entire body slumped forward. With a groan, the alien fell against the floor of the ship. The mixture began to slowly fell away from its body.
I bent over the alien's body, concerned.
" Are you okay?" I asked. The alien closed its eyes.
" ∂ø´ß ˆ† ¬øø˚ ¬ˆ˚´ ˆ†?" it said miserably. Its entire body began to tremble, and another moan escaped its lips.
Slowly, I reached over and grabbed hold of the alien's shoulders, heaving it up and leaning it against my chest. The alien groaned.
" I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" I said gently. " I'm going to try to help you."
The alien gave me a look that clearly stated: ' It doesn't look like I have a choice, now do I?'
I stood up, leaning the alien against my shoulder. The red gunk was still falling away from its body, exposing a bit of skin here and there, as well as what looked like shredded pieces of cloth. An weird thought passed through my head.
Aliens wear clothes.
Another thought passed through.
Of course they do. If they can build spaceships, then they should have clothes. Movie fiction is not something to be basing thoughts off of.
Slowly, I dragged the alien through the dark ship, trying to avoid the wires and shards of metal. Moving around the chair, the alien looked weakly around and then back at me with question. I pointed to the hole in the glass.
" I got in through there." I said. " Sorry, I had to bend the glass."
The alien blinked once. Some of the blood-rust-dirt mix had fallen away from its face, exposing green skin on a slender cheek and a strong, male-like jawline. I tried to focus.
" I'll go through first." I said. " And I'll bring you through after, alright?"
The alien didn't say anything, but I didn't blame it. The bits of skin that were showing looked pale, even if I didn't know what color it was supposed to be originally. I propped the alien next to the hole and began to climb through. Out on the other side, I reached through the hole and pulled the alien out after me.
It was still raining. The sky tossed down gallons of water on the heads of the alien and I. The alien moaned and shivered. I felt the same way. The water was freezing.
" Here..." I said, taking off my jacket and wrapping it around the alien's shoulders. " It's not much, but..."
The alien pulled the damp jacket around its gooey shoulders, and gave me a look of gratitude. I noticed that it didn't shrink away from me know. Rather, it accepted my support and leaned tiredly against me.
" Okay..." I thought aloud, wiping water away from my eyes. " Where should I take you...?"
The house was out of the option. There was nowhere inside of there where I would be able to hide a hurt alien that my mother wouldn't discover. The outside air would be a death sentence for the poor guy too.
I remembered suddenly that there was a barn near the very back of the property from a long time ago when we used to have farm animals. It was wooden and the paint was peeling off, be the inside was dry and relatively warm. I decided that the barn was my best option. My mother never went there, and it was only a few minutes walk from where I was now.
" Okay." I said to the alien, who looked like it was about to pass out. " I know where I'm going to take you. You'll be safe, okay?"
The alien's eyes were slowly closing, and it fought to keep them open.
" 嬮ˆ©˙†..." it said quietly, its voice hoarse with pain. " ∫¨† π¬´åß´˙¨®®¥, µ¥ ˆ˜ßˆ∂´ß å®´ çøµˆ˜© ø¨†..."
I couldn't understand it, but the message the alien said was clear enough: ' Hurry the hell up.'
I navigated the alien towards the edge of the crater, the mud sticking onto my boots. Looking down, I realized that the alien was wearing boots too: black, with silver fastenings and steel toes. The mud stained the outside of the boots as the alien struggled up the slope, but the water washed it away quickly.
Reaching the rim of the crater, the alien sank onto to wet grass, shaking. I pulled it to its feet, feeling bad that I was forcing it through pain, but unwilling to keep it out in the open. The alien whimpered painfully.
" It's not far..." I reassured. " We'll be there soon."
The alien staggered for a moment, and I had to half-carry it in order for it to even be able to stand. The alien drew in a struggled, ragged breath.
" π¬´åß´..." it moaned. " π¬´åß´..."
I gently dragged the alien through the rain, trying to remember where the barn was. For a while, I was afraid that it had been tore down without my knowing.
I found out that it hadn't when I ran into it a hurt my face.
Luckily, the alien wasn't hurt. It also managed to yank me away before I broke my nose.
" Thanks..." I mumbled, rubbing my cheek. The alien gave me a slightly amused look through half-slitted eyes.
" Wait here..." I said, setting the alien down, propped up against the side of the barn. Walking around the perimeter, I found the large, square doors and eased them open. It was hard, considering that the high wind was blowing against me, keeping them shut. With a growl, I pried them open and disappeared inside.
It was very dark. With a groan, I flicked on my flashlight. The barn was large inside, and to my surprise, it was warm. A pile of old canvas and ropes was thrown in the corner. A few oil lamps were propped against the wall, many of them smashed. A few were intact, however, and I selected a match from of the ground and lit them. I placed them hanging from the ceiling, lighting the whole room in a soft, yellow glow.
Now that I could see, I noticed piles of hay on the floor and got an idea.
Gathering as much of the dryish bits of hay as I could into a large pile, I grabbed the canvas and laid it on top, creating a make-shift bed. I went back outside and located the alien.
To my shock, the alien was laying on the floor, not moving. I passed a hand over the alien's mouth and was terrified to find that no breath was coming our either.
" No! No, not now!" I cried. I heaved the alien over my shoulders and pushed back into the barn. The glowing lamps lit up the room.
I laid the alien on the bed and began rubbing its chest area.
" Come on, breath!" I begged. " Please!"
After a few horrible moments, the alien heaved a huge gasp. Arching its back, it rolled onto its side and coughed out blood and water.
I gave a cry of relief.
" Finally!" I said. " I thought you were gone!"
The alien slowly looked back at me, the red gunk still smeared all over its face. With a small groan, it closed its eyes again and curled up tighter.
" Right." I said, suddenly aware. " You're freezing, you're bleeding and your clothes are in rags. I need to go find something to fix your problems."
The alien opened one eye again and gave me a clearly amused look.
" Okay..." I said sheepishly. " I'll be... right back..."
As I stood up to leave, I felt a strong grip on my wrist. Looking down, I saw that the alien had grabbed hold of me, and was looking up with fully-opened magenta eyes.
" It'll only be a moment." I reassured gently. The alien blinked, but didn't let go.
" I promise." I added. Finally, the alien cast a pleading look on me, and released its grip.
" I'll be right back." I said again. I turned away and pried open the wooded doors again. To my surprise, the rain was starting to slow, becoming a drizzle instead of a downpour.
" It stopped raining!" I called over my shoulder.
The alien didn't say anything to me, but I could hear it shift on the hay pile.
" Right..." I said to myself. " Let's get this over with."
Closing the door softly behind me, I made a mad dash for the house. The mud made me slip a couple of times, and by the time I got to my room, I was covering in caking earth.
With a sigh, I grabbed an armload of blankets, a first-aid kit and a few pieces of clothing. The shirt was long sleeve, plain black in color and with a hood on the back. I also grabbed a simple pair of grey sweat-pants. It wasn't a fashion statement, but I wanted to grab something that could be appropriate for either gender, since I couldn't tell what the alien was because of the dried blood surrounding its body. Reminding myself, I grabbed a washcloth and some wipes before I went out the door again.
As I passed by the crater, I paused. The ship was almost entirely submerged by the mud, with only the back sticking up. I realized that I couldn't just leave the spaceship exposed like that, even if it was almost completely swallowed. Setting down the supplies on a dry patch of ground, I went over to the tool shed and grabbed a very large green tarp. I set it over the hole, which took me a while. I knew it wasn't much, but my mother never came into the general area, and the green tarp would help to not arouse her suspicions if she glanced over the crater from the corner of her eye.
Returning to the barn, I knocked before I entered, warning the alien that I was coming in.
" Hi." I said lamely. The alien raised a non-existent brow.
" I… got the stuff." I said, waving the items out in front of me. The alien raised its brow higher as if to say: ' I can see that, you idiot.'
" I also covered the ship, so people won't find it unless they walk over it, which is highly unlikely." I added, hoping to keep the alien from looking at me like I was stupid. Both brows went up this time, and the alien tilted its head to one side.
" Yeah, that's really creepy…" I mumbled to myself. Surprisingly, the alien heard me, and it lowered its brows and gave me a weak but pretty decent ' Hey-you-just-saved-my-life-I'm-completly-in-your-d ebt-so-please-don't-throw-me-out-in-the-storm-beca use-I'm-creepy' smile.
I grinned back.
" Well, I guess I'd better get you cleaned up…" I sighed. " That gunk doesn't look comfortable."
The alien glanced down at itself in surprise, as if it were just noticing the dried blood around its body.
Which, depending on how delirious it had been when it was rescued, it probably was.
I knelt by the alien's side and gently took ahold of its arm. I placed a wipe on the skin and slowly rubbed it back and forth. Even though I was being as gently as possible, the alien's eyes were narrowed into slits.
" Hey…" I said after a while. " Can I ask you a question?"
The alien glanced over at me and nodded once.
" Are you…" I began, afraid to even say it. " Are you a boy?"
The alien looked at me for a minute, and I had the horrible feeling that I had gotten it wrong. Then, with a small smile, it nodded.
" Oh." I said, the lump in my throat releasing. " Just checking."
The alien smiled wider and closed its- no, his eyes. He closed his eyes.
" I'm sorry." I sighed. " Am I hurting you? Be truthful."
The alien though for a minute, and then nodded.
" Oh." I whispered. " Oh, I'm sorry. " I'll-… I'll just…"
As I began to remove the wipe, the alien snaked out his hand and grabbed ahold of my wrist. His eyes still closed, he shook his head once and place my hand onto his shoulder.
" Are... are you sure?" I asked. The alien nodded.
I continued to wipe the blood off of his body, pausing only to change the wipes or use the washcloth to scrub off any stubborn bits of gunk. After a while, I sat back on my heels.
" That's all I can do with these." I sighed.
I couldn't miss the alien's sigh of relief. I smiled sheepishly.
" Sorry."
Now that he was semi-clean, I was able to see the alien's features more clearly. He had the shape of an athlete, and his skin was the color of green apples.
Apples... I thought randomly. Yum...
He had three fingers on each hand, and talons on his feet. Besides being covered in cuts, his skin was flawless and smooth, without a single hair. As far as I could tell, he didn't even have a bellybutton.
For some reason, he looked like a high schooler to me. His facial features were youthful in appearance, but the shape of his muscles suggested that he had been in many difficult and physically challenging situations.
The most striking part about his were the pair of antenna on his head. They were black and reached down to his shoulders, ending in small triangle shapes at the tip.
As if he sense my stares, the alien opened one eye and gazed at me.
Embarrassed, I looked away quickly.
" SorryIdidn'tmeantodothat." I slurred.
To my surprise, the alien just made a chuckle sound and closed his eye again.
" Are you hungry?" I asked. The alien shook his head slightly.
" Thirsty?"
Shake.
" You just want to rest?"
Nod.
After a moment of sitting there, I remembered the clothes.
" Oh, I uh, brought you some..." I stammered, waving to the sweatpants and jacket.
The alien opened his eyes fully and looked almost longingly at the jacket.
" Here..." I said gently, sliding the jacket over his head. When that was finished, I helped him put on the pants as well.
The alien sighed and curled up tighter. He looked much more relaxed and peaceful, and I had to smile.
" Alright, I have one last thing..." I said. Rolling up one of the blankets, I placed it under the alien's head as a pillow. I draped the other over his thin frame to protect him from the cold.
With an almost grateful grin, the alien drew the blanket closer to himself. With a sigh, I turned down the lamps so that it was a little darker in the room. Standing up, I brushed my hands on my knees and stifled a yawn.
" Are you going to be alright?" I asked. " I can stay if you want, but I should really go back to the house so my mom doesn't become suspicious.
The alien opened one eye for a moment and then closed it again. It was obvious that he expected me to do what was best.
" I'll be back early tomorrow to check on you." I promised. " And I swear that you'll be safe here."
The alien only smiled.
Turning back to the door, I picked up the bloody wipes and brushed some hay away from the path.
" Oh." I said, turning back for a moment. " My name is Yulari by the way."
The alien was already asleep, his eyes closed.
I sighed softly. As I opened the door, and the wind blew on my face, I heard the sound of shifting hay behind me.
There was a voice that called after me, a voice soft, hoarse and full of pain, but still obviously distinguishable as a male teenager.
" It's a pleasure to be made your acquaintance, Yulari." the alien said quietly. " My name is Zim."