"How can it breathe with that thing on?" Annelise wondered while looking at the screen of her tablet, which was showing a re-run of the news that was aired that morning.

"Bet it can swim real good." Thede, who was looking over her sister's arm, said.

"Pretty eyes." Rainmund said.

Yes, but everything else looked bizarre on it. One of the two alien families, that moved to the Americas but didn't want to be shown on tv for fear of ridicule, was seen as leaving a store in Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California yesterday afternoon; a passing motorist was fast in both stopping and documenting what she saw. This family, which consisted of three individuals, was said to of received some sort of monetary assistance from someone who lived where they came from. Instead of using what they got to move from the planet, they used it to move from the community that they settled in in June to a different one that was in Death Valley. With the way this family looked, they didn't look to belong in the area that they moved to.

The tallest member of the family looked to be of the male gender. His skin was a mixture of brown, green, and light yellow; he had this thing around his head that looked to have water, or some sort of clear liquid, in it. As if to give credence to his already odd appearance, he had moss growing out from his armpits. The sides of his arms, and neck, had a set of gills on them; when he moved one of his hands, they were able to see that he had webbing between his fingers... and a sort of spike or something sticking out from the flesh of his palms.

As Rainmund had pointed out, this creature had a set of rather pretty eyes. They were a very faint purple color; the ovular pupils, that were in their centers, were a little darker than they were.

Except for having faint red, pink, and purple skin, and barely noticeable gills on the parts that the species looked to have gills on, the mature female of the family looked very much like her partner. The two's child, which looked of the female gender, had a mixture of their skin colorations. At first glance, the creature looked to lack the gills that her parents had—it was only when the camera was zoomed in that they were seen.

"Wonder what the other family looks like." Annelise said after the mature female alien noticed the civilian with the camera. The alien ran towards her child then scooped her up; on the screen of her tablet, she watched as the family "ran" to where a strange vehicle was. No sooner had they gotten in the car before speeding off then getting "lost" in the distortions that the area's heat was generating.

She also wondered why the family didn't use what was given to them to leave the planet. Surely, with all the negativity that was being thrown around in the Americas about the non-human occupants that were slowly trickling in to fill the homes that were prepared for them, they would of moved to some other planet where they'd be better received. According to the news report, that aired both last night and this morning, five more families moved into the Americas—despite heavy opposition, and the apparent disregard to their safety by their new "ruler", they were still on the planet and in the homes that they moved into. No images or video was known to exist on these families, so it was presumed that they were doing as the two families that were trying to play the low-game were.

It was the matter of why the second of the three original alien families, that moved to the planet and then found themselves as being unable to leave, moved to a town that wasn't prepared for their occupation that she was mostly centered on. Was this family trying to integrate among her own kind, or were they of a highly social people that wanted to have someone around them to speak or become involved with, or was something else going on that wasn't known to anyone? With their looks, they definitely didn't look to belong in the hottest known location in North America—if anyone had asked her, with their wet-looking skin, fishbowl-like adornment over their heads, and gill-like openings, they belonged more in a semi-tropical area instead of where they were.

The more noticeable of the three original alien families didn't seem to be all that shy about being on the news. They were seen almost two to three times a day, so there were a lot of updates being shown on them. The family's sick-looking, male child looked a little better, while one of the healthy adults looked to be getting sick, and one of the older members of the family was missing. Her fader, much like her mutter, her, and, she presumed, the others who were also curious about this family, was very focused on the facial and emotional features of the family's still-sighted members—as far as she could tell, there were no signs of distress or grieving present on the members of the family that were still seen to account for the missing member. For all she knew, the member who hadn't been seen in nearly a week might be fine and just doing some R and R in her and her family's house.

"Unless they don't show emotions, or are quick to grieve over their dead, that is." she thought while putting her tablet in the bag that she brought along.

"We almost there, datty?" Thede asked their father.

"Another few miles," their father replied.

"Is Mr. Irene still there?" Annelise asked.

"Yes, as is his daughter."

"Wonder if he'd tell us a few things about the families that moved into the Americas." Annelise thought.

"When we get there, do me a favor and don't pester Mr. Irene, or ask him all sorts of questions on who all's out there in the Universe, or who moved into the Americas." her father must of read her mind; she felt her cheeks turn for just a second as she blushed then turned to look out the window.

"Datty, you need to put a sign in here. The Irene's rode in here that one night... it might get famous for that." Thede said.

"It might get a few heads turning, and some attention after I decide to retire this thing." Stefan said with a chuckle.

"What's retire?" Thede asked.

"Remember how your Uncle Ekerd says how he's going to put his dog to pasture?"

"Uh-huh."

"That's retire."

"Oh, okay." Thede seemed happy with the answer to her question, which, her sister knew, wasn't the whole truth to the matter. Uncle Ekerd's dog was in his mid-teens, so it was heading on that time where it was time to put him down—or put him to pasture, as their uncle continued to call it.

Her fader, during the middle-part of last month, had said something about taking a trip to Elchesheim-Illingen. He wanted to visit the woman who was both their planet's heroine and his friend, who was experiencing a few issues on her end that weren't all that known to her or her siblings. Due to all of what her fader was going through at work, he had to miss out on going to see her—some woman named Bettina Gottlieb was giving him trouble; he was doing his best to keep her "contained" and go on with work and home life. According to the news a few days ago, Mrs. Gottlieb was now looking towards the next presidential race, which was to happen in three years; her fader, just that morning, was heard as saying to his bruder that, if she was serious in going through with it, and won her bid for the presidency, she'd not be the best of presidents picked for the country. Uncle Ekerd, who was four years older than her fader, had asked the question on whether her fader was going to run for another term; her fader said that he'd give it a good consideration in two years.

In a way, she hoped that he both did and didn't go through another term as being the country's president. While the polls said that most of the country's population was happy with how he was running Germany, and with how he was sticking to the promises that he made during his campaign, there were some out there that were pointing out negative things that revolved around both him and her family that weren't true. The eighteen months that he was running and campaigning for the presidency weren't good for her or her family—they missed him, and terribly too. With his having to be on the road, appearing at conventions or rallies, or just making surprise appearances at places where he needed to garner enough support for his campaign, he wasn't able to be at home as much as she and her siblings, and their mutter, wanted him to. After he won the campaign, things settled down a little; he started staying at home more, and being more involved in family affairs, and attending the dinners that all of their family should be in attendance for. It was the fact that everyone seemed to point their fingers at him whenever something went wrong, or that he sometimes got to being so busy that he wasn't able to do anything with her and her siblings, or was so tired that he had to miss-out on the family meals, that she didn't like. Her fader was a good man, who tried his best in everything that he did, and who had everyone's interests and safeties in mind; he didn't deserve all of what was being thrown at him. The thing that worried her most was that most politicians grew gray in the hair department after they won the slot for their country's presidency—it was the stress of the job and she knew it and she worried that the stress from her fader's job was going to make him grow gray and wrinkled way before his time.

Thede sometimes messed their fader's hair up when he came in from work—she just grabbed and hugged him then, while he hugged her back, ran her hands through his hair... and he let her! As of the last few months, she was paying particular attention to this activity of her sister's—looking for gray, or strands that were lighter than they should be, or areas where his hair was thinning. Her fader, while in his mid-fifties, and a little on the obese side, was healthy, strong, and still as youthful as ever. No signs of gray, balding, or lightness was going on in his hair, which she thanked God for. Her fader was going to get old one day, yes, and she and her siblings were going to have to watch as he grew wrinkled and gray, yes, but that wasn't going on right now. She really did hope that, after the four years for his term were up, he'd still look the same. A few weeks ago, when she eavesdropped on a phone conversation between her fader and his doctor, she overheard his doctor saying that, while he was five pounds lighter, he was on-schedule for everything and that nothing negative came up in the tests that he took once every four to six months—this was a load off her shoulders!

Her fader was just a year and five days into his term as the country's president, so he had a while to go before any considerations came in on his going for another term, or showed the signs of his job. From what she had seen in school, and through general curiosity while being in one of Berlin's three-known libraries, it took about two years before any signs of stress or work-generated aging to be noted in one who won his, or her, bid for a nation's presidency.

"Sure looks nice here," her mutter said after they turned onto Zweig Straße, a stretch of road that belonged to the Grün Bach subdivision, where her fader's friend and her family lived in.

"The people in this corner of the country have been getting lots of rain... and wind. As of the last week, the anemometers in the weather stations in this part of the country have logged winds of up to forty miles an hour." her fader said.

"Bet that's nice—our part of the country's been getting a bit too much snow, or is too warm, lately. Been hoping that we'll experience a normal spell of summer weather sometime before winter sets in."

"If it ever comes and decides to be normal, you mean."

The experts who predicted and charted the weather were all saying that last year was the oddest on record for what was experienced. Along with having days where it was cold and snowy, they had days where it was blisteringly hot, or where it rained for longer than usual. So far, this year's weather was heading towards a near-similar trend that was alarming to both her parents and the people who did the weather. Really, the only thing different about this year's weather was the fact that certain storms were procurring more than enough tornadoes and that it rained in certain places for nearly a month. Before reaching their destination, she reached into her bag then pulled out the newspaper article that was nestled neatly between the pages of her hardcover copy of Black Beauty.

From the Berlin Berliner Zeitung, August 6, 4100 (Page 1)
New York Joins Mexico City In Madness Construction

That was what the article's headline said; she couldn't agree more with what was written in it, and with how the people of North America felt about how their city looked. Tolukack Puvran, while sticking to some of the plan that he mentioned on the sixteenth, had also done a bunch of new things with New York that were getting more than the American's heads turning. She and her siblings, on the day that the city's new layout was exposed, were shocked by what they saw.

According to the history books, New York City was located in one of the planet's natural harbors. Along with being very populous, it compromised of five boroughs, which, up to recently, use to be separate counties in the state. During reconstruction, Master Vile combined all of them then signed a document saying that they were a single city—Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island no longer existed; it was now just New York City that they were called. This whole, large city looked very weird now. It no longer looked uniform; it, more or less, looked like a pair of pants that had more than a few patches sewn into it.

The former-Manhatten part of the city was still intact, as were the island parts of Queens. Staten Island was mostly bulldozed and then rebuilt from scratch while Brooklyn, The Bronx, and the rest of Queens was half-bulldozed and then rebuilt. The oddly shaped structures, that were made out of clay and either blue, orange, or purple glass, were present in the city, as were the odd church-like buildings. There were more than a dozen of these structures that looked about ready to fall over in the city as well—they were a yellowish-orange color and, oddly enough, made of clay. Rather interestingly, some of the old streets were still intact; the streets that hovered in space were present, but were few in comparison to the remaining ones that were already in the city. There were certain sidewalks that had a step-like system built into them, that looked to move once someone stepped on them, and there were a few bridge-like things in the city that still looked to be under construction.

There use to be a complex of seven World Trade Centers in New York City. After the events of September 11, 2001, where some people working for al-Qaeda hijacked a few planes then flew them into the complex's two taller buildings, all were either destroyed or deemed as being too damaged to be kept standing. While plans were underway for a new set of seven buildings to be erected in the city was started, and was around a quarter of the way finished, they weren't completed—the back-to-back plagues of 2016-2019 caused construction to come to a permenant halt; only One World Trade Center, or Freedom Tower, as it was sometimes called, and 4 World Trade Center, and 7 World Trade Center were built and then equipped with tenants. Of them three centers, only one remained—Master Vile, the evil war lord and warlock who took over the Americas last year, declared that only one of them was needed; while he had the other two demolished, he had yet to announce what was to take their place. The man, most thankfully, was leaving the memorial, which was opened to the public on September 11, 2011, and the museum, which opened in May 21, 2014, where they were—the descendants of the people involved in the September 11 attacks were said to be heaving breaths of relief thanks to this action of his.

The Unisphere, that was built in Queens in 1965, was gone. Even though he was told that it was commissioned to celebrate the start of the space age, and that it represented both Earth and the theme of the 1964-1965 World's Fair, Master Vile said that it was a silly item that wasn't needed in the park that it was in. The Statue of Liberty, the neoclassical statue that was gifted from the people of France to the United States on October 28, 1886, was also gone—with Master Vile saying that the Americas were "forbidden" from having any sort of contact with the western hemisphere nations, it was deemed as not needed anymore; the same notion occurred with the Headquarters of the United Nations, which use to be in Manhatten.

Like with Mexico City, there was a taller than tall structure in the city—except for being a whitish-blue color, it looked almost like the one that was in Mexico City.

"When he's overthrown, I can see all of this construction that he's implemented in the Americas being dismantled and then the old design plans being done over them." her fader, she recalled, told his bruder last night, before going to bed.

"You mean if he's overthrown." Uncle Ekerd replied.

"No, when. The man won't be in power for long with everyone in the nations that he has control of hating him the way they do."

"Stefan, the man's not normal, and he's been in power for over a year now. Think it's time to face the cards in knowing that he'll be around for a while."

"I give him a few years."

"May I point out that you said that last year? Come now, you're a smart man. You and I both know that nothing's to change overseas with who's in charge."

"Let's hope your words are wrong."

"True, but I doubt if they are."

She put the article back in the book then put the book back in her bag; she was just looking up when her sister gasped then grabbed her by the arm. When she looked up, she saw that not only had they arrived to their destination but that there was another car in the driveway and that there was a female alien walking about the front yard. Seeing these two things was too much for her. Once the car was parked, she undid her seatbelt then got out before her parents could say anything to her.

"Annelise!" her father called at her backside.

When the voice, that she heard on June 2, was heard, she turned to see where it came from. She was surprised when she saw a girl running past the trees that flanked the driveway's one side, and when she saw that she looked to be in her teen-years. The girl was about five foot, six inches; her chestnut-colored hair ran to about her shoulders. She was wearing a pink tie-dye shirt and blue jeans. Her blue and white sneakers looked appropriate for one who was in the years that she thought she was in. When the girl slid to a stop about ten feet from her, she saw that her eyes were a startling mix of gray, green, and gold—while she knew that she was a human, she couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't a hint of "alien" DNA in her, thanks to them eyes of hers.

After the girl slid to a stop, she saw that she had a feminine satchel bag on her that looked to have a few things in it. Seeing as her father had told her to mingle with the humans that were in the area, she went forward to both introduce herself and see what the girl wanted.

"Hey," Eshal said after approaching the girl.

"Hey," the girl replied.

"Eshal," seeing as she was on a planet that's denizens didn't seem to like saying or using them long-winded names, she decided to not say her full name.

"Annelise,"

"Nice to meet you," Eshal said. "Take it that you're human, and a teenager?"

"Yeah, and seventeen, if you're wondering."

"Two thousand, five hundred, and two." Eshal blurted before checking to see if what she was about to say was appropriate for who she was talking to. She was quick in explaining how old she was in regards to the humans. "I'm in my mid-teens."

"With Miss. Irene's kids being the ages that they are, I kinda figured that you was a mid-teenager."

"Annelise!"

A few hours ago, after lunch concluded and her family dispersed in different directions, she watched a film that was released on November 18, 1988—the scene where the mother dinosaur died after saving her son from the horrible meat-eating dinosaur made her cry, while the scene of the mother dinosaur and the dinosaur that had the three horns on his head separating their kids, who were doing nothing but playing with one another, made her feel angry. After watching the movie, then rewinding it to that infuriating scene, she got an understanding on what was going on. The daddy dinosaur was prejudice towards others who weren't of his own kind, and was stopping his daughter from playing with another of her age that wasn't of her species; after rewinding the movie further, she gained the knowledge of the mother dinosaur, while understanding the notion of why the planet's different species were separate-acting, and while telling her young son why each species went by their own, not liking the separation between the ones that were on the planet.

By the movie's conclusion, it looked like all of the characters had reconciled their differences and were living in harmony with one another in a valley, and it also looked like the kid-dinosaurs were allowed to play and make friends with one another.

What happened between her and the girl was reminiscent of that scene where the two parenting dinosaurs separated their kids from playing with one another. The man who came to her mother's house, then started trouble by harassing her father, stepped out from behind the trees; the girl reacted by backing away from her. After going five or six feet, she turned then went back to the man. The girl had no more joined the man, who she automatically deduced was her father, before an average-built woman, and two younger children, came up alongside them.

First that Ballal-man comes over, then makes himself at home, and now this family of five; she looked at the family, half of whom were either staring at or coming towards her while the other two were going towards the house's front door, before turning then going towards the door that'd give her access to her family's temporary residence's interior. The girl who introduced herself as Annelise, and the two younger children, who she figured were her siblings, stopped, shrugged their shoulders, then followed her to the house. She was a half-step ahead of the obese man and the woman who she figured was his wife when they reached the house; after entering the house, she gave out the word that they had company.

"What... is this family visitation hour or something?" Ajeet said after the Leinart family rounded the corner.

"Yeah." Stefan answered.

Instead of coming to Elchesheim-Illingen on his own, and leaving his ever-curious family behind in Berlin, he decided to bring everyone along. Along with thinking that a lengthy trip was needed, he thought that it was best to bring everyone along for not only himself but for the Irene's and, maybe, his friend's daughter, who, from what he was told, was still encountering issues in mingling with people of her own age. A talk with his friend occurred a week ago; along with disclosing his apologies over not being able to uphold his planned visit on the twenty-third of July, and hearing that Ajeet was also not able to come because of issues at work, he learned that Eshal was in the general age-range of his oldest daughter and that most everything in the Irene Household was back in order again.

Bettina Gottlieb, while still trying to get him impeached, wasn't getting all that much support anymore. It was learned fairly recently that the ones that were on her side were the ones who didn't like him, or were still "crushed" over his beating his competitor in a landslide during the elections; with most of the country either listening to her words but turning a blind eye to her, or just turning away from her, she was now promising to make a bid for the presidency, which would happen in three years. While it was still early yet, he was seriously considering the option of running for another term—it was a good job, and he liked and was good at it; unless his health slipped in the next two to three years, or something happened with his family that'd keep him from performing at his best, he saw no reason in not running for another term.

While Rosalinde was still referencing Miss. Irene as his friend instead of theirs, he figured that she'd still like the drive and the chance to see who their planet's heroine's husband and daughter were. On the twenty-third of October, when their family and the Irene's were attendants of the second-held Oktoberfest funfair, they learned a few things that his wife was still not totally approving of. He still thought that his friend was a good person, and that she had cause for considering the removal of one of her children from her was a favor—according to her, the child had a human for a fader and she wasn't able to give birth to living children who had that as a fader to them; he was still under the belief that she saw the removal as a favor in her not growing but so emotional over the eventual loss of that infant. Even after telling his wife this, she still regarded Miss. Irene as a friend to him instead of to them—with Rosalinde having lost two children before Annelise was born, and then having the scare of Annelise being born abnormally small, and needing to be put in the NICU for a while before being allowed to be brought home, and then being put on bed rest almost immediately after conceiving Rainmund, he would of thought that she'd understand why his friend saw reason in seeing one of her children being removed from her as being a favor. While his wife was no longer speaking in a heated tone of voice whenever Miss. Irene was brought up, he still saw a bit of disgust in her eyes that said she was still unapproving of what his friend considered as a favor.

Annelise, while doing as he had hoped she would in approaching Eshal, had done so in the wrong light. Instead of running up to her, then engaging in conversation with her right away, he wanted her to be inside and then supervised for a short duration of time before being allowed to go off and spend some time with her. With Thede and Rainmund being as old as they were, he and Rosalinde were just going to keep them around them—that way, they wouldn't bother their sister and Eshal while they did as he hoped they would and not bug his friend's other kids crazy.

Seeing that Ajeet was here was a surprise. He hadn't expected for him to come over, or to be visiting the Irene's at the same time that he and his family were. After being led into the house by Eshal, then seeing Eshal walk off to some other part of the house, he approached Ajeet then asked him what he wanted to know.

"When'd you get here?"

"Fifteen, twenty minutes ago." Ajeet replied. "Why?"

"Anything happen after you were let in?"

"No. No fireworks happened, though Mr. Surfeit was a bit reluctant to let me be anywhere near his wife, or be with her when he wasn't around... and Eshal was bit put-off by her bruders' actions towards me."

"Actions?" Stefan asked.

"Seems that they've not had much company these past few weeks... or they missed me—their mum mostly let them speak and have me all to themselves for ten minutes before telling them to "scram"." Ajeet replied.

"In a way, expect for the same to happen with me." Stefan thought before doing a little jolt then turning to leave the house. He was gone for all of three minutes; when he returned, he had a bag with him that looked rather hefty.

"Uh, let me warn you that Mr. Surfeit might not like the idea of you moving in." Ajeet said after seeing the bag.

"Very funny."

Eshal was slow in coming around the corner. Her parents were in the kitchen; along with trying to get matters straight on the house's first guest, they were trying to incorporate the issues that were now coming up about the guests that just came in. It was very apparent that they weren't to see the new people to the house right away, which scared her a bit—if not her parents then who was to welcome to newcomers to the house? Seeing as she neither knew nor really wanted to be around the people who seemed to be showing the same signs that the people who lived in the Americas were showing to the ones who were moving in among them, she made a quick trip upstairs to see Lhaklar; after knocking on his closed bedroom door, then telling him that there were more people in the house, and that their parents weren't available to see them in, she came downstairs to see what was up.

Lazeer was the first to throw himself at the first guest. Mr. Ballal, as the man introduced himself as, was shown the babies of her brother's pet newts, then was shown these two video games and models that her brother just got through buying, before being left alone. Left alone by Lazeer, that was. Right after Lazeer went upstairs to return his baby newts to his bedroom, Lhaklar came down with the models that he built over the last few months—along with asking for intel on how Mr. Ballal was doing, her brother showed him the model of something called a "Bed Buggy", a Paddy Wagon, a 1960's Ford Starliner Hardtop, a 1909 Hupmobile, and of this Desert Fox Rommel's Rod thing that had two skeletons in it. Before leaving to take his models back upstairs, her brother told their visitor that he was in the process of building a skeletalized version of a French twist streamliner 1922 Gerin—this caused their guest to jump, then engage him in more conversation on cars... or, more specifically, on that particular model.

Bile took Lhaklar's place about two minutes later. He and Mr. Ballal simply spoke on how things were going in the house; before going upstairs, the shark-tooth sword was mentioned, then brought down and showed. Following Bile's retreat, Hazaar and Guyunis came down. Hazaar just talked the man to death, while Guyunis showed him the guitar that he received on his birthday then spoke on this friend of his that her father didn't really like all that much. After they were done with jumping at Mr. Ballal, the rest of her brothers came down then started taking up seats in the living room; they spoke with Mr. Ballal for another five minutes before being told by their mother to go up stairs and let her and their father have their guest for a little while before he decided to go home.

With the way her brothers were acting around Mr. Ballal, she was embarrassed. Her parents were barely able to get word edgewise to the man, or spend any time with him. Was this how her brothers acted when visitors came over? Did they jump, then keep the visitor, or visitors, to themselves, and make that visitor, or visitors, feel uncomfortable, or was there something else at work here that she wasn't aware of? Her father had sure looked upset over her brothers' actions while her mother looked a little annoyed but okay with what was going on—that surprised her. She had figured that her mother would get on her brothers for what they were doing and then take over in seeing what their guest wanted before seeing him out; instead, she just let them have the man to themselves.

Instead of mingling with the company that came over, or talking or becoming involved in the too-excited antics of her brothers, she left the room right after her mother started talking to him. She was only five minutes outside when the new guests were seen as driving past, and when the teenage girl named Annelise was seen as coming past the trees that flanked the driveway's left side.

"A normal guest would come empty-handed..." she thought after seeing that the taller, and more robust of the two male humans, had a hefty bag on him.

"Hey there," the taller, more robust man said after seeing her.

"Hello."

"Eshal, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"While we've seen one another before, it's nice to meet you in a bit calmer setting."

"S-same here," Eshal returned. "My mam and daddy are in the kitchen. Think it'll be a while before they come in to see you."

"With your mutter's permission, me and mine won't be leaving for a while so we'll have plenty of time to see you and your family."

"She seems a bit shy, Stef." the woman, who was five foot, six and a half inches tall, and had long, brown hair and a rather pretty set of blue eyes set in her pretty face, was heard as whispering into the robust man's ear.

"Because she doesn't knows us." the man named "Stef" was heard as whispering back.

While she had periods where she was shy towards certain people, she wasn't really being shy towards the newcomers to the house. She was, more or less, apprehensive towards going towards or speaking to them. She feared that, if she did either, they'd target her for being who she was—she wasn't stupid, and her parents weren't keeping what was going on in the Americas away from her or her brothers. The human race was notoriously famous for acting a bit negative towards people who weren't of their planet or of their own kind, and they were also famous with the Zetakin race for their uncanny habit of taking the ships that entered their atmospheres down and then confiscating both the living, non-living, and deceased items that were found on them; a fine example of how the humans were with the other races of the Universe was going on overseas, sadly.

Even though the human race was known to be this way, it was known that, on occasion, certain individuals did meet and then fall in love with the ones who decided to travel to the planet for either sight-seeing or vacation time—while there weren't many, there were reports out there on certain people from other realms meeting, falling in love, and then taking the human that they fell in love with from the planet so they could settle down on his/her homeworld and then start a new life together... the relationship either broke off due to issues caused mainly by the human or because the non-immortal human died. On average, a relationship with a human lasted somewhere between fourteen and twenty years—the ones who had their human spouse for all of their lifespan were said to be the lucky ones.

While she felt a tiny bit attracted to one of Lhaklar's friends, she wasn't about to become involved with him or have him start thinking that she was available and that he could have her. From what she read in one of the books that were written on how mortal/immortal relationships went, the mortal male party of the relationship was usually very pushy and controlling, and was also abusing—while a relationship would come to her one day, after she became an adult, then matured a bit, she wasn't about to let any male take advantage or hurt her physically, emotionally, or mentally. Her father had said that his grown children, if they so chose to do it, could live under his roof for as long as they wanted and he also said that, if they married, then decided to remain under his roof, they could; she was both hoping and planning on taking this option up.

On the eighth, when the two human teenagers that her brothers befriended came over for a visit, she was given a bit of teasing by her brothers on how "red" her cheeks were getting and on how much Seth didn't seem to want to be away from her. She took the teasing for all of ten minutes before leaving the room that they were in then going outside; Giovanni, who she and her father thought couldn't be that grandly educated, followed Guyunis to his room for some music listening and guitar playing while Seth stayed in the living room with Lhaklar for a while before leaving to go home. While things were slowly getting better for her in the house, and while she was slowly regaining her brothers' trust, she still worried that they were doing things that they shouldn't and that they were befriending a crowd that they shouldn't be hanging around.

"That... tattoo'd boy that came over today is no good, Angel. Think Eshal noticed this as well. He's not fit for any of the boys, Guyunis included." she remembered hearing her father telling her mother one day last week, after Giovanni's first visit to the house was done, and after Guyunis "paraded" him before them.

"Looked very well composed to me." her mother returned.

"Did you see how his arms were, Angel? None of the boys need that around them, or to have the idea of getting any of them put in their heads. If Guyunis continues to see that boy, he will, I'm sure, be pursued into getting something put on him that might cause irremovable damage."

"Guyunis has an interest in tattoos, Tazir. And I've spoken with him on the issue that you just mentioned. He knows how the process goes in getting them, and, if he decides to go on and get some, he's not allowed to get any until he becomes a man."

"Guyunis has a..." nothing more was said on the subject; her father shook his head then left the basement, while her mother continued to fold the laundry that was in the basket. She was only able to hear-in to the conversation by standing behind the half-open basement door.

Giovanni Sordi, as he was introduced as being on the third of August, was burly and strong-armed. She bet that he did more than work in one of Rastatt's convenience stores—with the way he looked, she bet that he drank, did drugs, and stole things from unsuspecting people. According to Guyunis, he had a license to drive a motorcycle but didn't own one; his cousin, who was raising him, owned one and let him drive it from home to work only. After seeing who Guyunis "befriended", she did her best to put as much distance between him and her as she could—with his looks, and them tat's on his arms, she feared that he'd grow mad then target the one closest to him. To her understanding, people who had tattoos were of the highly or short-tempered sort, and they usually did drugs and gang-related stuff. It was a shame that Guyunis was befriending people who had tats because he seemed to be a good and well-behaved boy; with his looks, Giovanni looked to be his exact opposite.

"Pardon if I offend but, what race are you and your fader?" the only woman in the room asked her.

"M-my daddy's half-Zetakin and half-Vilian. I'm fifty-percent Zetakin, a quarter Vilian, and a quarter Vendari." Eshal replied with little trouble at all. She figured that the claim on what she was was important and that she shouldn't keep it to herself.

"You have a very pretty set of eyes," the woman said. "And your hair's nice too."

"Thank you."

"Name's Rosalinde Leinart," the woman started introducing herself, and her family. "This is my husband, Stefan, and my children, Annelise, Thede, and Rainmund."

"Nice to meet y—"

"Mr. Leinart, it's nice to see you today." Lhaklar, her brother who she currently saw as her "saving grace", said after coming around the corner.

A near-repeat of what happened with her brothers and Mr. Ballal happened after the word was rang on The Leinart's being downstairs. Lhaklar spoke with the head of the family; topics on how he and his were these past few months, on how work was for him, and if school was out and, if not, how it was going for the younger members of the family were discussed before he went upstairs for his model cars. Bile did as he did with Mr. Ballal, as did Hazaar and Lazeer; after her adopted and half-brothers showed what they wanted to show off, they went upstairs to return their things to their rooms. Guyunis came down right after they went up with their things; naturally, he had his guitar with him. Mr. Leinart spoke for a while on the guitar, and checked it over, before handing it back then turning his attention towards her. The cloud of a question was just forming on his lips when her parents rounded the corner. After Guyunis left with his guitar, and their guests sat down, Adult Hour started.

"Been a while, for the both of you." Stefan said after the room's air was calm and everyone was seated.

"Nice to see you after so long." Angel returned.

"Same," TazirVile said, after receiving his wife's elbow in his ribs.

"Was speaking with your daughter earlier. Seems to be settling down."

"Yes, and appropriately too. Glad to see that things between her and the boys are progressing slowly instead of quickly."

"She have anything against speaking or spending any time with the older of my three kids?"

"Don't see why not," TazirVile said after turning to take in the older of the three kids that Stefan gestured at. "How old is she?"

"Seventeen."

"Most definitely. Eshal, won't don't you and—" TazirVile glanced at the girl who was currently standing from the sectional couch.

"Annelise," Annelise said.

"Why don't you and Annelise go upstairs for a bit. Let me, your mother, and our guests have some time to talk among ourselves."

"Okay."

For Annelise, Eshal was both stiff and slow in doing as she was told. She gave her fader a long look before getting up from where she was seated; once she was up, she led her from the room then to the stairs. Once they were on the house's second level, she led her to the room that was to the left of the upstairs bathroom.

Before leaving the house that she and her family lived in, she and her siblings were told to take certain things with them that'd keep them "entertained" both during the trip and after they reached their destination. Thede and Rainmund were fast in emptying their backpacks after hearing this; while the both of them filled their bags with some of their coloring books, and crayons, and a few of their favorite discs of music, Rainmund had one of his handheld game systems, and some of its games, in his. After hearing her fader's order, she went to her room for the big purse that she was given on her birthday; she filled it with some of her favorite music, a few books, a camera, and her tablet before dropping the flap then going downstairs. All while going down the stairs, she wondered what was going on—school was still going on, and they weren't slated to move to their summer home, which was in St. Peter-Ording, a beach that was in the district of Nordfriesland, that was in Schleswig-Holstein, yet. It looked like she was just given the answer to that question.

Instead of having them running around, creating mishief and driving everyone up a wall with their bored antics, her fader wanted Thede and Rainmund to be preoccupied while he, her mum, and the other man in the house spoke to Miss. Irene and her husband. It was obvious that she was to spend some time with Miss. Irene's daughter; while she was glad to have the chance to do this, she was a little nervous about what was to happen.

Did Eshal like what she listened to? If she took her music from her bag, then gave the suggestion that they listen to it while their parents were downstairs, would she say okay or no? If she took her tablet out, then showed it to the girl, would she break or not be interested in doing anything with it? Eshal, while dressed to look like a teenager, looked to be exactly what her mutter had said she was—shy. She was just starting to wonder if she was going to do nothing but sit and then stare at the wall after taking her up to the room that she was staying in when her eyes lighted on the two pillows that were on the room's single-sized bed.

"No way! You have two of them Mermaid pillows?" Annelise said after seeing what she did.

"Yeah. Bile found them for me." Eshal replied.

"Where?"

"The dump."

"People throw out the silliest of things—glad he found and then gave them to you."

"Me too."

Except for a few things, the room was very purple and blue in color. The bed set, while purple, had black, Tiger-like stripes on it; the Mermaid pillows looked a little odd when compared to the two rectangular and throw pillows that were either underneath or to the sides of them. With the exception of the Mermaid pillows, the pillows were in cases, which matched the bed set perfectly.

The mauve bedside table, that was to the left of the bed, looked like one of them vintage trunks stood on-end. It had a baby blue "fur" on it—she had never seen fur of this color before, which made her believe that it was either fake or dyed that color. The stained glass lamp, that was on the "fur", was vase-like in design; it had a flared top that was styled to look like flower petals and leaves. Along with being stained in many red, pink, and purple hues, the glass had a lot of flower-like designs on it. The lamp's bronze-like, ornate curling leaf base was unique and went well with the piece. The clock, that was before the lamp, was a glow-like purple color; the time was large and very clear, as was the date, which was displayed above it.

The purple/blue trunk, that was pushed up against the end of the bed, had a lock and clasp on it. Its top was "littered" with a set of pink, purple, light blue, and light green petite rose decor pillows. When she turned her attention towards the room's closet, which was open, she saw that there were two, cube-sized, blue-lace trunks in it—she imagined makeup, or hats or shoes, as being their occupants. The closet's rod was full of many dresses, coats, and other things that one of the female gender would wear, while the shelf, that was above it, was empty. While there were no posters in the room, there was this bizarre-looking tv—along with being across from the bed, it had this pulsating border that was either mauve or blue in color.

The dresser, while being made out of wood, was a stained, dark blue color. It had two, round mirrors on it that looked very convincingly silver. The armoire matched the dresser in color; it was to the right of the dresser. A sort of Papasan chair was to the left of the window; the wood-part of the chair was a dark blue color while the cushion was both leopard in design and medium blue, baby blue, and black.

That was it on the items that were purple or blue. While she could understand why the carpet was dark red, and why the walls were a reddish-cream color—for all she knew, they might be original pieces to the room—she couldn't understand the reason in Eshal having two bookcases... or why they were colored the way they were.

Both were a pinkish-silver color, and were tall. Their shelves looked appropriate for the display of only one or two things. The one, that was in the room's top right corner, had a menagerie of things on it—she saw a lot of enameled horse boxes, and a lamp that had flowers and butterflies on it; while she looked at the many books and magazines, that were on the next shelf down, her attention was automatically drawn to the very colorful bird that was on the final shelf. During class one day, two years ago, a lesson was done on the Bird-of-paradise... There was said to be around thirty or so species of these very colorful birds on the planet and all were unique in one way or another; it really did look like Eshal had one of them birds on that bookcase. The other bookcase, which was in the opposite corner, had another lamp on it that had very bright, optic blue fibers on it; there were many CDs on one of the lower shelves while, on the shelf that was under it, there was this cute as could be Gray Alien-like doll.

"Has to be her diary..." she thought after Eshal broke her neck to hide the book that was on the shelf that the doll was on. This book, while having a very glittery, dark pink cover, had a dark blue spine; the pen, that was embedded in the spine, had a blue feather on one of its ends. She let Eshal put the book in one of the dresser drawers before speaking to her again. "That doll's right cute."

"It is, isn't it?" Eshal replied a second or two later. "My grandmother gave it to me on my one thousand, five hundredth birthday."

"Is it made out of porcelian?"

"No. Made out of this material that has a skin-like feel to it."

"Really? Cool!" without putting much thought into it, she went to the bed then sat down; some of the items that were in her purse were removed afterwards.

The stay, for him and his family, spanned for nearly two hours. Ajeet's ended about twenty minutes before they left for home; Miss. Irene's husband, while placid with everyone, looked to be glad when he left. Annelise and Eshal seemed to get along well. According to his daughter, they either spoke among themselves or listened to one or the other's music; Annelise claimed that "Mr. Irene's" daughter was very reluctant to do anything other than that with her. Except for the moment where he had to reprimand Rainmund for his asking "Mr. Irene" if he swallowed ocean water to be the color that he was, his two, younger children were well-behaved; they mostly kept themselves busy with their coloring books or music. Rainmund broke out his game system about twenty-five minutes before the signal was given that they were close to over-staying their welcome.

Guyunis was called down before they left. With his being as close to the family as he was, he went and got him two things for his birthday, which he sadly missed due to issues at work. The Land of Giants diorama, that depicted the people who were battling the giant snake, was happily received, as was the kit of the Mummy "bursting" from its coffin. After the two items were given to Guyunis, he and his left then started on their way home; with all the topics that were discussed during their visit, his wife had a good idea of what was to happen in November—Mr. Surfeit, while a trifle vague in what he said, had said that he was looking forward to when the month came and to when he had his family back to where they were suppose to be. Ajeet, while not saying anything during the bits on Mr. Surfeit taking his family from the planet were said, had shown the signs of both worry and sadness when that part of the conversation was done; he could tell that he was going to feel the same as he when the day came for the man to finally do as he had planned to do.

From what he could tell, Mr. Surfeit, or, as his kids called him, "Mr. Irene", was still issuing out them little challenges to his wife. Miss. Irene was doing her best to keep him down, and to keep life for her and her children going forward. Eshal's reluctance to do anything with anyone who both lived around her and her family and were in her age-range was a little concerning—going by how her parents reacted to the questions pertaining to her, he knew that they were keeping at her in her both leaving the house and mingling among the people who lived around them. The boys were doing as they usually did, and Guyunis made his first human-friend recently. While he was proud of Guyunis for becoming a friend to someone, he was saddened by the fact that it'd not be a very long one. With November being just four months away, neither he nor Ajeet had much time left in keeping their friendship with the Irene's going and the same went with the friendships that their friend's sons had gained for themselves.

"Go slow, please. Let the next ninety-nine days go slow, so we can figure out how to contain our feelings for when it does come around, and so we can, maybe, figure out a way to keep in contact with one another." he thought while driving away from Elchesheim-Illingen.