Na'iida awoke to her younger sister shaking her violently. She stirred groggily, raising a hand to gently push at her sister to stop the shaking. Aaleit let go of Na'iida's shoulder, though she remained uncomfortably close.
"Hey, back up a little bit, Aly," Na'iida managed to mumble as she pushed at her sister's chest, though Aaleit did the opposite, attaching herself to Na'iida's chest in a tight hug. Aaleit did not seem to say anything, merely whimpering as she tried to bury her head in her sister's chest. Na'iida immediately realised that she was somewhere she had never been before, the landscape of the planet was alien to her. There was local wildlife, that much was apparent, but the nature of the wildlife remained to be seen.
"Come on, we can't just stay here," Na'iida whispered, stroking the back of her sister's hair. She knew how to operate one of these escape pods, her parents had taught her in case of emergencies as children were generally not included in the safety training rosters aboard the ship. Aaleit was making it difficult though, refusing to move. "Look, Aly, we need to go and find mother. She might be on the planet in a different escape pod."
Aaleit shook her head, her face still planted on Na'iida's chest. "No. We have to wait for mother here," she replied, barely audible due to her positioning.
"That won't work, Aly," Na'iida urged, still stroking the back of her younger sister's head, doing her best to comfort the younger child. She was scared, perhaps more than her younger sister as Aaleit probably did not grasp the magnitude of the situation. They were alone. They were on a foreign world. They were just a pair of children. Na'iida honestly had no idea what to do, but if she showed it, Aaleit would be terrified.
Na'iida flicked at her straps, the safety harness coming loose and slipping off her shoulders and chest, though Aaleit was still firmly attached. "Aly, I need to move," Na'iida uttered with a deep breath. She smiled at her younger sister and pushed at her again, though this time she moved to the side, still clinging to Na'iida's arm. It was progress, at least.
Na'iida felt the presence of foreign life forms; she was on a planet that she had never been on before, having never left Alpheridies before. She had no idea whether the wildlife was hostile or not, but the pair of them had no food or way of sustaining themselves. They had to find some form of civilisation or they'd starve in the pod.
"Sis?" Aaleit asked, squeezing Na'iida's arm tightly. It was only then that she realised that she had been sitting there for a few minutes without doing anything. She laughed a hollow laugh, getting to her feet and reaching for the door controls.
"We need to go and find mother," she replied with a smile, facing her younger sister as she fingered at the door controls. Fortunately, they still worked; they had been built to last the impact. "Just stay close to me. Don't separate for any reason, you understand?" she asked as the door opened in front of the pair of girls, a cold wave of air instantly whipping over the two of them. Aaleit responded with a nod and a tight squeeze of Na'iida's arm, though she instantly started shivering at the cold. They were not dressed perfectly for this weather, their pod having landed somewhere in a mountain range.
"We have to keep moving," she said with a sudden urgency. She knew that the pair of them could not stay in this temperature for too long, despite their clothing being sufficiently warm. The chill was still going to be unhealthy for them if they were exposed to it for a prolonged period of time.
The pair of children clambered out of the pod onto the snow covered mountains. Outside, in the fog, a creature prowled and stalked the young girls. The fog did not conceal it from Na'iida's view, but naivety kept it off her list of potential threats at that moment, or at least below the climate and landscape itself.