Greetings From The Author: Salutations, and thank you for your continued interest in my little tale here. I have to admit, the laughs are a little sparse in this chapter. They mostly occur back-to-back during a brief exchange in the middle. But since the last chapter gave us a look at Mike, a look at Mica seemed in order, as well as some closure to Mike and Mica's confrontation in chapter one. In this chapter, tensions reach the boiling point, creating the need for a nice, calm, romantic recovery in chapter four... which I need to get started on I suppose. I offer you my assurances, reader, the story will return to its roots as a comedy by then.
By the way, I apologize for the short chapters. I'm probably going to come along later and make this part of chapter two. Until then, enjoy.

Chapter Three: Mere Words

The same afternoon that Mica learned of Mike and Baboo's fight, Mica was walking across the village square on her way to nowhere in particular. At the moment, a triviality like a destination was less important than the simple act of going somewhere, doing something, even if that something was truly nothing at all. She needed time to think. Or, more to the point, she needed time when she didn't have to think.

Unfortunately, for Mica, such time was a rare commodity.

She and her six companions had been quickly accepted by the Coralcolan villagers, and even though they had been on the planet less than twenty-four hours, each of them had already been adopted by one of the local families. Mica couldn't help but marvel that such kindness existed anywhere in the universe. Even Argonia, the galactic center of enlightenment, rarely saw such simple, open charity as to accept such a sudden arrival as theirs with such complete lack of suspicion. She had not lied when she said to the chief "we are pleased. You've been so kind."

But while the villagers' kindness helped prevent any new wounds from being inflicted on the war-weary, travel-worn souls of the 'Lost Seven,' there was no salve that could aid in the healing of those wounds already inflicted.

"We're alone," she spoke her thoughts aloud as her feet half-consciously carried her to the beach on the southwest shore of the island. "We've been accepted, we'll become acclimated, in time we may even be loved… But we'll always be alone. Outsiders… Aliens." A tear slid down her cheek at the utterance of the word. Sacred Stars, that word has so much more meaning on a planet like this. They've never been beyond their own solar system. They've never met anyone from another world before now. We're the first.

No. Not the first. "The last," she murmured, shedding yet another tear as a truth that had been pushed aside through twenty years of semi-consciousness finally made itself known. "All of it is gone. We can't go back, and there would be nothing to go back to if we could." We're stuck here. Here, on this planet more than a light millennium away. Here on this hidden island, surrounded by an endless sea.

…Here on this beach where… "Sacred Stars, how did I end up here?"

"Funny coincidence isn't it," came Mike's unwelcome voice from behind her. "You and me ending up here again, I mean."

Mica frowned. She'd been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't heard the young man's approach. No. The boy's approach. Now though, Mike was only a few yards away from her. A conversation, it seemed, was unavoidable. "Yes," she replied to Mike's inquiry. "And by the way, no."

Mike slowed his pace as he stepped beside her, much the way he had done the night before at the party. "Eh? Yes, and by the way, no? What's that mean?"

"Yes, in response to your inquiry about the circumstances, and no in response to whatever you might have been about to ask."

"Oh," Mike responded, slightly deflated. Then his cheer returned as he remarked, "good. 'Cause I was going to ask if you were still mad at me about what happened last night." If she had used Second Sight, the lie would not have held. The Southern Cross must have been watching over Mike, though, because she didn't.

Mica bit her tongue for not anticipating the reply, but within moments regained her footing by calmly countering, "no. In point of fact, I'm not still mad about what you did last night. I've moved on."

"Good. Then-"

"Now I'm mad about what you did this morning instead." She raised her voice enough that she spoke over him, but not enough that her veneer of calm faded. She hoped, that was.

It took Mike a moment to make the connection. "Now wait a minute," he began.

Mica gave no quarter. "You remember, don't you, hero? This morning, when you bravely brutalized a friend, and all over what? Words, Mike! Just words!"

"Ooooh, oh, right. Right," Mike shot back, his voice edged with corrosive sarcasm. "That was heinous, knocking someone out just because of something he said. I should've been more civilized, like you, and knocked him out for something I read in his mind instead."

Mica's eyes were poison arrows as she spun around to face Mike. "You can twist it any way you want, hero. I know bullying when I see it."

Mike scoffed. "Bullying? News flash, Princess. That guy had two years and at least thirty pounds of solid muscle over me. It's not like I was picking on someone who couldn't stand up for himself."

Mica looked for a moment as though she would relent. But the point of no return, it seemed, had already been crossed. "Muscle or not, it was barbaric. Look at you! Watch out, Earth! The Hero of Argonia is here, and woe be unto you if he doesn't approve of what you have to say!" She seethed for a moment before unleashing one last barb. "As far as I'm concerned, Michael, you're no better than Zoda!"

The air seemed to thicken as she finished, and no sooner had she spoken than Mica wished she could swallow the words up again. She looked away from Mike, embarrassed at her own impulsiveness, but not before she saw a mix of anger and pain replace the initial shock in Mike's eyes.

"I… I'm sorry," she stammered. "I didn't-"

"You're welcome," Mike interrupted icily.

Mica swallowed. "I'm… what?"

"You're welcome, Princess. You didn't have to thank me. All I risked was my life, and all I saved was your species. It was nothing, really. No need to thank me. I mean, like you said, I'm really no different from the monster who destroyed your world, right?"

Mica's voice came out as a choked whisper. "Michael, I didn't mean-"

"But since you brought it up, you're welcome." Without another word, Mike turned back toward the village and left Mica standing there, alone.

Completely alone.