(A/N I finally updated- wow. Anyways, you may see some things in parenthesis, those are Alexander's subconscious thoughts. So he may say think something like 'The tree's leaves (?) waved in the wind'. The question mark means he's not sure if they are leaves. Are they alien tree branches? He doesn't know for sure. That's what it means)

Day 3, November 13th.

[Alexanders POV]

I carried a backpack over one shoulder as me, Philip, and John began a hike through the thick forest of purple acid trees. Every living thing was purple, so far. The grass, the trees, the little dark purple flowers peeking in between rocks.

The sky was a light lavender ombre as the sun rose in the distance, so even things on the planet that weren't purple had at least some kind of purple tint. So far, nobody had found any water, so that's what me, Philip, and John were off to search for in the vast purple wilderness. 

I cast a wary glance at John as he held Philip on his shoulders. It wasn't that I didn't trust him to carry Philip, and I know I should be feeling happy about the fact that Philip and John were smiling together and having a genuinely good time despite the situation with the whole... crash landing. But for some reason, I felt jealous. Philip was laughing with this man he only met a month or two ago, he was riding on his shoulders, he was bonding with this man more than his own father.

I also thought it strange that Philip looked shockingly close to John. Philip always wore a small red bow in his curly mess of hair, but when it fell out once while he was walking down the street with me and John (We were on our way to get ice cream after a session of sciency-opinion-sharing) it took me a second to figure out who was who. (From behind, if I had seen their faces I would have known)

Philip had preserved his bow from the crash and was currently wearing it, the only red thing in sight. 

"AAAAAAH!" Philip screeched, bringing me out of my train of thoughts.

I looked over at him, my eyes wide, my body ready to take off in a sprint to his rescue. But what I saw didn't spark fear, it just filled me with more jealously. 

Philip was screaming as John tickled Philip's stomach while somehow being strong enough to hold Philip by the ankle with one hand. Philip was screaming but also mixing in some laughter, and John was also laughing. 

I grumbled quietly to myself. John was amazing and smart and beautiful and all, but he was stealing my child. I didn't want Philip to start spending all his time with John. I wanted him to spend time with me.

I know that sounded incredibly selfish, but if he spent time with John, then he would probably leave me for him. Then John would be his new dad. I knew that was a possibility because I was that "Insane Astrologist-Scientist With The Poor Kid Who Has To Deal With him". Philip probably didn't love me anyway.

"Pops?" Philip asked, once again breaking my deep chain of thoughts.

"What?" I asked in a harsher tone than intended.

"Just making sure you're okay," He said brightly, then skipped off through the purple grass.

"He's such a great kid," John commented as Philip skipped ahead.

"Yeah, and he's MY kid," I hissed.

"No need to be like that," John sighed.

"Like what?" I asked.

"Like all 'That's MY kid, arggg hiss'," John explained with hand gestures and sound effects included. 

"Well, I'm just making sure you aren't stealing him," I snapped.

"I won't steal your kid," John chuckled.

I glared at him and then walked ahead. I heard John mutter something like 'What's wrong with him?' under his breath but I ignored it.

"POPSSSSSSS!!!!!" Philip screeched from far ahead.

"COMING!" I yelled back, running up a subtle purple hill of tall soft grass.

Once I reached the top of the hill, I gasped audibly. A couple of feet in front of me, the hill suddenly dropped off into a cliff. It falls down what looks like over one hundred feet. At the bottom, a light purple mist coated the ground. Through the less-dense clusters of the fog, I could see spikes of crystal-clear ice sticking out from a rocky purple field.

Some of the ice spikes were about the size of Philip, while some looked to be bigger than the cliff. One of the largest ones barely touched the tip of the cliff we were standing on, the sharp icicle-like end looked naturally formed. But how? Water doesn't freeze upside-down. (Right?)

The slightly lavender tinted ice, with a darker purple core, was colder than I would have expected. As I touched the tip, it sent shivers down my spine, even through my spacesuit. The ice was too cold. This wasn't natural. Yet it had to be, because who would build ice-spikes for no apparent reason? So, I took out a little leather journal from my backpack and started sketching one of the spikes, adding notes here and there about the almost frostbite-to-the-touch coldness.

As I was paying attention to my journal, I saw out of the corner of my eye something that made me scream.

"PHILIP!!!! NO!" I shrieked, but it was too late.

Philip was already sliding down the ice-spike, his hands in the air, his curly mess of hair flying behind him, gleeful shouts sounding throughout the eerily quiet landscape.

"Huh," John muttered, not the least bit concerned that my son was hurtling down an over-one-hundred-foot reverse icicle. 

"What do you mean HUH?! He's going to DIE!" I screeched, frantically tucking my journal back in my backpack and running to the very edge of the cliff.

"I'm okay!" Philip's voice echoed up the cliff.

The moment John heard Philip's confirmation that he was okay, he sprinted to the icicle and jumped on it himself, a childish smirk plastered on his face.

"John don't you da-" I started, but was cut off by John's excited yelling as he slid down.

I looked around awkwardly for a bit, alone at the top of the cliff while distant echoes of laughter sounded through the area. I didn't want to slide down. I mean, I was going too, to save Philip. But now it looks like John's got it handled, Philip's new favorite parent. 

I sighed and looked around, trying to listen for any noises other than the humans below. There was a soft breeze, but that was it. Where there no organisms besides vegetation on this planet? Was this planet free to take? Maybe we didn't have to make the trip to Alpha Centauri, maybe we could stay here. I believe this was closer to Earth anyway. (At least 3.5 light-years closer[?])

"ALEXANDER! GET DOWN HERE!" John yelled from below.

I sighed and walked up to the icicle. As I looked down along the thickening ice, it seemed to zoom out, making the drop increase to double its real size. I gulped nervously and put my feet on either side of the icicle, grabbing the freezing ice tightly with my gloved hands in between my legs. I gave myself a little push off the cliff and I went sliding down the steep ice column.

As the ice got wider I couldn't hold onto it anymore and had to let my hands slide on the ice with me, now unable to keep any balance. I screeched the entire way down, from when I sat on the reverse icicle to when I hit the ground. 

"We found wa-" John began.

"ꅏꀍꁏ ꁍꁏꏹꌗ ꋖꀍꏹꋪꏹ?!" John was interrupted by some strange shouting.

I slowly stood up from where I had been on the ground at the base of the icicle. Philip ran to me and hid behind my leg from something. I looked in John's direction, not at him, but past him, where a figure stood in the misty field of ice and purple grass.

"Is that an alien?" Pip squeaked.

"It looks like a human..." I muttered.

As the figure ran closer, towards John, I realized it had some features that definitely weren't humane. 

The figure wore a dress that looked as if it were made of purple grass woven tightly together. It had bright purple spikes sticking out from its lavender arms, the tips of the spikes were a darker purple and seemed to glisten in the sun. On the figure's head were more spikes, reminding me of that one thing Philip used to be obsessed with... Sonic? Yeah, that, but more like quills and no fluff. Plus it was purple.

"We come in peace!" John shouted, his hands in the air.

The figure paused for a second, I noticed they wore a couple of the purple poisonous-acid leaves on their spikes as decoration (?). The creature, after pausing for a second, then said something in its own tongue;

"ꅏꀍꁲꋖ ꂡꁏ ꂖꁏꌈ ꅏꁲꋊꋖ?"

"I don't understand you," John explained calmly while I stood behind him with Philip, internally freaking out.

Life! There were REAL CREATURES on this planet! ALIENS! I'm going to faint.

"ꅏꀍꁲꋖ ꁲꋪꏹ ꂖꁏꌈ ꀍꏹꋪꏹ ꄙꁏꋪ?" The alien asked.

I only noticed now that it held a light purple, almost white, slingshot-like object in its left hand and a small purple-tinted chunk of ice in the other. Probably ammo. I realized as I studied the alien more that it was about my height.

"ꂵꁲꋪꀤꁲ! ꅏꀍꁲꋖ ꁲꋪꏹ ꂖꁏꌈ ꂡꁏꀤꋊꁍ?" A deep voice boomed through the field, and I saw another alien approach the first.

The new one was a medium shade of purple, double the size of the first one, and had a male-like body structure. The smaller one appeared to be female, but I wasn't going to assume anything. The new bigger one also had clothing on that looked as if it were weaved from the grass, although this dress seemed to be knee-length.

"ꀤ ꄙꁏꌈꋊꂡ ꀤꋊꋖꋪꌈꂡꏹꋪꌗ!" The smaller one said, they sounded excited in some sense.

"ꁲꋊꂡ ꂖꁏꌈ'ꋪꏹ ꋖꁲ꒒ꈵꀤꋊꁍ ꅏꀤꋖꀍ ꋖꀍꏹꂵ?!" The bigger one roared. "ꂖꁏꌈ ꈵꋊꁏꅏ ꋖꀍꏹ ꋪꌈ꒒ꏹꌗ, ꁍꋪꁲꃃ ꋖꀍꏹꂵ!"

I stood behind John in confusion. What were they saying? Maybe I could learn this language! It sounded almost like French, how they used their voices and included some nasal sounds, except the aliens also included a deep growl to some of the words.

I was too busy thinking about this new species that I didn't notice as more aliens surrounded us, all different shades of purple with different spikes. Some spikes had a bit of a curl, while others were straight. I wondered if that was a family trait? Like one family had curly spikes and another didn't?

They all aimed their slingshots at us, their ammo was little ice chunks. So I was right, ice for ammo. So interesting! And with this seemingly extra cold ice, maybe the wounds inflicted from the chunks would add some kind of effect. 

"Pops," Philip squeaked. "Stop staring at them, I think it's angering them."

I shook my head, forcing myself out of my daze. The moment I stopped my train of thoughts I began getting into a defensive position around Philip, realizing he was way more important than some random aliens.

I felt some pressure on my back and turned my head to see John, he had backed up against me. Together both of us guarded Philip against the angry-looking aliens.

"ꀤ ꌗꁲꀤꂡ, ꁍꋪꁲꃃ ꋖꀍꏹꂵ!" The bigger one from before shrieked.

The aliens around us stormed forward, releasing their bullets as they ran. Me and John took all the hits for Philip, blocking some of the ice chunks with our hands, some with our bodies, and even some with our heads. Together, we did make quite the team.

As I felt the ice slam into me from all directions, I realized that even through my spacesuit, which consisted of the most durable and cold-resistant fabric ever, I began to feel a bit cold. Where the ice hit me, I noticed my suit dissolved just a bit at the touch, melting (Or freezing?) away part of the outer layer in a circular shape.

"ꈵꋊꁏꇃꈵ ꋖꀍꏹꂵ ꁏꌈꋖ, ꋖꀤꏹ ꋖꀍꏹꂵ ꌈꉣ ꁲꋊꂡ ꃃꋪꀤꋊꁍ ꋖꀍꏹꂵ ꃃꁲꇃꈵ ꋖꁏ ꇃꁲꂵꉣ," The bigger one ordered through the loud noises of war cries and ice flinging everywhere.

Through the chaos of aliens running towards us, who were about five feet and five inches (?) away from us now, I could see the smaller alien from before. The first one. It seemed to be nervous, it was standing next to the bigger one, holding its hands (?) to its chest and biting its lip (?).

I felt a hand in mine and looked down to see Philip, his eyes wide. Although, unlike a normal kid, he also looked a bit excited as well as terrified. I knew he was a very curious little scientist, being kidnapped by aliens sounded amazing yet scary to him. 

I felt my breathing increase as the aliens reached us, their purple dresses flew behind them as they stabbed something into our necks as fast as lightning.

I felt dizzy, and my legs gave way within seconds. I collapsed to the purple grass onto my knees. The last thing I did with my remaining energy was wrap my arms around Philip. I felt arms wrap around me, and was able to catch a glimpse of curly hair much like Philip's, and I knew John must have added to our pile.

"ꋖꀤꏹ ꋖꀍꏹꂵ ꌈꉣ, ꉣꋪꏹꉣꁲꋪꏹ ꋖꀍꏹꂵ ꄙꁏꋪ-" A deep voice began, but I couldn't hear the rest, as I lost consciousness.

(A/N Do tell me if you liked that chapter. I'm just wondering if you enjoy where the story is going)