[305 hours, 23 minutes]

[Blake]

"Hello? Earth to Blake?"

I blinked as a British accented voice broke me from my thoughts. Dark green eyes stared with curious concern through lower-framed glasses at me across the picnic table.

"Huh?"

"You were zoning out, mate, I thought you'd fallen asleep with your eyes open or something," he said with a bit of a chuckle.

"Oh, did I?" I scratched the back of my head with a slight nervous laugh. "Sorry. I've just... been a little distracted lately."

"You're right about that one," the British man smiled a little in amusement, though it quickly faded. "Are you alright, mate? I heard Tyson saying something about you being quieter than usual since arriving here."

"No, I'm fine, Lionel, really," I assured. "What were you saying, then?"

Lionel slightly adjusted his glasses, causing a small scar over his nose previously covered by the frame of his glasses to become visible. He had short, brown hair and wore a short sleeved collared shirt that was a little formal for a simple friendly gathering like the current situation. Overall he seemed very collected, a fairly normal look for Lionel. Even outside of work, he seemed to dress the same way every day. Of course, I tend to wear sweatshirts or t-shirts every day unless I'm at work, so I really can't judge much.

Lionel muttered something under his breath that I couldn't hear, then continued talking. "I was asking you if you had anything you've been working on lately. I know you sometimes like to make artworks and such in your free time."

I thought about that for a moment. "Yeah, actually, now that you mention it. I kinda forgot about it a while back, work got a little busy and I just wasn't thinking about it."

"Mind telling me about it?"

"I'd rather keep it a surprise," I determined, smiling a little.

"Ah, a little secret project, eh?" Lionel replied. He seemed somewhat interested. "Well, I hope to see it when it's finished, I'm sure it'll turn out wonderful."

"I hope so."

An aggressive hand suddenly slammed onto the table next to me, bringing my attention with a start to a dark blonde-haired woman that was now sitting on the bench beside me. Wearing a light denim jacket and a dark blue t-shirt, she had dark brown eyes and a goofy smirk that turned into a grin as she saw my embarrassingly startled reaction.

"Hah! Gotcha!" She said, giving my shoulder a light jab.

"Alexis!" I snapped with annoyance, quite embarrassed that I'd let her startle me.

Alexis just laughed, as did Lionel, much to my irritation.

"What?" She said through giggles, a very not-innocent grin on her face. I just sighed with a small smile that had started to form on my face, giving her a teasing eye roll.

"Well, being on edge like you've been coulda saved you there, I'll admit," Lionel chuckled.

"Oh, shut up, man," I said, lightly jabbing his shoulder across the table. He sort of froze for a moment, almost processing it before sort of shaking off the surprise and proceeding with his lightened mood.

"So, if you're here," Lionel started to say to Alexis, "Then where's-"

"Good to see you haven't forgotten, then."

This time all of us jumped as another girl seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Dark, forest green hair covered the left half of her face and fell in an unorganized fashion down to her mid torso, which bore a loose black jacket hung partially by her elbow and a semi-short sleeveless white crop top underneath. There were multiple necklaces around her neck and hanging around her collarbone, some bearing interesting looking crystals and others simple charms like mushrooms. Green eyes that were close to the same color as her hair flickered between all of us in an odd, mysterious way that was reminiscent of only one person I've ever known.

Lionel let out an exhale. "Jesus Christ, Dilla, how do you do that?"

Dilla's expression didn't change as she shrugged. "I don't know. You guys just don't pay enough attention to your surroundings."

"No, I think you have teleportation powers or something, because you were definitely not sitting there before," I joked, attempting to get over two jumpscares in a row.

"Maybe I do. But you wouldn't know, would you?"

"You'd be right there."

"When'd you two get here?" Lionel asked the two newcomers.

"Not long ago," Alexis said, "We just came from the parking lot. Saw you guys talking, so obviously I had to disrupt the peace, Y'know?"

"I thought a policewoman's job was to keep the peace?" I said with a laugh.

Alexis smirked. "You see a uniform?"

"Guess not."

"Exactly."

Lionel took out his phone, glancing at the time on the lock screen as it turned on.

"Nearly half past eight already? Dammit. Guess I got distracted." Lionel stood up from his seat. "If you'll excuse me, I have something I need to get to. Have any of you seen Milo anywhere?"

As if he'd heard his name, two children came around one of the corners of the house, running and yelling at each other. They seemed to be playing tag or something along those lines. The one in front, wearing a simple black t-shirt and grey shorts, kept running at a good pace, sometimes turning around to playfully tease the child behind him. That one, wearing a green hoodie and denim overalls, seemed a bit winded, but was laughing, too.

Eventually the overalls kid tripped, falling to the ground. His companion almost immediately noticed, running to his aid. The kid seemed alright, though, as he was laughing as he got up to his hands and knees.

Lionel, who briefly shook his head and muttered something under his breath, shouted out,

"Milo!"

The overalls kid looked over from his friend, seeing Lionel. Lionel jerked his head in the direction of his house, signaling for Milo to come along with him. Milo seemed to be sad for a moment before bidding farewell to his friend and running over to Lionel. Lionel didn't wait for him as he walked away from our group, and Milo quickly followed.

His friend, seeming disappointed, also quickly vanished into one of the houses. Noah never really stuck around outside unless he was with Milo. Just a teenager thing, I guess.

"Wonder what he's up to?" Dilla mumbled audibly, staring after Lionel and Milo.

"Oh, I'm sure Lionel has some project he's working on and needs Milo's help," I replied with a shrug. "He does like keeping a schedule for things. This is probably work time or something for him."

"I'd say that too," Alexis agreed.

Dilla said nothing, only stared after Lionel and Milo a moment more before turning back to the conversation she really wasn't being a part of.

"Hey, Dilla, wanna go see Malachi and Tyson?" Alexis said to her friend. She gave me a smug grin. "Maybe we can get as much of a reaction as we got from Blake here."

"Alright, I get it, you got me, let it go," I teased, rolling my eyes again.

"Nope. Never."

"I guess we can go see them," Dilla said, nodding slightly at Alexis. She turned to me. "That is, if Blake has nothing else to say."

"Nope," I said. "I was about to leave, anyway, I also have something I need to do."

"Alright," Alexis said, getting up from her seat. Dilla got up as well. Alexis gave me a pat on the shoulder. "See ya, Blake."

"Bye," I said, waving as the two walked away.

I stood up from the picnic table, now alone there. I was about to walk to my house, maybe go into my little workshop I had and find something to be productive with, but I found myself glancing back at the forests' edge every now and then. Part of me was relieved that I saw no odd flashing of light in the dark thicket of the deeper wood, but part of me was almost... disappointed. Internally, I was quite curious about Akik. And while I'd rather not do an obnoxiously protagonist move and explore the woods alone for something that might as well could just be a hallucination... that's exactly what I wanted to do.

Was I losing my mind? Maybe. But did I want to ensure to myself that I wasn't losing my mind? Absolutely. And while Akik had told me not to come back, that was all the motivation I needed to do exactly the opposite.

So soon I found myself trekking through the forest, searching for someone that may not even exist.

I vaguely remembered the path I took yesterday. Of course, I was running and not paying attention to anything around me, so I found it a bit difficult to be sure that I was going the correct way. There were a few landmarks that I recalled jumping over or going under, but slowly those disappeared.

It took me maybe fifteen minutes to realize I was lost. I turned around, spinning in a circle and searching for anything I recognized. Nothing.

Well. Lost in the woods. How wonderful. Great job, Blake, you absolute dumb*ss.

I stopped next to a tree to get my phone and maybe see where I was somehow, but, curse this place, there wasn't too much signal. And I was definitely too far to hook up to my WiFi at home.

Crap.

What do you even do in this situation? I've seen a few movies about people getting lost in the woods and finding their way back home via search and rescue or just pure luck. But while I wasn't that far from home, I was deep enough into the woods that anyone who went to find me might get lost as well.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?" I called out into the woods, hoping someone would hear me. "Akik? Anyone?"

Silence.

Now I'm starting to get anxious. If I really was lost, no one would know where the hell I went. I'd just said I needed to do something, they wouldn't think to check the woods of all places. Really, I'm not an outdoorsy kind of guy, so that would be very out of place for me.

A stick snapped behind me. I whirled around, my eyes flickering around and searching for anything, anyone that could be there. Nothing. No one.

"Hello...?"

The bush rustled slightly. I took a step back... and decided to get out of there quickly.

Pushing away from the bush, I began to run back the direction I (hoped) I came from. Nothing looked familiar, but this entire forest was just tree after identical tree. It was very hard to discern whether I'd been there or not, but I didn't stop to check. Just kept running.

I don't know how long I ran. But it was long enough that I suddenly found myself staring at the bottom of a river I was about to fall into.

My eyes were glued to the rushing water that flowed over rocks for a minute or two, the sound of the flowing current the only thing accompanying my heavy breaths.

I then realized that someone was holding onto me, keeping me from falling into the water. I looked back behind me, relaxing as I saw those oddly glowing, abnormal eyes staring back at me.

"Need help?" Akik asked, smiling a little.

"Yeah, that... that would be great."

Akik pulled me back to balance, holding firmly to my wrist until I was stable again. I exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Thanks. Good thing I ran into you," I said, smiling up at Akik. "I was looking for you anyway."

Akik flicked his tail, frowning. "I thought I told you not to come back."

"I know, I just... wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy, you know?" I replied with a sigh. "And besides. If you want me to forget about you, why'd you come help me just now?"

"I don't like being passive when something bad is possibly happening. And judging by the fact that you almost fell into that river-" He motioned towards the large stream. "-I'd say it's probably a good thing that I saved you. Either you would've just gotten wet or you would've gotten hurt. Neither are ideal."

Something told me he wasn't really saying the full truth, but I had no other explanation or theory, so I didn't push it, only chuckled at the last comment.

"Yeah, I'd say neither of those are very great situations to be in."

"I'll take it that you're lost?" Akik asked.

"What gave it away?" I said with an annoyed sigh. Annoyed at myself, that is.

"Lucky guess," Akik shrugged. He paused. "...and I saw you come into the woods so I followed you... a bit."

"A bit?"

"...the whole time."

"Geez, stalker much?" I said with a light chuckle.

"Y-you're not mad, right?" Akik asked.

I smiled at him. "No. It's fine. You just saved me from falling into a river, I'm glad you were there."

Akik smiled a little. "Here. Come with me. You can stay at my camp for a little while."

"What happened to 'forget I exist or face the consequences?'"

Akik hesitated as he'd started to turn around, seeming to remember his words. He contemplated this, but then shook his head. "Just... one person knowing about me isn't the end of the world. As long as you don't tell anyone I'm here... we're good. Okay?"

I nodded. "Sounds fair."

Akik led me from the river to the forest, making sure I didn't get lost or turned around again. It was much more relaxing than running through the forest blindly while trying to recognize anything around, and I felt a lot safer with someone else here.

About a five minute walk later, Akik brought me to an opening in the woods. There was a line of trees to the left that had been broken near the top half and knocked down, their limbs taken by a strong, hard to stop force. That force was on the ground multiple feet in front of us, a trapezoidal, Sci-fi looking spaceship. It was large, though not so large that it would've been incredibly noticeable falling from the sky. It'd been there for a good bit, judging by the wear of the blue strip of paint that decorated its simplistic white, now brownish-grey, exterior. It was covered in broken branches, and leaves, probably from the thicket of trees it'd crashed through. The front glass window was broken, the front dented in slightly from the impact of hitting the sturdy tree it was sitting up against. The external airlock door was completely missing, revealing the inside of the airlock and then, beyond that, the ship's interior, as the internal door was ajar.

To me, even if it was beat up, it was incredible.

"This is your ship?" I said, observing the totaled shuttle in wonder.

"Yeah," Akik replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's seen better days, but it did what it was supposed to do... until it crashed, of course, but that was our fault, really."

I noticed some words carved on the tree in front of the ship, I walked towards it, brushing the names carved carefully into the wood.

Drykell, Gregory, Eliste, Kerstyl. May Raegnaik lay your souls to rest.

The name "Kerstyl" seemed halfway crossed out, as if the carver had wanted to commit to erasing the mistake, but decided against it halfway through. I assumed this "Raegnaik" was some god the people on his planet looked up to and worshiped.

"These guys were... your crew, I guess?" I asked Akik.

Akik sighed. "Yeah. Drykell and Eliste died in the crash. It's a miracle I was conscious and had enough strength to heal myself. Or maybe a curse, let's be real."

"What about Kerstyl and Gregory, may I ask?"

Akik hesitated, exhaling an empty breath. There was a distant look in his eyes that really made me regret asking.

Immediately I tried to take back my words. "Y-you don't have to tell me, it's fine, I was just curious-"

"No, no, I... think it might be good to tell someone, at least," Akik denied, running his fingers through his hair and sighing again. "Kerstyl, he... had this condition. Foresight. He could see visions of possible futures, but only possible. So they're never really deemed accurate. He had meds for it, enough to last a whole year, he wasn't gonna run out, but... they must've stopped working or something. He started acting really weird, and then suddenly one day he just... completely lost it. Saying that the Demon Alliance would reign, and that sabotaging our mission would be the next step in killing the angels."

Realizing I probably didn't know what this "Demon Alliance" thing was, and noticing my confused expression, he interrupted his story with: "Oh, my... planet's in a war right now. Long story."

I just nodded, taking what information I could without pushing.

"And then he just... he killed Gregory. And then he messed up the engine, and before we could do anything about it, he'd locked himself in the airlock and..."

His eyes were distant, as if recalling each moment right in front of him as the words were spoken.

"He wasn't... one of them. I know he wasn't. He thought he was something he wasn't, his condition made him delusional or something. I just... wish I'd been able to notice sooner. Maybe I could've stopped him."

I didn't really know what to say. I mean, I knew it must've been awful seeing people die, but I didn't realize how absolutely traumatized this poor guy must be.

Akik then seemed to realize how much he'd just revealed. "Oh- bint, I didn't mean to- to vent on you like that, I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's okay," I assured him. "I... can't say I get it, but I can tell you've been through a bit, so talk to me anytime. Can't promise I'll be much help, though. People and feelings are not my strong suit."

"Yeahhhh I get that," Akik chuckled a little. He seemed a bit better than he was earlier, more lighthearted and open.

I smiled a bit at that. We sat down next to each other at the broken airlock door.

"Do you have any other friends besides the crew back on your planet?" I asked, attempting to bring a lighter topic to the table.

"Yeah, I do," Akik said. "My best friend, and two others I'm close with. More, too, they're just outside of the kind of 'group' we have."

He paused for a moment. "What about your friends? I've seen a few of them, I just, obviously, don't know a whole bunch about them."

"Well, there's Tyson, probably my closest friend," I started. "Malachi, Lionel, Alexis, and Dilla, too. Then the kids, Noah and Milo, and then the ones that couldn't make it to this specific gathering we have right now, which are Ron and Toby."

"You have quite a lot of friends."

"I met them all in school. I was a lot more social back then, I guess."

"They all seem quite nice from what I can see," Akik remarked. "I wish I could meet them."

"Yeah. They're great," I said. "They're a pain in the *ss sometimes, though."

Akik laughed. "Hey, that's what friends are for. To annoy the hell outta you."

"Fair, fair." I paused for a minute to think of another question to ask. "So, what's your planet like?"

"Oh, Xero?" Akik smiled at the thought of it. "Gosh, where do I start? Hm... well, I guess it is a lot like this planet. What do you guys call this planet again?"

"Earth," I informed him.

"Right. It's a lot like Earth in some ways," Akik started. "Lots of forest, like here, except, obviously, the trees are different. Most of them have blue leaves instead of green, and the trunks tend to vary. The grass is blueish, too. We have five moons instead of the one that you seem to have, and I guess you guys are a lot closer to your central star than us. Our light source is one of our moons, Wronix. Nova's pretty far away, we're the twenty-second planet from it."

"Twenty-second?!" Compared to the eight or nine we have in our solar system, that was ridiculous. "How many planets does your system have?!"

Akik thought for a moment. "...twenty-four, I think."

"How the hell are you guys alive over there?"

"Wronix is kind of a light source and a heat source," Akik explained. "Like your sun. It just orbits us instead of the opposite."

"That's... interesting. And cool as hell."

"Yeah. Guess it is." Akik seemed happier now that we weren't talking about the people he'd lost or missed. I was glad for that. "I miss it. I really do. I love it here, but I... wish I could go home, to be honest."

I paused for a moment, then patted his shoulder, smiling up at him. "Hey. I can help you, if you want. I said it before, but I work with machines a lot. I can probably help you fix this thing up, if possible, and then you could go home."

"No, it..." Akik sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "It's not possible. Not with the ship in this shape. It's totaled. I checked everything. Nothing I can do. Maybe one day I can get the materials to somehow build a new one, but... until then I'm stuck here."

He seemed sad again for a moment before shaking it off.

"Mind telling me a bit about Earth? I mean, that's kind of why I came out here in the first place. To find other planets that sustain life."

"What, were you guys gonna invade and take us all as slaves?" I chuckled, hoping that wasn't actually the case.

"...why the hell would we do that?" Akik seemed perplexed.

"I guess you guys don't have movies or anything about that over there, then?"

"What's a movie?"

I guess that makes sense. "You've never seen a movie before?"

Akik shook his head. "No. That's a human thing, I guess?"

"Yup. I'll have to show you one sometime."

"Sounds cool."

"Anyway, you asked about Earth?" I said, bringing the topic back to his question.

We went back and forth like that for who knows how long, me telling Akik stories about Earth and him telling me some about Xero. His planet sounded insanely interesting, and he seemed to really like talking about it to me. I'll be honest, I liked telling him about Earth, too. He was a good listener, and took in all the information like a curious child learning about something new and exciting. I wondered how someone who seemed so sad and depressed earlier could be so outgoing and happy, despite everything that must be bouncing around in his head somewhere.

Eventually I glanced at the time on my phone, suddenly realizing how long I'd been gone. I stood up quickly, swearing to myself. Akik, confused and assuming something was really wrong, stood up as well.

"What's wrong?" Akik asked.

"I need to get back home. They've gotta notice I'm gone by now, they're probably worried," I explained hurriedly.

"Oh, right!" Akik nodded. He seemed a little disappointed that I had to leave, but he didn't say anything about it. "Need me to help you get back?"

"That'd be great, yeah."

Akik brought me from the ruined clearing, away from the wrecked spaceship, and through the forest. He kept me near him again, making sure I didn't stray before we came into sight of the houses.

I turned to him, smiling. "Thank you. Really."

"Hey, anytime," Akik said with a smile. For someone as intimidating as him, he was really nice. "And... if you ever wanna come back and talk again, you can. Just don't let anyone know about me. Please. Okay?"

Internally I felt quite happy that he was inviting me back. I didn't know what it was, I just thought he was nice to talk to, I guess. "Okay."

"Promise?"

I nodded. "I promise."

-

4047 words

Did NOT expect over 4,000 words there but hey I'll take it

anyway have Blake and Akik being besties denying gayness <3

For a note, Blake mentioned Ron and Toby. Ron is Oompa and Toby is Teebs/TBVG. Both will show up in book 2 :)

that's all byeEEEE