I might die. There's a strong possibility that I will die. Well, were we straight up barging into unknown territory? Obviously. Did we have a solid plan? Obviously no—
A thunk stopped my line of thoughts.
The scene in front of me when I looked up, left my thought process blank. Myriad of colours floated before my eyes.
A thousand shades of blue, purple, purple, pink, surrounded the space ship. But it seems to have landed on a sheet of…ice?
Wait, where was the thunk from? And how did I not see it from a distance.
A song drifted to my ears. A song full of merriment as much as of sorrow.
Now, go a few steps back. How the heck am I listening to songs in the vacuum? Where is it coming from?
It wasn't as if I had much of a choice. I walked out of the spaceship. And then I was floating.
You have lost your connection to the center, Al. They might even think you're dead. Either you're dead or you're finding your way back home or just staying in hiding which will eventually lead to your death. What do you want to do?
The ground beneath seemed pretty much like snow. Trudging slowly, I went up ahead. There was a large hole in the surface, recovering. What is that? Gazing around, I found two more.
These might have been the geysers we had been discussing about.
The song seemed to be louder than before. As if, luring me in. And I couldn't do much to resist it. My feet took me to a few rocks aligned before me.
And that's when I saw it. Ghostly pale skin and feathers. A siren? A Greek mythical creature? What is it doing—
Before I could comprehend what was happening, I was thrown across a particularly large piece of rock.
That hurt!
At this point, I had stopped bothering about the fact that this was vacuum and most of these things weren't possible.
The song started again, getting louder by the seconds. A dull ache began in my head.
I'm going to die…
Just before I was slipping into unconsciousness, I heard a distant shout.
Something moved in my peripheral vision. Now, what was that?
Sloppily turning onto my back, I peered up. Through the blurry haze, I saw a fish tail. A big fish tail. And then I saw a head emerging out. The scales below were shimmery and coloured purple and teal.
It had a mass of white and purple hair, reaching its waist.
The face, however, seemed…..familiar. As my eyes came to focus, I looked at her and a forgotten memory played in my head.
“Who are you?”
The girl looked suspicious from the beginning, but now I saw that she couldn't walk.
She looked at me, in a quizzical manner and then said,
“Irvette.”
“I've never seen you around here, before.”
“That…is cause am lost.”
“Where are you from?”
“Maguela, Stratlan Narth,” she said, with a tilt of her chin, which soon came to its original place when she heard me.
“Never heard of that.”
That led to silence. One of despair.
“Do you know where you want to go?”
“No, I can,” I watched as she snapped her hands searching for the words to say,“Can't…”
“Walk?”
She nodded in affirmation and I looked down at her lower body, which resembled that of a fish. It was beautiful and shimmery in purple and that another colour, I don't remember.
“May I help you in any way?”
“I don't know…?”
Looking back at her again, a lightbulb went through my head.
It actually was quite exhausting, but as we reached the now empty beach, I showed her the sea ahead.
“Irvette, I think, you will be able to move now.”
I watched her slowly pushing towards the sea and then she submerged. After a few minutes, her head popped up again and she started laughing.
I had never seen her after that.
Until now.
But that was supposed to be a dream. A made up story in the middle of the day. So, how on Earth is she standing infront of me? Oh, wait, she isn't.
Irvette and the siren started shouting at each other. And then, I watched as Irvette came to me.
“Follow my lead, Al.”
“How? And who d—”
“Give them the,” she was snapping her fingers again,“solar plates.”
“How the heck would I return back to my planet then?”
“Your ship is broken, I saw. Besides, you doubt my abilities, boy?”
“Stop calling me that!”
“It's either you fool them or they bring you to your inevitable death.”
So I handed them the solar panel after which, they pretty much left me alone and went over to the large asteroid shaped things.
“So,” my gaze went back to Irvette,“Who are you? How come I always thought that was just a dream? How do you plan on sending me bac—”
“Who I am, you know already. You are on Stratlan Narth and those sirens, they live in the asteroids surrounding Stratlan Narth. It was probably for the better that you thought it was a dream. And as for sending you back, I expected you to know.”
“What?”
“Why, your planet's oceans, of course!”
“Oceans,” I exclaimed, in confusion.
“Don't doubt it. Also, this didn't happen.”
I might as well leave, I thought as I followed the mermaid.
