Alien Romance draft

Laur'alei

It was late at night, the twin suns having dipped low beyond the horizon long ago. The air was thick with humidity, and there was a slight chill in the air without the warmth from the suns to fill it, but Laur'alei didn't mind the change in temperature. She was rather comfortable where she lay on her back atop one of the flat tops of the mushroom-like trees that filled the wooded area near the river her tribe called home. Her large, inky black eyes were locked on the starry sky, unobstructed by clouds. She was halfway drifting in a space between sleep and consciousness when a particularly bright star caught her eye. It flickered and twinkled with a bright orange light and—was it growing closer? She blinked a few times, sitting up a bit more to examine it, and... yes. Yes, it was moving towards the planet, growing larger in the wide expanse of the sky, until a sound hit her ears.

    A rumbling sort of whistle filled her ears as it hurtled towards her planet at high speed, until she could see that it was, in fact, not a star at all. The frilled gills around her ears pinned back against her head, and she bristled a bit as it grew nearer, the air practically vibrating with the velocity. She scrambled from her spot, climbing down towards the ground just as the ship's thrusters kicked on, the very ground shaking as the not-star came to land on the beach just past the edge of the tree line, sending the wildlife scattering in a mix of panicked trilling sounds.

Laur'alei ducked into a space under the intricate mycelium-like roots, covering her ears with her hands as she waited for the rumbling to pass, squeezing her eyes shut. Her bioluminescent spots flared a stark white, and her heart raced in her chest. This was a threat she didn't know how to handle, so much different than the normal large predators that prowled the wilderness around her. She remained in her spot until finally the ground ceased trembling beneath her, the sounds of the falling star hissing into silence and the forest once again returning to that quiet stillness. Her muscles groaned in protest as she squeezed out of the narrow gap between the roots, her eyes darting around the surrounding area for any danger before she made her way to the tree line to see the new addition to the landscape.

    It was a sleek sort of box, glinting in the faint light from the handful of moons in the sky, made of a material she didn't recognize. Something similar to stone, but.. smoother. Less natural looking, and on the sides there were thin stripes of some glowing material that lit up the surrounding area.

     Her mind darted back to the omen Zali'ia had seen at her most recent commune with the ancestors, and her breath came in short, shallow gasps. Whatever lay in that shining box had to be.. some terrible danger. An end to life as she knew it.

    So she turned tail and ran.