The ominous silhouettes of the skyscrapers loomed over them. They watched over the enormous city, covered in lights. They had a strange design to them, splitting into diagonal segments as they rose. The two biggest buildings had a spiraling white beam that wrapped around them from the top to their foundations. Fischer found himself staring up at the towers in awe with his mouth hanging open. They were so high he had to strain his neck to take in their full view.
"Holy shit man. This is insane," he muttered under his breath. The pair stood on the bank of a small river with a tiny bridge that lead across. On the other side of the river, the city began. From where the two stood they could see rows upon rows of what looked like streets and shops, similar to what cities on Earth looked like, just with a lot less rubbish everywhere and a lot more green and blue neon lights. In fact, everywhere they looked seemed to be dotted with green and blue lights, giving off a magical sort of aura.
"Well. . . wh-what do we do now?" Ko asked, turning to her friend.
"Uh. . . well, good question. I guess. . . maybe we could ask for directions?"
It seemed like the only thing they could do for the time being. It was the middle of the ight however and they hadn't seen any signs of life apart from the city itself.
Making their way across the bridge, the two of them arrived at the foot of the city. Again, Fischer found himself gazing up in wonder at the sheer scale of the skyscrapers.
"They gotta be at least three times the size of the tallest building we have on earth. Over a kilometer high, easily. Bloody hell," he marveled.
"I just hope the people who built it are nice. I really don't want to have to run anymore," Ko whimpered.
"You and me both. But hey, we made it this far didn't we? We can't turn back now."
Ko gave a slight nod and wrapped her cloak tightly around herself. The two pressed on.
The streets of the city seemed almost like a ghost town. There was no sign of any life at all. But they were in top condition, almost looking like they'd just been built. Whoever made this city definitely had good hygiene standards. The alien architecture truly seemed out of this world, like something you'd only find in a move. The bases of most structures seemed to be simple rectangles or parallelograms. But they were adorned with curvy white accents that added an alien feel to it all but also made them look quite pleasing. All around the curvy detailing as well as the windows were colorful lights that illuminated the streets beautifully.
Then Fischer noticed something strange. There was a sign on one of the buildings that said 'The Swimming Sailor.' But it wasn't written in English. He was somehow able to read the strange symbols as if it were his first language. From the name and it's appearance, it looked to be some sort of tavern or bar.
"Hey. . . Ko. Can. . . can you read this?" he asked, pointing at the sign.
She turned her attention to where he was pointing and found that she could in fact read it.
"Yea. Why?"
"I-I've never even seen these symbols before but I can understand it perfectly. That's. . . weird."
Ko shot him a confused look. "We've travelled through space portals, are on an alien planet in a huge city that doesn't have anyone in it and this is what you find weird?"
"Fair point," he scoffed. The two continued down the street until they came to an intersection in the road. Ahead of them the area seemed to open up into a main highway. And this time there were signs of life. There were a few vehicles traveling down the road at a considerable speed. They looked like cars from Earth but with way more curves and ridges, almost like they were designed as stealth craft to deflect radar.
"Oh wow. . . well, at least we know there is life here," Fischer chuckled nervously. He suddenly felt a bump on his shoulder and turned to see Ko motioning towards a pair of figures who had their backs to them and were walking down the street. It was hard to see what they were in the middle of the night and from a distance, but they were definitely people.
"Oh, we've got people. Well, that's progress," He stated.
"Should. . . should we ask them where we are?" Ko mumbled. Fischer noticed as soon as they'd seen the other creatures she'd shuffled slightly closer to him. He couldn't help but feel a little heroic, even though he was as terrified as she was.
"Uhhh. . . oh boy. . . well. . . we don't really have a choice do we?" he stuttered, taking a huge breath in.
He noticed Ko shaking slightly at the sight of the creatures. Feeling like he needed to actually do something for that heroic feeling to feel valid, he took a step forwards. His hands were shaking rapidly and he could feel his heartrate rising.
'Now's not the time to be scared,'
'You have to be brave for once,'
'You need to be strong, for her,'
'Do it for her,'
'Do it for Ko.'
The voices in his head had returned, but instead of yelling at him that he was a failure, this time they were actually encouraging him. Taking no notice of the that fact however, he continued to walk towards the two aliens, Ko sticking to him like glue. They walked down the street under the cover of some sort of verandah that looked to be made out of a metallic like cloth, covered in millions of small hexagons.
They kept their heads down until they were right behind the two creatures, neither of them seeming to notice the two tailgaters they had acquired.
Fischer felt a small gulp slide down his throat as he looked at the backs of the creatures. They were a lot taller now that he was up close. The smallest one looked to be around seven feet tall. The larger one about eight feet. The two of them had long shark-like tails that hung behind them just above the ground. They were as thick as tree trunks and looked extremely strong.
Fischer turned to Ko, a look of hesitation on his face. This was a lot different to his first encounter with an alien. This time he was the one in trouble. And the thought of these monstrous creatures turning around and ripping both of their heads off wasn't one that had left his mind.
But as he saw the look of terror on Ko's face, he knew that he had to do this. They were out of options. Earlier it looked as if the two had been holding hands, filling him with a small amount of hope that they were a happy loving couple instead of viscous bloodthirsty aliens. He hadn't even taken in the fact that right now himself and Ko were the true aliens.
With a deep breath, he opened his mouth.
"U-um. . . e-excuse. . . excuse m-me?"
The two aliens stopped in their tracks, turning around. Fischer immediately felt his heart drop as he saw the faces of the two aliens. They had large snouted heads on them, further adding to their shark-like appearances. Two sets of razor sharp teeth protruded downwards from their upper jaw. They had two sets of what looked like fins adorning the sides of their heads and a another larger dorsal fin sitting atop their heads.
"Oh, hey there. Can we help you?" The larger one asked. As he spoke, Fischer got a solid view of the rows of razor sharp teeth lining the inside of it's mouth.
The two of them took a slight step back and Ko huddled up right next to Fischer, who had his hands up close to his chin, shaking in terror.
A look of confusion washed over the aliens' faces as they saw the reaction their greeting had elicited.
"Are. . . are you two ok?" The smaller one asked, it's voice sounding a lot more feminine than the larger one.
Fischer kicked himself mentally and spat out the first thing that came to his mind.
"Uh-yea, sorry. . . w-we were just wondering. . . i-if you could. . . possibly tell us. . . wh-whereabouts we. . . are?" He sputtered, trying to look as innocent as he could.
It dawned on him that the aliens didn't seem very hostile. But that didn't matter much when he was staring down the snout of two huge shark people.
The orange one spoke out, "Ah, you're in the Chrysharice district. There somewhere you two want to go?"
"You seem really nervous. You guys alright?" The female asked.
Fischer opened his mouth slightly, but only stuttered sounds came out.
"We're not gonna hurt you. C'mon, speak up!" The male jested.
"Um. . . I m-meant. . . like. . . what city. . . we're in? Or. . . maybe. . . what. . .planet. . . we're on?"
The two aliens gave each other a slight look of confusion upon hearing his question.
"You're in Amaryllis Falls. . . biggest city in the Appitico arm? On Xarder?" The male puzzled.
"Oh, uh. . . yea. . . of course. Thanks. . . sorry about that," Fischer chuckled, his hands still shaking rapidly.
"Are. . . you two lost? Whereabouts you from?" The smaller female asked.
"Oh. . . uh, we're kinda new here. We're still. . . you know, f-figuring everything out," Fischer replied.
"Right. Well a Zapher and a Human, gotta say that's definitely a new sight," The male bantered.
"Z-zapher?" Ko asked.
"Yea. . . what's. . . what's that?" Fischer added.
Yet another look of confusion spread across the creatures' faces.
"Zapher? Zaphermonarian? Her race? You. . . you didn't know that?" The male perplexed.
Fischer and Ko looked at each other wide eyed.
"I'm. . . I'm a Zapher?" she sheepishly asked.
"Yea. . . you are. Hey whereabouts are yall from?" The male asked.
"Oh uh. . . I'm from Earth and she's from Diamar,"
The two aliens gave each other another look of confusion, this time with a hint of worry thrown in as well.
"Earth? As in the human homeworld? That Earth?" The female asked nervously.
"Y-yea?"
The male appeared to force a smile onto his face as the conversation continued.
"Hey uh. . . why don't yall take a quick seat. How long have you guys been here exactly?" The male asked.
"Uh. . . well. . . about. . . half an hour?" Fischer sheepishly mumbled.
The two aliens stopped completely, both their mouths hanging open. The seemed totally bewildered by the fact that he was from Earth. In fact they seemed almost as confused as himself and Ko.
The female alien spoke again, "Ok, why don't we start small then. How exactly did you two get here?"