VIOLET'S ZILON

Chapter One

I ran but rather than joining the crowd to run away from the scene, I pushed to run towards the scene. My parents were gone with the quake. I tried making it to them, tired of going with them but the strong hands of a middle-aged man I didn't even know drew me away, and ran from the scene with me in arm. I screamed and trashed for him to let me go but he never did.

Strange sounds suddenly came from right above us and for the first time in my short life, I saw an alien ship. The movies did no justice to their imagination of what it would look like.

The ship before my eyes was one word, Gigantic.

The crowd changed their course, stampeding toward the ship instead.

Metallic stairs extended from the craft, shimmering like quicksilver were sent down the craft. Without beckoning, people scrambled up the steps, their need for safety overpowering any sense of order.

However, that had been the least of my worries.

At 15, I had already lost everything and all I wanted was to join my parents. The man who had refused to let me go climbed into the heart of the ship just like the rest.

My breath caught at the sight of the magnificent structure of the ship. Inside the ship was like a whole different world of its own, bathed in a soft, ethereal glow. Alien beings, blue-skinned and towering, with a single stripe of hair down the centre of their heads in the exact shade of my name, moved gracefully through the crowd of humans, their presence was both intimidating and strangely mesmerizing.

They ushered us into their ship one by one, their strange language a gentle hum in the air. The man who had been holding onto me finally let me go and was about to say something to me when the voice of a woman called out to him. Upon seeing her, he ran up to her and the two little girls she held onto, enveloping them in a tight embrace.

His family.

Seeing them together, my resolve crumbled. My legs gave way, and I sank to the floor, tears streaming down my face.

My family was gone.

After that, I cried myself to sleep, exhaustion and despair catching up with me. The next thing I remember was waking up to the sound of a loud, strange voice speaking in a strange language. Somehow, it was time to get off the ship. Humans were huddled up together in a place, sitting on chairs the aliens must have provided, while I lay on a foldable bed not far from them.

The look of confusion and apprehension etched on their faces, made it was obvious that they didn't understand what the alien was saying. The alien spoke again in the same strange language cascaded with unfamiliar sounds, and received only puzzled looks in return. With a sigh, the alien turned to speak to its companions, who had been observing the whole scene quietly. They conversed briefly, their conversation a series of melodic tones and clicks.

Soon, another slimmer-looking alien stepped forward in place of the previous one.

This new alien took a seat, demonstrating with exaggerated gestures, before standing and addressing us again. After a tense moment, one man finally understood and stood from his seat. The alien quickly nodded his head in what I assumed to be approval. Then slowly, the rest began to follow the first person's lead and stood. Not wanting to stand out, I followed the crowd.
Probably realising that spoken instructions were a complete waste of time, the alien gently took the first man by the shoulder and led him forward. I couldn't see the reaction on the man's face but from the loud gasp that came from him, I could only imagine how frightened he must have been. If I had been the one being held by a seven-foot-tall creature, I would have fainted on the spot.

The alien, however, did not harm him, but left him at the front. Seeing this, others tried to shrink back, attempting to hide in the crowd. I watched closely as the alien rolled its eyes in what looked to be pure boredom, an almost human reaction that might have made me chuckle on any other day.

After a brief pause, he reached out to an unsuspecting human and lifted her. Her reaction was worse than that of the first man. Her piercing scream sent the crowd into a state of panic.

Surprised, the alien let her go almost immediately, saying something to her, but it only fell on deaf ears as she ran towards the crowd. I, on the other hand, stayed glued to my corner, too stunned to move.

An alarm blared suddenly, quieting everyone. The initial alien, clearly the leader, spoke up with a lot of hand gestures. He said something to the other aliens and they all formed a line, then looked at us pointedly as if to say, "Do you see that?"

One by one, people began to understand and follow. The woman who had screamed joined the man at the front, and others followed. Not wanting to be left behind, I joined the line. Once everyone was in a line, the alien led us to a metallic door in the ship and pressed a blue button right by the side of the wall. Slowly, the door slides up to reveal a mini hangar filled with smaller ships.

The alien captain led the first batch of ten away from the front of the line. As we followed behind him, some people looked scared, others apprehensive. Just like that, we were ushered into the space shuttle in a group of ten.

Coincidentally, I found myself seated beside the man who carried me onto the ship and his family. I tried shrinking into myself, hoping he wouldn't notice me but that was futile. He turned to face me with a concerned look on his face.

'Hello, are you okay?' he asked gently. I quickly nodded, wanting the conversation to be over already. Sensing my lack of interest, he didn't press further.

We all spent another long pause in silence, unsure of what to expect next from the alien hosts. Through the opened shuttle door, I could see them leading the rest into the other shuttles. Once everyone was settled, the alien captain spoke in his foreign but melodic language, making demonstrations as though to make a fusing sign.

As unusual, we all stared at him bewildered.

We needed a way to sort out the language barrier.

The alien sighed, an enervated look on his face. Then he matched up to the first shuttle within his reach, grabbed a seatbelt resting on the seats and demonstrated how to fasten it
After that, realization dawned on everyone, and soon the metallic clicks of fusing belts echoed throughout the hangar. Once silence returned, the alien captain spoke again and almost immediately, the other aliens began to close our shuttle doors. With the windows shaded and the shut doors, I lost sight of the outside world, leaving me with only the view windshield. An enormous door opened, revealing the black world called space. An android-like voice crackled through the speakers of the shuttle, startling us. We barely had time to grasp what was happening when the shuttle suddenly zipped like lightning out of the hangar.
Shocked into silence, we watched the shuttle zoom through the star-studded blackness. Just as abruptly as it started, the shuttle suddenly slowed down and the air around us shifted signifying our descent. Slowly, the scenery around us changed from an all-round black into a pinkish sky dotted with clear white clouds. It was a very beautiful sight, that could pass off as a scene in a fairytale.

The closer we got to the ground; I realized that the sky was dull in comparison to the city I could see right below me. It was everything that humans couldn't achieve on earth. We landed smoothly on a well-lit hangar, and the space shuttle opened up, indicating that we had gotten to our stop and it was time to disembark. Hesitantly, we waited for someone to make that first move and then followed suit.

The alien captain once again led us in a straight file to where what looked to be a female Zilon sat. If I had thought that the males were attractive, then their women were celestial. Even from a distance, her beauty was simply otherworldly.

It wasn't until I got to the front of the line that I saw why she was seated there. The female Zilon gave me a small, reassuring smile before reaching out to take my hand, clasping a string band around my wrist. Like magic, it disappeared into my flesh as if it had never been there in the first place.
I shrieked quietly, turning my wide-eyed gaze to the female Zilon. She gave me a soft smile before saying, 'Welcome to Zile'

My mind reeled.

Had I just understood her?

———-
What do you think?

Petite
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