Adia's First Blue



Adia awoke firstly to pain. Her blood seemed to sear in her viens, a constant and pulsing discomfort. She dragged her eyes open, finding more pain to welcome her. The light was bright and sharp. She rolled in place, trying to coax the sensation into her body. Pine needles prickled her nose, and she jumped up to her hindpaws, tense.

A forest of pine surround her as far as her sore eyes could see. She was alone. "Uh.. mae layphon sir.. nya, I mean, Cindre? Hullooo..? Ahn my head." She rubbed at her temples. Nothing but a gentle sway of branches replied.

Swallowing with a dry mouth, the lape took in two beds of pine needles, a cold camp fire, two large logs around it for seats. Straining her massive ears, swivling them to and fro, she picked up nothing but the rustle of the breeze.

"G'day there. Adia is it?"

Leaping three feet clear into the air with a petrified squeek, the lape scurried behind a log and cowered. After what felt like a whole morning, she peered over the edge of her hiding place, to see a perfectly strange sight.

A small sape mae, hovering clear in the air, looking at her with concern.

She was so small. Indy had warned him but, wow. Her eyes blazed with a weird sea green light. 'Fear' chimed a symbol in his eyes. He mentally brushed it off. No time for random interjections of obvious data.

"Hey. Don't be scared. Indy sent me." He decided to fold his legs, floating like a wannabe meditator, making himself small, less intimidating. He drifted a little closer.

The rabbit rose a little.

"Why didn't I hear you?" Her ears were trained on him hard.

That voice is as soft and small as she is, he thought. "Well, I wasn't walking."

"I didn't hear wings."

"Don't have any."

"Oh," she whispered. "Inertica."

He smiled. "This is unreal. You really are from another planet, just like Indy."

Slowly, the little creatures eyes started to turn bright blue, cyan. And a soft peach.

"How.. how can you hold acetica.. if you are a sape?"

Oh great, another alien to call him a monkey all day. "I'm not a sape, little rabbit, I'm a human. And I have powers because, well, that's a long story. Basically, there was an accident, and I had them given to me."

"Given to you." She looked so sad all of a sudden, going a deep, deep purple blue. He floated closer and landed.

"Hey. Uhm. Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

Shaking her head, she forced a smile. "They aren't powers, they are gifts. And I'm not a rabbit. Rabbits go everywhere and eat cabbage." She made a face.

He laughed. The look of disgust on this adorable little ball of fluff was too much. Soon she giggled, and they laughed together, nervous.

Adia trilled, and hopped onto a log. "I'm a lape. You can call me Adia."

"Just Adia?" he teased. "No last name?"

She lowered her ears. Another bout of sadness. Crap, talking with aliens is hard.

"I guess I would be.. I'm landfallen." She stared at the cold, dead fire.

"Landfall! I like it. Adia Landfall, I'm Ben. Ben Whyte. Pleased to meet you."

He offered his hand, and she softly scratched her blunt claws on his wrist. He returned the gesture with a chuckle, scratching carefully at that deep, dark, smooth fur.

She was looking at him oddly again. "If you aren't from Earth, why do you know how to have-paws?"

"Well Indy- wait, What do you mean from Earth. I'm an Earthling, a human, from Earth."

She giggled at him, like he was a great fool. "Nuu. I'm from Earth, you are from Terra!"

"No.. I'm from Earth, and you're from Symbia."

They stared each other down. She beamed. "I'm from Symbia, and you are from Terra. Deal?" "Deal!"

And they had paws once again. "Maybe", the thought, "maybe this won't be so hard after all."

"I'm not so sure we should be doing this." The rabbit.. the lape, looked around her, trying to see everything at once, ears swivelling like they might fall off. The setting sun blazed orange, red and yellow. She kept looking at the sky like it might fall on her head.

"Oh, it'll be cool. We'll keep to back-streets and the bush. No one will see us." Ben grinned at her. "Besides, I can always fly you off if I need to."

They walked gingerly, houses and streetlights peering through the growing gloom of the evening, and the sparse trees, the last of the bushland that petered out into Canadian suburbs.

"You couldn't port me out?" she whispered, ducking at the sound of a distant dog.

"Port? You mean, teleport?"

"Yes. You fly well enough, you haven't learned portica?"

As his mind filled with a buzz of symbols, eagerly detailing this power, he groaned in pain. "Maybe later." She tilted her head at him, her eyes breaking from the terrified green to settle on sky for one ear, peach on the other. He laughed, and it made him feel a little better.

"You're cute when you're confused."

"I'm not confused.." She said, voice trailing off. She did that a lot, he noticed.

"Yeah you are. I can tell, bright-eyes."

She stared at him, but had no words.

"Indy told me to explain to you how the human world works. Best way to do that is to see it yourself. The moment there's trouble, we'll go. Promise."

She nodded silently.

They tromped through the brush.

"Why do you call layph Cindy?" she asked "Their name is Cindre."

"Because it's easier. And it sounds better. And anyway, it bothers him." He gave her a smirk.

"Aren't you afraid of their temper? A flammicor.. all light-elementals are flammics." She shivered. "They always have such anger."

"Too right he does. But he hasn't been able to hit me yet."

Dashing with his greatest speed, he zipped behind her, tapped her on the back, and flitted back again, laughing.

"Great light you're fast!" She stared at him, amazed.

"Hmm. Didn't think I'd impress you, of all people." Ben smiled at her. "Aren't you used to that sort of thing?"

"Oh.. I don't.. I never had much of a chance.. to see acetica at work.." The lape stared at the ground as she walked, stepping along on her toes, light and nimble. He could actually see her blush through the splotches of white fur on her face. She looked up at him and giggled nervously. "I just study it, yes?"

What an odd creature, he thought.

"I recognise these hills," she said, changing the subject. "This is Emeraldine, where I used to live."

"Yep. Your world and mine are the same in many ways. I guess the geography here matches your home."

She didn't reply. He looked at her, watching her taking it all in. It must be amazing, and scary, he thought. Transported to another world. She was taking it really well. He wasn't sure if he would.

"It's getting really dark," Ben said.

"Yes."

"Want a closer look?" He grinned at her with mischief.

She stared. Those sickly sea green eyes again. "How.. how close?"

He slipped out of the tree line gingerly, and ran at an easy gait, standing in a field, dark. A road stood within sight, lit with one streetlight. Silent. He turned to see two bright orbs of sickly-green staring at him from between dark branches.

He waited in the cooling air, smelling mowed lawn, and wet concrete, and petrol. A waft of a home-cooked meal, too fleeting to name.

Humans.

The alien looked understandably terrified.

"Do you like carrots?" He chucked, as the two lights shifted yellow. Just a little. A good as answer as any.

"I'll give you more carrots than you can carry, if you come out this far. Promise."

It took some time. She shifted. It was obvious the offer was going to work. He flexed, stretching, stiff. A good run would do the trick.

He felt a wriggling, snuffling at the back of his legs. Try as he might, having her so close felt odd. Little paws, ticking whiskers, the brush of fur. It felt, well, alien. Revulsion shifted in his throat, and he felt ashamed for it.

Looking down at her, at those wide, bright eyes, so fearful, he let the feeling pass. With the utmost care, he stroked at her ears.

She purred softly, almost like a kitten.

Ben cleared his throat. "What do you think."

The little bunny stood as high as she could, taking the view in, raising her muzzle.

"Beautiful."

They shared the moment. Human and Symbian, side by side, as the sun silently closed behind them. The smell of rain drifted in. Crickets quietly put a backdrop to the street. The distant dog barked again.

"Can I have those carrots now?"