Year E2996

Beck

A gray smoke floated along the pink sky. Sour fuel fumes drifted in the air, masking the natural smell of the purple gingerbread dirt. The rock I leaned against poked into my spine, making me wiggle in discomfort. I tapped my pencil on the paper, finishing up my drawing.

"Fucking rabbit!" Rob yelled as he threw a wrench toward me. I ducked just in time for it to fly above my head. The metal clink of it landing on the ground echoed behind me.

I laughed at my drawing, knowing Rob would be upset. It was the scene in front of me. The craft was smoking as angry Rob tried to fix it. I finished the tree behind the pod, thinking I had completed my masterpiece. The pencil smudged across areas. It frustrated me with the non-perfection of leaving my drawing tablet on my bed in the Nus.

"You are missing something," Kat's voice said behind me.

I looked over my shoulder to see her holding the wrench Rob threw at me. Kat crawled over the rock, sitting next to me with a smile. Her purple hair fell over her face, dancing the curls on her cheekbones. She tucked it behind her ear as she glanced at her bouncing feet.

"Right here," she said, pointing at the spaceship's door. "Number three hundred and ten."

I peeked back at the pod, watching Rob kick the ground and walk off in frustration. In bold, the numbers read three, one, and zero.

"Nice catch," I responded before writing it down on my drawing.

"Finished!" Kat yelled, then grabbed my hand, pulling me off the ground. "Since you aren't leaving because I cut some cables, I have something to show you." She wiggled her violet eyebrows while smirking at me.

"Kitty, that was you?" I asked, thinking back to when Rob almost cooked up Tyran because he thought my little bunny chewed the wires.

She bopped me on the nose. "Don't call me that."

Kat's purple eyes glowed as the wind picked up, blowing around her hair. She shuffled in her spot a little before pulling up her shirt enough for me to see the fanny pack. Her eyes looked around while her hands reached out, trying to find Tyran. There was a switch in her head sometimes. I could see her thoughts causing her to give off this nervous expression, but once an idea popped into her head, she jumped into action.

"Come here, little critter," she said, grabbing Tyran from the ground and placing him perfectly in her pouch.

"Where are we going?" I asked her, looking back at Rob as he tried to get the fire started for the night. His eyes glanced at me as he waved for me to walk over.

Rob and I were not getting along, and converting with him seemed like a bad idea. Kat giggled as I smiled over at her.

"So you coming or not, Beck?" she asked before skipping into the dark forest.

"Bye, Robert," I said with a wave, running after Kat before he could protest my next adventure.

The trees rustled around her as she lit her path with purple. She was a beautiful walking lantern, taking all practical thoughts away from me.

"Wait up!" I yelled, ignoring Rob's slurs from behind me.

I grabbed the nearest branch, brushing it away from my face and feeling the water drip down my sleeve. My shoes squashed into the mud, making popping sounds every time I pulled up. The tint of Kat's light was dimming out as she kept gaining her distance from me. She glanced over her shoulder at me before jumping over a log and disappearing on the other side.

Purple flames illuminated the area, reminding me of my sister's lack of mention of safforian fire-making. Not just a minor ball of flame, but the color of what safforian they are, making purple my favorite color now.

"Kitty!" I yelled while I jogged up to where I last saw her. She was playing tricks on me. "Come on, Kitty Kat," I said, spinning in circles as the two moons peeked over the horizon.

A howling sound in the distance echoed around the trees, bouncing off the hillsides. The plant below my feet moved, slithering around my leg. The last thing I needed was to get trapped in one of those snake tree traps. I kicked it off me, stumbling backward. My feet twisted awkwardly on a rock, dancing in reverse and trying to catch my balance again.

A set of hands gripped under my armpits from behind me. "Got to be careful, Beck." The sweet sound of Kat's voice whispered into my ears over my shoulder.

I stood up straight, brushing her hands off of me. "I wouldn't be in this mess if you didn't run off."

"Oh, don't be a sourpuss," she replied, glaring at me while scrunching her nose.

I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows. "Sourpuss?" I questioned. "What have the English teachers been teaching your class?"

Kat stepped closer to me, making her face only inches from me. "I learned that one from Alex," she said, clicking her tongue.

Losing eye contact with her violet ones, I couldn't help but look down. "Who's Alex?" Is this another boy?

Kat spun around, walking away from me without answering my question. She walked uphill, deeper into the forest. Her purple fire was off as we used the moons to guide us up to the top. I could see where she was taking me, but I didn't want to ruin her excitement.

Since we landed on Safforia, I had been sleeping under the stars on top of the spacecraft. As I draw in my journal, the glow in the distance always caught my attention. My curiosity told me to check it out, but my survival instincts held me back. Safforia was not safe for Tyrannosaurus and me. Everything wanted to eat us, including the plants.

As we reached the top of the hill, rows of tall plants danced in the wind, displayed for harvest. My hand cupped a stock, reminding me of cereal grass, but the heads illuminated a bright green color, almost yellow. Picking out a kernel, I needed to taste this. Kat smacked my hand before anything touched my tongue.

"What is wrong with you, humans?" she asked, grabbing my hands to check my palms were empty. "You can't just eat an unknown plant and expect it to be edible."

I could feel my cheeks burn from embarrassment. "I-I—"

Kat placed her hand over my mouth and then grabbed my hand, pulling me into the wheat field.

"This is called lorna." She moved a stock to the side, stepping to the other side of the row. "We use them to power the city."

I followed behind her, smacking a leaf out of my face. We tracked through the tall plants until Kat stepped out, looking toward the large buildings.

"The glow," I said out loud without meaning to, realizing I had been seeing the city lights every night.

"City of Cerise," Kat said with a smile stretching from ear to ear.

The alleyways were tight together because they built the structures too close to one another. Music drifted in the wind from the city center as the safforians celebrated with one another. I could smell the food, prompting me to exit the lorna plants and stand with Kat.

The noise of laughter bounced off the walls as shadows showed a few safforians dancing. Orange fiery hair whipped around as the woman smiled at the blue safforian. The dark alley tunneled them in while they walked toward the music. Stepping closer, I needed to experience the happiness of the City of Cerise.

Kat gripped my upper arm, pulling me closer to her. "Sorry, Beck," she whispered in my ear. "They banned humans."

"Why is that, Kitty?" I asked her back.

"The safforians don't trust you," she said, looking at the ground. "There's a handful allowed in the city, including your sister, Ray." She tried to kinder my spirit, but the word banned stuck in my head.

"Oh." I tried to respond, but didn't know what to say.

Kat nudged my arm. "It's okay, Beck." She walked back into the lorna while glancing over her shoulder at me. "I have a secret spot for you to watch the festival."

She skipped up to a tree that was leaking a red color. Kat didn't hesitate as she climbed up the gross-looking tree, getting maroon all over her clothes. I glanced down at my white shirt. Bad ideas sometimes lead to incredible moments.

"Beck, climb the damn tree!" Kat yelled from above me.

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, gripping a branch and pulling myself into the bleeding tree with her.

I struggled my way to her, reaching for anything to hold on to so I wouldn't fall. Kat peeked around the trunk with a giggle that would stop people in their tracks. Her purple eyes grabbed me to my soul, aching at my heart. She moved in slow motion to me as I watched her be the person I needed in my life. Kat glanced at me, causing everything to speed up again. I looked away from her in embarrassment.

"S-S-So, what are you trying to show me?" I asked, placing my hand over my face and trying to cover my pronounced red cheeks.

Kat stood up, balancing herself on a branch. She reached above her head, causing her shirt to ride up and show off the skin around her ribs. I glanced around Kat's tummy and then down to the fanny pack holding Tyran. She stretched to her tippy toes, grunting out in frustration.

"Hey Beck, instead of admiring my stomach, why don't you help me?" she asked, glancing down at me.

"Oh, yeah," I replied awkwardly, then hesitated before wrapping my arms around her legs. I lifted her enough for her to grab the next branch and pull herself up.

After she settled in the tree, I jumped to the branch, pulling myself up to her while the sticky red sap from the tree caked in my hair. I pulled at my strands, hoping to get this crap out, but it smeared more into my scalp.

"Stop messing around and look up, dipshit." Kat smacked the back of my head before pulling Tyrannosaurus from the fanny pack.

I glared at her, realizing she wasn't paying attention to me. The city lights reflected into her eyes as I admired the glow from her face before looking over. Cerise's radiance polluted the sky with streams of light dancing in the stars.

My mouth gaped open at how beautiful this was. I had lived in space my whole life, and Cerise was the second most beautiful thing I had seen.

The flickers of the lights pulsed with the rhythm of the music drifting in the air. From the tree, we could see the shadows of the safforians reflecting off the buildings. A tint of blue and violet floated into the night like smoke burning the oxygen. Peppermint vanilla caused me to close my eyes so the smell could bathe me.

A shiver swayed down my spine while a beautiful voice sang in the crowd over the noise of everyone else. The voice hummed in safforian, but I could still feel the female emotion.

A branch breaking had Kat and me glancing down, hearts skipping out of our chests. A man was standing near the tree, looking at his watch. He was human. Which meant he probably didn't have permission to be here. Kat grabbed my arm, quietly pulling me closer to the tree's trunk.

A safforian with bright yellow hair walked up to the man as another human man followed behind her. The woman looked around, causing me to crawl closer to Kat. She had her back to the tree as I reached my arms around her, hugging her and the tree. We snuggled tight to one another, keeping out of sight of the strangers below us.

"Men Of Suits are on track," the woman said to the others. "The engineer is getting closer to completing the chips."

"Do we have a date for completion?" a man asked her.

"Yes, Dr. Coachman said—" she replied, but Tyran squealed from the pressure on him.

"Shhh," I whispered, trying to calm him down.

"Hey, who's up there?" a man yelled.

Kat grabbed Tyran from my hands, placing him back into her pouch. "Looks like we are in for an adventure," she said excitedly, then jumped from the tree, landing on her feet. Kat looked up over her shoulders at me. "Jump!" she yelled.

I took a deep breath, hesitating. Kat's arms waved at me, trying to rush me as the strangers looked around the tree at her. I pushed off the tree and flew toward her on the ground.

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