Dragged across the dirt was the medley of three travellers. Three nights of near nonstop steps and bounces had placed a great toll on their bodies as they followed the winding rose-lined footpath.

"Durin... Are we there yet?" Teinova asked impatiently.

His elongated, blue eye stalks slouched - a contrast to his upright, tubular frame. "No, we have to travel some more. Remember what that haggler from the town before told us."

"But that was three days ago, damn it." She retorted.

"You don't have to get flustered. It makes a good-looking organism like you less attractive."

"You must expect me to be flustered after all we have been through on this planet!" The orange highlights in her black hair looked vibrant from frustration, illuminating the night around.

"We may not have had the best experience, but we're surviving." Soothing the lady being proved fruitless. Calming her down would mean the Teinova firestorm froze - an impossibility to all fictional psycho-meteorologists. When she was pissed, she was absolutely pissed.

"Just barely, because you ate the last of the food." She hit him with the past, snorting as she did.

"It's not my fault you stole a small amount."

"Well, if you weren't crying from hunger, we would have stolen more."

"Let's stop arguing, Teinova." Her stings were getting too hot to handle. To preserve what face he had as the leader, it had to end for his sake. "We're using up what little energy we have."

"You can't expect me to stop!" While the two bickerers rapidly escalated, a realisation stumbled into Teinova's mind and fell into her mouth: "Wait, where's Zazavin?!"

"That's strange. Where is he?"

Their concern quickly abated as snoring enveloped the landscape. His nude, rounded form laid comfortably behind them on the support of roses. From root to petal, they gave him the comfort of a mattress.

"What are we going to do with him?" wondered Durin.

"Just leave him there. I could care less right now."

Above them, grey clouds could not mask the darkened heavens. Marvellous gems peered through, with a large, grey rock the most prominent of all. He raised his eye stalks to witness the sight. "Well, at least he's sleeping under a beautiful night sky."

"True."

They progressed until they met a decent-sized hill. Trekking upwards, what little energy remained withered. Positioned at the top, they saw faint blotches of light in the distance nestled at the base of a neighbouring hill.

The winding footpath straightened for the rest of their walk, dissecting the village in perfect halves. The proximity of organised civilization looked to embolden them forward.

"Looks like we found shelter for the night."

"Yeah, it looks so," Teinova replied with little zeal, the bags under her eyes noticeable.

"High five?" Durin made a gentle turn towards her.

"Yeah sure." She matched his movements.

At that moment, both collapsed from sheer exhaustion. Their bodies rolled, caught by gravity and gradient, who continued to play with them back and forth, less and less, until boredom ensued, leaving them at peace on the main road.

* * *

A gentle breeze ran briskly over Durin and Teinova as they slept, which enabled odours to hitch a ride to disturb villagers both awake and asleep. The community, mainly bipedal in structure, congregated at the village square. With their origins unknown, chatter and confusion followed.

Zaae, one of two mechanics, brought a long metal rod to poke them until they woke.

"Dawg, who these lifeforms spread all over the ground, boi?" Yazo, talking in the planet's colourful, bubbly accent, asked Zaae, his best friend. From the neck up were filtration fields generated from respiration collars. The residents kept and used them in the event of chemical or biological warfare.

"I don't know but they smell real stink," Zaae replied, poking Durin's blue form. "Like I not getting through with the being. He not waking up."

"Try the exotic girl." Yazo's stubby finger pointed at them.

"I was going to, dawg."

"Let me take that from you, Zaae." Moele, Zaae's other best friend, did what he does best; he intervened. The wide white frame of the Chessadee, the majority of this village, gave confidence in his own strength.

"What wrong with you boi? Gimme back my thing."

"Nah dawg, you moving too lamey-lamey. I'll show you how it's done."

He positioned his arms for a gentle prod against the one area no woman wants to be touched. Unfortunately, he did not have time to revel in his perverse act. A blur came towards him. The swift devastation her knuckles brought lent not a nickel of time to startle him before landfall.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

His ignorance cost him a bleeding nose and external damage to a home at the side of the main road. For the cocky Moele, this was the consequence of one too many proddings.

What an idiot. I should've caved his body in. Teinova got up and dusted her punk denim jacket and pants with a jersey underneath. "Where's Zazavin? He must be still sleeping."

"Hold it there missy!" Modue exclaimed, flare core firearms brought into existence - his the shape of a rhombus. Other firearms of all shapes and sizes were in the crowd's possession, surrounding Durin and Teinova. "Just surrender and all will be fine!"

The commotion awoke Durin from his slumber. He was lazily unaware of his situation.

Lines crisscrossed Modue's white, oblong face - another feature of the Chesadee. The nearer his index finger inched toward the contact trigger area, the more anxious he became. It was a clear space on the weapon that can either change to green or red, and it was on the colour of danger and harm. He turned off the safety with a flick of the controls. All he had to do now was make contact, and they'd be gone. Modue had done it before and he had no problem doing it again. "Just raise your hands and don't make no rash movement, youths."

Durin gathered himself in haste, adjusting to the situation with crude oil at his fingertips.

"So just do the opposite of what you said." Teinova's small eyes analysed him somewhat.

"You a dunce girl or some..." His words halted as a glob of crude oil flicked and splattered all over him, ruining his pyjama hat and falling to the ground. Hostilities were further ignited.

A raspy voice at the rear made a stern command, nullifying the notion of battle. "Move!"

A section of the crowd parted for Village Elder Tantie Mennin. Her short legs shuffled in quick succession against the dusty earth, the ends of her blue, flowing robe followed. Standing a respectful distance in front of them, she asked, staring deeply into their eyes. "Have you come to make peace or war?"

"Peace, of course," Teinova answered as Tantie circled them, her eyes wide and observant while the crowd kept themselves on edge.

"What planet you're from?" She asked as her shuffling increased, circling the two with an inquisitive look.

"Daaja. And she's from Otomi Premier," Durin answered for both.

"Never hear those places before." Tantie drilled into new depths with her persistence. "What do you do for a living?"

"Well... we had a cargo ship, but it got stolen when we first landed a week ago. We're trying to get it back."

"It was the Defence Force ain't it?" Tantie's triangular green ears became pronounced. "You should give up when you can. You have no chance to take back your ship."

"But..." Durin hushed as Tantie cut him off.

"Do you have a standing army? An aerial fleet? A comprehensive strategy?"

"We have Battle Potential." Teinova substituted for Durin.

"Oh, that don't make any difference. Many hands make the burden light. And yours is too great."

"Who cares?!" Teinova unleashed her ire. "All I know is that we have to fight. We've always fought and we'll continue to do so."

"Fine. Do what you want. When you're dead, don't come back to call me."

"Sorry that I hanged up on your baby-faced ass, you h..." Durin bottled her anger with one of his fingers, not wanting to devour the hand that could feed them.

"NAH. You can't be talking to Tantie so. I'll shoot you up real dread." Modue lined up his weapon, eager to fire.

"Yeah, you can't be doing those kinda things here nah." A villager uttered while she gripped her pistol tight.

Eoli, the village shopkeeper who was analysing the situation in the background, came up to Modue to say, "Come nah, give them a pass."

"How I giving them a pass?"

"Look at their condition. They're overtaken with stress, they're hungry and they're tired. When times was best, the village used to house travellers from all over, people in good and bad condition, just like them."

"True... but those times are gone. We have to keep our guard up. We can't move with no kind of slackness."

"Well, I'll ask Tantie then. I know she'll say yes."

"Go ask Tantie. She's not going take you on."

"Boy, you forget who I be or what?"

She then had a brief discussion with Tantie. In the end, she handed her a peculiar object to which Eoli smiled. Tantie regressed to her abode while Eoli returned to her previous spot with the biological wheels of purple bone and flesh beneath her wide base. "You all could stay for the night, but once morning come, you have to leave."

"Do you agree, Teinova? That's a great deal."

She was reluctant; folding her arms and turning her eyes away were signs of this. But she came to terms that it was an okay deal. To accommodate them, especially after what she said to the village head and what she was going to say, was shocking and commendable. And knowing her, it was some really, really horrible things, if not traumatic things. Teinova would surrender for the benefit of Veil, the name of her battlemongering group.

She shook her head in agreement, and Durin uncovered her mouth right after.

Eoli turned to Modue, the owner of the biggest guest house in the village, and requested, "Tantie say to give the youths a bath and a place to stay at your guest house."

"You serious?! Look what those youths did to me." He shoved her face close to hers, wanting Eoli to take in the black stain across his nose, forehead, and cheeks. Durin's substance flowed into some of his lines, becoming flooded canyons.

"Boy, listen to me. You see me talk to Tantie and she said to give them a place to stay for the night and to let them clean up."

"I don't have to."

"Listen to what she say nah. I have the voice recorder here."

Shit.

Shaped like a flying saucer, she pressed the slightly heightened green button with tiny depressions around it, held within her muscular arms. A pale blue light popped into being and settled on top, showcasing a horizontal line. You all see I gave Eoli the voice recorder. That means whatever she say goes, okay? The line shifted as the words came. This is all I going to say. You know my throat does hurt me when I talk too much.

Her word was final. That was it for him. He had to obey. Accepting his shame, he said, "Okay. I'll accommodate you."

Yoskoe, the head chef, and Brashlo, the head mechanic, were returning to their homes when Eloise shouted, "Yoskoe and Brashlo, Tantie say that you have to provide food and transport for them!"

"You can't be serious." Yoskoe gave her a crazy-esque look.

"Dawg, you forget Tantie don't like disrespectful youths. Remember the last time we gave her rudeness, she gave us spankings."

Recollecting the horrors of Tantie's rod of discipline on their backsides, they agreed without hesitation. Their blue and purple pyjamas respectively felt slight trembles.

"Look like I have your problems sort out."

Zazavin hopped on the ground, strolling into the village ill-informed of the situation. "Hey Durin, Teinova. What's going on?"

The crowd diverted their weaponry towards him, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

"He's with us." Teinova's hands signalled to stop.

The uneasy crowd retired their firearms, understanding the fallacy of the threat.

"You sure that is all your concerns?"

"I think that's it," said Zazavin.

"Don't tell me no think-think story. I want you all to be sure. Is so much time I can save you from a flare in your behinds."

"I HUNDRED PUHCENT POSITIFLY sure we hah no problem."

"You mocking we talking?"

"Nah youths." He held a buffoon look.

"Whatever, I don't care." She sighed. "All I have to say is welcome to Flagstaff."