Andrea Livingston. Katie still could not believe what happened to her, and wished it did not. It made Katie sick to think how Andrea survived the transformation, or without help. How long had she been out there? What about her parents?

Andrea’s parents were a major problem.

As Andrea slept on her lap on the couch, Katie held her close. She ignored the dirt, caring for the couch was beyond her. The recent rain storm must had some part. Falling in mud, unable to clean herself.

It has to be days, Katie thought.

We are unsure of that, Arana telepathically thought. The red-tailed hawk totem sat on the couch’s back, looking down at Andrea.

Scott and Keeji came back after Katie asked for two glasses of water. Both were placed on the table, minus Jaruka’s food and briefcase.

“Anything?” Scott asked.

Katie shook her head. “This just breaks my heart.” Scott and Katie were victims of terran abuse since Area 51 and when they changed, categorized as demons in sheep’s clothing. At the base, they were treated like animals. She shook her head, the memories were pushed away.

“I tried calling Beth and Morgan,” Scott started. “Three times I tried.”

“What about a message?”

Scott shook his head and said. “Every time I hear the beep the phone cuts, and that was the first two. I think they see the winery number and hang up, but the third call I got a hold of Morgan.” He crouched down to eye level with Andrea.

“What did he say?” She asked.

“Guess,” Scott said, and Katie passed. He did not elaborate the harsh words from Morgan. It was best not to tell Katie.

The extent of Andrea’s body bared more injuries up close. Small to big scraps on Andrea’s arms, probably from branches and bushes. Her armor pattern was seen but was smoother than Scott’s and Katie’s sharper kind, and not seen well through the skin. Andrea’s tail had more scars, which fits since new terrans tend to injure their tails a lot. Andrea had ripped her own pants just to accommodate her tail. Keeji sat at Andrea’s feet, free from the trashed sandals. The soles of her feet needed serious attention with large scabs and bruises on her ankles. Terran healing is much faster than humans, but it could have been that healing could not keep up with the abuse.

Studies said that with terran transformations, anybody older than 13-years-old had the usual, violent transformation. Children under do not somehow, but turning 13, they experience a much less intense transformation. The last time they seen Andrea, she was 12.

“Will she wake up soon?” Keeji asked them.

“I hope so,” Katie assured the totem.

Keeji looked, and then smirked. “Wow, you really skipped that time, Scott. She must’ve been pushing all her mana into that spell.”

“Not now, Keeji,” he said.

“Oh. So—Oh, she’s back.” Keeji’s tail wagged and banged on the couch.

Andrea stirred and moaned. Katie sighed in relief. “Andrea, can you hear me?”

Andrea opened her eyes and looked up. Even though the terran transformation made little changes to Katie’s head—elf ears holding back her short brown hair—it was a friendly and familiar face.

Andrea sat up and wrapped her arms around Katie, then cried all at once, catching Katie off guard.

In between sobs, Andrea said, “Thank you, thank you” over and over.

Katie started to cry. “It’s alright, we’re here, sweetie. We’re here.”

It went on for minutes until Andrea calmed down. The couch and Katie looked like they survived a dust storm.

Andrea drank the two glasses, plus three more and two pieces of fruit to sooth her unnourished body. Andrea never mentioned her run in with Jaruka. Did she remember, or refuse to?

“Feeling better?” Katie asked sitting beside Andrea.

“Yes,” Andrea said. “Weird. I used to hate bananas.”

“That caught my attention. You are a picky eater.” Katie pushed back dirt-coated strands of hair from Andrea’s face. “You got to tell us what happened, sweetie.”

Andrea covered her face. “It’s horrible, Katie. My life was ruined last week after my birthday.”

“Last week?” Scott exclaimed. “Hang on. I may be wrong but you’ve been out there for a whole week?”

“I try to count the days,” Andrea answered, “but… I just hate it. I hate it! I want to go home! No, I can’t go home. I want to stay here. They hate me!”

Both terrans and totems shuttered from the outburst. It was the first time Andrea ever screamed in fear.

“Andrea, don’t scream like that,” Katie told her, and Andrea apologized. “Now, I need you to think, but don’t scream anymore.”

Andrea sniffed and agreed.

“Tell us what happened.”

It did help when Andrea leaned on Katie. “I-I just turned thirteen last week.”

During Andrea transformation, she described it that she was “in peace,” that her whole body did not convulse normally, but floated as the transformation commenced. Just like every case, but all and all, it was terrifying to Andrea, especially the magic.

“I have a totem now,” Andrea said. “But she’s not ready to meet you guys. She’s afraid.”

“We can understand,” Scott said. “Keeji is sometimes a scardy cat and never leaves me for days. But besides that, what about your parents? I tried calling them.”

Andrea nodded. “Since the crystals fell, they treated everything like hell. They called my terran friends and their terran friends demons, including me. I even heard them call your parents traitors.”

Katie swallowed to push that painful memory away.

Andrea nodded with a quivering mouth. “Then…” She started sobbing. “Then they kicked me out.” The crying restarted. “I came…here because…I know that, your family accepts… you two,” she gasped. “You’re the only family…I…know!” Her cries became intense and loud. It even drove Scott to ball his fists, trying not to cry himself.

“Hey, hey, don’t cry. You’re with us now,” Katie said, trying not to cry too. “We too had our share of problems. Let’s get you come upstairs and cleaned up. How’s that sound?”

Andrea did several more sobs until she nodded.

Both girls went up stairs, Keeji followed. Arana stayed behind and turned to Scott after watching them.

“I’ve been watching the news,” she said. “More abandoned terran children are up this week. This is turning into an ugly trend, Scott.”

“Very,” Scott added. The dirt on the couch started bugging him. “Be right back,” he said and walked to the kitchen.

Reminded about lonely children raked his heart concerning he was family-less for two whole years. Two years ago he successfully recovered from a mental hospital with Katie’s help and was unofficially adopted by the family. His love for Katie was strong in high school and it was stronger afterwards as he made up almost everything he missed, but those memories of loneliness were never forgotten.

This cannot be this way. They have to take Andrea back.

As he got a hand vacuum and fabric freshener, the pantry door was knocked on. It was closed. Scott opened the pantry door.

Jaruka stood with the briefcase open on one arm, broadcasting the morning’s Howler Cycle race’s ending ceremony. The Slipspace Drive glowed against his face. He looked down at Scott. “You just had to push me out. I’ll need to re-glue that cable again.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“You made her feint,” Scott reminded her.

“I was disturbed, I had to keep her from smashing the monitor.”

“TV.”

“Whatever,” Jaruka said. “Am I good?”

Scott’s eyes rolled. “You’re lucky she didn’t ask about you, but you deserved that black eye,” Scott said.

Jaruka sniffed, yet the bruise caused no pain. It nearly disappeared on its own from Jaruka’s fast healing.

“Come help me with this, can’t leave you alone,” Scott told him, but Jaruka just brooded as Scott started cleaning.

“So who is she?” Jaruka asked closing the briefcase and setting it on the floor. “Oh, and in case you were wondering, my rider came in second.”

Scott set all the pillows on the floor and yelled as he vacuumed. “It’s Andrea Livingston. We’ve known her ever since, but Katie’s parents were friends with her parents for a long time. Former accountants really.”

“So she knows you two well?”

“Before the Wave, even years ago, she came by on her own every other day just to be with them. She looks up to Katie like a sister.”

“An only child, I bet,” Jaruka said.

“Right,” Scott said, but how did Jaruka knew that? The couch pillows were clear to the best of his ability, still needed deep cleaning. He then vacuumed the couch back.

Arana yelled, “Parents own an accounting firm in the city. They handled the winery’s taxes. On the plus they are devote Temecula wine country supporters, one of the major investors in the community.”

“I see,” Jaruka said. “So why is she here looking like she had a mud fight with grimlods?”

“Grimlods?” Arana asked.

“You will feel sick if you knew.”

Scott cut off the vacuum. “Okay let’s not talk about space and aliens and weird shit where you’re from right now,” Scott said. “Did you hear what she said?”

“No, sir, the race was priority. I’m not in the right mind to give a damn about human issues right now.” His information gathering of Terra Firma news were the reason he was ignoring the problem.

“Can you please not be snippy for once today?” Scott asked with a strong tone.

Jaruka was silent.

“Alright.”

Scott did not vacuum as he relayed what they found out to Jaruka. Afterwards, he went on to finish the cleaning.

“Ouch,” Jaruka said. “She handled herself well.”

“Girls her age are not allowed to be outside, not with those idiots running around. I’m shocked she stayed hidden for so long.”

“So not a survivalist?”

“No.” Scott set the pillows back onto the couch. At least the couch was brown upholstery from the beginning, but Scott wanted to clean it better. Brenda Walsh would find out.

“I see.” The alien looked up from the sound of running water in the ceiling. “What a shame.”

“What?” Scott asked.

“What?” Jaruka repeated.

The men paused, confused. Arana shrugged.

“So… you four are at a loss?” Jaruka asked.

Scott agreed.

“But really, what are you gonna do about it?”

“I told you, we don’t know.”

“I’ll tell you what I would do,” Jaruka started. “We get her to stop crying like a breached dam, cinch our belts and march over to her home.”

Scott scratched his hair. “That’s just crazy.”

“No, that’s settling matters face to face. In space, sometimes you can’t do things in a nice way.”

“This is not space.”

“But Terra Firma occupies space, so it works,” Jaruka added.

Scott shook his head to not even question that logic. Scott was against any form of meeting the Livingstons in the open. For one thing, humans are not used to terrans, still. Every day he heard of abuse on the streets, then terrans retaliating with untold amounts of magic. They never left the winery, except visiting Jaruka’s campsite to make sure he did not do anything stupid, like upsetting the government in an irregular way.

“So you want us to risk our lives?” Scott asked.

“Why not?” Jaruka said. “It’s help with the youngling’s character.”

“Back up a minute,” Arana started. “You saying to go to the house to confront them. Ever since you’ve been unsupportive, Jaruka. Now you want to take serious matters for us?”

Several darted eyes the alien made. Jaruka coughed. “It’s not my problem, it’s yours. I’m here as Denverbay’s collateral,” Jaruka said.

“You’re weird,” Scott said.

“You avoid fights,” Jaruka retaliated.

Then again, the idea got stuck in his head. The Livingstons were sensitive, religious, and hard to change their minds. Andrea barely inherited that mindset. Wine even, it’s hard for them to try any other wine besides Cliffhanger. Hard to ignore, Andrea was homeless, and her parents had to be confronted. If that happened, how could they house Andrea? Jacob, the youngest, was too much of a handful as it was. Following up the police would be untold amounts of time and paperwork.

Scott needed a second opinion.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Scott said.

“Where would I go?” Jaruka said with wide arms.

Scott went upstairs. Keeji stood guard at the door. Scott knocked.

“Just a sec,” Katie said. She came out and closed the door behind her. She changed clothes to a blue t-shirt and shorts.

“How’s Andrea?” Scott said low

“She’s feeling much better now,” Katie said low too. “But she talked more. She never went to school this whole time, not even going to the police.”

“You’re kidding?”

Katie shook her head. “She said she’s too embarrassed to show herself.”

“Jesus,” Scott said.

“Maybe, just maybe,” Katie said, “the police heard of this. Can you call Deryl about it? See if he could help?”

Deryl, Scott’s godfather and U.S. Marshal, was not on Scott’s mind before.

“I can try. How’s everything else?”

“Well I got hear cleaned and found some old clothes to fit her and fixed the pants for her tail. It took me a while to calm her down and tell her things will be all right still. She even told me that blast on you was her first spell.”

“Wow.” Even as a terran they have free reign of their magic, in limited quantities. But surviving in the wild without magic?

“I casted a couple spells myself to really make her perk up,” Katie said.

“Nothing big right?” Scott asked and Katie swatted him on the arm.

“Just a towel levitation and water bending. She smiled, a bit.”

“Good, anything to make her smile will help,” Scott said. “Anyway, guess what Jaruka did.”

“He raided the pantry finally?”

“Not yet. He suggested something.”

Katie’s eyelids lowered a bit. “Jaruka. Made a suggestion?”

“Yep.”

Katie turned confused. One ear was lifted. “I’d hate to ask what.”

“He said that we go and talk to Beth and Morgan, face to face and settle it. Crazy right? I mean, he’s telling us to risk our lives.”

“Crazy,” Katie said, thinking on it for a second, “Huh.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Scott shook his head in disbelief.

Katie raised her eyes at him. That familiar look on her face told Scott one thing.

If that wasn’t a changer, Katie and Andrea were talking about it too. Katie was for it, all the way. She needed forgiveness and real answers. Taking Andrea in was a potential problem for the family.

Scott checked on Andrea. She was free of the dirt and mud, her hair back to her usual style (Katie helped clip it) say for the elf ears making an emphasis. No surprise she was wearing Katie’s old long sleeve red blouse and jeans too big that they had to be rolled up. He caught some life in Andrea’s eyes, some. The trauma for the past week still lingered. Andrea’s tail was covered with a bandage to help heal the cuts. Make the thought of “tail socks” a workable idea for somebody.

The decision was scaring Andrea. One side, she was afraid of what would happen if things did not work; the other, she really wanted to be home again. It had to be settled or else it would nag Andrea forever.

“Uh, it’s like you forgot to what you were screaming at Mom and Dad in the first place,” Robert Walsh said in the living room. “I mean…come on. Really? You want to go there?”

“Exactly,” Katie said. “This is for Andrea you know.”

Robert got wind of the commition while grabbing a snack and why Jaruka was sitting and doing nothing. He heard the entire story, heart broken that Andrea was abused.

“Well you can’t take my Jeep,” Robert noted, “and I can’t let you. Mom and Dad are not home. Have you lost your mind? Has that mana screwed with your brain or something?” Keeping them home was a way for him to think it over and call the cops.

“They won’t know, to which I cannot begin to think what they would say. We will be out of there before they get back.”

The terrans and Robert were in the living room. Jaruka was left to stand outside while Andrea stayed upstairs.

“I have magic. I can protect myself,” Katie reminded Robert.

“That’s not the case, you can’t go and certainly not endangering Andrea. The cops can handle it.”

“Robert,” Katie said, “We have to do this. Look, the Livingstons supported us, and we supported them. We all know we can’t keep Andrea here, Mom can’t handle it.”

“Oh, she can.”

“But have you seen her lately? Every time she sees me I get that same look in her eye knowing she will be one soon. She keeps checking herself for a tattoo every day. Andrea is too much stress. The cops can help if we can’t settle it.”

Robert looked down but could not help but beam a glance at Scott. Scott nodded, a little.

“Andrea needs us, and Scott and me are doing this. She called us family.”

“Damn.”

“Now, let us have the Jeep,” Katie said before folding her arms.

Robert did not ignore Jaruka. The alien’s glare—piercing into Robert’s soul kind of brood—made Robert give up the keys.

In a turn of surprise, Jaruka told them he was coming with. Why was that he wanted to make sure his watchers were safe, and there was no Howler Cycle race happing. It made Robert think twice, but it was impossible to take back the car.

Jaruka hated that he had to wear his DNA mask, allowing him to look seamlessly like a human from the Caribbean islands, just to not scare Andrea. Katie’s suggestion. Jaruka went in first, sitting in the back and brooding out the window. His clothes were changed from the mask’s technology: simple black t-shirt, blue jeans, and sandals. His skindreads were now hair-like dreads, bound behind him with a red bandana. Even with the mask changing his natural green skin to a light brown and added a hint of afternoon shadow to his sharp jawline, he still acted as usual.

“Who’s he?” She asked.

Katie said, “He’s one of our new winemakers. He’ll help if a fight breaks out.”

Andrea nodded, but she did not ask anything else about him.

The terrans hid themselves too as with their totems entering their hosts. Hats, sunglasses, and jackets. Scott and Katie never felt so suspicious, ever. The fear of leaving the estate kicked in, but why they were doing it had more power.

“Ready?” Scott said to the group turning the ignition.

The girls nodded. Jaruka kept on looking out.

Robert stood on the patio watching them leave, and not waving goodbye.

Scott felt cabin fever passing away as they left the driveway; he did not realize the feeling was there until then. Memories surfaced of what took place at the gates. The first few weeks dealing with Jaruka, government vehicles and vans were stationed at the gate, spying on them. Eventually the new president ordered the commanders to cease all operations against Jaruka. It hurt the winery too, financially, another reason the parents never like him.

After the Area 51 attack, zombie bodies were scattered over the valley. More than two-thirds of the bodies were picked up, but Scott noticed a truck, the back covered with a tarp, making its checks for more rotting bodies.

The purple crystals—the larger ones impossible to remove—were still imbedded in the ground like natural elements. The smaller ones were collected, either as souvenirs or scientific studies.

As for the city of Temecula, the damage was still prevalent on buildings. Some were repaired or patched. Driving down Rancho California, Katie spotted a few terrans in the open making a living.

One terran girl had a snow owl totem on her shoulder as she gassed up her car.

Another ran as her snow leopard coached her to keep her pace steady.

One guy walking into a gym.

Any other totem, Scott thought, had to be hiding. And if anybody attacked the terrans he saw, it would be a disaster for the attacker.

Which is what Scott hoped would never come to them at the Livingston’s.