Elion watched the boy climb a grassy ridge and disappear behind a large grey stone. The kid looked just like a regular, human boy who’d been out playing in the yard.

His head spinning, Elion tested his limbs, feeling for any injuries. His whole body ached, and his skin felt raw, but other than that he was in one piece.

He sat at the bottom of a shallow hollow, the earth sloping up and away from him at a gentle slope. Irregular standing stones lined the ridge. Beyond these, the strange sky shimmered.

His butter knife quivered in the ground beside him, embedded in the dirt. Tufts of grass and small flowers grew sporadically on the slopes. A small pile dried out plants lay nearby, suggesting someone had worked to clear the dirt area where Elion had landed.

In the dirt, a trail of paw prints led away from where Elion sat. Elion groaned. Why did that cat always have to run off? At least Snickers could walk; he must have shared in Elion’s protection.

Elion examined the glyphs and symbols which someone had drawn in the dirt around him. They seemed familiar, and he thought he recognized some of them from the warlock staff which Zev had used to power his portal.

The strange, beautiful sky cast a golden light over the ground. Elion couldn’t tell what time of day it was, but a cool crispness in the air suggested early morning. Was this place Kylios? Elion pinched himself.

“Ouch.”

Not dreaming then.

Does that even really work? I’ve never tried to pinch myself in a dream.

He wasn’t on Earth anymore. His hands trembled; was the air here safe to breathe? Of course it was, he’d been breathing it all this time. He took a deep breath, savoring the freshness.

He had expected to emerge from the other side of the portal inside Dorian’s palace, wherever Dorian and his warlocks had traveled to Earth from, but Elion saw no sign of the purple wizards.

Rising to his feet, he brushed dirt from his jeans, then pulled his knife from the ground. The blade, if it could be called a blade, had worked well enough against the warlock at the Walker’s house. He shoved the butter knife into the front pouch of his hoodie.

Elion hoped that the Walkers were okay.

Dorian said he wasn’t interested in them. I hope they left Cara and her friends alone when I jumped into their portal.

If the warlocks had come after him, then where were they?

He had to find out if Zev had made it to Kylios. If he did, then he must have gotten into some kind of trouble that prevented him from coming back to Earth after twenty-four hours.

Then he had to get to Dorian’s palace. What had he called it again? The Palace of Stars? Elion looked around again and decided that this place certainly was not the Palace of Stars. As far as he could see, no stars.

So if he hadn’t made it to Dorian’s palace, then where had he ended up? He touched the Starholder Pendant around his neck, wondering how he would find Liora.

I’m their last hope. Nobody else knows what happened to them.

He climbed the side of the hollow, heading in the direction Snickers had walked, which also happened to be the way the boy had run. Stepping between two large stones, he saw a small village laid out before him. Twenty or so houses surrounded a central square, haphazardly scattered about.

Built of a combination of scrap metal, reclaimed plastics, and lumber, the buildings appeared haphazardly assembled, rooms and floors added on as needed. Many of the buildings seemed abandoned, and one of them had collapsed completely. A few looked lived in and cared for, paths beaten through the dirt and vegetation, small planter boxes filled with neatly growing rows of plants.

The houses surrounded a tower, thrusting from the ground of the central square like a spike. Taller than all the surrounding buildings, the tower pulsed with the same teal light as the arachnatronics which had attacked him before. Maybe Elion had gotten lucky, and he would find Zev waiting for him in town.

Trees encircled the town and the ridge where Elion stood, preventing him from learning more about his surroundings. He decided to take his chances with the town, rather than risk getting lost in an alien forest on an alien planet. He started down the slope.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

As he walked, he wondered what he should tell people. Would they be hostile? What would they think if he told them he came from Earth? Would they even know what Earth was?

Zev said humans live on Kylios. But being from another planet means they’re still aliens. I should be careful.

He heard a voice from the nearest house, and recognized the voice of the boy from earlier.

“I’m serious, I’m serious!”

A small text in the corner of his vision appeared.

<< Translation Active >>

“Either help me with Dad’s oil change or go away Kasm!”

Whoever responded sounded older, though still young. Elion, uncertain of his status here, stood awkwardly in the yard, looking for a door.

Do aliens expect you to knock or do they prefer doorbells?

A narrow path of trampled dirt led to an opening in the side of the building. Planters made of plastic tubs lined the path, filled with dead and dying plants. A partially filled rain barrel collected water dripping from the corner of the roof, and a clothesline strung between two poles dangled with faded fabrics.

“Come on Tael, please, come, come see,” the boy, pleaded.

“I’ll be okay for a minute, Tael,” an older, deeper voice said. “Go see what Kasm wants you to look at. I’ll wait here.”

“Fine,” Tael said.

The ‘Translation Active’ text disappeared from Elion’s vision. He wondered if translation only worked one way; translating whatever he heard. Would other people understand him when he spoke?

The wiry boy Elion had already seen emerged from the opening in the building. Elion decided he was around ten years old. He would fit in with ten-year-olds from Earth. Maybe age works differently on Kylios.

Brown hair flapped around the boy’s head, sticking up in places. Smudges of dirt and grease marked his face and arms. He wore a pair of heavily patched jeans and an oversized jacket. Elion recognized him and guessed he was Kasm.

A second boy, older, probably Tael, followed closely behind Kasm. He looked to be about fifteen, taller, and wore his hair swept back behind his ears. He carried a long rifle in his arms. They ran across the yard, Kasm pulling his older brother Tael along behind.

Since they hadn’t seen him yet, Elion tried to look non-threatening. He held his hands out in front of him. The pose felt a little too much like a statue of Christ he had once seen, so he held his hands further out to the side.

Now he was T-posing, so he gave up and just folded his arms. He tried to put a friendly look on his face, so that they didn’t just start shooting at him.

The boys both noticed him standing on the edge of their yard at the same time. They stumbled to a stop and stared at Elion.

“Um, hi,” Elion said. “Where am I?” As he spoke the ‘Translation Active’ text reappeared in his vision.

Kasm, the younger boy, recovered first and began approaching. “Hi,” he said. “I’m Kasm, and this is my brother Tael. You’re in Aterfel.”

“Wait,” Tael said, catching his brother by the arm. “Stop. Are you sure he’s not infected?”

“Let go of me,” Kasm said, shaking himself free. “He’s a hero, come to help us!”

Tael lifted his rifle. “Get out of the way, Kasm,” Tael said, pointing the gun at Elion.

“Woah,” Elion said, lifting his hands into the air, eying the gun. A long black barrel glinted angrily in the daylight. Teal light coursed through channels along the body of the gun, emanating from a glowing circular core mounted in the stock. The bipod attached to the lower rail was folded up. Tael pulled the gun into the crease of his shoulder, not bothering to look through the scope.

“Who are you?” Tael demanded.

“Stop it, Tael,” Kasm said. “Look at him, he’s clearly not infected. Look at his eyes.”

“I’m Elion. Elion Walker?” Elion bit his tongue after speaking, feeling he had made a mistake. If Dorian came looking for him here, then it would be better if people didn’t know his name. He resolved to conceal his identity better. If he knew more about this place, he could lie more convincingly.

“He’s a hero, Tael.”

“What if he’s infected? A Tephalian?” Tael countered, keeping his gun pointed at Elion. “He could kill us.”

“I’m not going to kill anyone,” Elion said.

“Shut up,” Tael said.

“Take him to Dad,” Kasm said. “He’ll know.” Elion watched Tael’s face closely as the boy considered the suggestion.

“Fine,” he said. “Come with us, Elion Walker.”