The Chrystal Seekers [sick of me yet?]

[Harper Marowski]

Yeah, I know. Honestly, during the summer, I spend pretty much all my time writing because I'm kind of a bum with no job and whatnot because my mother wants me to focus on college, but whatever. You guys have heard me talking about this, so yeah. It's completely original, not Prophecies related at all (there aren't even any Prophecies face claims in it, which is a big thing for me for some reason *cough*Harvin*cough*). You can read it first to see if it makes sense and then I'll go into detail about what the story is at the end.

The Chrystal Seekers: Arrival

DAMIEN LEVAROUX
MADDIE KING

Rocky and Star are missing.

It’s the only thought running through my head as I stumble through a cornfield, away from my vessel. My vessel that, as I was told, was meant to land in the Atlantic Ocean a few miles off the coast of the province the humans called North Carolina. The coordinates had been undoubtedly correct – my father had entered them into the vessel himself, and they were the same coordinates that had been programmed into Star and Rocky’s vessels.

But here I stand, with neither of my traveling companions anywhere in sight, sound, or sensor. And that means that I have to be at least fifty miles off target for either of them to not be on my radar.

This is not the situation I had in mind when Rocky, Star, and I left Krolo in order to find Zephyr’s Chrystal.

“Is someone out there?”

My head shoots up as a sudden fear swells somewhere in my abdomen. Humans were not supposed to see me land, and the voice that called out does not belong to Star or Rocky. In a panic, I turn to my vessel and place my hand on the invisibility cloaking device switch on the hood. The ship shimmers before completely vanishing, leaving only a space void of anything except crushed corn stalks. I can’t help but feel guilty for a moment that I destroyed a portion of the humans’ food source, but it hadn’t been my fault.

“What the hell?”

I turn to see a human female, approximately seventeen years of age, looking at me in disbelief. Long blond hair flowing over her shoulders, freckles dotting her innocent-looking face, though her green-gray (or are they blue?) eyes are glaring at me with such a fiery expression that I feel the need to take a step away from her. I might have considered her pretty if I didn’t already have Star to think about.

“Excuse me,” I say politely, looking at the girl with curious eyes. I had imagined my first meeting with a real human for ages, but never had I suspected it to be like this.

“What are you doing out here? And why the hell did you crush some of my neighbor’s corn?” the girl demands. I open my mouth to respond, but she cuts me off. “You’re one of the new kids in town, aren’t you? I bet you and your dumbass friends get off on destroying peoples’ livelihoods.”

I’m completely caught off guard, but a few words that she had said peak my interest. “New kids in town?”

“You don’t know them, huh? Will and his gang of idiots?”

“I don’t know a ‘Will’,” I tell her honestly, but she continues to glare at me with suspicious eyes. Her words disappoint me, because I know that she isn’t referring to Star or Rocky – not to mention that I ought to have realized that when she said ‘new kids in town’ she couldn’t have possibly meant the kids who had arrived less than five minutes ago.

“Then what are you doing out here? And why are you standing in the middle of an area of smashed crops?”

I quickly manage to avoid the potential crisis at hand. “I thought I saw something out here,” I lie easily. “I came to see what it was.”

The girl pauses for a moment, and I can tell she’s looking me over but is trying to be subtle about it in the way that her pupils barely move. I wonder if she sees anything out of the ordinary, because while I’ve been told we look completely like humans, I’ve always thought about if there really are any differences in our appearances.

“I’ve never seen you before,” she finally decides to remark, folding her arms across her chest. “Who are you?”

“My name is Damien Levaroux,” I reply automatically. It’s the response I’ve been trained to give. “I just arrived here in town, and I am looking for some friends.” That last part, of course, was not supposed to be a part of my explanation.

“Why aren’t you with them right now? And why would they be in the middle of a cornfield?”

This girl is perceptive, a dangerous trait.

“My friend, Rocky, has a knack for… strange things,” I explain, telling as much truth as I possibly can. “I guessed that perhaps he was behind this... spontaneous collapse of corn, but now I see that there is nobody here but me. So I’ll be on my way.”

“There isn’t anyone in this town named Rocky. If there were, I would know them.” The girl sidesteps, blocking my exit. She still appears suspicious, but at least seems to be slightly more relaxed now. “But seriously, why are you looking for your friends? Shouldn’t you be with them?”

“Let’s just say we were separated in a very unexpected manner. Now would you please allow me to leave?”

The human seems to have no intention of doing so, as she goes to block my way again. “Look, if you’re looking for someone, my dad could probably help you find them. He’s a cop.”

“A… cop?”

She gives me a look that implies that I’m mentally handicapped. “A police officer? The popo? A member of law enforcement?”

“Oh, right.” ‘Cop’ had not been on the list of synonyms in our human language dictionary for a police officer. Nevertheless, I don’t think that the idea of getting involved with law enforcement is the best idea, especially with my situation. “I think I should be able to find them on my own, thank you.”

“Which is definitely why you’re in the middle of a cornfield.”

I have no response for that, though the girl still seems to sense that there’s hesitation in me. She rolls her eyes and grabs my arm, which catches me by surprise. Never in any of my studies had any book mentioned that humans were so forward. She tries to tug me from my spot, but her measly human strength doesn’t even make me budge. She turns to glare at me.

“Come on,” she says indignantly. “What’s your problem?”

“You’re the one who’s trying to pull me towards a police officer’s home. I have no intentions of interacting with the law,” I announce, looking back at her with an expression mimicking her own.

The girl rolls her eyes and tugs on my arm again. “My dad’s not a bad guy,” she answers insistently. “Unless you and your friends have bombed a city somewhere or you’re illegal aliens, he won’t do anything except help find who you're looking for.”

Interesting choice of words, I think to myself as I still remain firmly in my place. This girl just won’t give up, as she glares at me with her green-blue-gray (whatever color they are) eyes as if I’m the one being unbelievably stubborn. I have a job to do, and this girl has begun to irritate me. “Don’t you have somewhere else to go? Someone else to pester? Why are you out here in a corn field?”

She glares, and drops my arm. “My friend Stewart’s dad runs this farm. I take this cornfield as a shortcut to their house, and I was coming back from a visit when I ran into you. I was going home.”

“Then run along home. I’m in no need of your help.”

Something in my voice convinces her, and she backs away from me and I can see the evident anger in her eyes. It was disappointing me, that my very first encounter with a human was going in such a terrible manner, and that the human I ran into was a girl like this. I’d hoped that humans would be more… well, I wasn’t sure what I had expected, I’d imagined it so many times. I just knew I hadn’t expected it to be like this.

“Fine. Go and look for your friends in a cornfield. See if I care,” she snaps, and I watch her coolly as she backs away into the corn stalks like an animal backing away from a threat. And within seconds, she’s gone.

I sigh a bit in relief as I sink to the ground and pray to be left alone for a while. I turn off the invisibility cloaking device and lean against my vessel, wondering what possibly could have gone wrong.

The trip from Krolo to Earth, for our technology, took less than two days. By the position of the sun, I know that I arrived here on time. But obviously not in the right place, and this leads me to grow worried and anxious. What if Star and Rocky have been separated as well?

The very thought brings panic to my mind. Star – all her life she’s never been alone. It was always Rocky and I, we shared the responsibility of watching over her, as it was accustomed for a male to watch over his betrothed, and to share that duty with his or her personal bodyguard.

Betrothed. Just the word brings warmth to me as I think about how long Star and I have known each other. Ever since we were birthed, practically, it had been known knowledge throughout our province that Star-Re, Heiress to the Orion House, was betrothed to Dam-kur, Prince of the Freos House. Which is my full title, back on Krolo. The pair of us had been raised together, constantly by each other’s side, even in sleep. Rocky, known as Rok-mur on our planet, had been her personal bodyguard ever since she’d been assigned one at the age of three.

But thinking about her on her own, away from Rocky, the thought itself was almost enough to send me into something similar to cardiac arrest. The only thing keeping me from a pure mental breakdown was the fact that I knew very well that Star could handle herself in a rough situation, as she had done so well back on Krolo whenever the three of us ran into a spot of trouble.

Which, as of late over the past few years, had been a little too often for my liking.

The next time anyone on Krolo thought that they were going to come down to this planet on a mission like ours, I was going to make sure that they were given more than one communication device. This not knowing where I was or how far away Star and Rocky were was not doing anything for my nerves.

I allow myself to fiddle around my vessel for a few hours, searching for anything that could possibly lead me to find my comrades. If Star and Rocky are together, at least, which I pray that they are, I know I can rest a little easier. No humans came to interrupt me, though I would have heard them before they came within fifty feet of the area.

As the sun begins to sink lower into the sky, I know that I’ve wasted enough time wandering around my vessel, and that it’s now time to get some answers. Had I been thinking clearly earlier, I probably would have questioned that annoying human girl about my whereabouts, though I wonder if she would have even given me an answer.

With the invisibility cloaking device once again activated on the ship’s hood, I venture out into the cornfield. The corn stalks are taller than I am, and after a few minutes of wandering, I begin to panic – realizing that I had absolutely no idea how large this field was. What if I never manage to make my way from here?

Suddenly, I stumble onto a path cut through the corn, and a smile escapes me as I see that it’s a pathway leading directly to a darkly paved road.

Immediately my interest is piqued. I head for the paved road, anxious to see the first signs of human civilization and to take in my first real view of the human environment, when I hear it.

A voice, carried on the wind, and as my internal sensors locate it, I realize it’s over a mile away.

“Get out of my way, Towler!”

I recognize the voice. It belongs to the human girl that was pestering me so many hours ago. What is she still doing out, when her sun is setting? Weren’t humans supposed to have retreated into their homes by this hour? The night was a time of fear for them, or so I’ve read, a time of crime and violence, and a time that inspired various mythological stories that were too ridiculous to comprehend.

Still, as I listen more closely and hone my senses, I can hear that she most certainly isn’t alone. And she’s in distress.

“Yeah? What are you going to do about it, little officer’s daughter? Call your daddy on me?”

This is a new voice, a voice I have not yet heard, but it doesn’t sound friendly. I lift my head up towards the direction where the voices are coming from, and decide to investigate.

Speed-running has always been a gift among my people – the ability to run at great distances in short time. Here on this planet, running a mile took no less than three seconds, and upon arriving on the scene, I’m greeted by a strange sight.

Four young boys, all around eighteen or nineteen years of age, are gathered around one sole female – the girl from earlier. She stands tall, almost like a female animal trying to make herself bigger in the presence of more powerful males. I had seen it all too many times on Krolo, and more often than not the attempts became failures and then something a lot more ugly.

One of the boys, the tallest of the four, with greasy dark hair, spots me first. He grins. “Look, guys, the little officer’s daughter has a backup squad.”

The girl turns to look at me, and her eyes widen. Whether from shock or irritation I can’t tell. “What are you doing here?”

“Shut up, King, we’ll get back to you here in a second,” the boy snarls at her.

The girl, whom he had dubbed King, winces but continues to glare at him defiantly. I begin to wonder if maybe this human isn’t so horrible after all, if she can manage to hold her own against these obviously antagonistic obnoxious teenage boys, all of whom are on seemingly electrified two-wheeled mobile devices.

“Leave her alone,” I declare, though I know my words will go ignored. They do.

“What is it with the kids who hang around King, huh? Do you all think you can run the world? It’s not healthy to always hide behind a cop.” The boy grins nastily, and by the way the girl they call King is glaring at him, I can tell that this is a sore matter of conversation. “Look, buddy, we weren’t doing anything to her. Just giving her some friendly advice.”

I look down at him in disbelief. Though he is the tallest of the bunch, he barely reaches my chin. “It doesn’t look too friendly from where I’m standing,” I tell him. “Maybe you ought to save your friendly advice for some other time.”

“Excuse me, boys, but I do believe that I’ve told you once before that you should leave my daughter and every other child in this neighborhood alone.”

This new voice is much deeper, and I look up to see a mature human with sunny blond hair similar to the girl’s glaring at the lot of us. Wearing a leather jacket and denim jeans and what looks like a law enforcement badge pinned to the front of his attire, he looks almost dangerous. Much more so than these adolescents who all seem to be sulking now that their session with the girl had been interrupted.

“The next time I catch you harassing my daughter will be the last time before I see you in court,” the man threatens, pushing through two of the boys to put his hands on the girl’s shoulders. Her father, I realize. “Do I make myself clear?”

When the boys don’t answer, he clears his throat. “Do I make myself clear?” This time he annunciates every word.

“Yes, sir,” is the anonymous grumbling amongst the group before they all disperse like creatures that had been dismissed by their master.

I watch them go, smiling in amusement, when the man’s voice sounds again. “You. What are you still doing here? I told you and your friends to leave my daughter alone.” I look at him in surprise, and before I can respond, the girl pulls away from her father to stand in front of me.

“Dad, not him,” she says, although there’s something in her voice that almost sounds begrudging, as if it pains her to admit this. “He was… trying to help me out. He told them to leave me alone.”

The man now looks me over, and I can see it in his eyes that he’s not sure what to think of me. “I’ve never seen you before,” he remarks, oddly mirroring what his daughter had observed only a few hours ago. “What’s your name, son? And how do you know my daughter?”

“His name’s Damien,” the girl answers for me, and I look down at her half in annoyance. Do I not have the right to answer for myself? “We, uh, ran into each other on my way back from Stewart’s. He’s looking for some friends of his… or did you find them?” She finally turns to look at me, giving me a chance to explain myself.

I shake my head. “I’ll be on my way now, but thank you. I’m sure my friends aren’t far off.” Which is a complete and total lie.

“Hold on there a minute,” the girl’s father says, watching me curiously. “Shouldn’t you be headed home? It’s getting dark.”

Suddenly I’m not sure what to say. “My… my home is with my friends… sir.” I use the respectful term that the boys from earlier had used when he’d spoken to them.

“And you can’t find them?”

I shake my head.

Now the girl speaks, her expression incredulous. “And you expect to find them in the dark in the middle of a suburb in South Carolina?”

Her father nods. “Don’t you have a place to stay, young man? What’s your last name?”

“Levaroux,” I respond, though I could tell that the girl had opened her mouth to respond for me. “And no, sir, I don’t believe I do. South Carolina, you say?” Those words, at least, gave me a clue as to where I was.

The man and his daughter exchange looks, but I can’t tell if they’re of shock, disbelief, or worry.

“Do you… do you even know where you are?” the girl asks.

At this point, I can think of nothing but to tell the truth. I shake my head, and the two humans once again exchange that same look they’d just shared a second ago. Everything pauses for a moment as they look at each other, and I realize a second too late that they appear to be having a silent conversation, a sign that the pair of them knew the other very well as far as I knew.

“Damien, son, I think you ought to stay with us tonight,” the man finally offers, running a hand through his blond locks. “We have a guest room downstairs you could sleep in… do you have any belongings with you?”

Well, my vessel, but I very well couldn’t tell them I had a ‘spaceship’, now could I? I just shake my head, and I realize I must look like a homeless child, with nothing but my clothes and the knowledge that I have to find my friends… and no knowledge whatsoever of where I am. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing in their eyes.

“That settles it,” the girl says, as if there’s nothing more to be said. “You’re staying with us. Come on.” She reaches out and grabs my arm again, only this time, I allow her to drag me with her and her father, and I decide that perhaps spending one night in a human home could not only just be a beneficial and educational experience, but a chance to figure things out. Star and Rocky, hopefully, could wait until tomorrow.

The girl and her father bring me to the door of their home just across the street from where the encounter had just occurred. Those boys must not have been very smart, trying to assault this girl directly across from where she and her police officer father lived.

Looking up at the house, it looks like something straight out of a textbook on Krolo. It appears to be an average two-story home, colored a pale yellow that, in the light of the fading sun, almost appears golden. The light glints off the windows, shimmering and giving the place a very pleasant feel. It feels like a real house that has joyous living beings inside it, and wishes to boast about it.

“Come on in, son. Are you hungry? Maybe my daughter could cook you up something for dinner – she makes some mean macaroni and cheese.”

I jerk my head back towards the two humans, and I realize that they’d opened the door and were waiting for me to enter their home. Feeling a jolt of excitement upon entering my very first human dwelling, I take a step inside and feel a rush of cool air that’s much more comfortable than the humidified hot air of the outdoors. Air conditioning, I realize, one of the more ingenious human inventions.

At the very same time, a rumbling occurs in my abdominal area, and a pang of hunger overcomes me. I have absolutely no idea what macaroni and cheese is, but anything sounds as if it could satisfy me at this point. It’s strange to think that I haven’t eaten in almost three days, yet I’m only registering my hunger now.

The girl hears the rumbling and laughs, her eyes bright with amusement. I notice that it’s a pleasant sound, the sound of human laughter, or perhaps it’s just this girl’s laugh. It makes a nice difference now that she seems happier and not irritated with me. “I’ll get started on it after I show you the guest room. Come on, it’s this way,” she says, and I wonder why she’s treating me so nicely all of a sudden. Just a few moments ago she’d seemed annoyed to see me.

She takes me down a short hallway, and I find myself looking around and drinking in everything about their residence. The wallpaper is neutral colored, a plain pattern dotting the walls with pictures and paintings hanging up for the viewing pleasure of anyone passing. One makes me pause.

It’s a picture of three humans, two of whom look very familiar. Two adults, one male, and one female, are standing together with a tiny blond female child on the male’s shoulders. The male appears to be a younger version of the police officer, with shaggy blond hair and a mustache. The little girl upon his shoulders looks like she’s laughing, wrapping her tiny arms around her father’s neck, innocent blue eyes (interesting - her eyes are clearly blue here) focused on the camera. And the female, smiling gently, has her hand in her husband’s, her eyes on her daughter. It’s a perfect family, I realize. Or a photograph that gives off the illusion of one.

“You can look at pictures later.” All of a sudden the girl’s voice is cold, and I can tell that she knows what I’m looking at. “This is your room.”
I turn to look at her, and she’s looking at me as if I’ve intruded upon something very private. She’s gesturing towards an open door, I’m assuming the room beyond it will be my accommodations for the night. Thoughts of Rocky and Star still haunt my mind, but I know that searching for them aimlessly will do me no good. Maybe it would be best to use these humans’ resources, investigate their technology.

“What? Do I have a neon sign on my chest?” the girl snaps, all patience seemingly gone. “Here’s your room. The bed’s been made since… I don’t know when. Bathroom’s down the hall, and the shower’s upstairs. There are towels on your dresser, but if you plan on actually taking a shower then let us know first. Got it?”

“Understood,” I respond, stepping into the room.

It’s a charming place, with pale blue wall colorings and a darker plush carpet beneath my feet. A bed lies against the wall to my right, a window opposite me that looks out over a fenced backyard with a swing and a slide meant for small children, and a built in hole with water; perhaps it’s a swimming pool? A dresser to my left, and a desk further down the wall. It feels homely, like a place someone could fit in easily.

“Do you like it?” the girl now asks, something resembling amusement and even a tidbit of hope in her voice.

I turn to smile at her. “I do,” I answer honestly. The whole idea of spending a night in a human home is exciting enough in itself, and it must have shown in my expression because the girl actually smiles, her eyes glinting.

She turns away from me, and begins to wander back down the hall. Realizing something, something I hadn’t asked her, I rush out after her. She hears me, and looks at me over her shoulder.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

The girl just grins at me. “Madeline King,” she replies, laughter in her voice. Her seemingly mischievous eyes are shining in the growing darkness. “But you can call me Maddie.”

Ta-da! That's Chapter One. I'm planning on switching points of view every chapter, so next you'll be hearing what happened to Star. Does Damien have reason to worry? Dun-dun-duuun! You'll just have to find out. In case you haven't picked up on it yet, here's basically the story:

Three intergalactic travelers from a planet called Krolo have made it to Earth. They look like us, act like us, and talk like us, but they're not really one of us. They're here on a mission: to find Zephyr's Chrystal, a dangerous tool that was hidden on our planet by the elders of the previous generation of Krolo. Damien, Star, and Rocky are here to find it, but what kind of trials and obstacles are in their way?

You'll just have have to find out. (;