Pandora watched tiredly from the stairs as her family happily chatted away. She had tried to join in a few times, yet was ignored each try. After awhile, Pandora just stopped trying. She sighed as she fiddled with her thumbs, this was why she disliked weekends. Family gatherings always ended the same way, as the adults flooded to her siblings and cousins, while the younger children left to go play some wild game.
However, this left Pandora all alone. It wasn't all that bad, she knew more than enough family gossip from simply being ignored. She knew about every dirty little secret this family had...and that was a lot.
Sighing, she stood up and made her way over to her mother, who was all dressed in lace and jewels as she showed off Pandora's sister: Lyric...her family was weird with names. "Mom...I'm gonna walk around outside, alright?" She asked timidly.
The only response was a wave of the hand.
Pandora took that as a "yes" and grabbed her boots. She pulled one tan boot on at a time before snatching her light brown leather jacket up and walking out. Her grandparents lived on an estate with small woods off to the side. No one actually owned that land.
With her hands in her pockets, she walked right into the forest, quickly finding one of the deer paths they had made years ago. She wasn't going to lie and say she found comfort in the woods. However, they did bring a sense of company, which was really all she wanted at that point. The sun was slowly setting, which lay way to the brilliant night sky.
That was something Pandora found solace in.
There was something about the darkened sky, full of endless twinkling little lights that enchanted the girl. It was a reminder, a reminder that there was more out there, and that no matter how lonesome she felt, she wasn't ever truly alone. So long as she had the stars.
The deer path came to an end, however it eft into a long, spacious, green meadow that was littered with tiny purple flowers and green leaf clovers.
A small smile escaped Pandora as she lied down on the ground, hands over her head and knee propped up as she looked up at the now nearly complete dark sky. This was Pandora's little box of paradise.
Now, she would never actually go so far as to say her life was terrible. She was always well fed, clothed, clean, and had a roof over her head. However it wasn't exactly the best life either. She was ignored to the point she wasn't even sure they knew she existed. She lived in the rest of her family's shadow, with very little of her own light.
Pandora craved some sort of attention. Sometimes she would even strike out and rebel a little in hopes of getting some acknowledgment. However all that rewarded her when acting out was a scolding, and then she once again was forgotten.
She wasn't always ignored, back when she was little she received just as much attention as the others. It was when they all got a bit older that Pandora got left behind.
Pandora just wasn't special like the others. She wasn't a music genius like her younger sister: Zoe, nor was she excellent at everything she ever did, like her older sister Lyric. In fact, the only things Pandora was remotely good at was art and science. Yet it was nowhere near as good as the expectations the rest of her family had set.
Due to this, she was more easily forgotten by the others. After all, who wanted to brag about the kid who was average, at best? Certainly not her family.
As Pandora threw herself a small pity party in her head, she continued to count the stars up in the night sky. She knew there were too many to count, but she still liked to try. It helped pass the time, which was something she always had plenty of.
"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fiftee-what is that?" Her counting was interrupted as the "star" she had been counting suddenly got bigger. The girl squinted at it, deciding it was likely just a plane or something.
However, it just kept getting bigger...or maybe the correct term was...closer, the star was getting closer, and louder. Pandora wasn't quite sure what that sound was, but it didn't sound normal, and then right as she was beginning to stand up, something quite literally fell out of the sky and landed not more than fifteen feet away from her.
Pandora felt her heart beat speed up as she stumbled back, surprised at what had happened. However, the majority of her surprise was more angled at what had landed in front of her, instead of the fact that something had nearly squashed her.
For you see, the thing that fell out of the night sky was a real live UFO, but what was even more strange was the life forms that fell out of it.
From the spaceship came a large, horse sized beast. With bird like wings, a cat body, and two ram horns sprouting from it's cat like head. It's tail was long and feathery, its knees, bridge of the nose, back, and top of the head were covered in scales, and of course, the thing had a single antenna sprouting from the patch of scales resting on the very top of it's head.
After getting over the initial shock, Pandora swore loudly, screamed, and flung herself backwards, trying to get away.
Sadly it was that noise which alerted the alien of her presence.
It turned a bloody, yes bloody; the thing was covered in blood, head towards her. It was the first time Pandora noticed that the thing had been holding something which looked suspiciously like an egg, and before the teenager knew what had happened, the alien shot towards her, pinning her down as it bared its long fangs.
This was it, she was going to die. She was going to get eaten alive by some weird animal alien, and there was nothing she could do about it. So, Pandora turned away and closed her eyes, awaiting the obvious pain that was to come.
However it never came, and the next thing Pandora knew, the beast had taken a step back, bringing its curled wing close to it, where the egg was safely secure.
Pandora gulped, finally daring to look back up at the creature, however she was surprised to see it comforting the egg, it seemed to have all but forgotten about Pandora. So, taking her chances, the girl slowly started to back away, her entire body shaking.
It was when she stepped on an old, and rather crunchy leaf did the creature turn it's attention back to the girl, and Pandora cursed again.
The alien looked at her, glanced at the egg, and then looked back at her. It seemed to contemplate something, and then all of a sudden, it shot the egg at her, making it crash right into her chest.
At this point, Pandora didn't know what to expect, however when some sort of weird pink liquid oozed itself around her chest, securing the egg on her...she had to admit that out of anything she could have possibly thought of happening, this was not on that list.
The alien seemed to give her a look that said "take care of it" before slowly heaving itself towards the spaceship. It cast a look up at the night sky before entering, and all of a sudden, the spacecraft vanished right in front of her eyes.
Pandora stood there on shaky legs, watching it disappear as the egg pressed upon her chest. She blinked, and then promptly fainted.
