Flauraan

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

I pulled my head up off the floor where I'd landed, electricity somehow crackling through my hair. I didn't entirely understand what had happened. With a lot of effort I stood up, and turned around to find the person I'd slammed into. It was a girl, who I could tell was sixteen years old. She was just standing there staring at me, so naturally all I did was stare back.

The girl was short for her age, with messy, curled brown hair and hazel eyes. She had dark skin, though fairer than mine, and a spraying of freckles across her face. She was wearing a watch on her left arm, but not the normal kind of watch. It went further up her wrist and I could tell it held a whole heap of power inside. She was wearing a blue machine-made shirt, machine-made pants and machine-made brown boots; where she came from must have relied on machines for clothes making. She also had a backpack on her back.

Once I'd taken all this in I finally mustered the courage to say something.

"Who are you?" I asked in wonder.

The girl smiled sheepishly. "I'm Sophie. Sorry I bumped into you, it was an accident, I can't exactly control where I land." She said, talking quite fast. "I probably should've calibrated before I landed but I was following a ship and wasn't really concentrating. It mustn't be far from here." She paused for a moment, looking around. "So who are you?"

"I'm Abigail." I replied, trying to take in the sudden turn of events. "You said you were following a ship?"

Sophie nodded. "It was one from my planet, Earth. I've been looking for a human ship for a while, I was wondering if this was the right one." She ended hopefully.

"Well, it's just over there." I told her, pointing in the direction of the field.

"Ah, that would explain the smoke." She said, waving her hand through the plumes of thick smog drifting above her head.

"Yes, it disappeared for a moment because of the electrical activity here, but it's coming back now." I answered intelligently.

Sophie nodded, then looked down at her watch and flipped open a compartment. "I'm in the Staarus System..." she said thoughtfully, reading off of a little screen. "What planet is this?"

"Flauraan." I answered, wondering at the technology on her wrist.

"Flauraan." Sophie repeated, typing it in. Then she flipped the compartment closed and stood there grinning. "I haven't been here before. It's nice. Except for the smoke, but you know, that's not your fault."

"Um, what exactly is that thing?" I asked, still distracted by her watch.

"This?" She said, holding it up. "It's a teleport watch - or at least that's what I call it. I can use it to disappear from one place and appear in another. It can supposedly go anyplace in the universe."

"That's amazing!" I said in awe.

"Yeah, it is." She said, looking down at the watch fondly. "So... Abigail, how old are you?" she asked, loooking up again.

"I'm fourteen." I replied.

"Wow, you look just like the fourteen year olds on my planet." Sophie said, smiling. "Which is a little strange, actually; you look very much like us humans do."

"You look like us Paladanians." I answered swiftly.

"Paladanians?" she looked confused. "Oh is that what your race is called?" I nodded. "Ah well that's cool. Paladanians." She continued, stretching out the word. "Yeah I like that. So do all Paladanians go around without shoes on or are you starting a fad?" she asked, pointing down at my feet, which were bare.