Ebony

First Meeting

The night was peaceful, the only thing to ruffle her was the cool breeze. Each day was steadily growing cooler, despite it being December. So it was in the girl's small hometown. By the same time the previous year, the air barely had a nip. This time, it held strong breezes whooshing the cold air in from the north.

The local Sonic was the scene of upholding her from seeking a warm place. She waited for food with her mom, a woman of dyed red hair with silver strands poking through. Two schoolmates sat with her, one on the bench like a normal person and the other on the table with her. They had finished ordering supper and were waiting for the food for nine, as it was with four siblings.

The twin schoolmates were arguing over their shared phone. Coming from the family they did, they could not afford separate smartphones as was the norm, but shared one. This often caused fits between the two as they started up again. The food was coming out at the moment their phone went flying into the grass, a ways from the awning from under which it had flown from.

While her mom was preoccupied and the two girls still arguing, the girl went to fetch the phone. It would be easier than watching the two fight over who should get it.

She was disappointed to see that the phone laid shattered with the screen spread over crumbling brown grass. More fighting would ensue. At that moment, she sighed.

This was a girl growing wary of life and it could be heard on her sigh. Her life was the same routine. Eat fast food, compete in whatever club she was in, watch siblings, try to ignore parents. Finish school...get into college. These were what weighed on the mind of the seventeen year old. She found herself looking up from her crouched position as she sought out a star to wish upon.

She found Polaris and was about to start before she spotted the shooting star. Wasn't a person supposed to wish on shooting stars? She switched her mind over and made a wish. A wish for change. To gain a way to be so.

That was about the time she realized that wasn't a shooting star, but something else. Something else getting so close as to crash. She ducked, scared until she realize nothing had happened. Looking up, she saw a floating pyramid.

The pyramid was black as night, perhaps even richer. It seemed endless, like you drown it in it. It was a dangerous blackness. It floated and she stood, studying the strange object. It was easily three times the size of the Sonic.

She looked over shoulder. All of her party's backs were turned, focused on the food or their fighting. They seriously hadn't noticed this huge floating pyramid? She wondered.

Her attention was pulled back when a small ball of light sparked in the middle of the square face on the bottom of the pyramid. It performed a few swirls midair before alighting on the ground. A mellow flash of light, not bright enough to make her blink, and something new was there.

It was a black man. Not black like brown, but a deep, rich ebony black. He almost blended in too much with the surroundings for her to tell much, but the girl could make out his shape.

He appeared to have a crest, rather than human hair, in the shape of that of the secretary bird when it was at rest.  On his cheeks, there appeared to be moving slits. She would have made a guess for them to be like the gills of a some sea animals. He didn't appear to have a nose from the profile view she could see.

She made a noise, certainly something she didn't mean to do, and its head jerked towards her. She stilled, waiting to see its reaction. She could hear a deep sniffing smell, like it was testing the air, which it was. It approached her slowly on its two legs. Rise appeared human enough by its other features.

It got close enough to touch her before stopping, gazing steadily at her. She couldn't make out any eyes. Its gill like noses moved again before it looked down at the ground.

It crouched and picked up the phone, its body turning into a dark glob. It straightened and the girl was surprised to find everything was there, including all the shards of the screen.

"Thank you!" She called, stunned when the creature was below the ship again. It moved its head as if it was gazing at her before light traveled from the bottom up and it was the star of light again, floating to the pyramid in its looping way.

That was the first meeting.