Flauraan

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

"Abigail!" Mum called out, as Sophie and I approached the house. It was a relief to see her again. She ran forward as we got closer, and dad followed behind her. Even from that distance, I could tell how worried they both were. I wondered how long they'd been waiting for me.

I glanced at Sophie beside me, taking in the anxious look on her face. The walk home had been mostly done in silence, with both of us thinking about the night's events. I knew Sophie somehow felt responsible for this whole affair, with her people and their attempt at attacking us. I gave her hand a squeeze before turning to face my parents. A moment later I ran forward and wrapped my arms around mum. She sobbed into my shoulder with dad consoling her from behind. Mum pulled away and started shaking me wildly.

"What were you thinking?" she shrieked. "Running off in the dark like that, towards that ship!"

"It... it was a spaceship." Was the only thing I could think to say. "Mum, I'm sorry."

"Do you have any idea how worried your father and I were?" she asked. "You could've been captured, or worse, killed!"

"Oh come on, mum, I'm not that stupid am i?" I joked in a quiet voice.

Mum smiled through her tears, then blinked and noticed Sophie standing behind me. "Who's that?"

"I was about to ask the same thing." Dad said coldly, looking suspiciously at Sophie.

"Um, yes." I started. "This is my friend Sophie. I met her in the woods about forty minutes ago, she was following the ship that landed in the field, and she's a human, like the people who came on the ship. She came with me to the town square to tell the leaders what we'd discovered, and they asked if Sophie could stay with us tonight."

Mum looked between the two of us, Sophie and me, in bewilderment. Dad stared at Sophie with a hard expression for about a minute, trying to work out whether to trust her or not.

"Is that alright?" I asked eventually.

Mum shook her head to clear it, then put on a warm smile.

"Of course it is, Abigail." She said, and then turned to Sophie. "It's very nice to meet you,

Sophie."

"Thank you." Sophie looked relieved. She shook dad's outstretched hand, grinning. "It's nice to meet you too."

After that we were ushered inside by mum, who fussed over us in the lounge room, as we explained exactly what had happened.

"So the humans came to attack our town?" dad asked after we'd finished.

"As far as we know." I replied. "They had guns and other weapons and were following a map."

"The force field will only last about a day, you said." Mum said quietly, clutching a cup of tea in her hands.

"That's what the leader told us." Sophie explained. "He said we should be fine just for tonight, but tomorrow anything could happen."

Mum nodded, looking pale. "It's quite late now." She glanced out the window. "We should all be getting to bed."

"Alright." I nodded, then turned to Sophie. "You'll be sleeping in my room, if that's alright."

"That's absolutely fine." She answered. "Thanks for letting me stay."

"You're very welcome." Mum said for me. "Now you two, off to bed."

I led Sophie through the hallway towards my bedroom. It was quite small, inside was just my bed, desk and clothes chest. There was enough space on my floor for a person to lie though, as Leila had come for a sleepover many times before she'd gone to Halapatov. I left Sophie in there to get ready for bed, and went back out into the hallway to our linen cupboard. Up the top of the cupboard was our makeshift, rollup mattress, which only Leila had ever used before. I grabbed it and took it back to my room, knocking on the door before entering. Sophie had taken off her boots and changed her trousers, but apart from that she was dressed the same. I rolled out the mattress and laid it on the floor, then turned around to face Sophie.