My Pet Human {UNDER SERIOUS EDITING}

Awkward Reunions

'I loved you at your darkest.' ~Romans 5:8

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~Eve~

"Wait!" Reuben warns, as I concentrate on the air's energy and lighten my hold on it. We hover just in front of the cylindrical opening, the only lights coming from my Laquanian eyes and the faint glow from inside the open hatch. "What if it's a trap?"

I can't help but snort, despite everything. "Reuben." I say as gently as I can muster. "We're hundreds of metres underground. Do your really think that there'd be a Laquanian base set up in there? And besides..." I flick one of my wrists, feeling the thick energy around us seep through my palm. As soon as I've absorbed its power I release my hold and a torrent of air slams into the tiny hatch. There's an ear-splitting boom, like an earthquake has just erupted underground and the pipe wall before us splits in two, revealing a large hole. "If I can do that to metal, then I'd like to see what I could do to a giant." I finish for him.

Still floating, I grin widely. Reuben lets out a weak whimper. "I was just being p-p-prec-c-cautious..." He says. I roll my eyes and flick my wrist again. Instantly, the individual fragments of iron and rust covering the shredded wall float upwards and skim down the tunnel into the darkness. What is revealed afterwards is...

"Is this it?" I ask Reuben with a slight sigh, surveying the area in front of us. "Because I think we've just alerted the locals."

Reuben nods from his position on my back. "Um... maybe we should... erm, go inside." He gestures to the scene beyond the shattered pipe. "This probably isn't something you'd see every day... Eve... you're going to give them a heart attack."

"Ohhhhh." I exaggerate awkwardly, squeezing my eyes shut and re-opening them. The extra light provided by my glowing laquanian eyes dims and then shuts off, being replaced by my usual human irises and pupils. My vision blurs a little as it adjusts to the new sight formula. As everything comes into focus, I stare head on with the mob of about five hundred humans, as they meet my eyes with both fascination and curiosity.

They wear the usual human attire, but from what I can see, their clothes are either covered in water, soot, dust or mud. Why are they so dirty? Some of them wear calm expressions, others completely freaked. Most wear helmets, which look almost like nutshells cut into halves. And they're of all different ages; there are humans so young I wonder how they managed to escape the Pet Institutes where they'd probably been sent to. The question pops up into my head again: Why are they all dirty?

Then again, Reuben and I aren't exactly clean, either.

Sopping wet, we float above a mass of sewerage water, Reuben wrapping his gangly arms around my neck. "I'm sorry." I say, trying to sound casual. "Did we interrupt something?"

A few heads nod from the group. There are so many humans gathered around the hole I created in the pipe that it's practically impossible to see beyond them. Whatever's in there, it's lit, though. Even without my laquanian eyes, I can still see perfectly well, although shadows climb across the pipe's walls and black out a good portion of the crowd.