Imitai

Chapter Five

Yuruca and Io brought the four of us inside the home and up the stairs, where she had us change into Ashanian clothes. It took a long time before we Earthlings returned to the living room from upstairs, because we had to figure out how to put the damn fabric on.

Ashanian clothing is much different compared to what us humans wore. Stretchy spandex cloth compared to the material we were used to.

Some time had passed before I returned downstairs. Nervous as this was going to be my outfit going into the big city. I could imagine myself walking alongside several blue haired people, getting transfixed by my new surroundings.

Both women were now seated intently on the living room couch waiting for us. I now wore what looked like a pink high-neck tunic shirt with a design similar to the foreign shirt worn by Chinese men- but fitted for women.

On my legs were tight purple slacks and brown boots with hidden zippers in the inner ankle part. The drastic change in clothing styles may have been hard to take in, but I had to blend in. Clothes like the ones I wore were probably ways of indicating we were not from here. Way to stand out if I were to seek refuge on an alien planet.

"I look like an extra-terrestrial!" I said, standing before the living room mirror and checking myself out. "This will take a lot of getting used to."

This looked like something I would wear had I traveled to future China or some Asian country in the future. It seemed weird and I did not like the look of it. Not to also mention how it looked flashier than Yuruca and Io's clothes.

They had the farmer look down and I probably looked more like a city slicker to them.

Both women observed me from head to toe. They  nodded as they drank tea from mugs. The room around us was somewhat average like one on Earth, but this one only had a small black box television set over the mantle of a stone fireplace. Windows took the adjacent wall and featured the glass veranda.

"This is new," Asami said as she came down the nearby stairs behind me. "I am not well with fashion, but I will try this."

I quickly turned to look at her. She also wore a tunic, but it was light red and short-sleeved. Same for her gray slacks, which were neatly tucked into a pair of black boots similar to mine. Satisfaction showed on her face as she studied her outfit.

Vesta and Ashley followed, both dressed in long-sleeved indigo blue shirts, fitted black pants, and gray boots. Neither girl smiled as we checked them out. Those dark colors irked me for some reason. Probably due to the eeriness of Yuruca's story earlier. Or maybe it had something to do with the clothes wearers being eerie.

"This will take some getting used to," Vesta remarked.

Ashley nodded. "Anything to blend in though. We don't know the state of this planet or how Ashan will view us. Our complexions alone already stand out."

Minutes later, Yuruca and Io led us four into the nearby kitchen. We all took their seats at the large, glass circular table at the center of the room. My face lit up as I drew accustomed to the irony of sitting in this futuristic kitchen in a farmhouse.

Aside from the typical yellow country kitchen walls, everything looked completely futuristic and circular. An oval-shaped window exposing the backyard appeared to easily slide open and shut with a latch. So did the door which had no visible lock on it. Instead, it had a tint capable of blocking the Quorit Sun and its ultraviolet rays.

The only thing similar to Earth was the plain silver clock.

"I have a strict ground rule to address," Yuruca told us girls, passing out empty glasses. "As long as you're here, no one skips drinking water in any meal. Ashanian temperature averages at ninety to one hundred on the Ventris scale. Our temperature measuring system is called Ventris, but the scale is remarkably identical to Fahrenheit."