Dan & Phil Oneshots

Light Years Away (Part 8)

The only order in the universe is a cycle of calm and chaos. - Toba Beta

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Phil glanced over at me, judging my reaction as I took it all in. It reminded me of a really run-down town, but strangely attractive due to the golden glow of the light as it filtered through the  leaves on the trees. I smiled. It felt more peaceful than the village we were originally in. 

I turned to Phil and nodded. He smiled at me before adjusting his bag and walking towards the various buildings. They were all one-story house-like structures that didn't float, very small, and with a little space in between each. There was no grass, but only cobblestones covering the ground with pale green moss growing in the cracks. Here and there, children scampered among the trees and buildings. What bothered me was that there was no glow of ions anywhere in sight.

"Where are all the ions?" "We never got them," Phil replied as he trudged on. "When the evolution of technology first started out, the village we were previously in only had it. Bit by bit, the king allowed other villages to have access to ions. Except, it was only those villages that he viewed as 'useful.'" 

Internally cussing out the king, I kept pace with Phil as he took a sharp turn through a path in between two buildings. The town was very small, but there seemed to be enough people in it so that it wasn't peculiar. It took us a few more turns before we reached our destination. "This is my old home. My mom, dad, and younger siblings all live here. I'm the oldest, so...heh, yea."

He cleared his throat before knocking five times on the door, each one a little more tentative. In a few seconds, it swung open and a tall alien stood at the entrance. From what I could interpret, she was happy to see Phil and was asking him many questions, including the fact that his markings were glowing (he had a really annoyed tone then). When she pointed it out, he gestured to me, and for the first time, I was noticed by his mother- at least, I assumed it was.

She took a long time looking me up and down, but finally, she turned back to Phil and smiled and nodded. She stood back a bit so we could enter the small house, which upon entering was relatively bigger on the inside. I waited for Phil to scoot by me so he could show me the way to our rooms. "I'm afraid, since our house is so small, we will have to share a bedroom." Not wanting to take advantage of his hospitality, I politely agreed while keeping all discomfort in the back of my mind. 

We plopped our bags down on the floor by the bed, which was big enough for two people. The room was decorated with messy Earth drawings and the walls were blue with green blobs all over them. It was cute. "Um, please don't judge. This was my room before I started training to be a translator..." "I love it," I said as I reached up to a poster, feeling the paint beneath my finger tips as I dragged my hand across it. I turned around to look at Phil, who was rubbing his arm and looking at the ground. 

"Hey, now," I said as I took his face in my hands. "I love it. I really do. Thank you so much for letting me stay with you. Just...why are we here?" "I was afraid you were going to ask that," he sighed as he took my hands in his. "The king got word that-"

Unexpectedly, two tiny aliens came charging into the room and launched themselves at Phil as they chattered away in their gibberish language. Phil laughed and scooped each one up in his arms in turn. Eventually, he had both of them back on the ground and was cheerfully conversing with them. So as to not invade their privacy, I decided to have a seat on his bed and take out my journal to review some of the notes I got from history class. I idly glanced over the drawings of the evolution of the personal transportation units and floating houses. However, I didn't notice the halt in conversation until I heard a cough from Phil.