Beth let out a little giggle. She was gaining control of her strange ability, and that made her realize just how awesome it would be to just teleport to anywhere, anytime. Kelbar was still staring.
"I brought you some food." She said, stifling more giggles at the awestruck look on Kelbar's face. She held out the sweatshirt, but he didn't take it.
"How did you do that?" he asked, obviously confused.
"It's a long story..." Beth said, setting the sweatshirt full of heart-limes on the floor.
Kelbar looked at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to tell the story. She laughed.
"Okay." She said after a second, and then she told him about the happenings on the ship, from her kidnapping to the first time she'd ever seen him. A few seconds after she'd finished, the door opened and Liam slipped through.
He jumped when he saw Beth. "I thought you'd already gone to breakfast or something." He said.
"No, I accidentally teleported to Nyx. But I figured out how to control it, and now I'm back." Beth responded.
"You figured out how to control it?" Liam asked with surprise, excitement gleaming in his eyes. She nodded in reply.
"What are you saying?" Kelbar asked.
Beth started. She'd pretty much forgotten about him. "I'm just telling him where I've been. He gets worried about me every time I go missing. Ever since the time I got kidnapped." Beth told him.
He nodded. He seemed bothered about something.
"What's wrong?" she asked. She noticed that there were faint blue streaks running down his face. There was some of the same blue stuff on his hands.
"I was thinking about Viscordia and my family," Kelbar replied. She was taken aback by the answer. Usually, people replied with "Nothing." But then again, Kelbar was an alien, and they probably dealt with things a lot differently then humans did.
"Were you crying?" she asked. That was the only logical answer to the blue streaks on his face and hands.
He nodded but didn't say anything else.
"Um... I hate to interrupt, but we should get going. Breakfast is halfway over by now, and I want to get there when there's still food." Liam said.
"Yeah, good point," Beth said, getting to her feet. She told Kelbar where they were going before leaving.
"I will see you later," Kelbar replied with a nod, and they left him there again.
As they walked, Liam seemed to be barely containing his excitement. After a few seconds of walking, his resolve finally dwindled.
"What other abilities do you think you have?" he asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he walked.
She shrugged, not really knowing how to respond.
"Do you think you might be able to read minds? Or maybe fly or something?" he continued. His face was taken up by a huge grin.
She laughed. "I have no idea. We'll just have to wait and see." An idea suddenly occurred to her as soon as she'd finished speaking, but she didn't know if it would work.
She knew Liam would love it, but she didn't know if she could willingly teleport two people. She'd only ever done it with Kelbar, and that's when they'd been in lethal danger, but she would suggest it anyway.
"Hey Liam?" she said.
"Yeah?" he answered, still grinning.
"What if I tried to get us both to Nyx? I'm not sure if it'll work, but I could try." She said, and she knew the answer as soon as Liam's eyes lit up, and his smile got even wider.
"Yes." He said simply, but Beth could tell that he was hardly able to contain his enthusiasm.
Beth took his hand, almost laughing at the surprised look on his face, and then she closed her eyes, concentrating like she did before, this time trying to include Liam. She didn't want to risk teleporting to a random spot in the forest, so she aimed for Kelbar's village. She felt the heat behind her eyes, and then the buzzing.
She knew she'd been successful because of two things. One, because she felt a cool breeze. Two, because she heard Liam gasp, but he didn't pull his hand away.
She opened her eyes. They were exactly where she'd been aiming for. She waited for a few seconds for Liam to let go of her hand, which he was gripping rather tightly, but he didn't, he just stared at his surroundings, completely dumbstruck.
"It looks different than what I was expecting, even though we have a few pictures," Liam said finally snapping out of it. He let go of her hand.
"I know," Beth replied, remembering her own first good look at Nyx.
"Are there any animals? Other than Kelbar and that lizard monster you told me about?" Liam asked, kneeling down to rub a pinch of red soil between two fingers.
"I think there might be, but I haven't seen any," Beth said. She remembered the sparkle she'd seen in the distance that was presumably water. "Do you want to explore? I think I saw some water down that way." She said after a second, pointing to where she'd seen the glimmer.
"That would be cool," Liam replied, straightening. He wiped his hands on his pants, which left them streaked with red.
Beth led the way, keeping her ears open just in case she heard the ominous whistling beast. She held her hand constantly ready to grab Liam's.
Nothing happened, and they soon reached the water. It looked impossibly blue, and the ripples seemed to be in all the wrong places, but she hadn't been expecting any different. After all, Nyx had two more moons than Earth, so it would make sense for the tides to flow differently.
When they got close enough, Beth knelt down and cautiously put a hand into the water, which seemed even bluer up close. It wasn't navy blue like Earth's water, but more of an electric blue, similar to tropical waters, only far bluer.
Her hand didn't feel like it was submerged in water. It felt as if she'd put her hand into a large barrel of warm pillow-stuffing. When she pulled her hand out, it was stained a very light shade of blue, which didn't really wipe off onto her pants.
She saw a few small beetle-like creatures hovering near the bottom of the lake, which was covered in bright purple rocks, a similar shade to her eyes. She picked one up, startled to discover that it wasn't purple at all, rather a coppery shade of red like the soil. It was perfectly round, and the side of a ping-pong ball. The others rocks were exactly the same, except they were different sizes.
She heard a splashing sound, and she looked over to see that Liam had rolled his pants up past his knees, and started wading into the shallow water.
"Liam, be careful. We don't know what this water can do. What if it's slow-acting acid or something?" she said. The last thing she wanted was for Liam to get hurt.
"Relax, there's nothing wrong with this." He said, suddenly bending down and flicking a handful of water in her direction. She backed away, but the spray still got her legs wet. She was only mad for a second, but then she started laughing.
Her laughter stopped instantly when she saw a dark shape moving towards Liam under the water.
YOU ARE READING
Nyx (Complete✅)
Science FictionBeth Fields had known since high school that she was going to sign up for the New Hope colonization program. The daring and mystery of a voyage through space were calling her name. The adventure of exploring an unknown planet tugged on her heart. ...