Milo on The Earth

1: Alien

Chloe Thompson was a completely normal plumber on a completely normal day. She had been rescuing a family's bathroom from a toilet seeking revenge by overflowing every time it was given nature's glorious offerings, and had just been heading back to her workplace before making her way home, when she noticed a trail of smoke floating atop a hill at the end of the road, accompanied by what looked like an oddly shaped piece of metal.

For fear of fire, she pulled over and jogged up the snow covered field, greeted halfway by a cartoonish bang, which frightened her much more than she cared to admit. She sighed, and thought for the final time in her life, 'Why do the strangest things always happen to plumbers?'

At the top, sat what looked like a giant toilet plunger cup, bolted underneath of what looked like a Japanese bullet train, shocked, she started to make her way around it, examining every detail for signs on where it might have come from, before finding a ramp extending to the ground from the side of the structure.

Inside a half oval shaped door the ramp extended to, was a variety of equipment, set up in a way that made the shelter look almost like a news truck. It occurred to Chloe, that there was no possible way this building could have any normal situation behind it, save the unlikely possibility that some movie was being filmed in the area.

Moving to the front of the structure, she noticed what looked like a child slumped down in the driver's seat. She peered down over the chair, and realized it wasn't a human being at all, but a passed out creature with four arms, three eyes, the third being on the center of its forehead, and shoulder length blue tinted tentacles covering its head as hair. It's only clothing was a white sleeveless top, and matching backpack.

She tapped its hand gently, and found herself smiling softly when it flinched lightly in response. Perhaps it was the cold weather, or the cuts and scrapes littered around its body, maybe she just thought the creature was cute, but for some reason, she decided to take the poor thing home with her before subjecting it to anymore chaos.

The next morning, Chloe awoke on the floor, surrounded by her various belongings, the bed, in which the creature had laid, was stripped to the bare mattress, with the sheets discarded around her desk and floor. The only clear reminder of the events that had occurred the day before was the backpack she had hung on one of the bed knobs. She made a mental note to clean it after breakfast, and dragged herself to the kitchen.

The creature sat on the counter, writing in an unfamiliar, swirl like text on a scroll of green paper. It was as if it had been awake for hours, which, for all Chloe knew, it might have been.

"Um... hello" she said questioningly, more to test if it could speak English then to be polite, but to her surprise, it answered her.

"Good morning, I didn't disturb you, did I?" It spoke with a lisp like accent she didn't recognize.

"No, you're fine," she found herself at fault on what to say next. Why wouldn't she? There was some sort of alien sitting on her kitchen counter as if they were a friend who stopped by to catch up. "I'm sorry, but can I ask who you are."

"Yes, of course, I must look terribly strange." It laughed, "My name is Stlrakatshu 463, and I am part of a species called the stlrakl."

"So you're an alien?"

"From your point of view, yes, I am."

Chloe, who was starting to suspect this would take more than a few minutes to understand, pulled out a chair and motioned it to sit down.

"I should probably tell you, we're supposed to call the police when strange... beings appear." She chose her words carefully, hoping not to somehow offend it.