{Time} ~ DORBYN AU

ONE

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A cool breeze gently brushes my face as I continue walking down the dirt path through the trees. The leaves rustle softly, playing in the background to the tune I'm humming. It replays in my mind and after every loop I try to add lyrics. No words come out. Well, no good words. Shrugging it off, I instead listen to nature's music of birds singing, and branches shaking against the wind.
I arrive to the end of the dirt path, which spreads out into an open area with less trees around that reveal a city view overhead. The sun is setting, slowly falling behind the skyscrapers as the golden light reflects off the windows. It blinds my eyes, but I don't mind.

A warped sound distracts me, making me turn around with caution. What I see before me is something I cannot describe. At all.
It is beyond anything I've known or seen about science. It looks so new, right out of this world. Is it a spaceship? Are there aliens in it? The metallic white, spherical capsule looks too small for more than one alien to fit in there. The electric blue highlights radiate in the tiny grooves, giving me a mental signal that this machine is not 'earth-like'.
Should I approach it? Should I walk away, and pretend I never saw it?
Dozens of questions pop up in my head, making me worry more as I stay frozen, trying to slow down my breathing. My feet stay put. I don't move a muscle.
Before I know it, the blue lights shut off and a door emerges out of the gleaming surface. I feel my breath hitch as I watch the door slowly open. I can feel my heart racing, waiting for what hides inside this unusual capsule. My heart rate reaches the tipping point when I make out a silhouette, standing in the entrance. My mind tells me to run, but my body stays completely still. I may be dramatic, but is this where my life is going to change?-

The shadow reveals itself to be a boy as it steps out of the machine. He seems to be around my age, having fair skin and young, soft eyes glowing with anticipation. His blonde hair shines with gold strands as he stands into the exposure of the setting sun, making him raise his hand to shield his eyes from the light. For a moment I was in a trance, almost in a way.. admiring the boy's facial features. I then focus back to reality when he makes eye contact with me, realising that I witnessed his arrival.
"Oh, hello," the boy says, adding a small wave and an awkward chuckle, "I see we bumped into each other, when we were not supposed to," he mutters the last part.
At this point I don't know how to respond to this sudden greeting, especially when it comes from a stranger that I saw step out of a machine that I've never seen before.
The stranger interrupts my thoughts by asking, "What's the year?"
Trying to be polite, despite the weird question, I answer, "2019..."
"And the date?"
"March 16th."
"Shit," he says. I could sense the tiniest reaction of panic in his voice. He immediately turns to his machine and walks around to the back of the glossy ball. From where I was standing, it appeared to be that he was opening supposedly the engine of the machine. Quiet curses come from the boy as he looks inside the engine and releases an irritated sigh. After a few seconds he closes the engine and wipes his hands on his black jeans. "It seems like I'll have to stay here for a while," he says, as if he was thinking out loud. He walks back around to where I was standing and looks at me, asking hesitantly, "Would you happen to have a holographic vortex generator by any chance?"
What the hell did he just say? This guy's weird vibes kept on growing every time he said anything, and it made me become more concerned after every second of our conversation.
"No?" I reply.
"Right, of course," he responds with an exasperated tone, "looks like 2019 hasn't developed as much as I thought it would."
I am now speechless. I feel no 'normal-ness' when I look at him, and nothing about this encounter feels real. I must be dreaming all of this. I must be dreaming-

"Oh, sorry," he says, "what's your name?"
I process what he asked me as my senses came back after zoning out.
My name, right.
"D-Daniel." I say with a stutter, slightly embarrassed about being so dazed.
A smirk appears on the boy's face, as if he regained his composure and is displaying his confident side. "Are you sure about that? You seem to be questioning it," he replied.
Is he flirting with me?
"Y-," stop stuttering!
"Yes. My name is Daniel, Daniel Seavey."
Wow, good job.
The boy raises his eyebrows a little, as if he is amused. There is a pause, as if he's pondering over something. His eyebrows suddenly relax as he says, "Daniel, you wouldn't mind if I burrowed your work space?"
What the hell does he mean by work space?
"What kind of work space?"
He picks up that I don't understand what he's saying, so he clarifies. "Anywhere that I'll be able to fix my traveller."
Traveller... Is he telling me that this traveller he possesses is a time machine? But I can't think about that just yet, I need to think of some other place that this guy can fix his machine. "Uhh we could go to my place, there should be enough room in my garage," I say.

I only realise what I'm signing up for; I am letting some time traveller, possibly an alien, come to my house. What if he abducts me? Uses me as an experiment? He'd probably turn me into a human time traveller, who doesn't need a machine, like Number Five from The Umbrella Academy-

I'm zoning out, again. I look back at the boy, who seems to be adjusting something on his machine. A question comes to my head about it, so I ask, "How are we going to take your-... traveller to my place?"
As if on cue, the machine starts to move. Its steel plates, on the surface, tilts and layers themselves on top of one and another. They shrink to form a disc that is the size of a hand.
The boy picks up the disc while I stand there, gobsmacked. He looks at me, smirking again.
"Lead the way?"