Lost Among Stars

Chapter 3

When I come to a stop, Aonani is grazing in a meadow.

"Seiously?" I pant. "all this way for flowers?"

Aonani regards me with glossy eyes. Then goes back to eating. 

I look up at the sky, marveling at it's color once again. Then I sit down.

I decide to give Aonani some grazing time. She's probably a bit hungry. Now come to think of it, so am I. My stomach growls as I think of all the yummy food they had on Argentiah, and what kinds of food they will have here.

I try to give Aonani all the time she wants to eat, but my stomach growls so loud one time, Aonani looks over at me and changes into a big animal with a long tail and a long face. She gestures to her back, as if to say, "I'm done listening to that. Let's get you food so you're stomach will be quiet."

I walk over to her, wondering how I'll get on. But she grabbs me by my jacket and plops me on her back.

I squeal as I almost fall off. Who knew this strange animal was so slippery?

Then Aonani takes off.

I scream, arms flailing, as I try to find something to hold onto. Finally I restort to her mane. I put my arms on her neck and do everything I can not to fall off. But as soon as I'm a little less terrified, I find a strange thrill in riding her. The wind in my hair. I'm almost dissapointed when she comes to a stop and nickeres, as to say, "Ok, now off."

I lay on my stomach, swinging one leg over to the same side as the other, then slide off. My feet hit the ground with a thud that hurts my heels, but I'm still happy from the ride. 

I turn back to Aonani to see she's now a black-and-white-and-brown animal, And I can't place it. We don't have anything like it on Argentiah, but it's adorable. 

She starts walking, so I follow her. Then I notice my surroundings. I'm in the middle of a ton of tall buildings. We're headed for a shorter one with what looks like bread with lettuce and meat in the middle statue on the top. 

Aonani runs ahead, and I run to catch up. "Hey, wait!"

She stops at the door. 

"Nice dog," Someone says. 

I whip around to see a teenager, about my age maybe older, with blonde hair and soft brown eyes. He is surprisingly attractive, I do a double take.

"Dog?" I ask. I look at Aonani. Then it clicks. "Oh! Thanks."

He laughs. "Yeah, what's her name?"

"Um," I say. "Aonani."

"That's a cool name." He reaches down. "Hey, girl."

Aonani backs up cautiosly. 

"were you going to get food here?" The boy asks.

I nod, not knowing what else to do.

"Oh, you don't want to go here, it's terrrible. Come with me."

I start walking, but Aonani doesn't.

"Come on... Girl," I say, waving for her to follow me. 

She slowly, cautiously, gets up and comes.

I catch up to him.

"So what's your name?" He asks me.

"It's Min," I tell him.

"I'm Hunter," He says. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," I say. But something's not right. "I thought Humans spoke a different language. How can you understand me?" I ask. 

He looks at me, confused. Then something clicks. "Oh, I speak a lot of different languages. Including french, don't worry."

french? 

But I just go with it. "French, right. What language do they speak here?"

"Here?" He asks. "Oh, English. We're in Salt lake, Utah."

"Okay," I say. I don't want to ask too many questions.

We cross what looks like a black tarp with giant metal things making loud honking noises.

"Here we are," He tells me. I look to see a big building with fancy over-head lights and crowds of people lining up. "Come this way," He tells me. 

I follow him, and he leads me through this door and into a small room with two doors, one with a girl on it, one with a boy. 

He takes me out another door, and jumps in line. 

"Sorry," He tells the person behind us. "We just had to go to the bathroom."

"Wait, what?" I ask. "What did we just do?"

He smirks at me. "We just snuck in through the bathroom utitities room. I do it all the time."

I don't fully understand what he said, but I just nod and say, "Okay."

He laughs. "By the way, I'm paying."

Crap, I didn't have any money! "thanks," I say. "I'm kinda low on money."

"No problem."

As we pass the front desk, An imployee asks me,

"Is that a service animal?"

Crap. 

"yes," Ryan said. "We lost her vest, and were on our way to buy a new one."

They eyed us suspiciously, but let it slide.

I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding. 

We are assigned a table and he says, "Okay, so you haven't talked much. Tell me about you."

"Umm.." I can't tell him where I grew up. Can't tell him Aonani is a star spirit. I definately can't tell him about Kian, so I don't know what to say. "My favoritte color is dark blue."

He laughs. "What else?"

"Um..." I say. "I don't know. I'm not that special..."

"Uh, okay," He says. "What breed is Aonani?"

I swore in my mind. I didn't know what breed she was! up until a few minutes ago I didn't know she was even a dog!

"No no," He said, "Let me guess."

Sweet relief. I thanked the stars that he had saved me like that. I started playing with the tips of my hair, nervous that he would give up and ask me to tell him.

"Border collie?" He asks. He pets Aonani again.

"Uhh... Y-yeah.." I say. "...how did you know?" In my mind I'm screaming. What if he's messing with me and that's not even close to what a border collie looks like? what if it's the oppositte and he's just making fun of me?! What if-

"Isn't it obvious? You can't tell me you've never seen a border collie before."

I was relieved yet again. So I tried for a desperate tease. "Oh I knew, I just didn't think you were smart enough to be able to tell the difference between a border collie and a..." I trailed off, realizing I didn't know any other breeds.

Luckily he jumps in. "Chiuahua?" 

"What?"

"that I could tell the difference between a collie and a chiuahua?"

"Yeah, that." I say.

He laughs.

suddenly, my heart flutters. 

It almost seems wrong. that feeling's for Kian. He's the only one I'm attracted to like that.

But he stops laughing and smiles, and my heart does it again. 

It feels so wrong. did I have a crush on this strange human?