Jīvitaya Rai Naji is just an average human girl. Orphaned, but nothing stranger than that.
She was one of the few witnesses to the first alien invasion on Earth. One day, many years later, she catches sight of one of them following her. She wonders...
The three weeks of travel pass by much faster than Jīvitaya had anticipated, but still not quite fast enough. Surprisingly, or at least surprisingly for Jīvitaya, they run into no problems on the journey. Well, no problems past that of the black hole and her boredom. Kysanden was also correct that she would be able to walk again by the time they arrived at Gaia, and she was relishing every minute of it. As they approach the tiny but lush green planet, Jīvitaya excitedly shifts her weight from one aching leg to the other. Kysanden rests his hand on her shoulder.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm just excited," and as an afterthought, "and a bit nervous."
"Don't be, you'll be fine. Make sure your excitement doesn't prevent you from resting when necessary though."
She grins at him. "I won't."
There is a shudder as the ship touches down, and as Kysanden presses on the keypad next to it, the doors open with a hiss, the first set from the airlock first, followed by the outer doors. She steps out first, emerging into a lush space on the edge of a forest. Waiting among the grasses before them is a small group of people, with a stern-looking woman standing in front of the rest.
When Jīvitaya fully registers what the woman looks like, she blinks several times in shock. How could someone have speckled black and gray skin? The woman is wearing a pendant that appears to be a chunk of granite wrapped in some kind of dark wood, the same color as her hair. Jīvitaya dismisses the thoughts from her mind and promises herself that she'll ask Kysanden about it later. The woman begins to speak, and Jīvitaya quickly touches her finger to the base of her neck, allowing the chip to process the new language.
"-welcome you back to our planet, Prince Kysanden. Have the stars favored your journeys?"
"Indeed they have, Lady Grania. May I introduce you to Lady Jīvitaya?" Kysanden gestures to Jīvitaya, who suddenly gets clammy and nervous at the formality of the situation.
The woman - Lady Grania - turns to Jīvitaya and bows, her pendant swinging gently from side to side as she does so. "I welcome you to our lands, Lady Jīvitaya, and hope beyond measure that you enjoy them."
Jīvitaya hesitates for a moment before responding, trying to quickly formulate what she should say. "Thank you, Lady Grania, for your warm welcome. I hope that I will enjoy your lands as well."
Grania bows once more and turns away. Kysanden follows, and Jīvitaya scrambles to do the same, the rest of Grania's party falling around them. They follow her to a clearing surrounded by cliffs. Jīvitaya twists to look around her, seeing nothing but more rock. When she turns around to face Grania again, she starts forward, realizing that they have continued on without her. Despite her body's protests, she jogs forward a few meters to catch up before falling back into step with Kysanden.
They approach the bottom of one of the cliffs, and Jīvitaya squints to see a small depression in the rock. Grania hooks her finger into it and seems to pull back, bringing a large chunk of the cliff face with her. Jīvitaya's eyes widen at the giant hole now present in the rock. Kysanden moves forward and she follows him, her hand reaching out to clutch his hand as they move into the dark space. There is a scraping sound from behind them, and the space is plunged into complete darkness. Jīvitaya jumps in surprise but soon relaxes as light enters the space from in front of them.
Her eyes widen once more as they take in the vast space before them. They are standing on a ledge, with a railing before them. She steps up to the railing to look out at the sprawling stone city below. There are avenues and streets lined with buildings, big and small. In the center of the city is the tallest and grandest building of all.
Jīvitaya points to it. "What's that building?"
Grania responds, her voice laden with pride for her city. "That is the palace. It is where you will be staying while you visit with us."
With that, she turns to the left and steps down. Jīvitaya almost jerks forward in surprise before she notices the steps cleverly disguised among the rest of the stone. She follows Grania down, Kysanden trailing after them both. Jīvitaya vaguely hears the rest of the group descend behind them, but she is too engrossed in staring out at the city to pay them any attention. As they reach the bottom of the staircase, Jīvitaya sees the intricate details of the buildings that she couldn't see from high above. The doors of each building are carved with patterns unique to each door, and many of the houses have carvings along the outer walls as well. Despite each house being built from the same stone, the details on each allow no mistakes to occur in distinguishing one house from the next. But the problem would be knowing which pattern marks the house you want to find and keeping track of all of them.
"Lady Grania?" She turns. "How do people keep track of who's home is which?"
Grania smiles. "It may be hard for you to see, but in the top left corner of each door is the sector number and the positioning of the house within the sector. That's all you would need to know about a person's home to find their house. Our city is far more organized than it appears."
Jīvitaya nods, and they continue on in silence. Jīvitaya peers down the streets as they pass, trying to make sense of the secret organization of the city that she knows is there, even if she can't find a glimpse of it.
She also stares at the people and their myriad of skin and hair colors. Their hair goes from pale silver to a dark, dark, brown, with some instances of ebony-colored hair like her own. Their skin is even more unique and different than what she is used to, it is shocking. Their skin ranges from quartz white or pink to the dull gray of slate and even to the rainbow hues of gemstones. Jīvitaya stares in amazement as they pass someone with silver hair that starkly contrasts with his obsidian skin.
Finally, they reach the palace and are led to their rooms. Once inside hers, Jīvitaya immediately sits upon the bed, finally realizing how much her body hurts. Especially her legs, every shifting movement sends a dull throbbing through them. She slips one hand into her pocket to touch the healing stone while she uses the other to knead at the bits of knotted muscle in her legs after the day of walking.
———————————————————————————————— What do you think of Gaia and it's people? Fun fact, the city was originally supposed to be on a satellite. Then I wrote it out and it didn't want to be there.
Now, to cheer you up, and to cheer me up from this pandemic, here is your chapterly drawing of Jīvitaya!
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