Be an Alien: Renewal - Kiray's Crisis

Chapter 4

Roza heard a bang and then, a fraction of a second later, searing pain through her right wing. She screeched and flung out her wings, knocking back Eliza. The moth's head swung to her right, where a small hole was in her wing, dripping with blue blood. She bolted back into the forest, heading for her cave.

Behind Roza, the two humans started yelling at each other. She could hear the arguing grow quieter as she ran farther away, Roza disappearing behind the curtain of vines into the cave and skidding to a stop beside her collection of healing supplies.

She grabbed a piece of an orange-brown plant and snapped it in half, letting the sap drip over her wound. Roza then reached for a piece of a red leaf and some spiddle silk she had spun earlier and used it as a bandage over the hole in her wing. She then ate a couple of some blue things to ease the pain, before walking over to her bed and flopping down on the moss. Roza sighed and closed her eyes, uneasy about what to do next.

• • •

A couple hours later, Roza was asleep, healing from the wound. A rustling sound came from the cave door, and she woke up, yawning and then seeing a sand-colored paw parting the vines, and then the face of the long-haired alien named Eliza.

"Hey, it's ok," the human said softly. Roza could understand her while still in the pink moth form because the part of her human form that remembered their language was now integrated into all of her other forms.

Eliza walked over to Roza, who sat up and let the human approach her. Roza looked over at her wing, which was still bandaged up. She reached over and pulled the silk off, the wound now almost completely healed.

"Whoa, that's fast," Eliza commented. "Hey, would you like some more help?" The human said before reaching into a bag she had brought and pulling out a red and white box, before opening it up and taking out a weird device.

Roza watched intently as Eliza opened it up and put something on her wound, and Roza could feel herself healing even faster. About a minute later, she was completely healed, and Roza shapeshifted back into a human. Eliza seemed to slightly flinch back, as if she wasn't used to it yet. She then reached into the bag again and pulled out some more coverings, which Roza then put on.

"Thanks," she said, pulling the top covering over her head.

"No problem," Eliza said. "So, about earlier..."

"It wasn't your fault," Roza said to the human. "Hey, can you tell me why you're here? You and the other human?"

"Sure," Eliza said. "Me and Nick, the other person, come from a planet called Earth. We were sent here to study this planet and its lifeforms."

"Cool," Roza said, "maybe I could help with that? I've lived here my whole life."

"Oh, yeah!" Eliza exclaimed. "That'd be great!" The human smiled at Roza, before realizing something as her expression changed to a frown. "Except for Nick. I've got a feeling he doesn't trust you, like, at all."

"Yeah," Roza sighed.

"Maybe I could try to convince him to be less suspicious of you?" Emily suggested.

"Sure, if you can," Roza said with a small laugh, before looking down at where her wing was and frowning. Roza understood that Nick was probably just afraid of her, like she was of him, but that didn't make it right for him to respond violently.

"Hey," Eliza said, putting a paw on Roza's shoulder, "I'll make sure he treats you well. How about I go talk to him now, and maybe you can come with me? You could wait behind a bush until I convince him you're good. You are good, right?"

"Do I seem good?" Roza said jokingly.

"Yeah, I guess so," Eliza said with a laugh.

"Ok, good," Roza said, "let's go back."