Defined by these Stars

The Foreigners

"There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." ~Robert Louis Stevenson

I remember thinking it was a star at first. In hindsight, I suppose the blinking lights should have been a dead giveaway.

I was peering through my telescope, scanning the sky for constellations, my top teeth biting into my lower lip. I glanced away from the telescope and back to the manual. According to the manual, the Orion's Belt was often defined by three stars in a row. Unfortunately, there were many stars in a row. Disheartened, I peered back into the telescope, adjusting the lens slightly.

It didn't change anything, but my hands needed something else to do except sweat. I gazed across the sky again, searching for the three stars. I turned the telescope to my right...

I halted. My eyes fell upon a single star. But it was perhaps the brightest star I had ever seen, and... it was growing stronger. Though, I noticed with some puzzlement that the light did wink out periodically. I looked away from my telescope and straight into the sky. There it was, growing even brighter... and larger? I looked back into the telescope. Yes, it was definitely much larger.

It was then I realized it was most definitely not a star. It was a ship. A spaceship. And I might not have been completely familiar with our spaceships, but this one, in particular, was completely foreign. It was distorted into a thin tube with fiery tongues licking at the stars, trailing closer. Frozen, I stared at the ship grow progressively closer, my mind reeling. Should I tell the neighbors? Should I run? Should I greet the aliens?

I knew all the conspiracy theorists always warned of aliens' need for subjugation and destruction, but staring at the monstrous contraption shoot closer down to our atmosphere, all I could think about was how easily they could kill me by the flames of their ship.

"Hey! Get away from there!" yelled someone behind me. I whipped around, now noticing the crowd which had gathered. Well, that rules out telling the neighbors, I thought.

"They're coming right at you!" the man who had shouted before yelled. I suddenly realized he was telling the truth; the ship was now speeding towards me. I dashed away, running in between the spaces of the crowd, reaching the back. I breathed out a long sigh of relief.

Then the sound of fire drew my attention back to the front; the ship was landing, its fiery tongues consuming trees and grass from beneath it. And with a resounding punch into the ground, it landed, groaning. We stared and waited.

For a few minutes, nothing happened. The ship merely sat there as if waiting for us to do something as well.

"What's happening?" inquired a woman in front of me. It seemed she said it more out of nerves than anything else. Instead of her husband saying something in return, however, he took her hand in his and gripped it tight. I looked down at my own empty hand. It was cold.

Suddenly, a staircase unfolded itself from the wall of the ship, releasing a stream of dust from its disuse, the particles hanging suspended in the air before slowly dissipating, revealing the staircase once more. How long have these aliens been away from their home? Absolute silence consumed the whispering which had been issued before. For a few more seconds, no one stirred from the crowd or the ship. And then—

The most horrid beast emerged from the depths of the ship. The color of the creature's skin was the most putrid shade, reflecting the moonlight, and its body was unnatural in its stature, mirroring a tall bird with hunched shoulders. The fur on its body was sparse yet disgustingly thick, and its eyes were eerily transparent. Worst of all, there was a beak-like organ protruding from its face.

The creature gazed at us gathered together, taking in our appearances. Then it pulled out a machine from its pocket and stuck it in on top of his mouth, letting it hang there.

"Efbuswbu febis. Rh ish didhas. Dyo nfhfisvav duwh urysgshg fhdw eh'rh sdoung. Ksehddag gwrkwuyr wuwedn ihsgsms dwosuwh wihdhd. Hwiswgqi sababwu qwiriri. Wsehe," it said. From its deep voice, I was reluctantly inclined to refer the creature as a he. Although, whatever he said was completely lost on me. And it appeared to the creature as well that we had not understood a word he had said. Instead, he pulled out a different apparatus from his rope which hung around his person. This one was slightly larger in size and considerably heavier, as it hung lower in the beast's hand. He pointed it at us.

He waited.

We waited.

He released an irritated and (perhaps a disappointed?) sigh, as he directed it at a tree. The alien pressed a button on the side of the apparatus with his other hand; a ball of light shot out from it, distenegrating the plant to dust.

All at once, everyone turned to run in the other direction, screams coating the night air in fear, but we were immediately stopped by similarly-looking creatures containing us in a small group with the same apparatuses.

Then, we heard the sickening sound of fire and glanced up. More ships were making their way down to our atmosphere. I looked at the creature nearest to me. It appeared preoccupied with some of my other neighbors. I closed my eyes, breathing in and out and snapped them open, sprinting away from the group. I heard yells from the unwelcome new-comers behind me, but I didn't stop, only feeling my feet pound against the earth beneath me. Blasts shot at nearby trees and one nearly hit my foot, but I didn't slow and finally, I ran out of sight.

I eventually located a forest to hide in and built a small hut where I lived for some time.