Everglow: The Trials Of Agaron

3 - Clearing The Air

"An everglow? Are. . . are you absolutely one hundred percent certain you got here via an everglow?" The male alien asked, the confusion still not lost from his voice.

"Yes, certain. The big blue wormhole ring thingies? We came here through one of them," Fischer replied. 

The male took a step back, blinking in surprise. 

"Bloody hell," he cursed rubbing his forehead. 

"W-what's wrong?" Fischer gulped.

The female took a breath in, the male opening his arms out slightly. 

"Ok, why don't we introduce ourselves first hey?" He chirped, his expression suddenly shifting from puzzled and concerned into bright and chipper. 

"I'm Kori. This little ball of love here is Quin," he exclaimed, playfully wrapping his beefy arm around the female's shoulder and pulling her in close.

"Hey!" she chuckled, brushing off her friend's playful grasp. The two's chemistry seemed to lift the tension from the air and Fischer felt himself relaxing slightly. Replying to their introductions, he turned to Ko and gave a crooked smile.

"W-well, it's nice to meet you two. I-I'm Fischer and this is Ko," he said, his voice a little less shaky than it had been before. 

"Indeed, nice to meet you two as well. Now. . . about this whole. . . situation you two have found yourselves in. I apologize for our confusion but we're uhh. . . we're just trying to make sense of how all this is possible. . ." Kori continued, scratching the back of his head.

Fischer shrugged his shoulders. "Yea don't worry, it hasn't exactly been any easier for us to figure out what's been going on either. A month ago I didn't even realise aliens existed."

Kori and Quin straightened up and looked directly at Fischer.

"Oh no, no, no I. . . I didn't mean it like that, I. . ."

"You really are from Earth, aren't you?" Quin stated with a look of shock on her face.

"Y-yea. Sorry I. . . I just don't understand why that seems like such a hard pill for you to swallow?" Fischer replied.

Kori and Quin exchanged concerned glances. 

"It's. . . well. . ." Quin began, however Kori cut her off before she could get to the point.

"You two are really new here, yes?" 

"Y-yea?" Fischer replied.

"I'm assuming you don't have anywhere to go. It's hard enough to find a home on Xarder as is, let alone the biggest city in the Epsilon sector,"

"Yea. . . well. . . yea we don't really have anywhere to go. Or anything at all really. . . why you ask?" Fischer queried.

"Well, considering the fact that you two are clearly way out of your depth and are probably completely and utterly clueless," Kori stated in a very harsh tone. A small frown started to curl onto Fischer's lips. 

"Would. . . you like to come home with us?" He finished. 

"What?" the others all exclaimed. They all turned their attention towards Kori, even Quin. 

"Honey are you crazy? We don't even know them!" She stated. 

"I know but they clearly need help. And I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around  the fact that they say they're from an everglow as well as Earth. I mean you of all people know how hard it is to live off of the streets right?"

Quin turned her gaze to the floor, a slight frown painting her menacing shark-like face.

"Yea. Yea I guess."

"So? what do you say?" Kori asked.

Fischer was taken aback by the offer. The last thing he was expecting was for the shark people to offer him shelter. But it certainly wasn't like they had a lot of options available to them. 

"Oh. . . wow. . ." He looked over at Ko who was still wrapped up tightly in her purple cloak. She looked up at him with her big opal eyes. Her mouth hung open slightly, like she was trying to speak but no words came out. 

"A-are you sure? We don't want to be any sort of extra weight on you or anything," he replied.

Kori let out a slight chuckle. "Nah nah, definitely not. We know how hard it can be to walk the streets with no-where to go. No-one should have to suffer like that. Especially not people who just got here. You two are more than welcome to stay for a little bit."

Ko and Fischer looked at each other for a moment. He could tell there was a slight semblance of fear and worry in her eyes, one that he knew all to well. If they didn't take up this offer, then they could be wandering the streets for a very long time.

"Alright. Well, I guess a little bit won't hurt anyone, right? As long as you two are absolutely certain that you're alright with it."

A toothy grin spread across Kori's face, Quin held a smaller but seemingly much warmer smile on her own. 

"Excellent! Well we were just on our way home now anyway! Our ekranoplan is parked just down at the docks, it's not far from here." Kori chirped, pointing to their left down an intersection. Fischer could see just past the intersection was a line of buildings surrounded by small shrubs. Beyond that lied a seemingly endless ocean, however it was difficult to tell how far away it was in the middle of the night. 

"Wait. . . ekranoplan?" Fischer asked. 

"Yea. They aren't used much on other planets I suppose. Can't imagine you'd ever have seen one if you weren't from around here. But they're our main way of getting around. And they're pretty fun as well," Quin explained. 

"Oh, ok then. Well, thankyou very much for all this. I didn't expect shark people to be so inviting," Fischer chuckled. 

"Don't mention it. What's a shark though?" Kori asked.

"Oh uh. . . don't. . . don't worry about it." 

Kori shrugged and turned his back. Quin's gaze found itself on Ko, specifically her left leg.

"When we get home we should be able to patch up that leg of yours as well. That looks pretty nasty," she grimaced, pointing at Ko's bandaged wound. 

She looked down at her leg in surprise. In the complete and utter confusion of the past few days, she'd completely forgotten about it. 

"Oh. . . th-thankyou. . ." she stuttered, forcing a smile. 

"Hey! She's got a voice!" Kori laughed, shaking Quin's shoulder. 

"Kori!" Quin scowled, "Be nice!"

"What? I'm just having a bit of a joke!"

Ko's lips remained sealed, but Fischer noticed her shuffle a little closer to him as they started to make their way down the street.

"Sorry, you'll have to excuse him. Doesn't always think before he speaks unfortunately," Quin stated.

"That's alright," Fischer chuckled, "We've been through much worse honestly."

Kori smirked at his comment. "Well don't you worry your fleshy butt. We'll get the two of you a nice shelter." 

As they walked, Fischer noticed Ko's reluctance to look anywhere but down. He gently placed his hand on her shoulder. 

"Hey, you going alright?" 

She looked up at him, that same look of fear in her eyes. He sigh as he noticed it again.

"Hey don't you worry. Everything's going to be fine alright? I'll make sure of it."