I watched as Oursta rose over the horizon, painting the landscape in shades of white and yellow, blinding the far off city from being seen. I stretched my arms and tail out, lengthening my spine, and nudged my partner.

They stirred and opened their eyes, looking at me sleepily, “Did we make it? Or is there an afterlife after all?”

I smile, “Look.”

They turn and see Oursta rising, “Thank the Notear. I thought Kileve had our heads for sure.”

I close my eyes in relief, “Thank you for trusting me, Iloyo”

“Forever and always, Mylo.”

Then the wind picks up. Something feels off and I look around. In the distance I see a sky craft, but it’s unlike any one I had seen before. It’s big, and metallic, and... there’s a strange creature standing on it’s bow. It’s horrifying, it’s face devoid of feature other than two sockets for eyes, a thin line for a mouth and a little pointed mound in the center of its face.

I want to run, but I’m transfixed. Are they nice? Evil? I don’t know, and neither does Iloyo.

A smaller bit of the craft jumps off, startling Iloyo and me, but we still can’t find it in ourselves to run.

It comes towards us and lands several dozen feet away, a door swinging down rather than up. Three of those terrifying, fascinating creatures come out and wave their hands at us. The look in their eyes must be the same as my own.

One of them carries a box and offers it to us... I think. The creature’s hands are extending it towards us, it’s little, sharp teeth bared wide.

I take it and Iloyo spits at me, “Why would you touch it? Did you see those sky crafts? What if they’re here to kill us?”

And with that the box lit up, a blue line waving as little symbols below appeared underneath.

In a start I drop the box, and the creature extends one of it’s hands to me as it picks up the box. I see it has a little bit of hair above each eye, and it turns to it’s cohorts and discusses. Then the creature taps the box and in our own language it says, “We do not intend to harm you. Come with us.”

And we do.

We answer their questions about our culture and experience and they answer some of ours. They are strange, and they let us poke them, so we let them poke us, though it’s clear where the boundaries were when we passed them.

Then we find ourselves at the front of the ship. And I feel my stomachs drop.

Below is nothing but the ash and fire of what once was the kingdom we had escaped.

The creature looks at me and speaks, the box translating quickly, “If you want to live, you’ll help us wipe out this continent of yours. We want to colonize. Now tell me, what do you fear?”