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It was black as pitch outside, but Elial stared out the window at nothing anyway. Every now and then, with the help of the head lights, he caught the glimpse of trees. It seemed like they were riding a while, when up a head he saw the glow of orange street lights.

As they grew closer the edge of light, a town could be seen. This street was quiet for the most part, not a whole lot going on. There were buildings that seemed old, with faded paint. The color was hard to make-out in the dim lamp light.

They seemed to pass through the town quickly, and on the outskirts, across from a large corn field was a barely lit parking lot and a very eccentrically decorated metal building. On the edge of the road was sign with a large arrow made from light-bulbs stretching across the top and pointing in the direction of the building. Lots of people seemed to be walking down the side of the road towards it, all flocking to this apparent beacon of social interaction.

The dirt parking lot was filled with many vehicles, and they found a nice parking space close to the back where it was dark. Elial’s feet touched the gravel ground, and a soft breeze tossed is fairly long blond hair. The smell in the air was something he had never sensed before, and he found it very amusing that it made his empty belly long for food.

There was loud music coming from the restaurant’s housing . It was large with a metal overhang. White Christmas lights were twined around the overhangs supports in uneven loops. Tables were scattered around, all with groups of people occupying them, conversing about nothing and everything all at once.

Lana patted his shoulder. “You’ll do fine, don’t worry.”

His eyes looked to her, but even she was a bit worried about him. He smiled nonetheless, for he had faith that he could be human. It didn’t seem so hard at the moment. He had to remind himself, that there would be no healing, no instant manipulation of electronics, or revealing his true form to people, but other than that he was confident in his ability to be human.

He glanced to their destination, an intriguing looking place built from what seemed many different materials. The atmosphere was enjoyable and happy, and Elial found himself trying to recall its name. He thought back to the sign, and the arrow.

“Aunt Kathy’s.”

He racked his brain for the human term Aunt, and remembered rather quickly that it was a member of a family.

“Is this Kathy the entire town’s Aunt?”

Jasper made a small chuckle, but Lana just smirked. “No... It’s just a name. I guess its to give the place a more homely and inviting feel.”

“It works,” Elial admitted, smiling to himself. He did feel very comfortable.

As they stepped under the overhang and passed towards the door those seated at tables looked at him, but barely acknowledged his existence. This brought a sigh of relief to him. He looked human, so why should they think anything other than that?

The inside was subtly smokey, and the music was a good deal louder. It was packed with people, and that delicious sent of food. Strange human food, which he found very delightful in itself. Jasper led them in the direction furthest from the source of the noise, which was a live band playing exceedingly loud country music. It’s not that they were terribly bad, it was the simple fact that Jasper enjoyed being able to think, and hear what the person across from him was saying.

Elial couldn’t help but curiously scout the area out as they passed people. He and Lana sat on one side of the table, and Jasper sat across from them, leaning back in the seat heavily with a sigh. Elial did the same, but not with quite as much exasperation.

“So, El, what do you do where you come from? I mean... is this whole.... thing... right now... what you do for a living? You know, the travel.” If Jasper was trying to keep suspicions about Elial’s job down, for those that were listening, the interest was probably perked. The large and over exaggerated wink probably didn’t help matters much, either.

A woman suddenly appeared seemingly out of thin air. She was perky, with a broad smile, and her curly blond hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail. “Hi, I’m Rachel, here are your menus.” She placed three slips of laminated paper before them. “Is there anything I can get you to drink?”

“Dr. Pepper please,” Lana said quickly.

“Sweet tea,” Jasper replied.

And Elial was left staring with the most confused expression on his face. He hadn’t the slightest idea what to order.

“Uh, hey, why don’t you get a Dr. Pepper, too? It will be easy for her to remember,” Lana said, trying her best to play it off, but suddenly she figured she might have made the girl feel incapable. “I mean, not that you couldn’t remember...”

“I’ll take a Dr. Pepper, as well,” Elial replied quickly, already sensing the uneasiness in her voice, and wishing to help things flow more smoothly.

The woman smiled and turned away. Moments later, quickly, as if by magic, she was back with a tray balanced on one hand. She set the drinks before them. “Are ya ready to order?”

“Naw, give us a few more minutes, thanks,” Jasper told her.

Elial’s attention suddenly directed to the bubbling brown drink before him. It fizzed and hissed, and briefly he worried about drinking it. That was at least, until he saw Lana take a large pull of drink through the thin straw. He did the same. His eyes widened in surprise at the kick that was delivered to his mouth. The drink was sweet, yet had this strange soft burning sensation. It wasn’t painful, in fact, it was delicious.

“So, you are an adventurer? Explorer?”

“Soldier,” Elial muttered, leaning back in his seat.

“Soldier?” Lana asked, eyes suddenly wide with interest. “Do you have many wars where you come from?”

Thankfully, the music was just loud enough that more than likely their conversations would not be heard. “Enter-world wars are rare, mostly it is wars with neighboring planets. Our species... clash.” Elial didn’t look pleased with something, his eyes lowered and his hand played idly with his glass.

“Have you been in a war?” Lana leaned against the table on one elbow, utterly fascinated now.

His green eyes flashed to her. “Several,” he replied softly.

There was hushed silence between them, though the two humans burned to ask more questions. “What is crawfish?” Elial glanced up from the menu, unable to imagine this... Crawfish.

“Bleh, don’t get that....”

“What is it?”

“One of the greatest inventions...” Jasper argued.

“It’s a bug...” Lana retorted with fierceness. “One that you suck the head off of...”

“Okay, no crawfish,” Elial muttered, delving a bit deeper into the menu.

Lana laughed. “Good choice.”

Elial ended up deciding on a hamburger with bacon, not entirely sure what to choose from the alien food. He looked down at the pile of french fries and the delightful hamburger with the most curious expression once it had been delivered. He reached out, taking a fry between two fingers and hesitantly placed it in his mouth.

He had an expression that read that he feared if it would taste terrible. However, just like with the bacon, he became suddenly addicted to yet another fried product. Next, he found the hamburger to be everything that Jasper had described.

“This is... very good,” Elial muttered between large bites.

“Heh, glad you like it, kid.” Jasper grinned, concealing his mouth full of food behind a row of teeth. “But, slow down. You don’t want to choke.”

“So they sent a soldier to investigate for a cure, not a scientist or a doctor?” Lana asked curiously.

Elial took another sip of his delicious carbonated drink. “The odds of finding a cure on this planet are low... My objective is to determine the level of difficulty our species will encounter when fleeing here. A soldier makes a good judge of hostility. We couldn’t send a scientist, their thoughts would be rattled with physics, technology, chemistry, and biology. A civilian was out of the question, and nobility fear too much for their safety, wealth, and status.” Elial’s silvery-green gaze shifted to her, and he thought he knew what question would come next. He decided to answer before it was even asked. “The possibility of us transferring the plague here are very slim. It seems to be more atmospheric. Those who come in contact with the infected either contract the illness or don’t. However, those that had not contracted it sometimes eventually do. Our specialists have determined that we will more than likely not bring the plague with us upon relocating. It might even be possible that your planet has witnessed this plague, or one quite similar, and has found a combatant for it. Given our technology advances over yours, you can understand why I consider it unlikely for there to be a cure here.”

“How will you go about finding a cure?” Lana asked, unsure of how exactly he’d do this. How would he investigate, with no scientific skills? How would he know what to look for?

“Like I said, I was sent here to mostly investigate the ease of adaption,” Elial replied.

He went about eating as the humans contemplated this inevitable invasion. If one stranded alien had bothered Jasper, a few million would probably drive him mad. If it was having an effect on him, he wasn’t showing it. He merely sat there calmly staring intently at the young human-esque being.

“Are all of them as... nice as you?” Lana whispered.

Elial, realizing suddenly what this information would mean to them, turned his attention fully to her. He put down the hand that had the fry and shifted to where his form faced her in the booth. “We will not allow anyone with intentions of harming your people come to this planet. They will be left to die.”

It seemed like a cruel way to treat people of your own kind, but the idea of maniacal super-intelligent beings coming to her home world was very frightening. The things they could do... She didn’t want to consider.

It was then that the music died, and the only thing left was the sound of loud talking. It hushed soon afterwards, as most realized that they no longer needed to talk over the music. Lana was glad that their conversation had been hushed at that point. The last thing they needed at the moment was for someone to overhear their conversation.

“Oh, my God... Lana Dearmon, is that you?” She emerged from the crowd that was passing there table, a tall thin woman with perfectly straight dirty blond hair. Her eyes were crystal blue, and her smile bright and white. She had a soft spray of freckles across her nose and cheeks. She placed both hands on there table and leaned forward, eyes suddenly fixating on the surprised man next to her. “Hello,” she said quickly, bright eyes flickering back to Lana. “Do you still live in town?”

“Only during the summer,” Lana replied, wondering why this particular girl was speaking to her. They had never been much of friends in high school. It was... strange, to Lana. “And you?”

“Well, I live about an hour away in Luceville. Johnny and I got a divorce.” She rolled her eyes, and smiled.

“I’m sorry to hear that Amanda,” Lana said softly, trying her best to sound sad for the girl.

“Psh...” Amanda waved her hand. “I don’t know what I was thinking marryin’ him. I guess I just wanted to be grown, you know? Marrying out of high school and all.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” The truth was that Lana knew nothing of what she meant. She had gone about being grown a completely different way.

“So, I’m guessing you and Trevor broke up.” Amanda’s eyes once again fixated on Elial, who sat there with that beautiful transfixed expression. “This your new boyfriend?”

“Oh, no--”

“This is El,” Jasper butted in, and he said it with such ease that Lana immediately shut up. “I’m hiring him on for the summer.”

“Oh... So you and Trevor didn’t break up?” Amanda smirked, and Lana had gone to school with her long enough to remember what that expression meant.

“We are broken up.”

“Oh,” she smiled softly, a fake smile of course.

Jasper sighed. “Yeah, Trevor was a good kid. Just couldn’t seem to put a leash on this one,” he muttered, nodding towards Lana. “Its hard to tame a wild horse.”

“Dad,” Lana muttered. Trevor was an angel in her father’s eyes, and she would tell him otherwise if it didn’t mean getting her father arrested for murder. Her father would have been very pleased if she had married Trevor. She would have stayed in Fonsdale, and been close to home constantly. Her father would have liked that very much.

“I know, I know.” Jasper rubbed his head.

Thankfully, the music suddenly began playing again.

“Well, it was nice talking to you! I’ll see you around!” Amanda smiled at Elial. “You, too.”

“I knew she and Johnny wouldn’t last,” Jasper muttered.

Lana was a bit surprised that he hadn’t started out with some comment about her and Trevor’s old relationship. It was a nice change, but she figured the only reason for the change was their guests presence.

When they were almost finished eating Jasper reached for his back pocket and froze. “Uh...” He leaned to the other side and reached for the opposite pocket. “Hmm...”

“Dad...”

“Lana, I left my wallet in the truck, will you go get it for me?”

“You better hope its there,” she muttered, nudging Elial. Elial took the hint and stood up, allowing her to get out from the inside of the booth.

Elial watched her as she pushed through the crowd towards the door, slipping back into his seat. He went back to munching on his food, but couldn’t help but feel the eyes of Jasper burning into him. “Yes?”

“You need a haircut,” he mused, rubbing his beard.

Elial blinked, thinking that was an odd thing for him to say. He reached up, grabbing a strand of his neck-length blond hair. He looked around the room and noticed that a large majority of the men there had short hair. “I suppose that would make me blend in better.”

Jasper chuckled, but still seemed very thoughtful. “You aren’t lying to us, are you?”

“About?”

“I remember what you showed me... And I still feel the sadness when I think about it. It gives me the utter creeps to think that you put your feelings in me.” Jasper shuddered. “You really are here to live among us? Not to destroy us so you can take over?”

“My people do not believe in destroying innocent lives for their own cause. We are not like our neighboring worlds. We might have an army, but peace is something most of us long for. Maybe, if we must come here, we will finally find that peace?” Elial thought how glorious that would be; peace.

“You don’t know Earth that well, kid,” Jasper muttered, taking a deep swig of his tea. “Peace isn’t in a human’s vocabulary.”

“What was Lana going after?” Elial said, mostly choosing the change the subject.

“My wallet, so we can get out of here without washing the dishes,” Jasper muttered. He leaned to the side and reached behind him. He pulled forth a old worn brown leather wallet. “I needed to get her out of here so I could talk to you about something in private.”

Elial looked up from his plate, slowly leaning back in the seat. “Will you ask me the same thing she did?”

“What was that?”

“Whether I used my so called ‘powers’ against you,” he spoke slowly, stressing the word powers as if it were the most absurd thing he had ever heard. It was not magic. It was pure harnessed skill.

Jasper blinked. “Well, I haven’t thought of that question, but since you mentioned...” Elial gave an exasperated sigh. “Kid, I’m just picking with you. I think I’d know whether I was under some sort of drug, magic, or hypnosis-what-not. No, that wasn’t what I was going to ask you. And, how do you know it’s a question?”

Elial smiled reluctantly. He had been jumping to conclusions, which was for the most part unlike him.

“I wanted to thank you,” Jasper muttered, averting his eyes and rubbing the back of his head. “So, yeah, thanks... For, you know, helping my daughter.”

Elial tilted his head, finding this human to be most entertaining. “You are welcome. It was the least I could do, since she talked you into not shooting me.” He took a sip of his drink.

“Dumb girl, always sticking her neck out into situations that are to dangerous in the first place... I wonder what’s taking her so long. She usually has given up by now when I send her on wild goose chases.” Jasper leaned back, peering through a crowd towards the door. “You can go out to the truck, I’m going to pay the bill. I’ll meet you there.”

Elial grabbed a hand full of fries for the road and walked through the crowd. The warm air hit him when he stepped out, and it felt good against his skin. Even the wind that blew didn’t seem to change temperature. He looked around, admiring the view and all the curious people. His eyes fell on the area where the contraption that they arrived in sat. It was dark, but he could just make out the slight edge of several figures.

A small form turned from the truck and began walking to him, edging out of the darkness. “Well, looks like he left it at home,” Lana grumbled, running a hand through her long brown hair.

“He found it,” Elial replied.

Lana arched an eyebrow. “How could he lose it? Did that old fart trick me?”

Elial blinked, noting a few things now that he could see her better. She looked flushed, though that could more than likely be attributed to her father tricking her. She also glanced over her shoulder at least twice, as if she were expecting someone to come up behind her. Elial found these actions strange, but figured it was some strange human thing.

“He wanted to thank me for helping you,” Elial told her, not wanting her to be angry with her father. “He’s paying the bill.”

“Geese, he can be so silly.” Lana couldn’t help but be very relieved that her father had actually not forgotten his wallet. Lana turned and opened the passenger door, climbing in and sliding over to allow Elial a place to sit. The being glanced around, trying to search for what she had been so ruffled about. He found nothing, and assuming that it was nothing worth worrying about, he closed the door and sat back comfortably.

* * *

The first thing Jasper did when he got home was go to the den and flop back onto his worn recliner. He reached over to a lamp, pulling the dangling chain. Lana went about the room turning on several other lamps, and her father flipped through the channels until he came to the station that his world seemed to repetitively revolve around.

“... It is still unsure what struck the satellite. Reports of several pieces of it have been found in the following region.” Lana shifted around the couch, as did Elial, and they moved with slow pace to sit in front of the tv as the news broadcaster spoke. She was gesturing across a blown up map.

“Did you hit it?”

“I don’t know. I was sleeping. When I woke up, the siren was blaring that I was going to crash,” Elial replied, narrowing his eyes on the tv. “Can they track what hit it?”

“I’m not sure...”

“At first we suspected that what hit the satellite was a meteor. From the trajectory that we have calculated the object that hit should have crashed along with all the other fragments. We have yet to find it, therefore we are suspecting that the projectile was in fact an missile...” Elial sighed in relief, and Lana’s gaze flickered to him.

“You don’t want them to find you?”

“Not really,” Elial replied truthfully. “I would be detained until further proven to not be a threat. I would be interrogated about my world. It would hinder what I’m here to do, which is observe.”

“Can they still find you?”

“It depends on whether they are lying about thinking it was just a missile. I suspect so.” Elial’s green eyes fell on the tv as he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.

“Why didn’t you land where everything else did?” Jasper chimed in.

“I managed to wake in time to try and regain control. My ability was slightly compromise, however I was able to just enough to alter my destination. I knew I needed to find a place that was no heavily populated, my original destination would have been the desert. This was the closest place from where I would have landed. I tried to keep from crashing, but of course we all know I was not successful.” Elial’s fascination with what was on tv continued.

“We need to disk tomorrow, and burn the field,” Jasper said suddenly. “Cut down some fire wood.”

Lana narrowed her eyes. “We don’t need firewood.”

“Yes, we do,” Jasper replied, giving her a stern look.

“No, we don’t...”

“Lana, I like my peace. I don’t want some snobby government agents snooping around my place because the Game Warden saw a large trench crater that an alien space craft could have made. We need to remove the trace of El crashing here. We’ll burn and disk the field... and cut down the trees around where he landed. That way the broken pieces will not be so noticeable.”

“You’re pretty good at this covering-up thing,” Lana muttered, a bit surprised by her father.

Jasper smirked, leaning back comfortably. “What can I say, I was a teenager once.”

“And what does that have to do with anything?” Lana muttered, rising to her feet.

“Absolutely nothing... That I’ll tell you.”

Lana scoffed, walking over to his chair. She kissed his cheek. “I’m going to go to sleep, then,” she said softly, standing up straight. She faced Elial, who watched her curiously. “Night.”

He tilted his head curiously, and she just smiled at him as she turned away, waving a hand over her shoulder as she disappeared around the corner and up the stairs. His eyes returned to the tv screen, where flashes of wreckage were being shown. They flashed across the screen in a series of quick video blips.

“You should get some sleep, El,” Jasper advised, his head tilted to the side and leaning comfortably against the back of his recliner.

Elial tilted his head back, his eyes wondering the ceiling as he contemplated whether he was truly tired or not. He couldn’t decide, there was too much running through his mind. But, knowing that rest was good, he chose to stand. “Night,” he said mimicking Lana’s tone and he placed his hand on Jasper’s shoulder reassuringly.

“G’night, kid,” Jasper muttered, changing the channel to something else a little less abrasive.

Elial was an easy moving person. He rarely moved with ferocity unless need be. So he calmly ascended the staircase towards a dark hallway, easily remembering where the door to his designated room was. There was a beam of light shining down the staircase from an open door. He saw the shadow of something flying across the room, and when he reached the top of the stairs he saw Lana with a pile of clothes in her arms. She began shoving them into a tall thin plastic box, which was obviously too full at the moment anyway.

He couldn’t help but watch curiously as she pulled open several different drawers and took one piece of garment from each before turning towards him. Lana sucked in a breath quickly, showing visible signs of being startled. “Geeze,” she muttered, stepping towards the door. “Don’t sneak up on people like that.” She gently moved passed him and to the bathroom, flipping the light on and pausing to set her things down.

“I’m sorry,” he said, the edge of a smile tugging at his features. She arched an eyebrow at him as he ever so calmly opened the door to his own room and disappeared inside when the door closed.

* * *