Getting to the shuttle took longer than we thought.

Not that it was far from where we'd been camping. Nope.

Instead, on the way there, we were accosted by human teenagers.

We had barely started in the direction of the shuttles when I heard a girl's voice cry, "Hey! Nokki girl!"

I whirled, startled. Zanatos pointed the muzzle of his gun at the intruders.

"How do you keep getting ammo for that thing?" I hissed.

He smiled grimly. "Careless people dropping ammunition. And abandoned gun shops."

"Oh."

When the humans caught up with us, I realized that all four of them were around my age. In the lead was a girl with tanned skin, dark brown hair, and large brown eyes. She was closely followed by a black-haired, pasty skinned boy. Right behind him, running in perfect synchronization, were a boy and a girl who seemed almost exactly alike – both with golden hair, fair skin, and green eyes. The only difference between them appeared to be gender.

When they caught sight of Zanatos' gun and his protective stance, they screeched to a halt.

"Dude!" The brunette threw up her hands. "We weren't gonna do anything to her!"

"Yeah," the dark haired boy chimed in. "We eat bloodfruit and stuff. We just thought we might have known her."

Zanatos looked at them more closely. Shock flashed across his face.

I shot him a curious glance. Where did he know these four from?

They must have been friendly, whoever they were, because Zanatos lowered his gun.

The newcomers squinted at me. "Have we met before?" the brunette girl asked. "Because I could swear I remember your face from somewhere…"

I scanned the faces of the four humans. Not one of them looked familiar to me.

"I don't think we've met –" I began.

My words were suddenly cut off by a sharp, stabbing pain in my forehead. I clutched at it, waiting for my weird headache to subside.

It hurt for a few seconds more, and then went away.

"You okay?" the blonds said in unison. These two were obviously twins.

I raised my head, and saw that all four of the strangers, not to mention Zanatos, were looking at me with concern.

"I'm fine," I said lightly. "Just a bad headache."

The newcomers relaxed, but Zanatos still looked worried. Before I could ask him what was up, the brunette girl stepped forward.

"Well then," she said. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Cass. This is Sean –" she gestured to the dark haired boy – "and these two are Otis and Odette."

I held my hand out. "Sakaya Kikaira," I said.

Cass shook my hand.

"So where are you guys headed off to?" Sean asked.

"Stellapolis," Zanatos told them.

The four of them gawked at him.

"Seriously?!" Otis cried with delight.

"They let humans into the city now?!" Odette added.

Zanatos sighed. "I'm really the only human they let in. And that's because… I did them a favor around a year ago."

The teens' faces crumpled.

Cass recovered more quickly than the others. "Can we walk you to the shuttle, at least?" she asked. "I mean, it's dangerous for Nokki down here…"

Zanatos looked taken aback. And who could blame him? The fact is that most humans try to kill me. But here were four humans who were offering to help him protect me. (Even though, with my awesome elemental powers, I could probably take care of myself.)This was a new one.

Then he shrugged. "Be my guests."

As we headed for the shuttle, I got a pretty good glimpse of our escorts' personalities.

Cass, who appeared to be the leader, was friendly and perky. Sean was quiet and grumpy; Otis was childish and a bit careless; and Odette was sweet and sensitive.

Bubbly Cass was the only reason we didn't walk in silence. She kept up chatter, asking me what Stellapolis was like (a topic which the other three were equally as interested in). I think I described my home all the way to the shuttle, because every description I came up with made them want to know more.

Finally, we were there.

Zanatos ducked into the station's one bathroom to change into his Nokki clothes. While he was changing, Cass inquired of me, "Are you sure we've never met before? 'Cause I could've sworn I recognize your face…"

"I don't think so," I said.

"Cass, you are a loon," Sean muttered. Otis and Odette made "you're crazy" gestures.

"Hey!" Cass cried. "At least I'm not the one who mistook a baseball for bloodfruit. Right, Sean?"

Otis and Odette burst into laughter.

"It was dark out!" Sean protested, lowering his gaze to his feet.

I smiled. These four were nuts. But their eccentricities only seemed to add to their appeal.

Their friendship reminded me of Svese and I. I was suddenly worried. What had happened to Svese while I was out snoring for a year?

I didn't have time to ponder it, because that was when Zanatos came out of the bathroom.

"Let's go," he said bluntly, heading towards the shuttle.

I turned to say goodbye to the four friends who had accompanied us.

When I faced them, preparing to part, the strangest thing happened.

A sudden, intense sorrow built in my chest. It was grief like I hadn't known since Aunt Kiara's death. But it had come out of absolutely nowhere. One minute I was staring at them, and the next I had burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably as if I could weep the irrational heartache out of my system.

Cass took a step towards me. "Sakaya? You okay?"

I nodded, and managed to smile through the illogical tears. "I-I'm fine. Don't know what's come over me, honestly."

"You're weird," Sean mumbled. The other three turned to glare at him.

"Anyways, we need to head on out," Cass said as the four of them left.

They waved, calling out goodbyes over their shoulders before disappearing in the distance.

"Bye," I said softly.

And the waterworks got ten times worse.

I couldn't believe myself. Here I was, crying over a couple of virtual strangers. What was wrong with me? Was this another side effect of using all the power in my body?

"Sakaya?"

Zanatos left the shuttle. When he saw the uncontrollable sobbing, his expression became horrified.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently.

"I-I don't know," I gasped around the tears. "They were about to leave and then I… I just started crying out of nowhere."

And then, as abruptly as the grief had come, it stopped. I felt fine again.

Zanatos laid a hand on my shoulder. "Sakaya –"

"Don't worry, Zanatos," I said. "I'm fine now. Really."

He still looked anxious, but didn't comment as we finally got in the shuttle.

I pressed the UP button on the shuttle. "You might want to sit down," I warned Zanatos as the door closed.

He laughed. When I turned around, I saw he was already sitting.

"I've been in a shuttle before, silly," Zanatos reminded me, ruffling my hair as I sat down next to him. "I know how violent the ride is."

"Right."

Zanatos grinned, but then he turned serious. He scooted closer to me, staring straight at me.

"What is it?" I felt self-conscious.

"You look sort of… different with long hair," he said solemnly.

I tentatively touched the fall of my hair. It was shoulder length. "Should I cut it?"

"No," Zanatos responded. "It looks really pretty. Not that you didn't look good with short hair," he added quickly. "You always look pretty."

The compliment touched me. I've always wondered what I looked like through Zanatos' eyes. Now I had some idea.

"Thank y-" I began.

But that was when the ancient shuttle finally finished powering up and rocketed towards the sky. I jumped a foot in the air. The sudden sound of the shuttle starting was loud enough to give anyone a heart attack.

"Geez!" Zanatos complained. "Why do your shuttles make so much noise?"

"They're old," I answered. "And… they kind of suck."

Zanatos looked nervously out the window, as the gray-lit ground grew further and further away. I patted his hand soothingly.

We didn't say anything else for the short remainder of the ride. But the silence wasn't awkward at all. It was more like we were just thinking. My hand stayed over Zanatos'.

That is, until the shuttle screeched to a halt, throwing both of us against its roof.

Zanatos rubbed his head when we landed. "You okay, Sakaya?"

"Fine," I assured him. "And you?"

"Except for my head, I'm good," he said.

The door to the shuttle swung open.

We stepped out onto the cloud, only to find a plethora of Nokki waiting for us. They must have heard the shuttle and come to investigate.

Every last one of them ogled at me as if I'd come back from the dead. Which, in a way, I had.

"Um," I said uneasily. "Hi."

A girl recovered and stepped forwards from the crowd, still too stunned to speak.

Joy and relief overwhelmed me when I recognized her face.

"Svese?"

"Sakaya," she breathed. "You're back."