It was another lousy night of sleep. Three days already and still jet lag manages to find me. The morning people don’t help either, they even formed a morning club just to give the morning announcements. What surprises me is that Fei is not apart of the group and what surprises me more is that she hates it more then Raven.

“Good morning, my fellow miners” the overly cheerful announcement girl’s voice blasted through the speakers. I sit up to glare at them as does Fei. The speakers look to be from the World War 2 era in technology standards, nothing like those white flat ones that blend in with the ceiling so no one notices until someone uses them.

“Well my darlings, today’s another fantastic day on Demon’s moon! The clouds are black and thick as usual and little chance of hail and meteor showers until very late in the evening. Sun stones are hot and bright, dimming will start around mid-day. Oh, and to those fools who hung out by the sun stone this morning it will set your hair on fire if you put your cheek against it. So watch it!” she signed off.

Fei chucked her pillow at the speaker. “We don’t care you overly happy, optimistic, crazy people!” she shouted with complete loathing and disgust. “They’re worse than preppies,” She muttered to herself. Then we glanced at each other with smiles on our faces and waited a few moments.

There was furious stomping outside in the hallway and a low snarling growl erupted as whatever was in the hall passed our door. It was safe to assume that Raven is in the foulest of moods and best left alone. We also made sure Raven had left the building before we left the room, no one wants to be the first to cross Raven’s path. We feared for the poor soul who is that said person.

We went straight for the mess hall. We said our good mornings to the receptionist, who is actually a female named Ursula.

“Good morning Ursula” we said in unison. She grunted back as a reply. The good thing about this response is she doesn’t hate us completely .

The mysterious human guy walked in and a cold breeze hit me. I slowly turned to him with a fixed smile.

“Good morning” Fei greeted him also a fixed smile on her face. She was terrified of the guy. He ignored us and went straight to the dining room.

“What’s his problem again?” I asked Fei just above a mere whisper. She shrugged and we continued on our way.

Five minutes later we were joined at our table by Raven and Grave who sat across from us. For the last three days these three have been teaching me everything I really needed to know and tested me on it every chance they get.

“Ok, names. List the names and species of everyone in this room,” Grave ordered me. I quickly skimmed the room; only seven people were in here.

“Sunny, harpy; Jacks, Cyclopes; Josie, centaur; Blake, arachnid; Valery, tree nymph; Ivy, frost monster; and…” I trailed off a little. The last guy was the other human and I had no clue what his name is. They felt the tension as my eyes flickered to him their eyes following the trail to him also. We awkwardly turned away

“Just skip him,” Raven swallowed hard. We sat in silence for an extended amount of time.

“To be honest most of the creatures here are nothing more th a n fairytales and common folklore on my planet.” They stared at me confused.

“Your planet is either really dumb or just that plain ignorant,” Raven shorted. I blushed embarrassed.

They will never let me forget all the stories and bad reputations that were given to the human name. Although some of the stories are actually pretty cool and somewhat sweet. In one story the human rose up against the Solarites but was defeated in the end. They didn’t get this part but I certainly did.

His last sentence before he died was, “Oh my sweet Robin. Have you come to welcome me to the after world?” they must not have known about life after death and the fact we have several different faiths on our planet.

After we finished our breakfast we walked over to our ‘entertainment’ center to kill the hour we have left before the first shift of the day. This is where everyone really hangs out in during our free time because about 25% of the population in our town was in there, which sadly is not very much. It was mostly like a bar. There was alcohol being served, even this early in the morning. Stools were situated around small circular tables and two or three pool tables were in the back. There was even one of those neon lighted jukeboxes people would see in retro movies and diners, music blared from its speakers as some kids danced to the tunes it played.

I heard the sound of cards shuffling from behind me and swirled my head around. Raven had her usual smirk on her face as she jumbled up the playing cards in her hand.

“Texas hold’em, anyone?” she proposed toss ing the cards down onto a table.

I never gambled in my life, so I watched as Fei and Grave said, “We’re in.” and sat down along with Raven. They turned to me expectantly waiting for me sit down and play with them.

“Um that’s ok… I’ll pass this time,” Then I quickly retreated from the table. Raven growled and stood up, the chair scraping against the floor and everyone turned to look at what was going on. It was dead quiet as I stood frozen to where my feet touched the floor. The background music stopped and the mood around the room was once again somber and no longer cheerful.

“Pirate…” Raven’s voice was cold and jagged as my new name pierce through me. I slowly rotated around to face her, my heart sinking to my stomach and my throat drying instantly. She continued with what she was about to say. “You will sit down and join us in Texas hold ’ em or do you want to be the second person to be sent to the therapist today?”

My heart beat loudly against my chest as I dragged myself over to the table and reluctantly sat down next to Fei. Raven then sat down, her anger simmered down to safer levels and the room returned to normal.

I received my cards and what luck I had, pocket queen’s. We couldn’t bet anything because no one really owned stuff here so instead they used wooden chips they carved on their free time. Fei patted my shoulder.

“Don’t worry Pirate, sooner or later you’ll carve chips of your own, so for now you can use mine” and handed me half her stack. We played the whole time until the bell rang for the first shift and immediately my shoulders ached as I started the tedious, back-breaking work.

Today was different for some reason, everyone was working the same but today everyone had this look about them like something was about to go down. There were more guards too and some of them were watching us… judging us, and wrote in something that was too small to see clearly.

“Fei-” I was cut off.

“Don’t talk” she hoarsely told me. We continued to work in complete silence; that frightened me. What could be so horrible that even Fei is silenced in fear? Then it hit me this must be some kind of test to weed out anybody who they deem useless. I never believed that amount of cruelty existed except in books and movies.

Two guards stopped Fei and me while we were passing by as their companion began to do a physical test. He grasped our arms and constricted our muscles, which is extremely painful, so painful that I couldn ’t even scream. Fei just stood there like he was barely pressing her forearms.

While he did this the Solarite actually tried to make conversation with us like everything is all peachy. “Well Fei you’re quite the sweet heart , aren’t you !” then he turned to me. “Ah, you must be Pirate . An exotic name, I’ll admit. I hope your fairing well with your… handicap…” I felt like responding to that remark ,but I bit my tongue to keep myself from saying anything regretful. Grave had warned me never to talk to the solarites no matter what rude and ill-mannered comments they may aim at me. I just kept my head down and acted like I didn’t hear them.

After they finished their little test and the Solarite jotted down the information he acquired and let us be on our way, leaving me pondering over what he wrote down about us .

When the shift ended there was no break, they made us all line up and forced us to do a pacer test; I completed 32 laps while Raven and Fei hauled tail and completed 65 laps each, over twice as much as my score. The whole time the Solarites noting down information.

During the next break, they excused Fei and made us lift weights. When I saw her leave, I felt so lost and forgotten. I shook my head and grabbed the weight closest to me. I pressed a hundred and fifty pounds, and then marveled at myself thinking ‘How did I even do that.’

Raven came up to me and whispered “Carrying four tons of dense water certainly helps with this test now doesn’t it?” and slipped away from sight not wanting the guards to catch her talking. I thought for a second and she was right I have been lifting four tons of water everywhere for at least three and a half days. This is relatively nothing in comparison . No wonder Fei’s so strong, she was here way longer then I was, but I had a hunch that wasn’t the main reason.

They continued these test for the rest of the day during our breaks. There was even a test that I outlasted the rest. It was an obstacle course that was really bizarre. It was a very twisted version of ninja warrior that instead of ice cold water, those who fell into the pit froze into th e position when they hit the ground. I got stuck at the warped wall, well more like a loop, when the time ran out. Then they rounded up the statues and defreezed them.

“The human survived the longest…” One Solarite said out loud. Everyone except Fei, Raven, and Grave turned and stared at me. Most were frightened, others were confused by the others reactions, and the rest glared at me like I was a threat. I slowly began to back away from them and near Fei for help. Raven gave one quick death glare in their direction and spontaneously they turned away.

Finally, we were finished for the day and the extra Solarite guards left for the evening. When I came into the dining hall everyone stopped and stared at me. I was always comfortable to be alone but the silence was deadly, so I made my way to the table after I snatched myself something to eat.

As I passed by the other tables, I couldn’t help but overhear their conversations they whispered to each other.

“I hear, if you look one straight in the eyes you fall down dead within the next three days.” Sunny told Blake then scurried away when she saw me looking her way. I gave a small sigh and sat down next to Fei in my usual spot. The mysterious man in the corner wasn’t there today and Raven caught me staring at his empty table. She gave me a reassuring pat and scoffed down her food.

“Just to forewarn you, some of the guys are threatened by you and will gang up on you once you walk outside.” Grave murmured to me as he rose from the table. He kissed Raven’s cheek and left the room. I felt instantly wary from today’s events and rose up too.

“I’m tired” I announced, “now I don’t know what’s going on with you guys, but to be completely honest I can’t hurt a fly!” I didn’t raise my voice; I didn’t have to, everyone hushed up whenever I moved, so even my soft voice seemed loud in comparison. Nobody looked me in the eye but they heard my words. I left the dining hall quickly and ran into some big guys.

There was four of them. Each a different creature, but all bigger than me and more menacing. One had long claws like Edward scissor-hands and a sharp triangular face. The two on his right were the same type of species, easily clearing eight feet in size with bulky arms and hind legs like a cat’s. One was a caramel color while the other was pumpkin orange. The last one, that I assume was the leader, was a lizard-like creature with a forked tongue and two slits for nostrils. His eye’s were jet black like an empty void in space. He stood in front of the others and looked to have been waiting awhile.

They blocked me from the dorm rooms. Is this middle school or what? I simply lowered my head and began to walk the other direction; they followed. I glanced back at them. There were four of them; I recognized them from inside the mine when I delivered water.

I had a panicky feeling that I was in major trouble, so I began to pick up the pace. They also began to speed up and followed me further. I was almost to the door when one beat me to it and cut me off from my escape. I skid to a halt. They had me surrounded on all sides except for the tree line of the forest on my right. I bolted straight into it praying that they would have difficulty maneuvering around the trees.

I didn’t even check to see if I was wrong or not, I just kept running and scaling the roots and plants that snagged my feet. T he crystal plants gave no mercy to my skirt and I will have to mend it later on as I scraped past the blades and thorns . Some of the m cut into my legs as I swiftly brushed them, I wince but continue hearing the cursing voices behind me .

Fei had warned me to stay away from shell pink plants they are extremely poisonous, mint green and gold plants too are dangerous and best be avoided. F or her to kn ow so much, my mind briefly ponders how long she had been here and how she found about these plants. I snap out of it, this was certainly not the time.

Finally I came across a clearing and rested for awhile. I was far enough away from the men that I could relax a little. I decided to t end some of my cuts while I had the chance . I was so absorbed in the task , I didn’t hear him approach. The mysterious guy was in the clearing also , I didn’t notice until he spoke.

“Hey, what are you doing here? This place is dangerous.” I felt like shattered ice and jumped up like a bee had stung me. I hesitantly laughed as I turned to face him.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you the same thing, then?” I asked uncomfortably trying to back away from the clearing. He snatched my arm and leaned in close.

He then spoke with a hint of irritation, “I asked you a question. Why are you here?”

The men from before then burst into the clearing. They were shocked at first then slightly pleased as they started to come closer. The man dropped my arm and glanced at them. He snorted at their s cam of being threatening. He bent down and plucked a blade of grass.

“Go home children, you’re attacking a harmless, unarmed woman. That’s very honorable…” He sarcastically remarked. The four guys then surrounded us making sure that we don’t try to escape them.

The leader lizard like thing then shouted, “Humans are an abomination and must be removed from the universe, no matter how innocent or harmless they may seem.”

The man beside me gripped his blade of grass and flung it at one of the guys.

The blade of grass struck the scissor clawed one in the arm and he faltered enough to give the mysterious man time to follow up with an uppercut and sent the thug flying. The pumpkin giant ran at him to grab him, but he crouched down and the second thug tripped over him and landed on his back. The man kicked the giant in the face as he tried to get back up. The other giant panicked and ran away; the other two following closely behind him.

Their leader called after them, “Wait where are you going, you cowards?” He turned around and the man was up in his face. The thug leader began to sweat as the man took hold of his and rammed him into a tree. The thug ran for his life.

I stood there gawking at the mysterious guy as he passed by without even a glance in my direction. He paused for a moment before he left the clearing and said, “ t hey shouldn’t bother you anymore . B y the way, my name is Ace and hasn’t anyone told you, it’s rude to stare? .” Then he strolled off.

I stared at the spot he had vanished and thought for awhile about what just happened . I laugh comparing Ace to Raven on how they both said the same thing about staring. I felt an overwhelming feeling of gratitude, I realized I forgot to thank him and it was immediately replaced by pang of grief.

I began to head home; I paused. I forgotten the direction the trail was at! Flustered, I started to frantically search around for anything besides glowing plants. They seemed to get dimmer and darker as I ran through the woods. Nothing stirred, but the whistling wind as it slices through the trees.

There was a slight tremble beneath my feet. Hardly even noticeable at first, but then it began to increase that soon leaves were shaken off and plummet to the ground around me. Then I could barely keep my balance, until suddenly the trembling rapidly decreased and in the sky, I could see a silver shiny object ascended leaving a trail of fire behind it and shortly submerged by the thick inky black clouds.

I quickly scaled a tree, a bright purple one, to get a better look at what it was. By the time I got to the top the object was long gone. I sighed in discontent, but then looked away from the sky to see the sun stone from the town and a little way from where I was at, the trail to the town.

I quickly got down and ran to the trail and ran all the way to the town. I even felt like hugging the sun stone but remembered this morning’s announcement. I rushed into the dorm room building and raced to my room. As I opened the door, I saw that Fei was already in bed and fast asleep. I noiselessly snuck into the room and gently shut the door behind me and tipped-toed to bed.

I was so tired that I fell asleep quickly and couldn’t even ponder over my little adventure. I slept easy completely clueless of what’s in store for tomorrow.