| Chapter 2 "Paisley! Come quickly, I need your help!" the young woman heard her mother yell. Adopted mother, the voice in the back of her head reminded. Perhaps if she weren't so different she could have avoided it, but she had always been an outsider, obviously not from the planet she had always called home. Yet only recently had such simple things seemed to remind her of that. It was as if something in her blood was calling to her, telling her this was not where she belonged. Paisley chided herself for getting side tracked and hurried to her mother. "Yes, mother? What do you need my help with?" "I need you to go into town and get some supplies for me and for the house. I will be at that Council meeting for at least two weeks and I don't want you to go hungry." Paisley smirked. "So this won't be a quick trip, then?" "I'd say not. Here's the list of what to buy and what stores to find the thing, try to be back by dark." "Yes mother, BYE!" Paisley flew, literally, out of the door. As she flew to the town, quite a distance away, she checked over the list her mother had given her. "Hmmmm... Is this really going to be enough for a week? I suppose she gave me extra money. Either way I guess I'll be rationing for a while." In reality, the list was enough to feed an entire household of the natives for a month. But really, she was a growing girl, and she had had an appetite since she was little. Her mother should know better by now� Her head perked up at the sense of something in the back of her mind. It was the same sense that had always told her when her mother entered the room, or when a friend was trying to sneak up on her. But this time it seemed really different. It was like the difference between running your hand against a velvety bit of fabric and touching a scratchy piece of wool. She turned towards the origin of the wool like sensation, and could smell the faint scent of burning plastic and computer. "Something very, very strange is going on over there�" Paisley was torn. Should she go to see what happened? What if it was, as was most likely, an emergency? Then she should go get help, right? The scent began to thicken, and the wool like energy was fading. Without anymore concious thought, Paisley made her way towards it. She tore over the tops of the trees, hurtling through the air as fast as she could go. As she went the scent began to accumulate more and more, until it began to scratch at her eyes and throat. There was definitely smoke coming from somewhere nearby, and if it wasn't from a burnt out space craft of some kind then everything Paisley had ever learned was wrong. Sure enough, when she though the scent of burning was going to over power her, she saw the impact crater in the trees, and the thick black smoke pouring from its center. She took off into the crater, and saw what must have started as a round ship, its hatch bent just slightly open, laying on the ground. The smoke came both from the ship and the trees around it. "What do I do now?" Paisley frantically asked the air around her. She remembered the sense that had led her here to begin with, and peeked into the ship. She gasped, and very neary fell over in shock. The man inside had blood and burns all over, obscuring everything but the fact that he looked just like Paisley. |
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