"This happened too fast…" whispered Liro in Darian's ear. He nodded his head, "Yeah…" answered him back. Darian was still transformed. As they started to walk, Snowy immediately went out of his body, landing on the ground in front of him.
The old woman was walking next to them with her walking stick. "Ohh what is that creature?" asked the woman as she tried to arch to see Snowy better. "Ehii that creature looks extremely cutee!" shouted the other girl as she rushed toward Snowy, who took a step behind, not used to this type of attention.
"He is my friend," said Darian as he kneeled down to grab him into his hands. The women were starting to move their hands toward Snowy, and it was clear he was feeling a bit uncomfortable.
The old woman was the first to control herself and return composed. She coughed a bit before speaking again, "So that wasn't your true aspect…" said the old woman as she watched over Snowy. "Where did you find something like that? Is it part of your magic?"
"Oh well, about that…" said Darian, wondering if he should say the truth or not. He looked toward Vane and Liro, who agreed with their faces.
"Sigh… It is such a long story, mind if I tell you with more calm?"
"Oh oh, but first, how rude of us. We didn't even introduce ourselves… I'm Naluri," said the old woman.
"While I'm Lily," said the other girl, smiling warmly.
"I'm Vane," said him as he leaned with his arm over Liro's shoulder, who looked annoyed. "I'm Liro."
"And I'm Darian… and as you might have heard before, he is Snowy," said Darian, doing a better presentation of himself and his small companion.
"Now that I think about it… it was a bit rude of us to bring you around the city without even asking for what you came for," said Naluri as she suddenly turned serious. "It must be for something really important, right?"
"Exactly… but we can't tell this information to anyone, we need to speak privately about this," said Liro. Then Darian spoke again too, "Is there a group of Alterid that we can speak to? We need their help."
"Oh oh little man, you have them in front of you," said Naluri, laughing softly. Before anyone else could even do anything, she turned around and started to walk. "Follow me, I'll bring you to the building of the Tideflares, it isn't far from here."
"I wonder how many other Alterids are there in the city," whispered Vane as the group walked behind the two women. "Do you think that the other guy is an Alterid like them?" asked Liro, still thinking about the meeting with that other man.
"The Tideflares don't have many members, it is just the four of us. The boy you met before, Garoo, is one of us," said Lily warmly.
The group didn't walk into the city; they went toward the outside of it. On top of a hill, there was a small house with multiple flowers around it. "We have arrived, please make yourselves comfortable," said Naluri as she opened the door.
The building was extremely well decorated. There was a small fireplace, while multiple sofas were all around the place. Two different desks stood on the side: one had sewing materials, the other had multiple flowers in many different pots.
Naluri waited for everyone to enter before leaving the door open. Lily went toward the windows of the house and opened them. The view from this place was beautiful—you had a perfect view of the sea from there, and you could remain watching it for multiple hours without getting bored.
Naluri waved to the guys to sit down on the sofa. "So? What do you need from a small city like ours?" As she spoke, she sat down at the desk with the sewing supplies, while Lily sat at the other desk, admiring her flowers.
Darian recognized all the flowers almost immediately. There were mostly tulips and jasmine. 'Wait, these flowers don't usually grow in the same spot…' thought Darian, confused.
Lily noticed Darian was looking directly at the flowers and thought he was interested. "Are you interested in this kind of stuff too?" she asked, smiling warmly.
"Well yeah, sort of," answered Darian as he returned normal.
"So, let's talk about more serious things. Why did you three come here?" asked Naluri with serious eyes.
"Something big is about to come to Yalemba… and we came here to help you," said Liro as he stood up from the sofa. All the attention was directed toward him now. "Something big? Explain yourself better, kiddo," answered Naluri, trying to understand what he was saying.
"We're saying that the city is in danger, it will receive an attack in less than a week. We came here to help you," said Darian, answering for Liro, who sat back on the sofa.
"An attack? In this city? What would they even gain by attacking this small city?" asked Naluri. Lily had a weird look of excitement in her eyes. "Finally I'll be able to see what these krukins look like… and if they're actually real," whispered Lily to herself.
"We-we don't know, but we heard them saying it was going to happen in a month… and three weeks have already passed," said Darian as he lowered his head, feeling somehow sorry for the city.
"Mhmm, if what you say is true, this means that the city is in danger." Naluri got up from her chair and walked toward the window. As she looked down, there was someone with purple hair fishing near the beach. No one else was around him; he was sitting on a small rock.
"Wait… do you really believe us?" asked Liro, confused. Garoo hadn't believed them; now these two women believed them like it was nothing.
"Garoo let you three go. This means he thinks you might not be wrong," said Lily as she slowly touched the petals of the flowers.
"But we still need to know something more about you…" said Naluri as she returned to her desk. "Please tell us everything… first, where do you come from?" asked Naluri as she looked directly into Darian's eyes, knowing he was different somehow.
"Me and Vane come from Therya… while for Darian… it is a bit different," said Liro as he looked over at Darian, waiting for him to start speaking. 'Do I have to explain my past every time we enter a new city?' Darian made a rhetorical question in his mind, clearly knowing the answer was: 'yes.'
"Ok first of all, it might sound strange to you… but I come from the old war, before the black planet crashed against the earth." Lily and Naluri opened their eyes, surprised and shocked. "I knew you looked different, but I didn't think it in this way," said Naluri as she started to breathe heavily.
"How is this possible? I know that 500 years have passed since the two planets crashed against each other… are you 500 years old?" asked Lily with so much curiosity in her eyes she could barely contain her excitement.
"In earth years yeah, I'm over 500 years old, while for the other planet I have been to… I'm only 33," said Darian as he started to explain. The two women looked more fascinated than before.
"Other planets?" asked Lily, confused.
"The universe is literally infinite, there are so many planets like ours in the whole cosmos that it's impossible to measure them," said Darian as he was about to get excited. Speaking about something he liked, he could not resist explaining everything he knew.
Darian then started to speak about everything, from the moment the starship brought him to XERBAB-7 until the moment he returned to Earth and saw everything destroyed.
"I heard that the old world was great… but hearing these stories surprises me," said Naluri, feeling extremely happy hearing everything Darian told her. Lily was even more excited hearing about these stories. "A-And tell me, are there many other plants and flowers different from the ones of our planet?" asked her with so much excitement that she fell from her chair and went toward Darian.
"Obviously, I went there to study many of them," answered Darian proudly.
"But did you go all there by yourself? Didn't you feel alone?" asked Naluri, her mind still focused on Darian's stories.
"I wasn't alone, there were robots that helped me on the planet to study things."
"Wait, robots like Rusty?" asked Liro. The two women looked more confused now; they didn't even know what a robot was.
"Not exactly, Rusty is a powerful AI that knows everything, while these others were specialized in doing only one kind of stuff," answered Darian as he turned again toward the two women. He saw more confused eyes on their faces.
'Oh right…' thought Darian as he started to explain what a robot was. While all of this happened, many hours passed. Suddenly, the door opened, and a guy with medium-long purple hair entered the house.
Seeing other people that weren't originally from the town made him feel strange. "Hey… what happened here?" He had a long rod in his hands, and in the other hand a bucket. From there, a strange smell of fish came out.
"Don't worry Archie, they aren't bad people… something important is about to happen in the city. They came here to give us their help," answered Naluri.
"Mhm alright," said Archie as he opened a door and left the fish in the bucket and his rod there.
"So? What is about to happen in the city? Explain better, don't be so enigmatic," said Archie as he sat down on the other sofa.
"He is the last one of the Alterids you haven't met yet," whispered Lily into Darian's ear.
"I'll tell you everything. It's late, and our guests must be tired. Lily, get them to my house," said Naluri.
"Alrighhtt!" shouted Lily as she rushed toward the door. "C'mon everyone, I'll get you to a place where you can sleep."
The other three agreed and followed her toward Naluri's house. It was already late, around 10 p.m., and the streets were almost empty. Naluri's house was situated near the water. It wasn't a stilt house, but it was really close to the water and was one of the biggest in the city.
"Lady Naluri lives alone. I give her help with everything, so feel free to choose any room you'd like to sleep in," said Lily after she opened the door. The house inside was also really big. In front of the entrance there were two stairs, one on the left and one on the right.
"The bedrooms are on the upper floor. Please make yourself at home," said Lily. The guys nodded and went toward the upper floor to choose a room for themselves.
"I guess I'll take this one," said Liro. This one was really small, but it had a beautiful window with an amazing view of the sea.
"Guess I'll take this one," said Vane as he took the room in front of Liro's. It had a really big bed but only one small window.
"Guess I'll take this one then," said Darian. The room wasn't far from the others, but it was big enough for him and Snowy.
"Well then, goodnight everyone," said Vane as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.
"Darian… if anything bad happens, come and wake us," said Liro with serious eyes.
"Don't worry, I will," said him with a serious face too. Then the two doors were closed, and everyone was in their own room.
Snowy immediately rushed for the bed. Darian sat down next to him, leaving his bag on the ground. "You know, Snowy… I missed you so much." Darian lay down next to him, hugging him in his arms.
"I want to know you better, Snowy… I feel like I don't know much about you, and I haven't done anything for you… but at the same time it feels like you know me perfectly and you have done so much for me. I don't know why, but I feel like you have saved me somehow… I can't explain it," said Darian. Snowy tilted his head and looked at him.
"It feels like I haven't treated you like a living creature. Every time I studied you, I did it only in a scientific way, but I felt like it wasn't enough. What do you say, do you want to help me know you better, Snowy?" asked Darian, smiling. It felt like Snowy smiled too and licked Darian's cheek. "Hehe, I'll take that as a yes," said Darian before grabbing Snowy again in his hands and holding him tighter.
While it was still late, Naluri was walking outside, going where Garoo was still playing his flute. "Do you really think letting them in was the right choice, Garoo?" asked Naluri as she leaned her back on the tree. Garoo, who had played the flute peacefully all afternoon, slowly removed it from his mouth.
"Yes… recently there is something on my mind. I need to verify if it is true," said Garoo as he stood up and started to walk toward the city.
"So you think they are right?" asked Naluri as she felt a bit scared at the idea that the city might soon be under attack.
"I questioned them with the bubble of SOL… they were under the hypnosis of my magic."
"And what's troubling you? Is it something dangerous?"
"Yes… and I've had this feeling for over a year. I must check it myself. Yalemba will not fall," said Garoo before walking away.
"I hope you're right…" whispered Naluri as she looked up at the dark sky with the walking stick in her hands.