Venus: The First Meeting

Endre smiled at her embarrassment, mostly just because it was cute. "Honestly, I'm fine either way as well, floor or bed, or anywhere. Maybe we could trade off? If you've never slept in a bed before you might like it; it's much more comfortable than the floor, though it does take some getting used to." As they got closer to the center of the market, more people appeared, one by one, mostly Venans but some merchants as well as the merchants manning their booths, but as they got deeper and deeper it quickly became a higher concentration of people than most Venans ever saw in their lifetime--and of more species, too. There were Martians and Ghastins, Herrigan and Terrok, Wythids and Conmerals. It was very nearly exotic.

Endre, however, chose a normal Venan booth, with familiar antlerbeast jerky and the common canned mushrooms that were easy to find and one of the few non-poisonous vegetative organisms on the planet. He stepped back though, letting Tahlia take her pick of the available rations, giving her money back so she could pay the friendly man who ran the booth. He knew they could find more exciting foods at the other booths, but the prices would be exorbitant. He also anticipated that they would be able to try plenty of new foods in their travels, and that the prices would be much lower on the planets where the foods came from.

Tahlia smiled up at Endre, glad he'd reacted well, as well as found a good compromise. "Okay, sure. I guess it could be nice to finally try a bed out." Soon, though, Tahlia was unable to look up at the man, for the roads grew more and more crowded, forcing her to squish next to Endre awkwardly. She tried to ignore it, though, and pulled Arif down from her shoulders so that she wouldn't lose the feline in the crowd.

They found a pleasant little booth manned by a Venan, and Endre handed back Tahlia's money so that she could buy her preferred food herself. Honestly, though, the girl had no idea what to buy, everything was so unfamiliar. She ended up deciding on an unfamiliar drink and the skinned body of some sort of prey slightly smaller than Arif, possibly an underground rodent, Tahlia wanted to think. The raw meat could hold her over when she was craving something moist (in case the drink ended up being something inedible) as well as to feed Arif with. She paid the kind seller and turned to Endre, her face unsure and her shoulders shrugging, looking obviously as though she had no idea what she was doing.

He shrugged back at her, saying quietly, "I'm sure we won't need much--it shouldn't take very long to get to our first new planet." He grinned and elbowed her arm in a friendly way. "Excited? I know I am." Together they walked back through the crowded market to the ship, Tahlia's food having been wrapped up by the shopkeeper. Endre unlocked the door and waved Tahlia inside, propping open the refrigeration unit and gesturing for her to put her purchases inside, along with his own.

As he moved back to the front of the ship, he closed the door behind them and settled in at the pilot's seat, thinking it was a good thing there was already a copilot chair so Tahlia could strap in as they exited the atmosphere, since he'd heard it could be a bumpy ride. He took out the strange manual he'd found in one of the ship's compartments, with rudimentary instructions on flying the ship, reviewing a few essential parts to freshen up on them before he tried to fly it.

He looked back towards the cargo bay, and called, "Whenever you're ready, we can be off!"

Tahlia's eyes started to look excited as the two of them walked back to the ship. "I think so, yeah!" When they entered the ship, Tahlia placed the food in the refrigeration unit as Endre pointed to it. He strapped himself into the pilot's seat and called back to see if she was ready. "Yeah! Coming!" She tossed the food into the cooler and bolted over to the copilot's seat, quite literally jumping onto the chair and settling in. Arif hopped onto Tahlia's lap as she buckles in, and the white-haired girl beamed at Endre. "Ready!"

The engines rumbled roughly to life when Endre flicked a switch and slowly eased a lever up, grinning at Tahlia. "Here we go..." He checked several guages and valves, making sure everything was in working order, and then he gripped the controls and pressed down on three more levers. The ship rose from the ground with a bit of a jerk, at which Endre smiled bashfully, and then leveled out a bit as he adjusted a few settings. He pulled the booster control up steadily, and then they really were off, the ship powering off of the ground and away into the upper atmosphere of the planet.

They soon made it to the upper edge of the atmosphere, and as they passed out of it the ship rattled fit to burst it into pieces, it seemed. But it held despite the turbulence, and Endre grinned a wide triumphant smile as they finally, finally, cleared the planet.

As they continued forward, ship now holding extremely steady, he began to program the ship with the autopilot settings that would take them to the closest life-sustaining planet. It was a blue and green world, nothing at all like Venus, and it would be there first spot.

As soon as the autopilot was set, Endre unbuckled from his seat and indicated that Tahlia could do the same. "It's alright, the ship will take us where we need to go."

Tahlia wasn't sure how Endre managed to climb through the gaseous clouds, it was so hard to see anything. But, they finally broke through the barrier, and the ship made its way into space.

"Oh..." Tahlia undid her fastens as soon as she heard the clicking up Endre unbuckling, but she didn't take her eyes off of the window giving them a view of outside. There were no clouds obstructing their view and there were no wind storms to waver their focus, it was a clear picture. And all Tahlia could see were stars.

Her eyes widened tremendously as she leaned forward to rest a hand on the cool window. The single star she had noticed as a child was nothing compared to the multitudes of bright lights glimmering before her now. Tahlia had known she'd been missing the stars, but she hadn't realized she'd been missing this much.

"Yes, of course..." The Venan forced herself to turn from the window, but continued to glance over quickly to catch sight of the stars again, not quite able to pull her gaze from the window for long.

Endre smiled widely and peacefully as he watched Tahlia's face, her awe, her joy, her excitement. He understood how she felt... Endre felt so light and so free now that they were finally off of that planet where he'd been born, grown up, lived, and where his life as he'd known it had ended. He could not help but look at the stars himself, and all the promise they held.

But he had a better idea.

He reached over and gently held Tahlia's hand, feeling the matching roughness of her skin to his, and said quietly, "C'mon, I have something to show you." He pulled her lightly from her seat, tearing her away from the window, but he knew she wouldn't resent it for long. "I've always dreamt of sleeping under the stars... I had pictures of them, when I was young, and I used to lie on the ground and stare up at the sky and imagine I could see them for real." As they passed into the cargo hold he flicked a couple of switches and all but one of the ship's interior lights went out. He brought Tahlia to the bed in the cargo hold, whispering, "Lie down," before moving back to the light control panel. As she got comfortable, he flicked off the last switch and they were plunged into pitch darkness.

Endre, smiling in the dark, pressed down a button. A mechanical whirring began, and in moments a large viewport slowly began to slide open, directly above the bed. The light of the stars was bright and shined down on the room, allowing Endre to see and allowing Tahlia to be completely bathed in that pure light.

Endre moved to the bed's other side and lied down next to her, not too close for comfort, and they stared up at the twinkling shimmer of the sky together. There was something redeemimg in that light, something pure that seemed to offer them forgiveness. The light seemed capable of washing all sins away, and the two Venans breathlessly drunk it all in.

Endre wanted to ask her what she thought, if she liked it, but he dared not ruin the moment and so was silent, overwhelmed with the beauty of the sky he had never gotten to see in his old life.

Tahlia turned as she felt Endre's hand wrap around hers. She hadn't wanted to look away, but the fact that he'd dared to take her hand made the Venan curious, enough to leave Arif on the seat and be pulled along by the other.

Well, curious, but not enough to go to bed with him.

He instructed her to lie down, which she slowly complied, but she kept her senses about her. What could he possibly be up to that's pure that involved her lying in his bed? Okay, he said they could trade off, so it's their bed, but really, now. Endre slid over to the wall and turned off the lights, leaving Tahlia in the dark. Before her eyes could adjust, though, something opened up above her. It took her a moment, but she realized that even more stars were gleaming down on her through a window on the ceiling, blinding her with their pure light.

"Oh...my.." The girl's face slowly grew until she was absolutely beaming with joy. The stars just got better and better, as well as he choice to go with Endre off of Venus. She knew she'd lie in that bed forever if she could, but Tahlia knew the moment would pass. For now, though, she enjoyed the rumble of the ship, the twinkle of the stars, and the presence lying next to her in the bright darkness.

Eventually Endre tore his gaze from the sky and looked over at Tahlia, at the other Venan and her wide and almost childishly happy smile, and was unable to help but smile back. She looked so pretty, though he thought it in an innocent way; simply that if he had been an artist he would've wanted to capture that beautiful and contented expression and the way the starlight reflected off the magenta of her eyes.

"I knew you would like it. And- here, you can have the bed tonight. Better to get accustomed to it early, so you'll be more comfortable with it sooner." He smiled at her a little strangely, with a mix of emotions she couldn't quite place, but there was a little identifiable sadness mixed in. He slipped off the bed and onto the floor next to it on the other side, still close enough to look up at the stars as he drifted to sleep. He could still see her face in his mind, as if it had burned a residual image into his eyes.

How quickly things had changed, he thought. He had intended to leave alone, but now she had joined him. He had been bitter and torn, but now his old weary kindness was returning because of her. He was going to lie in that big bed staring up at the stars with her ghost lying beside him; now there was a flesh-and-blood girl there instead. And he wondered how things would go from here. Would she travel the universe with him? Would she stop and stay at the first planet that appealed to her? Or would she want to stay with him?

He couldn't know, not until it happened. But he was glad Tahlia was here. Immensely glad. It felt... as though a barrier had been broken. He had been alone for too long, he realized. And he was glad that wasn't true any more. That's what he was thinking as he stared up at the millions and millions of stars that blazed above the two Venans' heads, and as his eyes began to drift shut as he found his way into sleep.

Tahlia didn't exactly tear her gaze from the stars, but she did turn her head to nod. "Yes, thank you." As Endre pushed to the floor off of the bed, she turned back to stare silently at the universe. Tahlia felt Arif climb her way onto the bed and get comfortable on the pillow next to the girl's head, as was the feline's usual spot when the two slept. Tahlia peered at each star, and noticed how every star seemed the same, but really wasn't. Each one was a different size, brightness, even shape and colour.

It made her think about herself. She was your ordinary Venan, but really, was any Venan like another? They all started off badly, hard lives and whatnot, but each experience was different. And now, now Tahlia could meet other kinds of people, from other planets. Would they be kind? Cruel? It was all too much to worry and think about at the moment, she was supposed to be sleeping, and in this nice bed of all places. It really was a comfortable place to sleep. Tahlia promised herself that she'd worry about what she and Arif would do tomorrow, but for now, sleep.

Oh, no, not just Arif and I, Tahlia reminded herself. Me, Arif, and Endre now. That's going to be hard to get used to. Yet, even as she thought that final thought before drifting into unconsciousness, it was obvious that she had gotten comfortable with the new arrangements long ago.