Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of shoes clicking against the ground echoed inside the cave. It wasn't long before the owner of the sound stepped in—a girl with blue skin.
She looked about fifteen or sixteen, human-like but with a faint blue tint to her skin. Long black hair tied back, eyes completely black—no white at all—with irises in the middle like beautiful blue sapphires. She wore fur clothing, a fur coat with wide sleeves, and carried some wood in her hands.
Sol stared at the girl's eyes with strange wonder. He didn't pay attention to her skin or features—just looked at her eyes.
She, in return, slowly raised her hands in front of Sol—a sign that she meant no harm.
She looked at him with curiosity, but there was something weird in her eyes. They trembled, like she wanted to look somewhere else while resisting the urge. She didn't succeed. Eventually, her gaze dropped downward.
Sol noticed, so he looked down too. Found himself completely naked. His green leaf-skirt—the one he'd made with his own hands—was gone.
Sol's gaze rose toward the girl with slight annoyance. She looked at him too, then smiled, trying to hide her embarrassment. She put the wood down on the ground with other piles of wood. There was a lot.
She pulled off the coat she was wearing and handed it to Sol, revealing a short-sleeved shirt made of light fabric. Sol noticed out of the corner of his eye a knife in a leather sheath hanging from her waist, and a small bag there too.
Sol took the vest and wrapped it around his lower body. It didn't cover everything, but it worked for now.
The girl sat down on the ground—an invitation for him to sit too, or something like that. A "don't worry, I'm not bad" kind of gesture. He didn't really care about her intentions, and honestly, she probably can't hurt him anyway.
Sol sat down, looking at her cute face while she looked back at him with something like happiness, joy, and curiosity. Which was weird—Sol's face radiated gloom. Why was she so cheerful?
Sol glanced around the cave briefly, then returned his gaze to the strange girl in front of him. He figured out immediately how he'd gotten here—but he couldn't understand how this skinny body had managed to carry Sol here.
Two possibilities crossed his mind: either she was strong despite her appearance, or she'd exhausted herself dragging someone like Sol to a safe cave.
"What are you?"
Sol asked, economical with his words. No shock or surprise at what he was seeing—like he was used to seeing kids and people with all kinds of different colors.
There had been plenty of theories and rumors about aliens back when Sol was on Earth. Clubs, societies, even government facilities dedicated to verifying whether non-human life existed in the universe. These things became famous after a certain incident on Earth—but that was a long time ago, before research stopped due to lack of evidence.and the rich didn't profit much from it
Also, Sol didn't really care about her appearance or her skin color or the fact that she was an alien... Honestly, Sol didn't care about anything in this world at all. So this wasn't strange for him.
For someone like Sol—a silent, quiet passenger on the train of life with no station to get off at—anything strange to anyone else was just another thing that existed in this life. Nothing to be surprised about.
The little girl tilted her head slightly, confused, looking at Sol without saying anything for a few seconds. Then she spoke in a language Sol couldn't understand. Now he raised his eyebrow , confused, looking back at her.
Sol leaned back slightly, his gaze on the girl for a few seconds before sighing deeply. He raised his right hand and ran it through his long black-and-white hair—and noticed the cord tying it was gone.
Sol looked at the coat wrapped around his waist covering his lower half, then carefully pulled one of the threads from it.
Sol knew perfectly well that she wouldn't understand a word he said, so he remained silent. Some might think this was a hasty choice, but for Sol, who thought it through, humans on one planet, sometimes on one continent, and perhaps even on one island, didn't understand each other
After successfully pulling a strong thread from the coat, Sol pulled his hair back and tied two knots to make sure it wouldn't fall this time.
Sol looked at the girl with tired eyes.
"How am I supposed to communicate with her now..."
Grrrrrrrrr!
A loud stomach growl—so loud the girl sitting in front of him noticed. She crawled slowly toward one of the fruits placed beside them, picked up two, and returned to her spot in front of Sol.
She placed the fruits between herself and Sol, then gently put her hand on her knife's handle and pulled it out. The strange, glowing blade appeared.
The handle was wood, and the blade itself was made of black stone—similar to obsidian—but it contained a beautiful azure glow coming from crack-like veins on its surface. They glowed beautifully, like the knife was alive and those glowing veins were its pulse.
Sol studied the knife carefully while the girl placed it on the surface of that strange purplish fruit with the thorny parts. She dragged the knife across its surface skillfully, making a large cut—the knife seemed extremely sharp.
The cut opened slowly without the girl touching it, like the surface had been stretched tight, waiting to be released. Finally, it opened, revealing what was inside. It looked like pomegranate on the inside, same color.
The girl pulled out a piece and offered it to Sol. He looked at her without moving for a few seconds before extending his hand and accepting. Then he smelled it. This had definitely become a habit for him.
"Smells like durian."
Sol put the juice-filled, pomegranate-like fruit piece in his mouth and chewed carefully. The stored, compressed juice exploded and spread everywhere inside his mouth. He swirled his tongue, distributed the juice well, then swallowed. His expression changed—a gloomy smile traced itself on his face. He said in a dark tone:
"Tastes the same... dirt..Nothing's changed after all this time..Guess my tongue's still dead..So yeah... it's edible."
The girl looked at him strangely before putting a large piece of fruit in her mouth and chewing. She trembled and made a sound that forced Sol to look at her. She was smiling intensely, looking like she was convulsing with happiness.
"It must be really delicious if that's your reaction... Too bad I can't enjoy the taste... But that doesn't bother me, so I'll eat it anyway."
Sol put another piece in his mouth, ignoring the taste of dirt and ash flooding his mouth with every chew. He chewed a little, then swallowed immediately.
Time passed quickly—eating those two large fruits, listening to the girl's happy laughter, watching her almost die from the delicious taste.
Sol glanced outside the cave mouth.
"It's almost dark."
Sol said before pointing with his chin toward outside the cave. The girl, drunk on the fruit's flavor, turned her head slightly to see what he was pointing at.
When she saw the sky darkening gradually, her eyes flew wide open and her expression completely changed—to fear. As if she had seen something terrifying.
She stood quickly, panic clear on her face. She spat out the fruit in her mouth onto the ground and ran quickly toward the wood piled near the cave entrance.She took only a little, left the rest, and hurried back to Sol.
There, she piled the wood, pulled out her knife, took a small stone from her little bag, and struck the knife against it while pointing it at the wood.
Sol watched her hands trembling violently—she was going to hurt herself like that. He looked up at her panicked face, not understanding what she was scared of. So he took the knife and stone from her hands.
He cut some fur from the coat wrapped around his lower half, placed it by the wood, and struck the knife against the stone. Sparks flew, landed on the fur, and started a small flame with a bit of smoke.
"Yeah, now just need to blow... What's wrong?" Sol asked when the girl grabbed thecoat firmly and pulled. He looked at her and saw her face had darkened, her gaze fixed on the cave entrance while she trembled violently. Sol turned toward the entrance.
The sky had gone dark already, and the trees hadn't started their beautiful glow yet, so the cave mouth was dark. But... there were shadows moving in the darkness.
Click! Click! Click!