My Friend is an Alien, стр. 42

"So you really are — just another kid?" asked Martin.

"You doubted?" asked Keyro.

"Kinda."

"I'm also just another kid who's — well…" Keyro paused.

"What?" asked Martin.

"Terribly embarassing thing for a space explorer to admit." muttered Keyro.

"What? I won't tell anyone." promised Martin.

"I'm afraid of heights." said Keyro. "At least the high cliff drop-off type like that. I–I couldn't do anything because I was too scared to do anything."

Martin's eyes went wide. "But — but so was I!"

"Wrong." said Keyro. "You DID do something. You saved me. You were braver than me."

Martin's eyes went even wider. "I–I was — braver than you?!"

Keyro smiled and nodded. "And you saved my life."

As relief poured over both boys, Keyro started to giggle. Kneeling on the ground next to Martin as he did, it somehow became contagious. Finally Martin managed to snicker, "What's so funny?"

"Well," laughed Keyro, "I think we found where the edge of the woods is!"

That resulted in another round of laughter. Finally the two boys calmed down and slowly sat up. "You did save my life." said Keyro quietly. "Had I fallen, I'm not sure even I could have survived. I know one shows affection with a hug, but somehow that doesn't seem to be enough."

Martin smiled. "Well, there is one other thing. Have you ever heard of a kiss?"

Keyro thought about this. "I think I've seen them in some of the movies I've watched. But I've never really understood what they were for."

Martin leaned over and kissed Keyro. The boy looked stunned, then he grinned. "That was it? I — liked that. Is it permissible to combine that with a hug?"

Martin giggled. "Of course."

Keyro reached over, hugged Martin, and gave him a kiss. "Thank you for saving me, Martin."

Martin was left briefly too stunned and happy to think of a response. Both boys clambered to their feet. "Boy, look at us!" commented Martin. "We're filthy disasters!"

"Still not dirty enough, if you ask me." proclaimed Keyro. "Wanna hit the mud hole on the way back?"

Martin shrugged. "Why not? I don't think it's going to make that much difference."

Keyro led the way safely back, avoiding the last known location of the snake, and even steering clear of the old cabin. His antennae twitched and sometimes even rotated. Before too long, they could themselves at the mud hole, and wasted little time in wrestling around and getting as utterly mud-covered as possible. The mud was thicker than usual, and it tended to pile up. Martin could tell his undershorts had slid off, yet somehow managed to retrieve them and toss them to one side for later cleaning. By the time they were finished, the two boys didn't look so much like two humanoid children as two very unfinished sculptures of brown clay that had somehow gained the ability to move on their own.

They finally decided they'd had about enough (for one thing, it was getting difficult to move), and gradually staggered their way over to the lake to wash off. It took a considerable period of time to get all of the mud, soot, dirt, grass, and assorted grime they'd gotten into! off of their bodies, but eventually, two clean boys emerged from the lake and started making their way carefully back to the tent-dome.

Davy and Jahv were waiting there when they arrived. "There you two are!" said Jahv. "Davy persuaded his mom to bake some cookies for a get-together with friends."

"Yeah, I just didn't tell her that some of thise friends aren't from this planet." added Davy.

"Sounds good!" announced Keyro. Martin enthusiastically agreed.

"Where've you two been all this time?" asked Davy. "I saw Martin arrive earlier today and then the two of you scoot off into the woods, but that was hours ago."

"Exploring the woods." replied Martin, putting his clothes back on that Keyro had brought out, along with towels for the two to dry off.

"More like exploring the mud hole — again." said Jahv. "No offense, but you two are no great adventurers, so don't try to kid us."

"Really." said Davy, but not unkindly. "Exploring the woods. Sure."

Neither Davy nor Jahv quite understood the level of giggling that Martin and Keyro indulged in while everyone enjoyed the plate of freshly-baked cookies.

Part 10

Winter had not been entirely kind to the young aliens stranded on Earth. Of the four, only Arion had not suffered greatly. A loner by nature, and from a mountainous and rather cold world, he relished the winter air and the snow. He spent vast amounts of time soaring through the sky, testing his own flight ability during the harshest of blizzards, generally coming back exhilarated and "victorious over the elements", as he liked to phrase it. His appearance changed subtly during the winter months, with white streaks in his feather-like hair becoming evident.

His favorite «activity» was dive-bombing rabbits. He didn't capture or kill them, just scared the daylights out of them. It was reasonable to assume that if rabbit droppings were good fertilizer, the grass and plants in the forest would grow unusually well come spring.

Morik suffered the greatest. Having spent most of his life on a perpetual tropical world, and with no clothes, the poor camouflage-skinned youngster thought he would freeze before the world around him thawed. He spent increasing amounts of time sequestered in his room in the dome-tent. He also became increasingly surly and unresponsive to the others. It was an odd change. Arion had tended to be the abrasive one of the group, but the winter had brought out his good side. Morik, on the other hand, could have previously been described as «shy», but was now just plain reclusive. He couldn't stand the chill in the air and intensely disliked having to stay indoors all the time, having spent most of his life in the outdoors, but neither did he like the idea of wearing heavy clothes. His own body tried to compensate with a strange, accelerated hair growth. But since his hair was predominantly on his head, this had only limited effectiveness.

Still, by the time Niklas and Davy convinced Morik to wear a heavy winter suit, boots, and a scarf they'd picked up at a thrift store in town, Morik's hair was better than waist length, there was a wild gleam in his eyes, and a slight growl to his voice. He accepted the winter clothes and donned them without comment, somehow managing to get the coat and hood past all that hair (and not even catching the waistband of the pants in the really long portions), wrapped the scarf around his face, and slowly ventured outdoors. He returned some hours later without comment. After that, he would venture out roughly once a day, stay out for several hours, and return. Although Morik seemed in somewhat better spirits after this, he remained somewhat sullen throughout the winter, and nobody ever did find out where he went. He even managed to somehow elude Arion once, when the young flyer decided to keep an eye on him. "I was two thousand feet up and he still knew I was there." Arion had told Jahv and Keyro. "And I wouldn't've thought he could move that fast in that heavy suit, let alone trudging through all that snow."

Jahv and Keyro seemed largely undisturbed by the winter, mostly because they didn't venture outdoors much. Jahv was up to something in his workshop, and seemed determined to make up for the errors of some of his previous endeavors. But no one knew just what he was working on. Both aliens, generally tending to spend their time naked, had taken to wearing at least limited clothing. In Jahv's case it had a practical purpose. He'd asked Davy for a pair of overalls. He admired the extensive pockets they had. This proved useful for carrying around a variety of tools. Keyro, on the other hand, had found a Web Site that sold T-shirts with slogans, and started making some of his own when Martin gave the young alien some of his T-shirts that he had slightly outgrown. Of course, Keyro tended to wear the T-shirts and nothing else, which looked pretty hysterical, but he was reasonably imaginative with the slogans. Everyone's favorite seemed to be "Is There Any Intelligent Life On This Planet?"