An Arrettian's Solitude

There was once a being from planet Arrettia who sat to eat his lunch. He watched the Earthling besides him do the same, using two strange, shiny utensils to eat. They only heard the desert wind that whistled, and then the tools used for bearing food clinking onto the tools used for transporting it into one’s mouth. It was the two of them alone atop the ruins of a lost sanctuary, letting the slowest hours of the daylight pass by. 

Suddenly, the Earthling lifted one of its utensils, intertwined with a portion of the stringy, wobbly feed from its box. It held the utensil towards the curious Arrettian. A nervous murmur escaped the Earthling’s mouth as it held up its food, yet not eating it. Perhaps the Earthling was trying to communicate its distaste for its meal? Perhaps it was an exclamation of being thankful, or maybe it was even offering to share? 

The Arrettian struggled to do anything in return. A moment, and finally the Earthling appeared to give up the interaction, continuing to eat its stringy, wobbly food again. Then, the Arrettian continued the same with his own.

It had been some time since the Arrettian first encountered this Earthling. Around two weeks prior, the Arrettian had just finished the construction of a makeshift transmitter. It was created from the available scraps left from his broken escape pod, and with it, he scattered his distress signal for all to hear.

The last time the Arrettian saw his home-planet, it was under the tyranny of invaders – terrifying giants from the cosmos. The giants approached with warmth, using their similar appearance to the Arrettian race to manipulate their trust. Clever Arrettians were lucky enough to escape their former home, with even cleverer ones sneaking onboard those ships without a trace. Unfortunately, a certain Arrettian was caught nipping on a ship’s scarce resources, and he was thrown out immediately. However, the crew was merciful enough to send his trajectory towards Phini, a nearby planet that once bore civilisation.

The Earthling, that this Arrettian soon met, was the first to receive the distress call, and it followed with curiosity. Its home was Earth – a thriving planet not far from Phini, as well as where the two would have returned back to. Of course, the Arrettian would discover none of this in his lifetime, and only ever knew the Earthling by its peculiar upright, bipedal stance.

Today was the second lunch that the Arrettian shared with the Earthling, and still he was not allowed to step into its rocket. While the two struggled to enjoy each other’s company, they at least made the effort to eat together out of obligation, which was for the best, knowing the sentiments that such a formality offers. Sadly for the Arrettian, achieving trust was going to take more time than he wished.

But, suddenly, the ground rumbled.

Then, a deep, mechanical BOOM.

Something had landed nearby.

Neither the Arrettian or the Earthling knew, even at their fastest, if they would reach the rocket in time. From feeling alone, whatever had arrived on this desert must be monumentally large, and anything of that size had the capacity to catch up to them quickly. In their retreat, the Arrettian noticed the Earthling grab a handheld tool from a sheath. The tool’s shape was unfamiliar, but the situation called for no other object than one which had the purpose of providing protection. So, if not a shield, what the Earthling held was a weapon.

Bitterly, the Arrettian wished he had with him a weapon, too. He cursed the crew for throwing him into a lousy escape pod with nothing more than rations. He could not grasp whether or not he had formed enough trust between him and the Earthling for it to protect them both. In a worst-case scenario, the Earthling would fly away in its rocket without him. Therefore, all the Arrettian could do was hope.

But, to no surprise, neither the Arrettian or the Earthling was fast enough to return to the rocket. A shadow gloomed over the two beings, shielding the sun from the ground. Then, a limb fell in front of them like a tree. 

Behind them was a giant. And, of course, it was a giant from planet Arrettia. To the Arrettian, the world shrank. Every thought in his brain crumbled to ash. 

He turned to the Earthling, who trembled at the sight of the giant. But it trembled even more when it returned to facing him. Fragmented cries spilled out of the Earthling’s mouth; words he didn’t understand. Its voice swelled, and swelled, forming shouts and screams. At the Arrettian, the Earthing was afraid.

BANG!

Something burst through the Arrettian’s chest.

And he fell.

The giant hovered its eyeball over that pitiful Arrettian. It held still, facing towards the hole that burned in his body. It squinted. Then an uncanny breeze blew the sand around him, before the eyeball rolled its attention back to the Earthling. The Arrettian watched the Earthling shakily crouch behind the old sanctuary wall. But, as if clearing a table of its dishes, the giant shoved the wall out the way. Then, over the scrambling Earthling, a clear container entrapped it. The poor creature banged at the walls in a fit of panic, then it tripped backwards onto a white sheet that swept under it.

The Arrettian laid alone. Darkness oppressed his vision; the air grew too thick to breathe. He watched the Earthling disappear into the sky and the giant escape his view forever. If there was anything that the Arrettian hated most about his body, it was how it always stubbornly tried to heal itself. But what hurt even more was when he pondered whether or not the Earthling ever wondered how things could have been, if only the two of them had known that they were the same after all.