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p e a r l e s c e n t (Adjective.)

having a luster resembling that of mother-of-pearl

A few hours had passed and still nothing came from her unconscious friend. Was it a few hours? It felt like a few hours.

Enya had sat in silence, zoning out and entering her own terrifying imagination. She didn't read any of the intel that came in, since she wasn't allowed to, so she knew nothing except gossip. Well, gossip along with whatever information that were able to upload into the press. It wasn't much, because people on the station were much more interested in who was breaking the law or anything that was related to Earth. Enya only read what was related to the planet itself. She found it was like reading a science fiction novel. Now it sounded more like horror.

How were they going to survive down here? How was she going to make sure that Kenton survived with them? She didn't know how this was any better than dying peacefully. Well, she supposed that it wasn't peaceful to become a meteor, crashing into the planet's surface. Was it even called a meteor or was it an asteroid? She could never remember the difference between them. A reason she was a secretary rather than a scientist. The only things she had going for her was her O.C.D. and the fact that she studied for four years to become a doctor. It didn't work out, obviously, but now the knowledge was far more important than she could have imagined.

She knew she needed to set Danny's broken arm, but it would be easier when they were awake. She could press against their being, so she could figure out where the break specifically was. There was no bleeding, except from their broken nose which wasn't going to be life threatening.

The woman took the courage to pull herself to her feet and set the sleeping babe in her makeshift carrier. She created it from the emergency fleece blanket in the first aid box, so now Kenton was pressed firmly in between the shoulder blades on her back. In school, when her class studied old cultures, she had seen this done. She couldn't remember what people used to do it, but that was the least of her worries at the moment. It was also hard for her to build the carrier, since the fabric made her skin crawl. She just needed to get over it.

Her brother let out an adorable yawn, so she cooed at him while she moved towards the hatch door. When she pulled the lever, the door flew from its frame. It could be heard a good distance away. The sound reminded Enya of when she used to drink a chilled can of anything. It hissed and demanded attention from any predator in the proximity.

Before she knew it, her body was moving for the ladder and climbed out of the escape pod. What she saw blew her mind.

The area she was turned to was flatter than a lot of what once was Earth, but it didn't seem to be simply a plains biome. She wouldn't be able to go more than two steps before she would step into a large series of connecting puddles. What was it this looked? Oh, yes, she remembered now. It resembled a muskeg, from what she saw in school, but it was too hot for snow or ice. There were large structures jutting out from the earth. Each one came to a spiraled point, but the bottoms seemed to branch out like the tops of trees. None of the branching pieces touched the puddles, like they were trying to avoid the crimson liquid.

Enya tried taking a step closer towards the edge of the pod to start down the exterior ladder when something landed on it and nearly jolted her off the pod entirely. A clawed hand tightened on her wrist, while she was pulled away from the edge with a yelp. This must have woken up Kenton as he began to shift on her back.

The thing in front of her was large, so large. It could have been maybe eight feet, nine? It was nearly double her height and she was around five foot three. Both of its arms were connected twice, once at the shoulders and again a few inches down. Its forearms looked like a jumbled mess of branches that ended in the clawed hand that held her still. Its skin had an odd pearlescent sheen, where it looked grey from head on, but turned as crimson as the liquid was when it hit the light in a certain way. Four wide, black eyes stared down at her while she was pulled closer until they were face to face, and the creature took a large whiff of her scent through its flattened, pierced nose.

"L, let me go," she whimpered weakly.

There was a rumble that came from deep within his chest, which made his intentions pretty clear. He was inspecting her person closely. Kenton, as if feeling Enya's own feeling of despair, let out a sniffle.

The large creature froze, then rotated her whilst ignoring her struggling. They all survived the landing; she wasn't going to let this beast take away her brother now. "Stop!"

It didn't listen. It didn't understand. Its eyes seemed focused on the babe wrapped onto her back. She didn't think much of its frozen state, still attempting to pull away before it got any ideas. Another rumble came from deep within its chest and her brother quieted almost instantly. The thing turned her back around, only watching her for a strange moment. Tears ran down her cheeks again, which had begun at the beginning of the interaction but slowly began to stop. The creature's brows furrowed in confusion, swiping away some of the tears to inspect closely.

"What're you doin'?" She asked with a sniffle, weakly trying to escape the hold now. "Please let us go."

The monster of a creature, which looked male when her running mind began to calm down slightly, rotated his head to look at where he had come from and she let her brows raise in surprise. Unlike the flatness of the muskeg, behind her was a large cliff wall. The rock was solid, unlike the muddy texture of the biome they landed on. Far above, there was a ledge that seemed to be the last thing that their pod had hit. Even farther above that was the top of the cliff. Enormous forms of those spiraled, tree-like points. It made the surface, that she was able to see, look like a death trap.

Thank goodness they landed on the soft, muddy biome below.

The monstrous creature turned back to her with a grunt at the back of his throat and she watched in terror as the branching of his arms began to slither and move. They untangled themselves and formed two separate pairs of arms. The lower pair circled her waist, just below the babe on her back, and brought her off of her feet while the top pair helped aid in his climbing of the cliff wall.

She squealed, trying to pull herself out of his grip. She couldn't leave Danny! Was it better that Danny was left to the safety of the pod? Probably, but they were unconscious. They couldn't protect themself when they didn't even know there was a threat to watch out for. The red head inevitably stopped squirming when he shifted her in his arms and she was able to see how high up they were. Like a switch was flipped, her arms wrapped around the monster's neck and her forehead was pressed into his bare chest. How this thing could climb stories in seconds was beyond her.

When they reached the ledge that was still crumbling at the edges, Enya was greeted by a cavern closed by heavy hide. She tried to look back out and it let her, though he kept one arm wrapped around her hips. Victorious sounds echoed from far above, but she only moved away from the entrance of the cave when creatures like the monster holding her slid down the wall. At least twenty, getting down to where she left Danny.

She left Danny.

Enya stumbled backwards, turning back to face the creature that probably saved her life. It wasn't this thing's fault. He didn't know that Danielle was down there. If they kill Danny, it was going to be all her fault. Why did she have to open the hatch without them? Why did she try to play the adult? Escape pods couldn't be opened from the outside. She was impatient to see a new world. Impatient to prove that she could scope out the area. Impatient to want to provide for them.

Now she stood face to face with a terrifying creature that had recently saved her life along with her brother's. She just prayed this wasn't going to be worse than whatever awaited her in death.