“It’s too bright!” I shouted out the door.
It was only the seventh hour and my parents were already outside, exploring the area surrounding our shuttle. Crazies. My dad looked back and laughed at me, beckoning me forward with a nod. I looked at the doorway, the place where the shadows divided me from the searing light of the outdoors. I looked at the floor; my toes touching sunlight, and felt my eyes struggling to adjust to the Sun’s glaring proximity. I winced. I blinked. This place was hideous. I felt like I was going to die.
“It’s too bright to be alive!” I shouted dramatically, throwing myself against the doorframe. Mama glanced back and rolled her eyes.
“Your eyes will adjust, Umbriel. Stop whining,” she huffed. I frowned back at her, but she’d already turned away, muttering something to dad. I blinked again, staring out to the horizon. The tree line gave way to the city below us, which was bustling with life now that the day had begun. I had been so caught up with the brightness of Earth that I hadn’t yet noticed how loud it was. A great clamour of honking and rumbling, beeping and banging rose up to me from below, and I watched enchanted as the vehicles wove in and out between the buildings in a chaotic, but seamless motion. In contrast to the serene atmosphere of the forest we had landed in, the city was absolute mayhem. I wasn’t sure what to think about it.
I glanced back toward my parents, who were holding each other and continuing to observe, and suddenly felt a wave of fatigue and heat sweep over me. Beads of sweat had gathered on my nose and horns. This planet was bright and extremely hot all at once. My clothes suddenly felt like a prison; collecting all the heat and trapping it around my body. I shuddered. I had to go back inside.
“I’m going to get breakfast,” I called. “I can’t come out yet, it’s grossly hot.”
They nodded back. They didn’t turn around.
“This planet sucks,” I muttered, loud enough for them to hear. Mama waved a dismissive hand. I closed the door behind me and left them to themselves.
My name is Umbriel Kenar Kosmos. I am fifteen years old. I was named after the moon, and after my father, who is my mom’s world. He’s her everything. She’s his everything. (Mama says that I “sure am something”, although I’ve yet to ascertain if that is positive or not). We are intergalactic Uranian tourists travellers. And it’s something else entirely.
Mama met dad after graduating Flight Academy (where she received enviable honours). He was a starving artist, who had dropped out of school to pursue a free-lancing career. They met and fell in love fast, and decided to travel the stars together. After getting married and having me though, of course. Not to mention allowing me to live my first 7 anumi on my home planet. Which was remarkably considerate of them, I’ll admit. But 7 was long enough of a wait for them, and once I had reached that age there was little I could do to stop them from leaving, or taking me with them. Together, we have now travelled to every planet from Neptune to Earth (they weren’t too thrilled about my asking to stop back home in between), and plan to continue on toward the Sun as far as we can manage without lighting ourselves on fire. Which may actually only take us this far, if I have any say in the matter, haha. We spend about a year or so on each planet, then move on to the next. It’s a lot of down time and moving around, but our shuttle is big and a lot like a home, so I suppose it’s okay.
I don’t mean to bore you with all these basic details though. I should probably let this all sink in for now and get back to those things later. In the meantime, I’m making breakfast. We still have some fruit left in our freezer, so I think I’ll make a smoothie. I need something to cool down for now.
Smoothies are pretty much my favourite thing ever. I think I would eat anything so long as it was blended, although obviously fruits are my first pick. Today’s smoothie contains musaceae and cyanococcus, which is probably one of my favourite flavour combinations. Mama and dad still haven’t come back to the house and they are missing out on the breakfast to be had. That just means there’s more for me though. No, I am not sorry.
I suppose that once I’m done I should go and see where they are and give the forest a once over. Even though I don’t want to. I don’t. I am not even a little bit curious.
Maybe a little curious...
It was stifling hot outside when I went out to find mama and dad. The sun was glaring down on me much more brightly than before, and I kept my hands over my eyes, peering through my fingers. It wasn’t quite so bad under the trees, but their shade offered little relief – the air itself was still too humid to be comfortable. I wondered if the weather here was this hideous all the time? Surely Earth had a rainy season. We just must have missed it.
“Dad!” I shouted. No immediate answer. “Mama!” I continued my trek through the trees, careful not to trip on anything. The ground was uneven with multitudes of roots and small rocks. Birds were chirping above my head. The further in I walked, the cooler I got. I must have walked for about 10 minutes when I heard the sound of running water coming from further ahead, and a few more yards of walking brought me to a small clearing in the trees, with a stream running through it. My parents were there, sitting on the bank, their pants rolled to their knees and their feet in the water. Dad was the first to notice me, and he looked over, beaming, his face flushed with the heat.
“Umbriel, come sit! The water is cool here.”
“Such a relief…” mama added, grinning, patting the ground beside her for me to sit.
“Earth is beastly hot,” I offered, and for the first time today, they agreed with me.
“The forest goes on for quite a ways,” dad was saying, “and after that, there’s the city. We should probably explore it as well.”
“Tomorrow,” mama said, and dad nodded in agreement.
I splashed my feet in the water. It gurgled ice cold between my toes, getting caught between stones and bubbling downstream. It was so refreshing… had the stream been any deeper, I’d have probably gone for a swim.
“Is anyone expecting us here?” I asked. “Are people going to be surprised when they see us in the city?” That had happened before, on Saturn. Dad had misinformed the authorities of our intentions. Harsh words were exchanged, offenses filed. It had been a proverbial hell.
“They’ll know what’s going on,” dad replied. “We have everything set in place this time. And your mother has landed us near an all monster city, so they won’t be as shocked by our arrival. Hopefully.”
“And we already have you registered for school this fall,” mama added, smiling. “Everything’s been arranged. All we have left to do is enjoy the trip.”
I laid on my back, looking up through the trees. The sky was so blue here…I could see slivers of cloud passing over us through the leaves. A breeze ruffled through and swept across the grass beneath me. Everything smelled very green and fresh for a moment, and the sound of the stream running was soothing. I supposed Earth – this small chunk of it, anyway – was alright.
“We need to adjust the air coolant system when we get back home,” I mentioned, my voice breaking the peace.
“What will we have for dinner?”
“Your father will buy something. Something new.”
I nodded. The answer to that was always the same. Dad always celebrated our arrival on a new planet by making a surprise dinner of foreign cuisine. It usually turned out that the dish was fairly generic, but to us it was always exciting. I wondered what it would be this time. But I was becoming too tired to really think about it. Dad must have noticed me dozing off, because I suddenly felt his arm on my shoulder.
“Come on,” he whispered. “Let’s go home for a nap. It’s been a long day.”
“You don’t want to get heat stroke,” mama added, pulling her legs out of the water and picking up her boots. Dad helped me to my feet and we walked back to our shuttle. Back home.
I guess it’s finally time for bed. I’ve never known a day to drag on this much. The sun seems to set so late here, it’s only been gone for the last 35 minutes, and it’s still too bright out to sleep. I’ll have to pull down the blackout curtains while we’re here. (Ridiculous).
Dinner tonight was something called spaghetti. Little slippery tubes of wheat covered in red sauce, with balls of ground meat. It was surprisingly good. Dad made way too much for one night, so I will probably steal all the leftovers tomorrow for lunch. It kind of reminded me of a dish we ate while visiting Jupiter (although in that case, the tubes were a source of protein on their own, and that’s all I’m going to even say about that. I’m not even mentioning the sauce that came with that meal…).
The stars are trying to appear outside my window. I suppose that’s one good thing about how clear the sky was today – no clouds. But they are still getting snuffed out by the city lights. There are nowhere near as many stars here as there are at home. Or moons. There’s just one, and she’s already starting to wane… it’s disappointing. I guess I’ll have to wait some more before doing any stargazing here. Oh well. I’m way too tired to think of any of that now anyway. I’m falling asleep writing all of this down, so I should probably stop.
