The Girl On Her World

She beamed from cheek to cheek, running as fast as she could. She was about to hurl herself into outer space.

She was a young girl, and no, before you ask, she wasn’t depressed. She was about to jump off for quite the opposite reason.

When the girl woke up one day, being no older than ten, she did not remember anything from the ‘Before’, but the fact that there was most definitely a before was one of the first things she knew. Maybe she had just forgotten the Before, but you, dear reader, should know she did not forget, it was taken from her.

In mere human terms, the world which she woke upon would not be classified as a planet, but a meteor. But human terms are simple, and mark things which are solid and seeable or cause fear, like her purple skin. So dear reader, when I say ‘world’, you will know that for you it really isn’t a ‘world’, but for her, it is.

It took the girl only half a day on her world to walk around it once, and even though it was small, it was nevertheless still very intriguing. Her favorite area on her little world was a building, which she decided to call the ‘Most Curious’. The Most Curious was a white building, at least it once was. Now it looked faded, but the kind that suggested that you could find its past life there, if only you looked hard enough. And for the little girl, she took that to heart.

The doors of the Most Curious had long been torn off, leaving dark red soil scattered about in the front entrance. Some pieces were even floating in the air! The second the girl stepped inside, her breath caught in her throat.

‘These are the most books I’ve ever seen in a single room!’ The girl thought to herself.

Then she paused. She had never seen a book before this. In fact, how did she even name these bound up white things covered in rough skin? Still, she knew that they were called books. She lifted her hand to her heart and took long, deep breaths. In her mind, she could almost see the time ‘Before’, but it was just out of reach. Like a dream she had years before. She was still for only a moment more when she recognized another word.

“Stories”

She made an excited squeal as she ran over to them. In half an hour, she had devoured over the few picture books. Clearly, not any children had ever lived here, since most of the books had a waxy feel to them. She glanced over the covers of the picture books and found one she thought was pretty. After sounding out the word, she made out that the title was “The Little Prince,” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. On the cover was a drawing of a boy on a grey piece of rock. She felt connected to the boy, even if he looked nothing like herself. She didn’t realize that she had never seen a ‘boy’ before.

She beamed as she held it close to her and plopped onto the ground. She opened it and immediately frowned as she saw that it contained many words. She shrugged it off and only turned her attention to the pictures. She wasn’t being very careful as she looked, yet still it startled her when her clawlike fingers ripped the bottom of the page. In a moment of fear for the damage she had caused, she looked up instinctively in search of a threat, and remembered where she was. Well, more of she remembered who she was with. No one. She was alone. The word contained the sound of a distant chatter of people in a too crowded room. As she sat with that feeling though, she realized it wasn’t the sounds that belonged to the word ‘alone’, but the absence of them. The chatter went through her ears, sounding like complete gibberish. Even so, she felt a deep desire for the sounds.

A tear rolled down her cheek as the hole in her chest grew, and grew, and grew. She felt such a big part of her missing, and it hurt. Badly. The most infuriating part however wasn’t of how much it hurt, but that she had no understanding of the pain.

As she wiped away another tear, she realized three had already splashed on the page of the glossy book. In fear of it staining, she almost violently grabbed the bottom of her faded grey and white striped dress and wiped at it, trying and failing to dry it. Anger swept through her little body as she pushed harder on the stained page.

RRRRRRRRRRRRIP!

She paused as she looked at the bigger rip that had grown from the first. This time however, instead of feeling upset, she felt a rush of joy swept through her. Not because of the damage she had caused to the book, but because she recognized something. The tear had caused a cut right between the boy and a fox standing next to each other. Their faces seemed to express annoyance, but something still clicked together in her brain. Her thumb stroked over the image as she, with care, put the paper back together.

‘This is it!’ She thought. ‘I’m missing other-…’ She scrambled for a word in her mind. ‘Friends!’

For me and you, dear reader, we already knew at the beginning that a young girl should most definitely not be alone. Especially in space, floating all by herself. It is, as you humans call it, ‘common knowledge’. But we must remember that though she had a beginning, she didn’t know all of these rules like you and me. For her, this is the greatest discovery of all times! Even if she herself didn’t understand it.

Through the next couple of days the girl would run around on her little world, searching fruitlessly for these friends she needed. Once her little legs would start to burn on the inside, she would go back and study at the picture books. The more she studied the tear between the boy and the fox, the more she liked the word fox. She thought that it and her were very alike. Inside herself she decided she needed a name like everything else on her little world had. Bashfully, she decided to call herself Fox.

After Fox's third day of searching, she came to the conclusion that there were no ‘friends’ on her world, so she ran inside again and went back to the book she had torn. When she looked at the same book, nothing came to her. The only fact that stayed was how different her world was from the boys. In a picture she was looking at, the grass was green, and the ground rose and fell in different places. She got bored and skimmed through the pages. That was where she found one with the boy looking at a long skinny thing on the ground, but the thing that interested her the most was the thing in the purple sky. The shape was yellow, and as she flipped through more of the pages, realised it was in many of the drawings. She shot up as she dashed outside of the Most Curious, and looked to her sky. By now, the bright far away light had drifted underneath her, so the sky was dark. Though the bright sphere in the sky looked like the one in the drawings, something told her it was just too big. Her eyes squinted tightly into the void and black filled her sclera's as she searched the sky. And there it was.

As she watched, more and more appeared until the entire sky was full of them. She did a happy dance as she jumped up. She twirled in the air and laughed when she slowly tumbled back to the ground. Fox looked back up at the stars, and she decided she wanted one. She stood again and pushed herself into the air, reaching up and trying to grab just a single one. She couldn’t though. When she fell again, she expected to feel much like how she did when she tore the book, but instead determination grew inside her.

For a day straight she watched the twinkling lights as much as she could, forgetting about her mission to find friends, and became transfixed with the lights. She laid down, and for the first time since the ‘Before’, she dreamed.

In this dream of hers she laid in a field where soft green tangly things tickled her back. She was also looking in the sky, much like how she did out of the dream.

“Stars”

In her dream she sat up, still keeping her eyes on the sky.

“That’s what they’re called.”

“Oh my Ash, they are ever so beautiful!” It took Fox a few moments to realize that those words had come from her dream mouth. She realized she couldn’t control her dream body at all. That’s when her dream head turned to see the face of an adult. Their face seemed to swirl though when she looked too closely. It was much like the paint when her tear had fallen on it, though she could still tell their skin was teal.

“One day, we’ll be able to see them whenever we want.” Said the figure.

“Once our people are free.” Fox said, nodding her head confidently.

“Yes,” replied Ash,” once we’re free.”

Calmness filled around them.

“Ash?” Came Fox’s dream voice.

“Yes?”

“Will it..? Will it be pretty on the stars? If the humans do win, and force us to leave Earth?”

Still Fox couldn’t make out Ash’s face, but through their tone, she could tell they were hesitant.

“The humans can’t make us leave! We won’t let them!” Ash was loud, and Fox’s dream body flinched. Ash turned to her and apologized for their hard tone.

Fox's voice surfaced back,” I- I know. But just in case anything happens, will it be pretty?”

Tears welled up in Ash’s eyes as their voice faltered. “Yes, my little Alama. It will be very pretty. And more importantly,” Ash’s arms wrapped around the girl’s trembling body,” we will be safe.”

“Together?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Together.” Ash's voice quietly echoed as Fox drifted out of her little dream.

Dear reader, I must tell you something our girl will not know for a long time. This wasn’t a dream, but an unrealized memory. The girl had a name before Fox, and it was Alama.

Fox woke up in a haze.

‘What a weird dream,’ she thought. Our little Fox stood back up, and looked at the stars like always. Except it wasn’t like always. Something was wrong. Though she wanted to sit back down and think more about her dream, she just couldn’t figure out what was wrong. And then she spotted it. One of the stars was not glowing, and instead moving at an alarming rate. She stood breathless as it creeped closer and closer. Fox soon realized she wouldn’t be able to see it for much longer as it went closer to the horizon. Panic spread through her body as she took off at a sprint, never looking away from it. She tripped twice, but jumped back up. It was much bigger now, and she could see it looked much like hers, with red dirt and craters marking its side. Fox looked down and saw that in front of her was a mound that ran high up. With her legs on fire, she pushed even harder. The red world was about to be lost to the ground. With a final spring, she launched herself into the air and saw it in its full glory as she flew up into the air.

In the air she started to twirl back down to the ground again, but she started dissecting every little detail of the planet. Fox had seen a building there that looked just like the Most Curious. The only thing was it seemed to glow from the inside.

Once when she was reading, the big star in the sky had set, and she couldn’t see. She had run her clawlike hand over the wall, accidently making scratches, so she wouldn’t trip, when she had found a fascinating thing. It was a little button on the wall. She pressed it, and from where she was it seemed like she had pushed the big star back into its place. Now that she thought about it, she realized that through the open doors it was still dark outside.

‘Maybe I brought the star inside, like the building over there!’ The thought intrigued her. As she landed on her back, her dress falling on top of her, she began to think what else the building might have had in common with hers.

‘Well what if,’ she thought, 'what if it was just like mine, and had a friend like me there?’ She let the rest of her body sink to the ground as memories from her search for a friend on her planet came back to mind. If the other little world had a Most Curious on it, why couldn’t it have a picture book section, or red soil flying around, or a friend in the Most Curious, reading a picture book? Her mind raced as she decided she just had to look for it again!

Fox jumped up and raced over, but alas, couldn’t find it again.

‘Well, I’ll just wait some more for another one to show up!” and with that she plopped back to the ground. Now looking not just at stars, but in them, and seeing what she could find.

Over the next two days she watched and watched, not taking any breaks since her species didn’t need to, and found in total five more worlds like hers! Except the only problem was that none of them got as close as the first one did. Many flew by, and some got relatively close, but none were close enough for her to see if little people were on there like herself. Though she had made out Most Curious’ on all other tiny worlds. She grew tired again, but determination kept her away from more dreams.

Her little eyes fluttered as they grew heavy, but right before she would close them she would hit herself as hard as she could, and would wake back up.

The anger from almost falling asleep built up inside of her, and something snapped.

“You need to stay awake!” She yelled. That had certainly woken her up. She realized that this voice she had sounded just like the one she had in her dream. She stood up, walking in circles and tried out this voice. She made loud annoying sounds, to the quietest whisper she could manage. She smiled, feeling more confident than before a second ago.

“If I can’t see them from here,” she paused, letting her voice ring out. “Why shouldn’t I just go towards them?” Immediately, she felt knowledge course through her as she knew exactly what to do.

She raced towards the Most Curious and tried to jump atop it. On her first attempt she had nearly gotten to the top, but accidentally pushed herself away. Her second try she had a running start, and reached the top! The top of the Most Curious was flat, but in some places there were red splotches. Most likely it had just been from the soil.

She stood in a stance looking at the stars above. She didn’t know what she was waiting for, but it felt like something. Maybe it was fate, or just how things fell into place, but she had arrived just in time.

In the far away distance a blue marble seemed to rise from the horizon. It was beautiful, and looked like the little world shown in the book. Tears filled her eyes as she felt that same hollowness from before. But this time she knew what was missing. She was missing that! That beautiful thing in the distance, spinning enchantedly around. She could see splotches of color she had never seen outside of the drawings and felt a need for them. In her mind she already knew they were called colors, but she felt it was okay she didn’t know how she got that knowledge. She knew that that was okay, because in the not too distant future she knew she could get there, on that big world, and learn of everything she didn’t know.

She bounced and did a twirl, then ran backwards, stopping right before the edge of the roof. Still she slid off, but grabbed the edge and easily thrusted herself back up. She bent down on one knee, knowing in the ‘Before’ she had seen professionals do this. She sprang into a sprint, running as fast as her legs would let her. Right before she fell off the edge, she pushed with all her might. Her feet pointed downwards as she launched far, far away from her little planet. She knew one day, she would make it to the blue orb, and find friends, stars, and everything else missing from her life.

Me and you, dear reader, know that it is impossible for any human to survive in space without air, but Fox did. She wasn’t a human after all. Later in age she would gain back most of her memories, and find Ash again. She would lead her people back to Earth, and one day, set everyone free. Human or not. She would rule for the rest of her time, and would be known as the Leader of Peace.

More importantly though, she would have friends, and everything else missing from her little world. She would live happily, for the rest of her days, always chasing her next dream.

The End.