I remember those lighthearted days of our youth when we would enjoy nature in all of its glory, thinking about nothing other than the moment we were living in and how to make the most out of it, in our childish ways. We loved exploring the forest behind the village, following the spring that ran through it to the clearing and then wandering down one of the many trails that littered its edges. On other days, we would head in the opposite direction, to the lake that always seemed deeper then than it did a few years afterwards. It was there that you first told me that you loved me, and I, being naive, had believed you.


“Wait up, Kaira!” I yelled, panting as I stopped running and doubled over, placing my hands on my knees for support as I let my legs have a short rest and tried to catch my breath. She simply danced at the edges of my vision for a moment, a huge smile on her face, before she twirled away from me and dove into the glassy surface of the lake. Bolting upright in surprise, I ran over to its shores, hurriedly scanning the water for any sign of her. The sharp tops of rocks watched me all the while, glinting ominously in the noonday sun.

Just when I was about to lose my sanity and dive in to look for her, even though I lacked both the proper attire for swimming and the skills to do so, she appeared with a gasp for air. Letting her body spread out across the water’s surface, she floated lazily towards the northern shore, waving at me. “Hey!” she called. “Meet me at the other side, ok? I think I saw something cool right before I went underwater.”

“Ok!” I yelled back. “Be careful!” I turned to scurry around the lake as fast as my little legs could carry me. I kept one eye on it and Kaira at all times, using the other to make sure that I didn’t slip in any of the mud that rimmed its banks by accident. Regardless of how many times I had been there before, I still didn’t quite trust that the seemingly innocent water held nothing that could harm the two of us. Looking back on this now, I can easily attribute this to nothing more than a simple fear of the unknown. How silly.

It seemed as if it took over an hour to reach Kaira, even though it was probably only twenty minutes at the most, and by the time I did, she had already busied herself with digging an enormous hole. She didn’t even notice as I walked up behind her, my hands in my pockets as I curiously looked over the hole’s edge. I let out a slow whistle, marveling at how far she had progressed in such a short amount of time, inadvertently startling her in the process. “What are you standing around for?” she mumbled angrily, motioning for me to join her in the center of the hole. “Get your butt in here and help me!”

Saluting her quickly in an attempt to please her, I hopped down. "Yes, ma'am." It was at least two feet deep already. “Um, Kaira?” I asked tentatively, “Why are we in here?”

“I saw a lizard run into a tunnel here,” she replied matter-of-factly. “When I looked into it, I saw something shiny at the very bottom. I want to know what it was.”

“Shouldn’t you have reached it by now? The tunnel couldn’t have been this deep.”

“It was too! I know what I’m talking about!”

“Well, we should see the tunnel at least, right? Where is it?”

“I...uh...I accidentally buried it while I was digging.” Her cheeks puffed out as she continued, her eyebrows angled sharply. I couldn’t help but smile. “It should be around here somewhere though.”

Nodding, I began to dig as well, figuring that it would be best to appease her now instead of “making her knock some sense into me”, as she put it, with a smack to the forehead later on. The dirt was soft and just the slightest bit wet, feeling pleasantly cool in my hands as I tore it out of its resting place and tossed it up and out of the hole.

The sun beat down steadily on the back of my neck, causing the skin there to prickle as it started to blister. I had always been extremely susceptible to getting sunburned even if I didn’t spend all that much time outside, which was the complete opposite of how my young life usually was. One would think that I would have built up a slight immunity to it eventually, but I never did.

Thinking quickly, I rubbed a thin layer of mud over the area, sighing contentedly as it worked its magic on my skin, helping to soothe the slight pain already there and prevent any more from accruing. The problem fixed, I returned to work, only to be distracted a few minutes later by Kaira scrambling to climb out of the hole.

“Where are you going?” I asked suspiciously. “You’re not leaving me here to do everything for you, are you?”

“Heheh...” she smiled mischievously at me, shaking her head slowly. “No...I’ll be back in a minute. My arms hurt and I need a break.”

“Yeah right...” I grumbled, positioning myself beneath her to give her the slight boost she needed to get out.

She waved at me from over the edge before disappearing out of sight.

“Meh. I see how it is.”

It wasn’t long after that before I finally found what had captured Kaira’s attention. My hands hit something hard as they attempted to pull out the umpteenth handful of dirt. Flinching, I carefully dug around the area until I had uncovered a small gold and silver chain. Tugging at it gently, the rest of its length popped out of the ground, revealing a rather ornate necklace. A large amethyst, Kaira’s favorite gemstone, was encased in interwoven gold and silver flecks, sparkling dazzlingly before my eyes. “Wow...” I breathed out slowly.

Not wasting a moment, I climbed out of hole and dashed over to Kaira, who had fallen asleep in the shade of a nearby tree. “Kaira!” I yelled excitedly. “Kaira! Wake up! Look what I found!”

With a low moan, she sat up and groggily brushed the sleep out of her eyes, glaring at me unpleasantly afterwards. “What do you want?!” she demanded angrily. “I was getting some perfectly good beauty sleep.”

“Look!” I replied, thrusting the necklace out at her with my mud/dirt-encrusted hands. “Isn’t it pretty?”

Her eyes widened as she took in the necklace’s beauty, gingerly taking it from my hands and holding it up to her face, letting it twirl slowly before her eyes. “So...pretty...” she murmured. Snapping out of her slight trance, she thrust the chain over her neck and began spinning around happily, watching the necklace spin with her. “Whee!”

After a moment, she stopped and turned towards me, suddenly rushing at me. With her arms opened wide, she jumped at my small chest, knocking the two of us to the ground. “Thanks so much, Kheanu! I love you!” And with that, she gave me a slight peck on the cheek, causing my face to burn a bright red, before getting up and returning to spinning around. “I love you, too, Kaira...” I whispered in reply.


It wasn’t until we were separated by school that I truly began to understand how much I needed you in my life on a constant basis. Realizing your potential early on, your parents had sent you away to a special boarding school just for girls as soon as you had come of age, one in which you could study such a huge variety of subjects that there wasn’t any chance of you ever getting bored or not having something to do to keep your mind entertained. My own parents had chosen a similar route for me and wasted no time in whisking me away to bigger and better things.

School was intense, but I enjoyed it thoroughly when I wasn’t worrying over you. Both of us were always at the top of our classes, pushing the limits with everything that we did. Our parents were surprised at how fast we progressed, unable to hide their excitement whenever they heard about some new feat we were pursuing.

The busyness, however, kept us from seeing each other except on special occasions, such as holidays at home, for years. Every rare time the image of your face pleasantly graced my retinas, I couldn’t help but notice the distance that was now growing between us. You still were as happy as ever to see me, talking animatedly about one event or another, but it was clear that our lives were separate, similar but definitely not linked tightly together as they once were.

It saddened me greatly. I had believed that you would always be by my side, the two of us going on adventures of one kind or another forever, but now I couldn’t help but worry over how much longer we would even be friends before you became too distanced from me. You had your world, and I had mine. How much more time would pass before someone stole you away from me forever?

It was this question that drove me to propose to you that night, hoping that if you accepted, regardless of what happened, nothing could ever drive us apart. I realize that it was a bold move on my part, but I didn’t think it was that farfetched of a plan. Even from a young age, I had known that you were the one for me, with your beautiful, long red hair and the matching fiery personality that went with it. I believed you felt the same way.


Bending down onto one knee, I raised the box that contained my precious ring, a gift from my grandmother right before she died, to Kaira, my head bowed. “I know it’s sudden, but...would you marry me, Kaira?” A hint of excitement laced the words that left my mouth, along with an inescapable fear. On this night, our fate would be sealed forever.

A few long minutes of silence passed before I looked up, anxious to see what kept her from speaking the two simple words I desperately wanted to hear. I was shocked to see tears streaming down her face. She looked as if I had just slapped her.

“What’s wrong?!” I demanded, rising to my feet and slipping the box back into my pocket. “Did someone hurt you?!”

She shook her head, but continued to sob uncontrollably. Without another word, she turned on her heel and ran off into the starry night, disappearing quickly into the forest. I stood there, stunned and unable to wrap my head around what was going on. My heart was on the ground before me, beating the last of its lifeblood away.


When I finally came to my senses, I ran after Kaira, screaming her name out into the darkness in confusion and despair. Twisting and turning wildly around trees, I began to follow a steadily growing light coming from the north, the direction of the clearing, hoping that she might be its source. Decades seemed to pass before I burst through the underbrush and out into the windy plain of grass.

She was there, but she wasn't alone. A huge ship, the likes of which I had never seen before, took up most of the area and was the source of the bright light that I had followed. It was circular, standing on three little legs with a ramp leading down to the ground. At the base of the ramp, I could make out her form conversing with someone much taller than herself, a man wearing a black bandana and two golden earrings in each ear.

Noticing me, the man gestured towards me and, without any acknowledgement whatsoever, Kaira dashed up into the bowels of the ship, tears falling swiftly behind her. Shrugging and letting out an exasperated sigh, the man followed suit, the ramp lifting up behind him as it closed. A few seconds later and the ship began to lift off, hovering above the ground for a moment as its legs were retracted before it shot off towards the stars.

Blinking, I rubbed my eyes hurriedly, thinking the ship and the strange man had been some sort of hallucination. They hadn’t been. Kaira was gone.

“Kaira!” I screamed, falling to my knees with my head cradled in my hands, hot tears of my own falling to the ground. Why had she abandoned me?


This brings us to the current time. I’ve been waiting for Kaira to magically return for several months now, but it has become quite clear that she won’t. She can’t. I’ve come to the conclusion that that man, that bastard of an alien, as I’ve learned the term is, has stolen her away from me. There isn’t any other explanation for it. Kaira wouldn’t have left so willingly on her own. There was too much here that she wouldn’t have been able to leave behind that easily. He must have seduced her with some kind of spell, some sort of trickery.

I don’t know how, but I will find her again. I will bring her home, where she belongs. I will save her. That man will pay for his actions.