Queen Eren

“Kasala, what is she?” I asked with wild eyes.

“I don’t know,” Kasala replied.

This is not how we imagined this day to go at all. Just hours before we were looking through old boxes in my closet and now a live alien lay before me. Throughout the alien’s speaking, I heard her keep mentioning Erenites. I had no idea what these were, but I had an eerie feeling that it had something to do with me.

My dad worked with NASA, but he never mentioned any Erenites. I was just glad that Kasala was here to share the shock with me. If I had been alone, there is no telling the panic I would have been in at this moment. Upon our arrival, I could have sworn that I was only hallucinating until I saw Kasala talking to the creature and motioning for me to come near.

“Queen, I do hope that you heard the history of our people and their connection to you. I do understand if it is a lot to process at this time,” the alien said to me.

It was a freezing November night and I watched in bewilderment as a glowing light radiated from this indigo creature. If we weren’t already on Mars, I’d probably have freaked out. This hyper being before me was much more beautiful than anyone had ever described Martians to be. She had gorgeous curly hair and possessed such a charisma that Kasala and I could not help but listen to her extemporaneous speech. I gradually snapped out of my trance as I heard my name being called.

“Eren,” my bestfriend, Kasala called. My eyes were clued to the smooth, deep purple toned alien.

“She’s asking you if you understand what she just told you,”

“Oh! Sorry, I heard you, but of course it doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t even know your name,” I told her in a slight panic.

“I am Etae, the leader of the Erenites, behind you of course.”

From my understanding, due to my father’s impact and connection to science and space, when I was born, a community of Erenites was birthed to Mars as well. The creatures’ very being encompassed all of my qualities and skills. My father was aware, but he knew I was not as big on science and space as he was so he didn’t want to alarm me. Their reason for bringing me to mars after seventeen years was because they now needed a queen. The race was losing their purpose and were not sure what to do on their planet.

“Are you ready to meet the others, my queen?” Etae asked. I knew he noticed my expressions shifting as I mentally connected all the dots.

“Yeah! Come on,” Kasala screamed. I could tell she was eager to see what the alien’s speech was all about. I looked at her sharply, but I looked as panicked as I felt.

“Come on Eren. You’re ruler of a ton of cool looking creatures.” I sighed.

“Etae, take me to them,” Kasala squealed. We both climbed onto Etae’s back and rode to the center of the city where all the Erenites would come meet me. I was nervous of course, but Etae helped me keep calm and gave me a crown so that my appearance would match my position of authority. I did not know what I would say to them nor how I would react to them being ubiquitous to me in the inner city, but I held all my doubts inside as I saw the group approaching.

They all appeared overzealous. I hoped I would not disappoint them. A court of five Erenites assisted Etae in treating me as queen by feeding me grapes and preparing a throne for me. They even placed a throne to my left side for Kasala. The mob crowded around me and Etae began to speak.

“Wollef Erenites, ew evah dnuof ruo neeuq. Ehs sah neeb gnissim morf ruo tenalp, tub won ehs si ereh. Emoclew reh!” They all clapped and cheered. I thought I wouldn’t understand their language, but I realized every word was only backwards. I used to write my words like this when I didn’t want someone to know what I was saying. This is how the Erenites talked when they were all together like they were now.

“Ew lliw won raeh morf reh,” Etae stated as he backed away from the podium and prompted me to come forth. I slowly approached the stand and spoke slowly.

“Hello all, I have never heard of my own city. It’s disappointing, but now that I’m here I will help you all get on track before I return home. I would hate for you all to wander Mars without a purpose because of everything I have going on back on Earth.” They all looked at each other in confusion. I stepped back and looked at Etae, he stepped up and told me that they expected me to stay.

The point in bringing me to Mars was for me to become acquainted with my people and stay to lead them. I stood in surprise for a few moments before I stepped back up to the podium and explained to them that I had missions to complete on Earth and I could not stay, but I would equip Etae even more than he already was now and leave him to lead our people. They all looked sad, but then Kasala stepped up to introduce herself since she was full of so much excitement.

They all thrived off of her energy, just as I do in our friendship. When they seemed happy again, I asked who would like to be advised by Kasala and me first. The mob charged towards us and we clamped onto each other in fear of what was about to happen. When we opened our eyes, we were being carried by the mob to a place unknown to us. We never let go of one another’s hand.

I thought that they’d maybe be taking us to a living quarter for the time that we’d be there, but we ended up at some type of jail looking building, but it had no guards or anything. I was frightened and my eyes began searching for Etae. He was nowhere to be found. The faces of these Erenites looked slightly upset.

As my fretful mind began trying to figure out a solution, they carried us into the building and threw us into a cushy room, closed and locked the door. Kasala’s worried eyes looked at me in desperation. I looked through the small window of the door and asked one of the Erenites what was going on.

“We need our queen and you want to leave. We just can’t let that happen.” My eyes widened as I tried pleading with them. They all marched out and left me and Kasala.

“Well, at least I don’t have to finish that paper that’s due tomorrow,” Kasala joked.

“Kasala, how are we going to get home? We can’t be on MARS forever!” I shouted.

“I know, but keep calm. We’ll figure something out.” She was trying to sound hopeful.

“I sure hope so. Didn’t our science teacher say that the human body can’t survive for long on Mars, we don’t have enough oxygen.” I grew more worried as I spoke.

“Eren!” I woke up to Kasala calling my name as she shook me a few times.

“I’m glad to see Ms. Knight could join us again,” Ms. Lumis, our science teacher, said to me.

“Sorry, Ms.L,” I said as I silently thanked Kasala.

“Back to our discussion on your oxygen level on Mars,” Ms.Lumis continued. I facepalmed myself and sank into my seat.