AELORA - Episode 2: Dust

The red clouds were still in the sky, but Milo had no time to stare.

Lira was shivering. Her silver dress was torn and her feet were bleeding from the impact.

"You can't stay here," Milo said, grabbing her wrist. "People will see you. Follow me."

He pulled her through the back gate into his small one-room apartment and locked the door quickly.

Lira looked around, confused. She touched everything - the plastic chair, the standing fan, the phone charger - as if she had never seen them before.

"You are dirty," Milo said. "There is dust everywhere. You need to bathe."

Lira nodded innocently. "Bathe? Like a water ritual?"

"Yes. The bathroom is there," he said, pointing.

She walked inside. Milo waited outside, trying to catch his breath.

Then he heard clothes dropping to the floor.

"Milo, what should I do with these?" she asked from inside.

"Take them off! But wear a towel!"

A second of silence. Then she stepped out of the bathroom doorway. She had removed all of her clothes. She stood there with no shame at all, like a newborn child. She did not understand what nakedness meant. To her, skin was just skin.

Milo froze.

"JESUS! LIRA!" he shouted, turning his face away so fast he almost hit the wall. "PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON!"

Lira flinched. "Did I do something wrong? In my world, we do not cover ourselves. The body is not shameful."

"Here it is! Here it is very shameful! Put on a towel right now!"

She quickly wrapped the faded pink towel around herself. "I am sorry... I did not know."

Milo was still facing the wall. "It's okay. You are just new on Earth. On Earth we wear clothes. Just take your bath. I will be outside."

She bathed. When she came out, with the towel wrapped around her and her hair wet, she looked more human. Milo gave her his oversized football jersey. It reached her knees.

"Thank you," she said softly, sitting on his bed.

"Stop calling me Vessel. It's Milo."

"Milo," she repeated, and smiled for the first time.

They sat in silence for a moment. Then the ground shook.

Not the sky. The ground.

Milo's plastic cup fell off the table.

Lira's face turned white. "He is here. The first one."

"Who?"

"Kael."

Before Milo could ask more, the cement floor in his room cracked. From the crack, dust and soil began to rise like a small tornado inside the room. The soil formed into a hand, then an arm, then a whole man made of earth and stone.

He was huge. His skin was like dried clay and his eyes glowed brown.

Kael, the brother who controls earth.

He looked at Lira, then at Milo, and laughed. The laugh made the walls shake.

"Sister. You ran so far just to hide in a mortal's hut? And with a Vessel who cannot even stand?"

Milo stood up, though his legs were shaking. He stood in front of Lira.

"Who are you? Get out of my house!"

Kael smiled. He raised one finger. The floor beneath Milo's feet turned to soft mud, swallowing his legs up to his knees.

"Your house?" Kael said.

"This whole ground is MY house."

Lira screamed.

To be continued...

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