Charlie's Adventure: A Journey to Xroni

ALIEN CITY ON THE PLANET XRONI:

Charlie was a recently employed astronaut for NABA who was excited for her first space mission to the planet Xroni, which was in a few weeks. After years of hard work and dedication, she was finally going to achieve her dream. Although she was quite elated, she was, of course, feeling a bit nervous.

Some time went by, and her excitement and nervousness was only growing. Finally came the night before the mission, and she could barely sleep. She woke up the next morning and got ready faster than ever before. Before she knew it, she was in the rocket, and mission control was doing the countdown: 3…2…1… LIFTOFF. She felt a boost of adrenaline coursing through her veins.

“What is the mission?” you may be thinking. They were exploring a new planet which was only ever explored by space rovers until now. And they didn't even know if it was inhabited by some people or creatures. All they knew was that were some signs of life over there. The space rovers had sent back only limited data and vague pictures of unique green tower like structures, some multi coloured auras and a strange moon that looked like the planet saturn.

After a few days, they reached the mysterious terrain of this strange planet. They found out later that the particular city that they landed on, was NaB-27.

_{digital art by @xpilar for contest}

It was interesting—nothing like any of them expected. There were buildings that looked futuristic and strange. But maybe the strangest thing was the inhabitants: peculiar green little creatures. They had shiny blue eyes and no hair on their heads. Surprisingly, they meant no harm and were very welcoming to their new guests. They were just as curious about Charlie and her team as Charlie and her team were about them.

_{It was so fun creating and generating these creatures by freepik}

They were immediately escorted to the largest building in the city and were introduced to what seemed to be their queen. She was clearly different from the rest of them, both in appearance and ranking. Although she was caring towards all of them; it was more like a mother than a leader. Unlike the other creatures, she wasn’t mumbling (which seemed to be their own language). She seemed to recognize the humans and began speaking English: “We’ve been expecting you.” Suddenly, the astronauts forgot how to speak. Finally, one of them spoke, “Who are you, and what do you call yourselves?” Calmly, the queen replied, “We are the Nafti, and I am the queen, Narla.” “We have been expecting earthlings for a while now and we welcome you with open arms!”(Thanks to the rovers NABA sent to the planet Xroni). Then she said, “Now please introduce yourselves.” One by one, the astronauts shared their names. Then Narla explained that they had never met humans before, and the Nafti had been preparing for their arrival. That's why she could speak English. The Nafti were so cheerful at the arrival of the humans that they wanted to show them around their little planet, and so the tour began. They visited public buildings, markets, and many exciting places.

After this, Narla expressed that she wanted to show them a place that was very special to her. It was a restaurant she went to whenever there was a special occasion, and she wanted to share this special place with the humans. On the way, Charlie tripped and hurt her leg. However, it was immediately treated by the Nafti people, and they continued to the restaurant. The food dishes were nothing like they had ever tried before; they were absolutely delicious. They left the place with their hearts and stomachs full. They thanked Narla for such a wonderful day, to which she replied, “It was my pleasure, and it was the least I could do to welcome you to our planet.” Afterward, Narla dropped them back at their rocket. They said their goodbyes and departed into the spaceship to rest after a long day of exploring. Charlie had no trouble falling asleep this time around.

The next morning, Charlie woke up to the disappointing discovery that it was all a dream, and today was the actual morning of her mission! She looked around the room, displeased when something caught her eye: a bandage on her leg!

_{image generated by Freepik}

Author's Note:

The names of the planet city (NaB-27), the queen (Narla), and the endearing creatures (Nafti) were derived from my own name, Nooriya.
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I am incredibly proud of my daughter's vivid imagination and storytelling talent. She had a little help from me with vocabulary while writing. After she finished, I corrected a few typos and then edited/formatted on this platform.

All the images used were generated by me according to the story's requirements, except the one at the beginning, which was provided by xpilar as a prop.