Part 1: Back story

"Attention all passengers, we will be departing from Earth in ten minutes. Please find your seat and buckle in." the speaker sounded throughout the ship. This was not a normal air plane. No, I wasn't going on a trip to London, I was leaving Earth.

I held my breath for a moment to calm myself but it didn't work. "Alexander, you idiot..." I mumbled to myself as I swept my curly dark brown hair out of my eyes. Now you may be asking yourself, "what's going on?" And well, that's a long story. You see, a few years ago we, the human race, discovered a new planet. Well, not really new, but new to us. To our surprise, people lived their. Well, not people as in humans, they are their own race which call themselves anabas.

Thankfully, they turned out to be a rather peaceful race and seemed as excited as we were when we made contact with them. For the past year, many of the leaders of Nabar have visited us and our two races have worked out an agreement in hopes to become closer to one another.

This is where I come in. One hundred and fifty anabas will be traveling over here from Nabar and one hundred and fifty humans will be traveling over there from Earth. I was just lucky enough to be sent over there! I say it like it was a just a random drawing, however, there was some thought and planning behind it. All of the superpowers of the world got together so there are people from all around the world here. They picked me because I'm young, only twenty four, I don't have any family, and I teach theater. Apparently they want to spread our culture, because there were quite a few young artist and teachers that were chosen.

I agreed to go since I didn't have anything other than my job and a crappy apartment and I'm rather curious. And unlike many other young men my age, I don't have a love life. Which is a tad sad actually.

We all went through a month long class to learn some basic knowledge about the anabas. We learned that they are a race of vegetarians since their are no large creature on Nabar they have adapted to eat only plants. Anabas have a structure similar to a humans, however they have grayish blue skin, sharp facial features, unusual eye colors that range anywhere from the darkest black to the brightest pink, and they have six tentacles that grow from their backs like wings. They're also are tad taller than the average human and also very lean. They are able to mimic or imitate quite well so many of them were able to learn English and other human languages quite easily. Which is very convenient for us humans because I can't even begin to understand even the basics of their language. They have an interesting government, two anabas are always ruling. However, unlike a king and queen, their genders don't matter, they aren't married, and they have equal power. Even though we learned all of this I still feel uneasy knowing that their is so much more to learn about the people themselves.

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Part 2: On the ship and Alexanders thoughts

We've been in this spacecraft for what feels like eternity! There is no privacy, the food is foul, and I've read Hamlet five times now out of boredom. On the bright side, the young gentleman that sleeps in the bunk next to mine sounds like a motorboat while he sleeps. My apologies, I'll try to stop complaining. I have made friends with a dark haired woman named Elizabeth. She likes Shakespeare as much as I do and we've been entertaining each other with stories about our lives on Earth.

My hair has grown longer and now covers my light green eyes and hangs down to my collar bones. I couldn't be bothered to cut it. I think I've lost some weight while on this thing as well, not that I wasn't already thin before. Some of the people have been complaining about not being able to tan but I'm okay. I've never been tan, in fact I'm often asked if I'm sick because of my skin color. I can't help it, it's the skin I was born with. Although I don't think it's ugly or anything. I've never thought much about the way I look but being on this ship for so long has given me time to think about crap like that. My feature are rather soft and I keep my face nicely groomed. I don't know why I'm even thinking about this.

Fortunately, today is our last day on this dreaded thing. I'm packing up all of my clothes and books that I have thrown all over my bed and storage compartment at the moment so I'll be ready to go as soon as we land! I can't wait to step out onto solid ground again! The first thing I'm going to do when I get their is eat! Dear god, I hope they have good food.

We have recently been informed that we will all be staying with different anabas who have agreed to take us in. It's kind of like adopting a child from overseas for them I guess. I just hope whoever has agreed to 'mentor' me can cope with my curiosity.

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Part 3: Arriving in Nabar

Finally! We are here! This place is breathtaking! It's hard to describe in words, it's just gorgeous. The buildings here are mostly made of white or deep red clay and they are all luxurious looking. There are plants growing everywhere you look, none of which I know the name of, but they're all bright and beautiful. The sky was a beautiful purple color so I figured it was in the evening and there was a nice cool breeze. I struggled a little with breathing at first but it wasn't hard to adapt to.

When we got out of the ship there were anabas everywhere! Each one looked thrilled and they welcomed us with warm smiles. Several of them tried to talk to me in their odd sounding English and a few handed me flowers and small gifts that appeared to be different types of snacks though I can't be sure since the labels on everything were in a different language.

We took quite a few odd looking buses that I guessed were normally used for public transportation to a massive building in the middle of the large city we were supposed to meet in. The building was rather old compared to everything else but it was stunning. The inside was just as amazing. Everything was polished and it felt similar to the old castles that you can visit back on Earth except there was just something a little different about everything there.

The long line of us walk a long way guided by an older looking anaba man until we reached a large room filled with anabas who were all dressed in fine robes and jackets, each one looking regal, important, and a little less friendly than the citizens we had met outside. These anabas were the ones who would be taking in each of us, teaching us about themselves and expecting us to do the same.

The room went silent when we entered and everyone froze. All of the sudden music began to play from strange instruments from off in the corner and many of the anabas rushed forward to greet us all. For awhile we all just talked to anabas for the first time and learned some of their names wondering if we would be sleeping in their house later tonight.

Then the music changed and all of the anabas quieted down and turned their attention to a large archway on the opposite end of the room. Two anabas entered wearing magnificent long robes of silver, white, and black. The one on the left was a woman with black hair cut straight just above her shoulders. Her skin was a rich blue and her eyes were a dark brown. A ring of unknown gems adorned her head. Next to her was a man also wearing a crown of gems. His hair, however, was golden and nearly touched the floor and his skin was a lighter blue and his eyes were gray. I could tell that they were in charge. Behind the woman entered another woman who was also dressed impressively and carried two small children with her. Behind the man entered another man with nearly white hair and a very gentle look and he had a young woman behind him. Then beside her was yet another young man. When I saw him I couldn't help but stare. He was dressed just as beautifully as the others and he looked a lot like the male leader. His hair was a light golden color and it was hanging loose around his waist. His eyes were also a pale gray and his skin was a light blue. However, he had the same gentle look as the second man yet his face was still chiseled like many of the other anabas. I could tell that some of the other humans noticed him too. Three woman standing beside me whispered among themselves about his beauty.

A loud voice spoke out announcing them as the royal families saying that the woman's name was Rezala and the man's name was Wetam. All eight of them walked into the middle of the room and then the woman spoke out in a slow soothing voice. "Humans from Earth, we welcome you here today. It has been a long journey for you all and I am sure you are all tired. If there is anything that we can do to make you feel more comfortable, please tell us. The road ahead may be a difficult one for you all since you now must adapt to our ways of living. However, we thank you for coming here. There is much sorting to be done tonight and I hope that you will all bear with us as we match you to your caretaker."

The families moved back towards the wall and another woman took their place and began calling out names. One human and then one anaba. It went on and on. The two beings would meet and then they would exchange greetings before heading towards the door that we had entered. We had gone through one hundred and forty five so there were only five humans left including myself. That's when I noticed something. There were only four anabas left.