#krugarr

Freezing, late November air rolled across the fields outside and carried snow toward a single house in the middle of the country.

It was 4 am on a Friday morning, and you were asleep. At least until you heard a loud whooshing sound, followed by heavy, booming thuds that practically shook the land. On top of that, the area was now completely lit up, including your bedroom.

You shot up, grabbed your coat, shoes, and ran outside, thinking there had been a plane crash or something. The icy air enveloped you and bit at your skin as soon as you stepped onto the porch. Frosted grass crunched under your shoes as you ran toward the field. You weren't sure what you were going to find, but still thinking it to be a plane crash, you hoped maybe you could be of help.

Instead what you found was far more confusing, and didn't make sense. There were two large air crafts that didn't look like anything you'd seen before. They weren't planes, that was for sure. One was smoking, and red lights flashed from inside, and you could faintly hear an alarm. The other was tilted on its side, and all the lights were shut off.

The door on the flashing ship opened and people started to evacuate. Only when you stepped closer, you noticed they looked a bit.. not human. Sure, many of them looked human, but others had green or blue skin, some had crested skulls, red eyes, or sharp teeth.. They weren't human.

A blue man jogged down out of the ship, coughing as smoke rushed out after him. He had some sort of red fin on his head, and spoke with a rough voice, commanding the men to get to the other ship and help them open their door.

You watched as at least twenty men rushed over and began prying at the door until it finally opened, and a different crew exited.

A human looking man exited, followed by another who looked like he was made of glass or crystal.. Then a large, red alien with a tail instead of legs, and fins for ears, a woman, and a very large man in a yellow suit.

The human looking man immediately made his way over to the blue man and they seemed to launch into an argument on sight.

You couldn't make out everyone, as the area was only lit up by the lights from the ship that was smoking, and many of the men were standing in the darkness, trying to get away from all the smoke.

You almost forgot you were even standing there, just watching the scene unfold, until you heard a voice call out over the loud arguing.

"Cap'in, I don't mean to interrupt, but there's a Terran.." said another human-looking man, this one a little scrawny with pointed ears. You didn't think he was human, but he did look like it.

Suddenly the attention was on you. At least thirty something men out here, and all of them had turned toward you.

"I-" your own voice came out as a squeak, both from the sudden shyness and the lack of use, as it was four in the morning and you had just woken up, "I heard a crash, I thought maybe someone had gotten.. hurt.." you explained, your eyes flicking from alien to alien. You took a step back, intimidated.

The human-looking man that had just been arguing with the blue alien turned and approached you. He took your hand and shook it without giving you the chance to even raise it first. "Stakar Ogord. I apologize for landing our ships and damaging the field here, we needed to make an emergency landing."

"The fields not mine-" you started, but he continued like he didn't even hear you.

"We may have to stay here until we can get our ships repaired and in the air again. Until then, I guess we'll be your neighbors. No one should bother you, I just recommend you stay in your yard." He gave a rough pat to your shoulder and turned around, walking back toward the group, leaving you standing there.

Your mind was racing, and the exhaustion wasn't helping. In fact, you were half convinced this was a dream. You looked over at the blue man with the red crest, and he just waved you off, like he was shooing you back to your house. His message was clear.

We don't need your help.

With nothing left to say, and apparently nothing to do, you did the only thing you could think of and went back inside. You shut and locked the door, took your coat off, and stepped out of your shoes.

You wanted to go back to bed, but there was no way you could do that with maybe thirty to fourty aliens just outside. Instead, you started the coffee maker and figured you'd just start the day early, at 4:30 in the morning. That was fine. Five hours of sleep wasn't terrible. After you'd poured your cup, you remembered something and stepped back outside onto the back porch.

Once you found what you were looking for, you stepped back inside, shut the door, and started to pour a second cup of coffee, this time into a thermos.

You put your coat and shoes back on, and grabbed an extra coat from the closet before you headed back out, jogging back toward the group, right for the red snake-like alien.

He turned to face you and you froze. No mouth.

Suddenly the gesture felt silly and pointless.

He continued to stare, as did some of the others.

"Uh.. Well, I saw you.. earlier, when the ship- .. Well anyway, you look reptilian, and I thought maybe you were cold blooded, and it's twenty degrees out here.. Which isn't very safe for cold blooded creatures in general, so I brought you a coffee and an extra coat.. But uh.. Well I guess you can still use the coat." You said, handing it over, relived that he actually took it and put it on, bowing his head in silent thanks.

You heard a chuckle from that man earlier, Stakar. "He can still have the drink, his mouth is in his chest. But thank you, on behalf of Krugarr here, for thinking of him."

You could tell he was trying to be polite in order to stay civil, though he was trying to focus on the ships and the fact that they were all stranded now.

The red alien -Krugarr, you learned his name was- bowed his head again and accepted the drink. You realized he also was just trying to be polite, knowing you had good intentions.

You turned your attention back to Stakar. "Is there anything I can do to help? There's like forty of you, all stranded out here.. Do you need food or water maybe? Or a place to stay? My house isn't very big, but I've got a barn on my property that isn't being used."

The blue man with the red crest stepped up. "Can't you see we're handling it? Look, the gesture is appreciated, but we're fine. We don't need your help. We'll stay on our ship-"

"The ship that looks like it's on fire?" You retorted. "You'll die of smoke inhalation. My barn is open, I can get extra blankets and heaters out there. It's the least I can do, just let me help."

He stopped and grumbled a little, clearly irritated. He turned and looked at his crew. Some were visibly shivering, while others had their hands in their pockets, arms tightly tucked into their bodies, pretending not to be cold, but their captain knew his crew and sighed.

"Fine," he turned and faced you, "You can put the boys up in your barn until we get things figured out. But if they give you trouble, and they might, you come an' get me." He turned toward the man who had spoken up earlier, the scrawnier looking human-like man. "Go with them, make sure they don't destroy the place."

The man nodded and turned toward the crew. "Cap'in says we're stayin' in the Terran's barn until our ship is fixed up." He called out. And with a jerk of his head, they followed him, and he followed you.

As you walked across the field, you looked up at him. "Forgive me if this is rude, but.. Are you human?" you asked.

He shook his head. "Xandarian. We share a common ancestor with you Terrans, so we look mighty similar, but we're different."

Another awkward minute of silent walking before you introduced yourself. If you were hosting them, they might as well know your name.

He nodded. "I'm Kraglin, Cap'in's first mate. Behind me is Brahl, Horuz, Tullk, Retch, Gef.." He trailed off, realizing there were too many crewmembers. "Uh.. Well they'll introduce themselves when ya meet 'em." He was quiet for a moment before he spoke up again. "Cap'in won't say it, but thank you.. For lettin' us stay in your barn."

You nodded. "I couldn't let you guys stay outside, it's below freezing. A human wouldn't make it out here.. By the way, what's the name of your captain? That scary blue guy."

"Yondu Udonta. He's the captain of our faction, and Stakar is the captain of his own faction."

Finally you got to the barn, and yanked at the doors, pulling them open, watching as aliens rushed to get inside and out of the snow.

You turned back toward Kraglin, crossing your arms over your chest to try and warm up a little. "What caused you guys to crash here anyway?"

He exhaled and leaned against the door. "We was fightin' with the Kree. The Cap'in doesn't have good history with them, so when he sees their ships, he gets a little impulsive- you ain't heard that from me by the way." You nodded, and he continued.

"They cut us off, and he started chasin', and shootin'. It got so bad that Stakar came an' told him to stop, that he was gon' start somethin'. Then the Kree shot back and nearly took out our ship, and that's when Stakar got involved, cuz he don't like anyone messin' with Yondu. We eventually shot their ship down, but ours didn't turn out much better."

That's when you remembered them fighting. Everyone evacuated, and Yondu made sure Stakar and his crew got out safely, and then they started fighting. It reminded you of you and your family a little bit.

"Come on, I've got some blankets and heaters in my house, can you help me carry them?" You asked, walking toward the house. You heard him jog to catch up and follow you, taking that as a yes.

You came back out with two space heaters and ten blankets, some pulled from your own bed. It wasn't nearly enough, but some people were able to begrudgingly share, and others crowded around the heaters and just sat together. Some were nice enough to thank you, but most either nodded or just grunted.

"Don't take it personally," Kraglin had said, "Ravagers ain't exactly the nicest of people. We're pirates."

Great, you thought, I'm hosting space alien pirates in my barn.

You nodded to him as he headed over toward a stall meant for a horse but hadn't been used and was left empty. Turning to leave, you nearly ran into Yondu, who caught you by shoulders before you did.

"Oh, I'm sorry-" You started but he just let go and walked around you, joining his crew. It felt a little rude, but it was understandable, he was stressed about his ship.

As you walked back toward the house, you saw Stakar, Krugarr, and a very angry looking woman. You may not have known what Krugarr was, but you were sure he was cold blooded. He had to be, right?

"Hey, uh, there's some extra room in the house. I have the heat on, and there's a guest room, if you three would prefer to sleep inside instead of out in the barn." you offered.

The woman started to decline, but Stakar spoke faster, "That would be wonderful, thank you." He ignored the smack she delivered to his chest, and walked inside with her. As scary and as harsh as she was with Stakar, she did thank you on her way in, so you assumed maybe she just hadn't wanted to intrude.

She and Stakar got the guest room together, making you think they were together, and you set up Krugarr in the livingroom couch with a blanket. He may not have had a mouth, but you could see it in his eyes that he seemed to smile a little and was grateful.

You headed back to your room, finally and sat down on the bed, ready to get back to sleep.. When it hit you that you just impulsively let maybe forty dangerous, possibly armed, alien pirate strangers stay with you, and three of them were inside your house.

You hadn't even thought about it, you just let them in, trying to help. You didn't know them, where they were from, their intentions, anything. Sure they seemed nice, but didn't most murders when people talked about them on the news?

You got up and clicked the lock on the door shut before sitting back down. You were sure that wasn't enough to stop them, but if their intention was to rob you, maybe it would be safer to stay put in your room while they did their thing..

You checked the clock propped up on your dresser.. 5:35 am.

Maybe just an hour of sleep wouldn't hurt. They all seemed equally as exhausted anyway, maybe they wouldn't bother you.