ALIENS

There was a stench in the air when I woke up. I didn't see them at first as I tried to adjust my eyes to the blinding sunlight, peering into my room from the window. The sun wasn't supposed to go up in another hour or so except... I jerked off my bed, and that was when I saw them. They were just like Baba had described--purple creatures with heads, the shape of a Rubik's cube.

My hands were stretched out as if telling them to calm down a bit before blasting me into oblivion.

"If we wanted to kill you, we could have done it while you slept," the one who looked like the leader spoke.

"Err, thank you for your time and patience..." I said, uncertain of what was right or wrong at this point. I could easily take all four of them out if only Baba hadn't left with my Xuci, the night before. My Xuci, a spear-shaped old weapon of war, was far from my abode. Without it, I was nothing but a mere mortal.  "Why haven't you killed me yet?" I asked, suddenly aware of the fact that I was, in fact, still alive.

"We have use for you," said one from the far left.

"What? What do you mean?" I asked.

"Enough with all this talk!" roared the one standing next to the leader. "Let's finish him here. We don't need to take him to Compu with us! Soiling our ancestral ship!"

I had asked Baba before what he would do if he woke up and was suddenly surrounded by aliens. "Negotiate," he had answered.

Baba was a good talker. He once convinced a prison warder to help him escape in exchange for a lollipop! He said if I wanted to become a great warrior like him, I had to be a good negotiator. Now negotiating with these stinking, purple creatures was the only way out of my situation. Perhaps, it was why he took my Xuci away and why he told me about these aliens in the first place. It was all in a bid to prepare me. This was nothing but a test, after all.

I looked over at my table and spotted my old Rubik's cube.

"Can..." I began. "Can I make a proposition?"