Ruling a world of beasts and mythical creatures is great. It’s fun! But sometimes, I want to smash something over my head, especially when problems arise.

Hi! I’m Nova. I don’t know my last name, nor do I want to. My parents gave me up. I really don’t mind this as I don’t remember them at all. But that’s not important. You know who is? Oliver. He’s like the older brother I never had. Or maybe I do have one, but I won’t ever know. Probably off with my parents on some beach in California.

Okay, so maybe I do care. The curiosity is eating me alive. But either way, it doesn’t matter. I’ve survived on my own for 15 years. Oliver’s 17, almost 18, with curly brown hair, round glasses, and, oddly, pointy ears. Like an elf’s.

Speaking of peculiar features, on my right forearm I have a red and black tattoo of a dragon emerging from flames. Cool? Not really. Sometimes, it burns like fire spreading across my body, leaving me barely able to move. Worse, it’s happening more often now. Almost like a warning.

“Oh, hey, Oliver!” I nodded to him. “Did you find it?”

He tossed me a bag and said, “Look inside.”

“Macaroons?” I gasped.

“Your favourite.”

It’s true. I have an unhealthy obsession with macaroons, even though we rarely get them. Living on the run makes it hard.

Oh, did I not tell you? Yeah, so, Oliver and I may or may not be wanted across the city. It’s not our fault though. We have no choice, but to steal. We have no home, no source of food or water, no money, no nothing. I just have Oliver, small scraps of money that some kind people sometimes give us, and now macaroons.

The next day, I wasn’t expecting anything different, just some more running and hiding from people and the cops. Boy, was I wrong.

Well, our day started off normally, at least. We woke up and had macaroons. We sat and stared at the wall. The cops almost found us, so we had to find a new hiding spot.

But then we saw a light. Like, a huge glowing light that probably could’ve blinded us. The funny thing was, nobody else seemed bothered. Soon the outlines of the light’s origin became more apparent. A UFO had landed, like, the same UFOs that have aliens. The same ones that you see in movies.

“Come on,” Oliver grabbed my hand.

“Wait!” I whispered, as every instinct screamed at me to run. But I couldn’t. The UFO was calling me.

Naturally, Oliver followed as he yelled, “What are you doing?”

I didn’t answer. Then, suddenly, a slimy tentacle wrapped around me.

“Oliver!” I shouted, snapping out of my trance.

“Nova! I’m coming!” he grabbed my ankle as we shot up into the sky.

We landed with a thud.

“Hello!” I called out.

Oliver clamped a hand over my mouth. “Are you crazy? We just landed on a random space ship, and you’re yelling hello?”

“Well, yeah,” I said. “What else would I do?”

“Uh, maybe figure out where we are?”

“No need. We’re on a UFO.”

“Do you hear yourself? We can’t be on a UFO! Aliens don’t exist!”

“What if they’re not aliens? What if they’re monkeys?”

“I can’t believe you think monkeys are flying a UFO.”

“So, you admit this is a UFO!”

“No! I….”

“Ello!”

We turned. And saw … I don’t even know what. A purple octopus. With eight eyes. And hair.

“Ello!” it repeated. “I am Ogalu! I am an alien from Planet Ajex. We will be taking you home to Planet Ajex.”

Oliver processed this faster than I did. “Wait. Planet Ajex? We have Earth, Mercury, Jupiter, but have never heard of Ajex!”

“Ah, yes. Those are the planets you know about,” Ogalu said. “But in the Milky Way, there’s another solar system. That is where you belong. Oliver, you are an elf. And Nova — oh, Nova.”

He wrapped a slimy tentacle around me (again), and off our ship shot off.

“Ah, Nova! I’m so excited you’re here! We must prepare you for your big day.”

“Big day?” I asked. “I don’t even know what I’m doing here.”

“You are going home, where you will be crowned queen.”

“QUEEN? Of what?”

“Hush now, Nova. We must get you ready.”

I received no answers, but let Ogalu dress me up anyway.

And dressed up I was. My hair styled in an intricate half-up, half-down look, makeup just right, not too much, but just enough. But my favourite part? The dress. A black corset detailed with flames and flowers, paired with a billowing wine-red skirt matching my lipstick. I felt like royalty.

Other aliens, that looked like Ogalu gawked, at me like I was some celebrity — which, to them, I probably was. The more I walked, the more confident I felt. Finally, I was being noticed.

I spotted Oliver, dressed in a green and white suit, flowers in his hair. His pointy ears finally made sense.

“Not gonna lie,” he said, “I kinda like this.”

“Ogalu, Ogalu!” a pink octopus-alien called out. “We are landing!”

“Perfect!”

Landing was a surreal experience. When we got off the UFO, I couldn’t stop looking around. It really was breath-taking. The planet was gorgeous. Lush green fields, beautiful structures, many UFOs flying in the sky and other amazing things I couldn’t recognise.

“So?” Ogalu asked. “How is it?”

“Beautiful,” I breathed.

Then, I saw her. The most stunning woman I had ever seen. She wore a gown like mine, but with a massive crown on her head.

“Who — who are you?” I asked.

She smirked. “I am your mother. And you, Nova, are the next Queen of Flames.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 19th, 2025