Naya and the Intergalactic Mystery

"I'm telling you, it's not a good idea."

"Please, just this once. I'll be more careful."

"But Naya, it's been two weeks, and we've still got nothing. We're wasting time."

"We can't give up now! We haven't even gone through half of these crates," Naya pleaded. "If we leave now, then we will never find what we're looking for. Just give me a little longer; let me look over this one last stack of boxes and then we can leave."

Naya began to climb down from the top of the pile she was sitting on, but her foot slipped and she fell backwards into a large wooden crate. Everything around her began to rattle and shake and she heard her friend call out to her as everything started to fall.

* * *

The ground was hard against her back. She sat up in an attempt to assess the situation. The wooden crates that had surrounded her were strewn about the floor, their contents spilling out in every direction. Her friend was nowhere to be seen and only the flashlight that he had left behind lit up the dark room with its dim light. She rubbed at her head where it had connected against a box and groaned at how sore her body already felt. What kind of condition would they be in if they didn't find what they were looking for soon? Where was her friend anyway?

She looked around and noticed that another set of wooden crates were stacked together in the corner of their makeshift bunker. Her eyes widened as she realized she knew exactly who was behind those crates and that he might have some answers for her.

"What do you want?" The voice came at her from behind the wall of crates. He sounded irritated, but also tired and worn down by the same situation that both she and her friend had been stuck in for so long. It was a sad state, being so close to freedom yet unable to reach it no matter how hard one tried.

"Hello?" Naya whispered back as quietly as she could manage. "Are you still there?"

She heard some shuffling from behind the crates before the voice replied again, "I'm here." Naya took a deep breath before continuing.

"My name is Naya Blackwater; what's yours?" The silence that followed almost made Naya regret having asked such a personal question, but she trusted that if he wanted to hurt her then he would have done so already after all this time. "I'm guessing your name isn't 'Eggs Benedict'," Naya jested with him as he considered his answer. Her smile faded along with her patience when his reply finally came: "It's Valorian." There was a pause before he continued, "and my name isn't Eggs Benedict," he said sarcastically before chuckling lightly at his own joke. She couldn't help but laugh too when she realized how silly his real name was after all this time spent with him thinking that it was Eggs Benedict because of his broken communication device (no wonder he was annoyed all the time). She finally managed to speak after catching her breath: "Can you undo your cuffs? I think I can get us out of here if you can move away from those crates." Valorian agreed and quickly moved towards where Naya had fallen earlier on top of all the knocked over wooden crates. He carefully removed his cuffs from the metal bars before turning back towards where she lay on the floor; waiting anxiously for him to finish untying himself so they could finally escape together like they had always dreamed about ever since they first met each other within those very same wooden crates weeks ago when they were both captured by their captors while scavenging for supplies on Brynia's surface together--two strangers brought together by fate within those same wooden crates; two strangers who were now reunited again while trapped together inside of them once more...