The castle-ship had been set on its course to the safe planet Coran had located. They were scheduled to arrive in a little over a vaga, giving the paladins plenty of time to not bore themselves into a coma. As magnificent as the castle was, as amazing as traveling to space at speeds faster than previously imagined had been, it certainly made for sparse entertainment. The castle's inhabitants had moved from the lounge room to the command center, mostly to occupy themselves either at their command seats, or to watch the space-scape outside slowly slide past.

"Anyone up for a game of eye spy?" Lance had suggested, though he was met with quiet. He would persevere, something had to give. "I spy with my little eye - uh," he looked around the command room, then to the holo-screen walls projecting their flight through space. "something... white, and it's small, and it's kind of far away."

"A star?" Keith replied, unamused.

Lance grinned, "Yeah, but which one?" His head drooped slightly at the lack of response. "Ah, man. Do we got any games we can play or something? I miss TV."

"TV?" Allura asked

"Yeah, y'know, it's this box thing that shows moving pictures on it."

"You mean like a hologram?"

"Not exactly."

Coran chimed in from the from of the room. "If memory serves, I do have some documentaries stored somewhere on the migration patterns of duflaxes."

"Thanks but, I think I'll just stare at space." Lance replied with a sigh.

LE had been listening to this exchange from her standing position beside Pidge, who sat in her command chair, though she wasn't working on anything. She noticed the droid's eyes were a slightly lighter color, indicating something was running on the inside. According to her research from the last few days, LE had some sort of learning program that allowed her to make complex decisions on her own. Earth robots had to run on a program that dictated everything it said or did, and here was a machine that could seemingly think by itself. Watching. Learning.

LE's observance of the room shifted when she noticed Pidge had been staring with a misty eyed expression of adoration. In response, the droid offered a smile that lit up her expression. Though she looked and behaved human, Pidge could pick up on some nuances that tickled her suspicion meter. The way her head or body would turn was still a little animatronic. And her shift between expressions always seemed to revert briefly back to a neutral state before changing to another. She wasn't sure if this was from her messing around with the behavioral systems, or if this was standard to whatever her unit was.

The team's engineer had been sidling over to the pair. "So, 'scuze me, LE," she turned to look at Hunk, who had approached the pair. He raised a stiff hand."Hi. I'm Hunk," he introduced, though it wasn't necessary.

LE stared less than a tick before her expression lifted."Hello, Hunk." LE greeted again, her smile pleasant, her tone smooth.

He seemed rather awkward and his face was a little red the moment she had said his name. He was clearing his throat like the words he wanted to say got stuck. "I-I was just a little curious. Not every day you see a full.. independently walking machine-android-lady, you know. I just gotta ask, what's your hardware specs?"

Her expression went from neutral to a sort of mild interest. "Oh, you mean what comprises of my chassis. It is a combination of complex-"

"Now, now," Allura had quietly moved over, standing between the two before carefully sliding an arm around LE's shoulders, effectively cutting her off from replying. "Hunk, you should know better than to ask a woman about such... personal matters."

"I don't mind-" LE started and didn't get to finish.

"Our friend here has just spent a rather tiresome time in a less then desired situation. I'm sure she would like a chance to freshen up a bit. Isn't that right?" The princess applied enough pressure to her arm to begin steering LE in the direction of the portal door. The poor girl was trying to voice an excuse that she was perfectly fine but the Altean wouldn't hear of it. Pidge could only offer a sympathetic smile towards her look of confusion as the door closed behind them.

She was whisked down various hallways leading to the personal chambers where they retired for the night. She knew this pathway lead to Pidge's personal room, but before they reached it, they turned down another hallway. The door they approached was far more grand looking than a simple sliding door - though this one slid open as well in the form of double doors.

Within was a rather modest bed chamber, housing a large, spacious bed towards the opposite side of the door. The walls were bare of pictures or windows and the furniture was modernly simplistic as far as Altean design went. There was inset armoire, a vanity, and a writing desk. The former two being closer together near one side, while the desk was closer to the bed on the far side.

Allura had steered LE towards the armoire before finally releasing her and throwing the doors open. "I'm sure after spending so much time in that ship, you must be tired of the flight suit."

LE glanced down at her own outfit, clearly still lost at the change in situation. "I... suppose so."

Allura had pulled out a handful of outfits from the armoire and set them straight and flat on the bed. They were all dresses in shape, but their colors and designs varied across each one. "It's been some time since I wore these, but I think they'd fit you just fine. You're welcome to pick any of them to wear."

LE looked at each dress, reaching out a hand to test the material, to touch it, as if it would give her a better idea. When she reached the last dress, she noticed Allura had been looking at her rather expectantly. A small, worried smile changed the droid's expression. "They're all very lovely. I - I don't think I could pick."

"Well, do you have a preference for a long skirt like this, or shorter ones? This one has shorter sleeves while that one has longer. Do you have a favorite color?"

LE had been staring at the dresses before looking back at the princess and shaking her head. "No preferences have been installed yet."

Allura scrunched her face in consideration. "Then I think it's time to develop some on your own. Pick a random dress and we'll go from there."

LE took one last look at each gown before picking the one with medium length sleeves, and medium length skirt in a peach and white accented color. The top was a vest like bodice, while the skirt opened up slightly in the middle to allow for freer movement of the legs. To go with it, Allura added a pair of white leggings. LE would wear the same heeled boots that came with her originally.

Once she was changed, Allura motioned for her to sit on the stool before the vanity mirror, which she obeyed. She had a brush in her hand and set to work gently pulling through her tan hair. It was silken and soft, far more than normal hair.

"It's nice to have a little girl time, wouldn't you agree?"

LE looked into the vanity mirror, as it was the only way to visually see Allura's face to respond properly. "I've never experienced it before. Or if I have, I don't remember. It's nice, yes."

"Technically, there is Pidge but she's not interested in any of this. It made me a little sad, to be honest, what with so many boys around." She swept the hair to one side of her shoulder. She had to be careful. "Your ears are very pretty. They remind me of wings." LE smiled at the mention. "If you open the jewelry box there, you can pick a set of earrings."

LE did as instructed and opened the lid of the box. While there was a jumble of earrings and bracelets inside, there was also something else. The colorful stones, chains, and ear pieces began to rustle about before three small, colorful mice jumped out one after the other.

"Ah! That's where you've been hiding." Allura announced with an amused air. "These mice are my friends from Altea."

LE stared at the three mice, unsure of what to make of them. They were friendly. The pink one was waving. In response to their warm nature, the droid smiled.

The castle-ship's holoscreen view was taken up by the vision of a planet fast approaching them. From its atmosphere, it appeared mostly covered by landmasses, though it was hard to tell if it was truly land or some sort of vegetation. The darker patches of blue suggested bodies of water, as well as thin blue streaks weaving their way across the continents.

As they began their decent to the surface, the portal doorway opened to reveal their female company had returned. It was needless to say that upon LE's return, she was met with double-takes and rather impressed attitudes at her change of appearance. She now wore a garb suited for an Altean, with her hair swept over one shoulder and an accessory clip attached to the other side of her head. Beside her, Allura looked rather pleased that her handiwork was receiving some appreciation.

"LE, you look great!" Pidge complimented with a beaming smile. She looked at the small paladin and smiled in response as the pair entered the room.

The castle-ship had reached an appropriate height to change from horizontal, to vertical. It was a wonder that the rooms within always remained straight and completely still. They wouldn't even know what was happening outside were it not for the camera system. There was a slight tremor throughout the castle as it connected with the hard ground, followed by the resonating sound of the flight engines powering down.

"We'll be parked for a few vaga to give the castle's power supply time to rest and recharge," Allura explained, powering up the podium control hub to look at the holoscreens. "There was some damage caused to several of the compressors and the partical-barrier."

"Will it really only take that long to fix it?" Shiro asked.

Allura did not look entirely confident. "The damages aren't that severe." She turned to Coran, who was inputting several keystrokes into the control panel. "Have you checked for any threat levels on this planet?"

"The ship's scanners didn't pick up anything, Princess. Not to say there aren't environmental threats but as far as wild-life goes, everything here should be quite harmless."

While Coran and Allura set on the task of diagnosing issues and running configurations, the paladins were given permission to leave the castle. They had been traveling for the past few quintents to put distance between themselves and the Galra, it was bound to make them anxious. It became apparent that earthlings were more partial to earth than space. And with Coran's affirmations of the planet being relatively safe, there was little that could cause them any real worry. However, to err on the side of caution, they left the castle in their paladin gear, minus the helmets. Better safe than sorry.

The light blue they had been looking at from the atmosphere had turned out to be the planets form of grass. It covered areas in large expanses and broke away to reveal hard, yellow dirt in other areas. The light blue vegetation spread to the trees, whose leaves faded from blue to white. They looked similar to earth trees, besides the color. And from the ground, the sky had a strange, yellow-orange tint to it.

The land ahead of them was light blue, tree covered hills of varying heights, reaching all the way to the horizon, with giant, strange formations of spiraling rock that traveled horizontally along the ground. All it really needed was a nearby orbiting planet and the 'alien landscape' look would be complete. After a few dobashes of aimless wandering through the peppered trees, they came across a rather bewildering sight.

"We shouldn't wander too far from the castle," Shiro cautioned, being the only one hesitant to actually leave. "Wouldn't want to get lost here,"

"The castle's huge," Lance replied nonchalantly, "we could see it from a mile away. Uh, what are those?" He asked as he pointed to a moving mound of earth the size of a basketball. The top was some sort of plant, like one would find in a pot or vase, only it was hopping around on the ground. There were more, each differentiated by size, leaves, moss, or grass toppings. All were hopping along minding their own merry, planty business.

"How are they moving around?" Pidge asked, daring to move close to one. It hopped near her foot before rotating and quickly hopping away. "They don't have any eyes."

"None that we can see anyway," Lance replied, closing the distance between a mossy mound that had been standing still. His attempt to grab it failed when it sprang up and rolled away.

"While it appears they lack eyes, they must have a sensor for their surroundings located elsewhere." LE replied, her tone factual. "Perhaps at their base or in the vegetation growing on them. They can tell when the air or dirt around them is changed and know when to flee."

"Whoa," Pidge replied with an impressed grin, "you could get that just from looking at them?"

"Along with other programs, it appears an analytical program was installed prior to our meeting."

Hunk had found the mounds of rolling dirt interesting for a total of two dobashes before he decided to move onto something else. If there were plants, that probably meant there were things around here that could be edible. Even he could get tired of 'food goo', and he had a strange knack for taking alien ingredients and making something out of them - even if he didn't even know what he was working with. And he seemed to be in luck. At the base of a pom-pom topped tree, he found several yellow-pink striped fruits. He picked one up and eyed it hungrily.

"Hunk!" Keith scolded, having watched the whole thing. "You can't just go around eating everything you see off the ground!"

"With your stomach, it's no wonder it's upset all the time." Pidge tacked on.

"I wasn't gonna eat it!" Hunk retorted, "I was just looking at it. It's pretty." He still held onto the fruit for later experimentation. He was about to collect a second one when something not far off through the trees caught his eye. Down at the base of the small incline they were on, there was a strange formation of strategically placed mounds of dirt, covered in moss. For a tick, he thought it was a larger plant-hopper, but it wasn't moving at all.

"Hey, check this out," he announced distractedly to the others before venturing his way over towards it. The others followed, leaving behind their hopping plant friends.

Upon closer inspection, they weren't plant-hoppers at all, but waist high mounds of dirt. There was little chance these happened naturally, as they seemed to be packed into place like mud huts. There were dozens of them, some large and some small, all placed in a way that could only resemble a small village. Only, this village was abandoned. For a long time, it seemed, as weeds were growing out of control, several of the huts had collapsed and others had been entirely pulverized into powder. The barren trees could have once been a surrounding forest.

Lance and LE had taken to looking inside the oval shaped opening to see what was inside.

"There's beds of leaves in here." He said. "These were houses."

"What do you think made 'em leave?" Keith asked.

Pidge and Shiro had been looking at the surrounding tree line. There were several trees split at the center and laying over, their leaves withering away or falling off entirely. All at once, a strange aura of unnerve set over the group. Finding a desolate village was never a comforting discovery.

"Maybe... we should head back to the cast-" Shiro suggested, but his last word was cut off by the sound of rustling nearby.

The paladins started, hands ready to grab their bayards as they pinpointed the rustling brush not far off. It seemed to shuffle and shift about for several ticks before something popped out. Their tension had caused them to expect the worst to appear. Pidge and Hunk noticeably jumped. As it turned out, the thing that popped out was no taller than their knee, but it wasn't a plant-hopper. This creature stood on two stumpy legs, with equally stumpy arms. Fur colored browns and greens, with a mouse like face and large, dark brown eyes. It had two large, pointed ears that swiveled around to collect sound. Remarkably, on its back was a small woven basket with a single open flap, inside there were the same fruits Hunk had picked up earlier.

For the size of its ears, it hadn't noticed the six of them, but when it did it was possibly more frightened of them than they were of it. It let out a rodent like squeak of surprise and attempted to flee. Clearly, its short legs were not meant for quick running, and it tripped over itself and fell in a tumble of brown fur and fruits.

Dazed from the fall, it had little time to recover before a pair of hands grabbed it beneath the arms and lifted it up. The creature looked up to see the face of LE, holding it without apprehension or fear. "Are you all right?" She asked in a calm tone.

"Aw, it's okay, little guy." Pidge said, bent forward slightly to get a look at the creature. It was cute, she had a small weakness for cute things, aliens included.

The creature twitched its nose but was considerably less anxious as LE set it back down on its feet. It chattered quietly, looking down at the mess of fruits and its now empty basket. Its ears drooped. Keith and Lance had set on the task of collecting the fallen fruits and dropping them into the basket on its back.

"Y'know, he kinda reminds me of a Furby." Lance said, regarding the creature.

"Ew! Don't mention those things!" Hunk retorted with a visible shudder. "I had one of those as a kid and I was sure it was staring into my soul every night while I slept, saying 'feed me. feed me.'"

Lance pointed an index finger and thumb in a sort of hand-gun motion at the creature and grinned. "I'm gonna call you Ferb."

The creature stared blankly at him, ears and nose atwitch.

"I don't think he understands us," Keith deduced. As far as their adventures have gone, a language barrier across space had never been a problem.

Ferb's ears suddenly perked up, eyes wide, attention caught, it seemed focused on something the paladins couldn't see themselves. It immediately became unnerved and began to scamper away before pausing to chatter quickly at them.

"Does he want us to follow him?" Lance asked.

"What, to take us back to its Furby demon lair?" Hunk spat.

"If it knows something's out there," Shiro answered, "I'm not second guessing a local. Let's follow it."

The group followed the small, waddling Ferb several dobashes until they reached the side of a small, steep hill. They wondered how on earth it was going to climb up when they realized that wasn't the intention. Ferb was heading towards a crevice in the rock. It was small enough to hop right in, poking its head out to chatter at them to continue following.

The crevice was narrow enough that a person couldn't walk in forward, but could shimmy through if they stood sideways. Each paladin passed through, Hunk needing a little help but otherwise fine. Inside, they were met with darkness, naturally, as the hill above them blocked out any natural light. At least, from the sun anyway. What illuminated the inside of the cave tunnel were plants, their green leaves dark but the yellow buds the patches sprouted produced a bioluminescent light all on their own. They were laid out in a way that formed a path winding down the tunnel.

Ferb lead the way down until the tunnel opened up to a large cavern. The ceiling towered above them and created an echoing effect, not just from the paladins, but from running water. Water and something else. Within this cavern there were pathways of raised rock, lined with glowing plants, and atop the rocks were the same type of mud-huts they had seen outside. Only these ones weren't abandoned; it was an entire village of Furbies living inside the cavern. They were of varying color and heights, but even the tallest one was barely reaching Shiro's knee.

Ferb had entered the village, leaving the paladins outside to await some form of invitation to enter. They could hear chattering as some form of story was told between Ferb and several other Furbies. They must have been all right with guests as they waddled and hobbled over, placing small fingered hands on the backs of their calves and ushering them within the open area of the village.

They couldn't understand a word of the small creatures, but somehow a point was still made across through gestures and general understanding. The Furbies looked at them curiously, fascinated by their armor, their hair, their long fingers and legs. They offered the them bits of their foodstuffs; fruit, berries, and some sort of dumpling wrapped in a leaf. Pidge noted that the fruit had a rather bitter flavor, and decided Furbies had a different sense of taste.

Not too long into their visit, they realized that in the darkness of the cavern, it was difficult to tell how much time had passed.

"I think it's time to head back," Shiro announced to the others, who had separated at the behest of their small, furry friends. He was met with some complaints but otherwise they agreed and regrouped.

Ferb did the honors of leading them back through the tunnels to the exit crevice, followed by two other Furbies - one magenta hued and the other a mossy green. They were returned to the bright light of day outside and began their journey back to the castle. In doing so, they passed through the old village.

"Did you guys used to live here?" Pidge asked Ferb. It replied in chatters that sounded rather sad, before pointing to a caved in hut, indicating it had been his.

"I am unable to calculate a theory as to why they abandoned it." LE offered, walking slow as the pink-hued Ferbie had attached a hand onto the hem of her skirt, akin to walking hand in hand. "Environmental issues do not seem to be the cause."

They weren't far from the village when the tinier Furbies became rather agitated, much the same as Ferb had been before. Their ears were pointed and their eyes stared somewhere off in the thin woods they had left behind. The paladins had barely noticed this when a fearsome sound reached them. It sounded shrill, something like a power saw but in short bursts with more of a crackle, and ticks after, they saw the thing it had been coming from, rustling through the trees.

A large creature, even from a distance, it could have been twice the size of a large horse. Insect like in stature, a vibrant green with yellow splotches, with large bent claws and pincers. On either side it's horizontal, oval shaped head were two large eyes with no clear sign of pupils.

They had discovered what had destroyed the village.

"M-mantis-monster!" Hunk shouted.

For being so large, it was uncomfortably fast on its six legs. It had zeroed in on the group and rushed forward at a speed they didn't think would be likely, but was terrifying all the same. They quickly dodged out of the way, narrowly missing being swiped up in a large, green pincer. It continued to make its power-saw like shrieks as it tried to find one paladin to focus on as they scattered.

It had targeted Pidge first, shooting forward and grabbing her ankle. She was hoisted into the air with a yelp and hung upside down.

"Pidge!" Shiro shouted.

Keith quickly unleashed his bayard's blade and ran for the creature to strike at its leg. With a single strike, it caught the beast's attention but its hold on Pidge was still fixed. Lance had followed suit with his bayard, a laser-gun, which he unleashed on the long, thin abdomen of the creature. This was enough to cause it to drop Pidge, who landed hard on her side and rolled onto her feet to get away.

In the chaos of their battle, none of them had realized a second mantis had joined the fray, quietly sneaking up behind the group to snatch one by surprise. It hadn't counted on there being a very observant android in the group, who noticed it had been creeping towards the three Furbies that had curled into defensive balls not far from the chaos.

Her move to action caught Shiro and Pidge's attention, before they had to keep it focused on the attacking insectoid as it took another swipe at them. She was quick on her feet, dashing towards the three Furbies and scooping them up in her arms. At the same time, the second mantis had lunged forward to attack, announcing its presence to the others in the process. Both claws clamped shut as it missed the Furbies by inches, but the momentum and swing of the attack struck LE and sent her falling sideways. Unscathed, she quickly got to her feet and collected the Furbies again to move them out of harms way.

No attack was able to get through the mantis's exoskeleton.

"We gotta retreat! We can't take on both of them!" Keith shouted over the sounds of both creatures shrieking.

"Yeah, but how do we get away?" Hunk shouted. "These things move way too fast than a bug that size should be allowed to!"

"We need a cover!" Shiro looked between Lance and Hunk, eyeing their bayards before issuing a command. "Hunk, Lance, shoot at the ground near the mantises! Try and kick up as much dirt as possible."

Laser fire landed into the yellow dirt and sent clouds of dust flying into the air. With enough gunfire, a thick yellow haze blocked the vision of the mantis monsters. All they could hear were their shrieks and scuttling of feet.

"Go, go, go!" Shiro shouted as the group was finally able to make a clear retreat back to the castle.

"I'm beginning to not trust whenever you say a planet is supposed to be 'peaceful'." Lance hissed as the group returned to the lounge room where they plonked down on the recessed sofa.

Coran was scratching the curl of his mustache in confused thought. "The ship's scanners didn't pick up on anything. I wonder if they somehow took damage as well."

"Clearly the ships scanners need some fine tuning," the boy retorted.

"The castle's damages have been more or less repaired." Allura filled them in, "The particle barrier's power still needs some time to charge, but with the Galra so far off, I don't think we'll need it that soon. What happened to you? You're all covered in dirt."

The paladins did look a little worse for wear, from head to toe. LE, not having a suit of her own, had a few scuff marks on the dress where she had hit the ground. Beside her were the three Furby balls, still too scared to uncurl.

They took it in turn to inform Allura and Coran about what had happened in the short vagas they were wandering around. From the village discovery, the Furbies, and the giant killer mantis monsters.

"W-what's a 'Ferbeea'?'" She asked when they were finished.

"It's this small demonic fuzzy creature that runs on a battery that I'm pretty sure wormed it's way in from some other dimension and is set on world domination." Lance answered.

"..She meant them." Keith corrected.

They looked to the three balls sitting on the couch. LE had given one a gentle pat, which caused it to uncurl slightly to show a blinking brown eye. It took some coaxing to get all three of them to open up entirely, and when they were, they sat huddled together.

"Aw! They're absolutely adorable!" Allura gushed. "Hardly demonic at all!"

"They're village was the one that was destroyed." Pidge said, patting the pink one on the head gently. "By whatever that thing was."

"I wonder what it could have been," Allura thought aloud. "The ships scanners didn't pick up on anything hostile, and I know they've never been faulty before."

"They are not a native species," LE announced. They looked at her curiously for such a statement. She was unphased at the attention. The screen across the room blipped on, showcasing images of the mantis creature taken during the course of the battle. There was a small word of awe from the others as they watched.

"Whoa, is that you doing that?" Hunk asked.

"When I reloaded her OS, I had to use a newer one that's compatible with the ship." Pidge explained.

LE went on, the pictures she had somehow taken blipped to the next, showing the forest line of barren trees. Upon closer inspection, the leaves had been eaten, not withered. "By the way they behave and destroy the environment, a species like this would have decimated the entire planet long before we arrived, had they been native. But from what we've seen, parts of the planet are untouched by these creatures."

"Meaning... they haven't been there long?" Lance asked.

"Correct."

"Then how...?" Pidge started.

"We aren't the first travelers to land here." Allura finished.

LE added, "They must have hitched a ride from their own planet on a space vessel and were left here, either on purpose or by accident."

"How can anyone accidentally leave a bug the size of an elephant?" Hunk prompted.

"They probably weren't that large when they arrived. Insect creatures always start out as a smaller form, a larvae stage." LE answered.

"Oh," Hunk sounded slightly repulsed. "I don't wanna see that thing as a larvae."

"So, what do we do?" Keith asked.

"We can't just leave them!" Pidge answered, incredulous. "They won't survive if those things go around destroying and hunting them down. They already forced them to live inside a cave."

Allura seemed troubled by the idea as well, but her natural Altean upbringing was showing clearly in her thought process.

Shiro was the one to vocalize the decision. "Then I guess we're taking care of the local pest problem."

More author chatter! So at the time of working on this chapter, I was one of the like 3 people that liked No Man's Sky (I still do with the Next update) but even on release day I was having a Good Time going from world to world seeing how this game worked. So this planet they land on is actually based off one I found while playing that game. Or maybe like the properties of a few smashed into one. The color of the grass, the trees, the sky. Even the Furbies. I tried to describe how I sas them in the game to the best of my ability. Maybe there's a close enough picture on the internet. Even the bouncing house plants were something I found on another planet.

.. yes even the mantis monster and it was the size of a house and had too many legs.