I spent ten years traveling around resisting the temptation to sleep.

Surprisingly, unlike humans, Xenomorphs do not have the same requirements to sleep often in the day. I didn't want to obey my Xenomorph side to hunt and lay eggs. That is was not in my agenda. But one day I retired into a cave during a cold winter storm. I curled up against the wall feeling that one leg of the difficult journey is over.

Still got 265 years to go.

Then I fell asleep.

I found myself next in a strange world where clouds drift through forests and the wild life merely lives alongside each other. I held my hand out letting a falcon land on my fore arm. It seemed so relaxed on my shoulder that it seemed to be surreal. The Falcon pecks at one of its feathers letting me gently pet the side of it's neck. The Falcon's feather are remarkably soft.

The Falcon straightens, puffing its chest out, then flew off into the sky.

"Emily," I hear a familiar voice.

I turn towards the left to see a figure leaning against a visible tree to my eyes. I come forwards towards the oddly man like figure. Something about him is familiar but maybe that is because I spent 10 years away from civilization and human interaction and my memory is fading on memories speaking to humans as one of them.

"Yes?" I said. "That is my name."

"You do recognize me," The man said.

"I am sorry," I said. "But I have not been around people for a long time and you are probably a figment of my dream."

The man watches me for awhile.

"How long?" The man asks.

"You should know," I said.

"I do not," The man said.

"10 years," I said.

"I told you this before," The man said. "You may be dreaming; but I am real."

"Real as what?" I ask.

"Your Xenomorph body," The man said. "Emily, it has not been 10 years. It has been 29 years; and to think you were a math whiz!"

"...I have been keeping track of the seasons and it has not been 29 years," I said.

"It has," The man said.

"Nah uh," I said.

"Yes, Emily," The man said. "Your math is wrong."

"Do I know you from somewhere?" I ask.

The man leans his back off from the tree appearing to be concerned coming towards me.

"What do you remember before you came here?" The man asks.

"A long time ago I used to remember," I said. "All I remember is something about remaining as an Xenomorph for 275 years and stranded on a unique planet full of potential victims and I killed someone before that."

"The first thought in your mind, what was it?" The man asks.

"Monster," I said. "That is the only word I remember, really."

I caught a butterfly using my fingers and eyed at it in hunger.

"Don't eat the butterfly," The man said.

I look up towards the man.

"Why?" I ask.

This man knew my name and that I used to be a math whiz. Maybe I knew him long ago prior to landing this strange planet inhabited by human-like creatures. There is something about his facial expression I can't quite describe that changed when I asked.

"How long have you been not eating?" The man asks.

"Long enough," I said.

The man frowns.

"You are scared of yourself," The man said. "The Emily I knew wouldn't starve herself because of her fear." The man takes a step back from me. "Now wake up and kill an animal! I can't speak to you like this."

The dream ended for me right then.

A rabbit hops into the cave. I snatch the rabbit then kill it. After the critter had died in my claws; I ate it. My stomach feels a little preoccupied with itself digesting down a rare meal. I came towards the rocky climatic wall. I apply my claws tor it then begin sculpting the man out of the dream. It took me a couple hours to get it right but it paid off.

I saw a sharp rock remaining beside my rather nice artwork.

I grab it then carve in the marking of a 'E' in the side of my shoulder painfully but worth it. I drop the rock covering my bleeding acid wound lowering myself towards the rocky ground floor. I painfully hiss seeing the narrowed steam coming off. One step at a time to trying while living as a Xenomorph. So if this man is right then I really have two hundred some years to go.

I look up towards the sculpture wondering who in the world the man is.