My Alien Friend

Fungi are creatures that live on an island in a volcano near Mount Everest. Fungi are aliens from space. They wear long purple robes with red or yellow belts. They have big black eyes and green slimy skin.

The fungi are becoming extinct here on earth. There is one special fungi called Nupro. He is special beacuse he wears a green belt. His father is the kewfing (prime minister). Nupro lives with his father and mother. He is an only fungi. He has a best friend Swagelok that he plays with every day.

Nupro is also my good friend. I met him in the woods when our family went on vacation to the Himalayas. He was in trouble when a fox was trying to eat him and I helped him out. We have been friends ever since. He comes to visit me every now and then.

All of the fungi are supposed to stay in the caves of the volcano so that nobody sees them. Nupro likes to sneak out and sometimes gets into trouble. Thats what happened the day Nupro went to the pasture and he fell asleep. Nothing was the same when he woke up.

He woke up that morning thinking it was going to be a great day. He thought it was so nice out it would be a great day to get out of the mountains on an adventure. He knew that he wasn't supposed to leave the caves but on a day like this it really was hard to stay inside. All of his friends wanted to go but they were always too scared to leave the caves. There is another animal that lives near the fungi called squiglok. They look like rhinoceros with armour that is so strong they can swim in lava. The squiglok walk in herds looking for food. They can be trained to talk and play. Canjun was his pet squiglok and he would go anywhere with him. He knew that Canjun might go with him. Nupro left the caves that day without really telling anyone where it was that he was going. He ran into Canjun who was more than ready to go on an adventure.

They got off their island. Nupro can change into anything so he made himself into a squiglok and they swam from the island to the tip of the volcano. They went down the mountain and into a beautiful pasture. The pasture has lush, green grass that was as soft as carpet. There were big , wonderful trees with soft moss under them. There were also large apple trees that had the biggest, red apples on them that they had ever seen. Nupro wished that he lived in a place like this because sometimes the island in the volcano was hot, dreary and dry. This was nice and cool and lots of clean fresh air. Nupro and Canjun played all day in the pasture. They played tag., climbed trees and set off the firecrackers that Nupro had brought with them. He wasn't supposed to have firecrackers but he had found a way to make them from the dry dirt of their island. The soil was easy to burn and when he added a little bit of the lava from the little lava spring in the middle of their island it made a for a good small explosion. Nupro and Canjun were very tired from their play. They laid down under the soft moss of the great oak tree i! n the middle of the pasture. It was so comfortable. In a very short time they fell asleep. It was hard to know how long they slept.

After a while Nupro awoke when an acorn from the oak tree fell and landed on his head. It was quite a start. Nupro has a weird sensation when he woke up. He couldn't really tell what it was but felt that something wasn't quite right. It was still beautiful in the pasture, but there was something strange going on. He looked for Canjun but couldn't find him anywhere, Nupro figured that he had gone home. Nupro didn't want to play by himself anymore so he headed home. It was a long walk up the mountain and the swim to the island seemed longer by himself. Finally he arrived home.

Home was not like it had been when he left this morning. It was missing something. Then he knew the answer. Fungi...they were not here. He searched all over the island. There were no fungi anywhere. He went to his dads office and found a circle on the calendar that said two simple words that he didn't understand. "LIFT OFF" What did that mean? Then he remembered. Today was day that all the fungi were returning to the moon. How could he have forgotten. They had probably been looking for him. What was he going to do now? He was all alone.

Nupro ran around the caves looking for someone - anyone. There was no fungi left anywhere. He was very worried about being by himself. He needed to find someone to help him. He was going to have to get to the moon on his own. But how?? He had no idea how the others had left because the adults had planned the return trip. Nupro sat down and started to cry. He was the only fungi on earth and didn't have a clue what he was going to do. He had to find someone to help him.

After Nupro had cried all the tears out of himself, he looked around and knew what he had to do. He had go visit his friend Justin who lived far away. He could help him somehow.

Nupro came to visit me two days after the fungi had left the earth. He was very sad and wondered if I could help him. I said I would do all I could to get him back with his family. I told him that I could no longer keep him a secret because we were going to need their help. My family were probably going to notice him around my house anyway but we needed my Dad. Dad is an inventor of different sorts of machinery. He loves to design and build things that nobody has ever made. Once he even built a special part for a NASA telescope that no one else knew how to make. I was sure that he could help my friend Nupro get to the moon.

My family and Nupro met and got along fine. They were surprised that we had a secret friendship for almost five years . They wanted to help Nupro as much as I did. My dad worked on the design that I had been working on for a small spacecraft. Nupro and I had always liked firecrackers. Everytime we got together we would sneak off and have fun them. My design included rocket boosters made out of firecrackers. The ship would only fit one passenger and Nupro could fly it to the moon. We would be able to watch it because of the special mini-camera that we would install. That way we would know when he got home safe.

The first thing we had to work on was teaching Nupro to fly without anybody seeing him. I designed a special computer program that had all the joysticks, switches and levers that were on the spacecraft. It was kind of like a game and Nupro had fun playing but he was also learning how to steer the ship.

After two months of design, building and flying lessons we knew that Nupro was ready to go home. We said good-bye and good luck to him as he left. It was a bright, sunny morning when he left. He had no problems on the trip. His spacecraft worked well and he arrived on the moon three days later. Now he had to find where his family was.

It was three days later when we had a message from Nupro he said he was coming home a couple of day's later. He came back and said he didn't find his clan of fungi. He had searched all over the moon. No fungi were to be found. He didn't know where they were.

We were all sad but weren't going to give up. The next day I suggested to Nupro that we should go back to Mount Everest to search for clues. Nupro thought that was a good idea. My family wanted to go but but couldn't because they had to work.

Nupro and I flew on an airplane to Mount Everest. Nupro changed into a knapsack while we were flying so that people wouldn't comment on his looks. Aliens are not usually welcome on our airlines. When we reached Mount Everest Nupro changed back into an alien. We climbed up the volcano where he used to live. It took us a long time.

Much to our surprise the village was alive with fungi. They were everywhere. Nupro had found his clan of fungi back home. His friend Swagelok and his pet Canjun noticed him first. They were very excited. Their scream of joy brought the others towards him. Everyone was happy especially his Mom and Dad. They hugged him hard and told him how happy they were. They said they were sorry for leaving him behind. They had thought that he was in the spaceship.

Nupro introduced me to his family and friends. They were all very friendly. They explained that they had to get going quickly. They were late on their plans for settling on the moon from all the worry about Nupro. I told them I was fine and would head back home. I was very happy that Nupro was back with his family. I waved goodbye to them all. I will miss my friend Nupro and think of him often, but I am happy that he has his family and friends back and that they are going to be able to survive on the moon.