Fiction:The Land of the Oscillating Star/The Land as Cold as Winter

"Touchdown"

The Parkweom and the Morweok landed on a great field of ice on the planet after having survived the perilous realm of the Kihimaeian sky. The ships' gigantic skid marks were dwarfed by the vastness of the bluish-white landscape, and the roaring indigo skies above them offered the same sense of insignificance. Indeed, the planet was larger than any terrestrial planet they've seen, and it also held, among all things, one of the Kaeiras' biggest mysteries: the Zaimei—the enigmatic creatures on Kihimae noted for their unusual features and association with major electromagnetic interference on the planet.

The pilots turned their vessels' flight-oriented modules off to conserve power, but kept their systems on as instructed by the mission commander. The expedition team—a dozen from the Parkweom and ten from the Morweok—made their preparations. Some of them waited for the airlocks to open with great eagerness, while others were still occupied with beholding the view given to them by the ship's faintly gleaming windows.

Once the airlocks were open, the inquisitive researchers clad in their metal gear became the first known extraterrestrials to walk on Kihimae.

The Frozen Forest
The Kaeiras proceeded to travel to points of interest by manned rovers, with some of them staying near the landing site to study samples of the ice collected from the surrounding area. Six of the fourteen who set out began their journey to the sea, while the remaining eight headed deeper into the land.

Along the way, the researchers couldn't help but notice how stunningly surreal the world looked. While the icy landscape was strongly reminiscent of their home, the general atmosphere of the land felt alien. Though Kihimae's skies had the familiar shades of those found in Seomkaeiraya and Runaia, the massive clouds, seemingly animate, shroud the planet as they get carried by fast winds. From where they are, the bright light of Meorae comes and goes with every thick cloud that glides across the sky, giving the impression that Meorae is but a twinkling star in the daytime. Every few minutes or so, a stream of wind carries shimmering ice crystals wherever it blows.

The shapes of mountains began to appear on the horizon, and as the eight continued driving towards them, the ground began to shift from a completely bald plain of ice to that possessing what appeared to be small, flaky, frozen grass colored in brilliant shades of white and blue. In the distance, lone trees with crystal-like trunks and leaves shaped like small hexagons that looked like frosted glass. They could see their shifting, distorted reflections as they passed each tree.

Within the span of a few minutes, what were isolated trees became clusters of them as more frozen vegetation appeared. It didn't take long before the researchers found themselves in the periphery of a forest of ice. They saw many plants that shared similar features, but were undoubtedly different species. Gigantic crystalline trees began to tower above the forest, while tall plants with what looked like orbs gave off faint bluish lights that illuminated the forest with a soft blue. Tiny bioluminescent insects began darting around, joining the light of the frozen forest. As inconceivable of an idea it was to the Kaeiras as a whole, it was one of those moments where the boundary between nature and magic felt uncertain.