2. Chapter One, Scene Two

Would you like to know more?

Aug 07, 2023

Okay, so you’ve met Misty.

Here’s what we know so far:

She’s one tough cookie, running, barely dressed and barefoot in a snowy forest for three days and nights from people who are hunting her with dogs.

She is haunted by memories of how she escaped some kind of institution for Talented children, lost her only friend Chrys in the process and is now trying to meet up with someone waiting on the other side of the hills.

We are thrust into this new world, Telera, that has three suns and brown fir trees. There are Pegasus creatures called Maxillian horses and these people have, like powers, able to use energy blasts and attacks, and they can run half-naked and bleeding through the snow for three days and survive…

Still with me?

Now Misty reaches the edge of the forest and sees something, and nearly dies of fright because there was supposed to be nothing else out there until after the foothills.

Okay, now this one is a little different ;)

INDEX | Chapter One | Scene 1 | Scene 2 | Next Scene →

"Computer, initiate landing sequence, zero, nine, six, C." Luke says in an authoritative tone as our spaceship clears the upper atmosphere and slows down. He sits, blue eyes glued to the screen in front of him, hunched over his control panel as he concentrates on selecting the vectors for the landing program.

I watch, thoroughly bored, as he sifts through the data, integrating atmospheric composition and terrain features so that the computer can handle setting us on the ground. Luke knows what he is doing but the process of choosing the right input is quite the artform and I don’t want to disturb him.

"Acknowledged. Initiating landing sequence, please confirm vectors." Replies the vaguely feminine, artificial voice and I think cliché for the hundredth time since boarding three days ago. It is so insipid. I think, twiddling my thumbs while I wait and wish Luke would change it to something, anything else, just not the standard female computer.

"Can I wake Tom?" I ask cheerfully, interrupting my own train of thought and unbuckling my safety belt, even though I know we will be landing in only a few minutes, or maybe because of it. Luke’s pre-programmed landings are always perfect, and Tom takes forever to wake up.

"'May I?' Logan, my boy." Luke absentmindedly corrects my grammar, before pausing in his furious typing just long enough to look me sternly in the eye, then continues: "As you wish, but you're not to leave the ship on your own."

Dads… I nod, quickly, an earsplitting grin replacing the thought of rolling my eyes at him in my haste and excitement. Speeding towards the sleeping quarters at the rear of the ship, on the lower deck, my footsteps echo through the hull, and I think about my brother. Tom happens to have slept through more than half the trip. He says space is boring, and Luke forbade me to torment him on the way so I had to leave him in peace but now that we are here, I can’t wait anymore.

We have been waiting for this trip for a decade. Father promised he would bring us when we were little, but then he went missing and Luke took us in, and all chance of that fell off the board until he could get us permission through an official channel. And even now we finally made it all the way from Sol to the Blue Solar System, our solar system, it still comes with disappointment. We can’t even visit our home planet, Manoria. No, it has to be the sister planet Telera because they are the ones in charge. Massive eye roll. At least we will be able to glimpse Maxilla in the night sky, which is always bright blue and has only, like, ten stars if the stories are true. I guess we will see.

How can space be boring? I shake my head at that thought, and kick on Tom’s cabin door as soon as I reach it to approximate a loud knock; careful to flatten the impact so as not to make any dents. Luke always complains bitterly about having to replace panels.

"Hey, sleeping beauty!" I shout, not waiting to hear movement, "Touchdown in 3 minutes, get up!"

"Mmuuughh!" comes his muffled reply. I beat on the door again, flat-handed this time against the cold steel. Bang, bang! Bang bang!

"Alright! All right! I'm up! No need to break the door down." My brother grumbles sleepily and I can just imagine him swinging his legs off the bunk, rubbing his eyes like a baby as he stumbles towards the threshold to put a stop to my banging. I chuckle softly. He always did sleep well, even when we were little.

Tom leans his tousled blond head out after a minute, and I ignore the involuntary twinge of jealousy at his effortlessly large stature, as I have to look up at him in nothing but his trunks. Even though we are twins, and I’m in pretty good shape myself, he has always been bigger, and stronger, without even trying. Sigh. At least I look more like Father than him.

"Seven minutes Tom. Else I'm not waiting for you." I order with a glower and a smirk as I sprint back up to the mess, at the top of my speed just to show off.

Gulping down a cup of cold coffee and a slice of buttered toast, my mind buzzes with the confinement, as the ship touches down with the slightest thump. I have always hated being penned in and being locked in a tin can in a vacuum at hyper speed for three days is about as penned as you get. All I can think about is wilderness, wide open spaces, and natural, fresh air.

Ten minutes later Tom is showered and standing beside me on the cargo bay loading ramp. The keypad beeps softly as I type in the unlocking sequence and agonizingly slowly, the ramp starts to lower.

Freezing, oxygen-rich atmosphere, rushes in through the first crack.

We had known it would be cold, but I am stunned by just how low the temperature is. No wonder this side of the planet is always frozen. Glad of my bright red parka and glacier boots I glance towards my brother, who is gasping as well at the intensity of that air in his matching green outfit. His excitement echoes my own.

Luke set the ship down at the exact coordinates on our invitation, which puts us in the middle of a wide clearing between the coast and a large wild forest on the southernmost continent, which, according to our information, is completely uninhabited and permanently covered in snow and ice. As the ramp takes its sweet time, I wonder what stories Luke had to tell to get us here. Whose mind did he have to turn to get them to believe he is doing research? What kind of research could anyone believe he would be doing in such a remote and hostile environment? Then again, scientists used to do research in Antarctica back home, right?

The landscape reveals a shallow bowl-shaped valley, with low hills behind us and a wall of chocolate brown fir trees stretching as far as the eye can see. It is breathtaking in the light of Telera's three suns. Serus, Korus and Lemus. Father's voice echoes in my subconscious.

The first of the suns is setting behind the hills, bathing the white ground in a golden glow and sending our ship’s shadow stretching all the way across the perfect snow to touch the edge of the forest which according to my holo-map, is just under twelve kilometers away.

Tom and I look at one another for one second and grin. Without words, we understand the other's meaning in a way only twins can.

Warmth blossoms from my core to my gloved fingertips.

The ramp touches the ground.

I am the first one out, and it’s a race to the tree line, no holds barred. I sense my brother, right behind me. He is coming up to my right, so I strafe in that direction to cut him off. Still ahead. A fraction faster. Half a heartbeat later he is going left. Strafe, faster, and I am now two steps ahead. I judge the difference in our speed at about one-sixth of a step, but it's not yet near my peak. The tree line rushes towards us, we are closing quickly. I push myself just a fraction faster and can sense Tom falling behind. Getting slow there, old boy? I think, a smug smile dancing on my face, as I glance back to assess my lead and groan. It is my undoing.

Luke has started after us.

Tom flashes past me at a trot and grins, unaware for another second of the trouble we are in.

I make a futile effort to resist but then Luke's influence takes hold of me, mind and body, and my legs turn from carbon fiber to warm lead. I halt, and wait, brimming with impatience and resenting Luke's telepathic prowess. I hate waiting!

Tom, who has now stopped as well, shoots a serious look at me as if this is all my fault, but Luke is still a little way behind. I can feel our adoptive dad’s anger broiling across the distance. Then I remember the passes.

With the invitation, we were given small metal tags to keep on our persons at all times, that will supposedly keep us from being annihilated by Telera’s security system, a drone army of ‘Silent Watchers’ that attack anything, larger than a bunny, that disturbs the ground. I can’t help but be irritated by the fact that if Luke hadn't been tinkering the whole trip, he could have given them to us earlier, then we wouldn't have to worry about them now.

"What part exactly, of: 'Do not leave the ship on your own' did you not understand?!" Luke’s disembodied voice echoes around my brain. He is still a kilometer away, but I hear his exasperation as clearly as if he had been standing right beside me.

“You are lucky I was able to calibrate them for longer range or you'd have been picked apart by the silent watchers the moment you stepped foot out of the ship!" His mental tirade continues, and he starts going on about 'this place has dangers' and 'we need to be respectful as we are here on an invitation' and 'under strict conditions' and blah-blah-blah blah blah! I roll my eyes again, irritation overload. The cold seeps back into my limbs as my energy subsides. Luke is puffing and winded when he reaches us having covered the seven or so kilometer span in just over twelve minutes in a flat-out sprint, an impressive feat for a mere human. He hands Tom and I each a small metal pin and still trying to catch his breath, berates us once more with a look. Tom cracks under the pressure, hangs his head and mutters, "Sorry Luke," palming the pin like a smacked pup. Sissy.

I smile my most winning smile at Luke and pin the metal square to my jacket, declining to offer an excuse. I have just finished securing it, thanks, rather than shame, held in the forefront of my mind where Luke will be unable to miss the distinction, and we are turning back towards the ship when I see a slight something out the corner of my eye.

My attention is involuntarily drawn back to the trees which are still good three or four kilometers away. It is getting dusky now. The blue sun is slowly slipping down on the horizon. From here I can clearly see that the trees are so thickly needled and coned that they cannot possibly be dead. They look just like our firs only they are the strangest color, a rich chocolate brown.

"Oh, off you go then, you have fifteen minutes," Luke mutters defeated, dismissing us and starting back alone. Tom seems to have been too busy nursing his ego to notice.

Whatever it was is gone now. Must have been a trick of the light. I tell myself even as I hesitate.

"Come on then bro, loser does the dishes," Tom says as he continues in the direction of the trees.

"And the winner packs them away after," I call after him and dart off, determined to win the race no matter what. We are nearly at the edge, and the last of the suns is gone. A pinprick of a star hangs, almost close enough to touch, just above the treetops. I am ahead again, and I turn round in my tracks without breaking step so that I can see the look on Tom's face as I beat him when out of nowhere, a football sized, bright green fireball flashes past me and hits him, full in the chest.

Okay that’s it for this one. Nice cliffhanger huh? Please give me a like if you want more. and feel free to SHARE. (beating heart emoji)