Axe and the exploding dark star.

There was a bang in the back of the space ship. It was about to crash. The next thing that could be heard was people running around, and the captain of the ship, a young girl called Axelia (Axe), shouting orders, that made very little sense to everyone most likely herself included.

While she was shouting nonsense orders she ran to the bridge and took the wheel from Al (a robot with artificial intelligence).

“Al, give me a status report,” she ordered.

“It looks bad, real bad,” he replied, ‘the dark star has blown, and we’re going down on an unidentified planet.”

“Damn it Al, this is the last time I ever get a power source from bloody pirates”

“Not that this is relevant, but you happen to be a bloody pirate yourself.”

She glared at him.

“Can it, tin head, this is gonna be a bumpy ride,” was her only reply.

Axe was right about it being a bumpy ride as she put the ship down on the planet.

Once they had landed, Axe and Al walked with shaking legs out of the ship.

Axe fell to her knees and started kissing the ground mumbling about bloody pirates.

Twenty minutes later, while Axe and Al where sweating away trying to fix the damage the faulty dark-star had done, the ship door opened. Out stumbled a half asleep Declan. His eyes were only half opened and he ran his fingers through his messy brown hair, showing off his pointed elvish ears.

Once he had rubbed the sleep out of his eyes he looked around the wreck he had just come out of and asked, “What have I missed this time?”

The decidedly Declan comment was dismissed with a head shake from Al and an eye roll from Axe (even though she found this extremely charming).

The next few hours were spent fixing the ship until all that was needed was a new dark-star. While they had been working Axe had gotten more and more paranoid, feeling as if someone was watching them.

Axe’s suspicions were confirmed when suddenly out of the surrounding forest jumped seven Dardien warriors. The skirmish that ensued was brief with surprise on the Dardiens side. While Axe and Al were fighting they didn’t see Declan overpowered and knocked out. As quickly as they had arrived the Dardiens left, taking Declan with them.

Declan woke to find himself in a dark and musty dungeon. His first reaction, seeing as he had no filter between his brain and his mouth, was to say, “The people here must have never heard of interior decorating, ‘cause the damp, dark and dirty look is so over done”.

“You are too right,” replied a familiar voice from the dark.

Declan squinted to see who it was, only to see Kieran, Axe’s brother.

It had been a while since they had seen each other, even though they had been practically brothers growing up on Axe and Kieran’s parents’ pirate ship.

“It’s good to see you again, Kieran,” said Declan, “even if it’s because we’re trapped in a dungeon waiting for our death, or a rescue… I think the second option sounds better.”

“It sure is good to see you,” Kieran replied with a mischievous smile, “but what I want to know is, are you still running after my little sister like a besotted fool?”

“Hey!!! That’s just mean I was running with her not after her,” Declan said indignantly, “and we wouldn’t have had to if your family supported her going into the family business and not trying to marry her off to some pompous prat!”