Flauraan

Chapter Three

For anyone who's wondering about pronunciation; it's Flow(as in wow)rahn for Flauraan, Pal-ah-dain-ee-en for Paladanian, and Hal-ah-pa-tove-ee-en for Halapatovian (about to be introduced in this chapter)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter Three

"Paladanians!! Listen to me; we have to prepare to defend our border!! The invaders are coming to fight us!" I shouted as loud as I could. The people in the square all turned to stare at me, and then back at the Counsel building as the doors opened.

"We know this, Abigail Shurn." said a Halapatovian, walking out of the building amongst the rest of the Counsel.

Just so that you know, the Halapatovians were the inhabitants of the leading planet of the Staarus System, Halapatov. They and the Paladanians had had an alliance since Halapatov first discovered space travel and there were many Halapatovians living on our planet and leading in our Counsel. They were taller than the average Paladanian, had different eyes and nearly pointed ears and chins. As well as being generally wise and skilful, they had many powers such as prophecy and telekinesis, so I wasn't surprised that the leader knew my name or that she knew about the humans intentions.

"We have to prepare to defend." I repeated, with less force this time.

"What do you think we have been doing? My fellow Halapatovians and I are going to combine our powers to make a force field to keep the humans out."

"You can do that?" I asked in surprise, as many in the crowd rolled their eyes, and muttered 'Naïve child....'

Despite my small embarrassment at my stupidity, I thought for a moment and asked a smarter question.

"Will that keep them out indefinitely?"

The leader furrowed her brow, her eyes filled with sadness. "Their technology is unknown to us and besides, we don't want to trap them there forever."

One of the Paladanian leaders stepped forward. "If they do break through we will be ready. We will reason with them and if that does not work then we will just have to fight our way through. The force field will be placed immediately, of course." He was talking to the crowd, assuring them of safety. That was when I remembered Sophie.

"Wait!" I shouted, panicking a little. "My friend is out there, trying to negotiate with the invaders, they're called humans and she was following them. You can't strand her out there; they might try and hurt her!"

The leader raised his eyebrows. "Your friend?"

"Yes, she's one of the humans but she didn't come in the ship. She wants to stop them."

"You're friends... with one of them? Did you check her eyes?" another leader asked worriedly.

"Yes and she was definitely trustworthy, no sign of veiled thoughts at all." I answered immediately. Like all Paladanians, I had been trained at a young age to recognise what people's eyes revealed about their thoughts and especially whether they were hiding their thoughts. It was very important that we understood these things, considering our mental capabilities, and it was even more important for me with my advanced powers.

"Good." the leader said, nodding his head in approval. He turned to the leader beside him. "Reeina, can you see her?"

The leader called Reeina closed her eyes and concentrated. After ten seconds she opened them again.

"Yes, she is skirting the trees in the woods, parallel to the humans. She is waiting for a time to run forward and talk to them. She is about ten minutes away from the edge of town."