FALAHA'S JOURNEY: A Spacegirl's Account in Three Movements

Episode #51

The giant in the Medan combat suit hatched its helmet to reveal the flaming head. I almost believed that all of his wavy hairs were in constant armed conflict with each other, deploying weapons of mass destruction on a daily basis. Mother, thank you, I haven't inherited that. Though it showed up in Eyuran, and our children are still at risk of having permanent bedheads.

"Father!" I rushed towards him. The suit was probably salvaged from a destroyed ship or a station.

"Enjhs!" He moved towards me, arms wide open.

Yes, that was definitely my father. He was the only one to address me so officially. Not 'kid', not anything else. Daughter. Said with utmost importance. Because of this I, too, addressed him officially: Father.

"Sorry for being late," he said as soon as I was safe in his arms. He appeared to be exhausted. "Took me a while to catch up." He didn't look like he had slept even a bit since his last rest on Quennah. Has he eaten? It didn't seem there was enough energy left in him to use Falaighnn to the full.

I nuzzled into his warm cheek. "Welcome home. Nominally." Upon closer inspection I had to conclude his Hairs had moved onto interstellar warfare by now, and some part of the Hair population had settled the hostile and frequently deprived-of-all-growth continent again, harboring sinister plans of attacking the vast Chest Empire and the allied Isles of Pits. I patted Father on his messy head. "Don't fight among yourselves, little ones! Our Mom loves each and every one of you."

Father laughed and kissed me on the cheek, tickling me with his short, stubborn beard. "So, what's the level of warhair up there now?"

"It's catastrophic!"

"How so?"

"I think the only way to save every Hairnation is to have a bath."

"Aa." Father made a sour face. "I'm starting to miss even the mud baths our Mom loves so much."

Under no circumstances must he find out that we had nearly died. That will break his heart. The troubles with Mom, Aunt Rifa, and the others were more than enough for him now. So, in case we were to meet Father, I had ordered my men to keep their mouths shut. Though, without my Node, he might start suspecting something. And here's where my suit would come in as evidence that nothing of a bad sort had happened, and that the Node just died because of that scratch. It's good that Eyuran still had his Node. All that would be left to explain was the situation with Bradoh somehow. And how we'd lost track of Orewen. And the half-dead pale guy. And the haircuts... I'd made another mistake.

I would tell him the truth—probably—when and if we got out of this alive. For now it was one step at a time. Forgive me, Father.

"Oi, nnan, it's good to see you alive and well!" Father gave Eyuran a monstrous hug, making him smile.

I took a quick look at the Medan over father's shoulder.

Baro quietly watched our reunion from the cockpit. A faint smile froze on his lips, yet there was much sadness in his gaze. Eyuran and I got all the affection, and no one was there for him. It seemed like he was refusing to allow himself this feeling and trying to battle it, but his side that desired being with people was taking over.

Eyuran sensed that as well. He caught my gaze when I looked at him and nodded, and went to check on the guy.

"What happened to my darnamuinnan?" Father asked when we sat down and I gave him a couple of snack packs and some water.

"Not here. We presume he was taken alive by the enemy."

Darnamuinnan is what my father calls Uncle Orewen. Eyuran is not only Father's nephew, but also his muinnan, but Father calls him simply nnan, short for 'son', and because I was really close to Orewen as well, everyone in the household jokingly called him the 'second son-in-law'. Though I didn't find it particularly funny this time.