Journey

Elijah: Cambaar

I can't stop thinking about the girl. All day. The Princeps said she had recently lost her parents in a bombing. She must be grieving. She must be angry. She must be on the brink of collapse and then she gets thrust into power. I also keep thinking about what the Princeps said about her being overthrown. He doesn't believe she has the power to be the leader of her ship. He also said they way she talked was weird. He described it as someone else whispering the words to her. I glance out the window. The sun has gone even lower. If it continues like this the sun should be gone in a matter of hours. I keep thinking about what I should do. The leader of our civilization said we shouldn't try to make contact with them. We shouldn't try to help them. If they have an arsonist on board we need to help them.

"Eli. We need to talk." My dad says.

I had been so caught up in my thought that I didn't even notice he entered the room.

"What do we need to talk about?" I ask.

"You disrespected the Princeps," He said.

His voice was twinged with sadness.

"I'm sorry I didn't agree to his plan of not showing common decency," I mutter.

"No son, you don't get it. They have been on a ship for 6 hundred years," He says.

"And that makes them not human?" I ask.

He shakes his head.

"They might be hostile."

"But they might be in need of help," I say back.

"They have an arsonist on board."

"We have robbers but does that make us dangerous?"

My father sighs.

"I understand. I really do. You are tired of this simple life you're living." He sighs

"I don't think you understand," I say.

"These people might need help," I try to say.

"Just go to bed son," He sighs.

I wait until he leaves the room. I grab my Com

"Com request Alaina," I say into it.

I wait a minute until she answers it.

"Eli. Do you need something?" She asks.

"You feel like a hike?" I ask.

I finish telling her my plan and I wait for her to get back with the information.

Com link Alaina.

"I got the coordinates at which they will land," She says excitedly.

"Where?" I ask.

"Sun's Peak," She replies.

Sun's Peak is about a two day hike from here in Oasis.

"Gather the supplies," I tell her.

"Pack clothes. It's going to be a long walk," She says back.

We wait until after our parents have fallen to sleep and I slip out of my house and circle around the town to the back of the castle. I see Alaina lurking in the shadows. She is carrying two large backpacks filled with supplies for the both of us. She hands me mine and I am shocked by the weight of it. I can carry it no problem but Alaina was carrying two of them and didn't seem to be struggling. That girl never seizes to amaze me. We walk out of town and into the impending night.

The sky has turned a gorgeous Red. The silvery stars are more noticeable now. We can clearly see Sun's peak. The blinding white sun is going to set right in between the two mountains. Our ancestors must have named it after their first sunset. I can see why. This is beautiful. We walk quickly. I try to keep my eyes ahead of me but Alaina is just looking at the stars in the sky.

"Just imagine. When the other ship will land it will be nighttime. We will be in Sun's Peak where no one lives. The sky will be filled with uncountable stars. It will be even more pretty because there will be no more light pollution." She says.

I let her monologue for a while. She rants on and on about the stars and the nocturnal animals. Than we hit the lake we had found a few weeks earlier. The place looks entirely different. The vibrant flowers that looked so captivating are closing and a different flower is blooming. It is luminescently glowing a bright white color that is even more captivating than the other flowers. It casts a sort of glow across the lake. It doesn't seem eerie at all. It seems wonderful. I pause taking in the scenery. I hear something I haven't heard before. It sounds like a song. Than I remember what makes that kind of song. A bird. We hadn't thought there were birds on this planet but this proves it wrong. Right as I think this a silvery bird flies past us. Singing a wonderful song. We walk miles further until we can't walk anymore. We finally sat down and set up camp. The air temp had dropped and it was now twenty degrees colder than usual. We set up our two tents and took small sips from our water canister.

"We are halfway there,"Alaina says to me.

She is nibbling on a cracker. I can tell she misses the comfort of her house right now so I move in closer and wrap my arms around her. She leans against me.

"What will we do when we find them?" She asks.

"We find their leader and convince her we are no threat," I say.

"What if we are a threat? I mean you know my dad. He might decimate them!" she exclaims.

"I do know your dad. And I know you. Nothing has more impact on him than his family. If you don't want him to wage war with them than he won't." I say.

"You really think that?"

"Please. You are his daughter. He may do things you don't like but he would never do something that would risk losing you," I say.

She smiles up at me. And in that moment I am lost in her deep brown eyes.