Planet of the Stars

Chapter 18: Ditz

I found myself drifting into another one of my memories. This one was after they put me in an escape pod, and I was hurtling towards a foreign planet. I still wasn't at perfect health. In fact, I was hungry, and fighting falling asleep. I managed to get the controls, and use them rather quickly.

I had no idea how to use an escape pod, so this was a miracle. But even more was that I crashed on a planet, and survived with only a few cuts. My pod had broken. I pushed away the rubble. When I crawled out of the pod I noticed people were surrounding me.

I quickly realized I was bloody, starving, and nearly naked, not to mention exhausted. I almost went back into my pod, but someone came behind me and threw a cloak over me. The person came in front of me and crouched down. I squinted and tilted my head. This person was being nice.

"Are you okay?" The man asks.

I shake my head.

"Okay, what's your name?" The guy asks.

I go to answer, then realize I don't remember it. I was six when they took me, so I should remember it, but when I was held for a year and they only called me a number I couldn't remember it. I look around, and my eyes land on the sky. It was a beautiful purple right now. I look back at the man.

"Skye." I say. "My name is Skye."

"Alright Skye I'm going to help you, and train you." The man says.

I nod, and he offers me his hand. I take it. He helps me stand, then I lean on him, while he leads me to his house. At his house he leads me in. I sit down on the chair, because my head was spinning.

The man leaves, when he comes back he handed me clothes. I thank him. He leaves the room, and I change. When he comes back he had food. He set it on the table, and gestured me over.

I get up, and sit at the table to eat. While I eat the man took care of my wounds and started asking me questions.

"So Skye, how did you end up on Big Brother's radar?" The man asks.

I feel my crystal against my bare skin. I had it hidden under my clothes. I figured I shouldn't tell people about my crystal.

"My parents were on Big Brother's radar, they had me and I got in the crosshairs. Big Brother took me as leverage." I say.

"What happened to your parents?" They guy asks.

"They died." I say thinking about an explosion on a planet.

The man had taken my right arm in his hands. I saw him looking at the scars on my arm. There was still dried blood from them on my arm and hand. The man started scrubbing my arm and hand. When I was all good he sat back.

"Thank you." I say.

The man nods.

"You're going to stay with me. You can sleep, and then we start training we'll start early, because you're not in good condition." The man says.

"Training?" I ask.

"Yes. You're going to learn how to fight and defend yourself, because living here isn't going to be free." The man says, then gets up and leaves.

When I finish eating I get up and go to the couch where I sit down, before laying down and falling asleep. The next day I was woken up by someone making a lot of noise. I sit up.

"Oh you're up, good. Come get breakfast." The man says.

I do. The man serves me food.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"Faska." The man says.

"Where am I? What planet, what system?" I ask.

"The planet Ditz and the system Galect." The man says.

"Thank you." I say.

The man nods. I eat, then the man leads me outside. he hands me a long stick that was hollow inside.

"That's a bow staff. That's going to be our weapon of choice. I will teach it to you, and then you'll be the master of the bow staff." The man says.

I nod. I take the bow staff, and then he starts teaching me basic footwork. I copy him. Then after that I start getting muscle memory. I was a quick learner, but that was because Faska was a hard discipliner.

I would have something out of place and he would whack it with a bow staff. I would either bleed from the repetitiveness of it, but mostly I got really bad bruises. I was able to heal the blood, but I'd have to wait to do it in private. As for the bruises I got thicker skin from them. When I was able to use a bow staff I already knew how to use it well, so it was more like fine-tuning myself.

I stayed with Faska for three years, and then when I was 10 he sent me away alone with only a bow staff. I found my way to a town where they gave food for bringing them good machine parts. You had to be able to find good machine parts, and be able to readily defend them, and defend them well. I was a great defender I just needed good machine parts. I found myself waking up from the dream of my past.

I opened my eyes, and saw the people surrounding me were Kira, Lincoln, and Efren, so it was more a healing triangle. Blue and red light came from them making a triangle around me. Blue runes were dancing over Kira and Efren's body, while red runes danced over Lincoln's skin. I sat up. I felt healed, but my body still felt dead.

They all opened their eyes, and let go of each other's hands.

"How do you feel?" Efren asks.

"Healed." I say.

I make sure thats all I say. Efren nods.

"Come on we need to make sure everyone got out safe, and Flick needs to check you out." Efren says.

I nod, then follow Efren out of the building. He went around making sure everyone got out okay. Theo asked if anyone caught the people fleeing. Kira and Lincoln had already returned to their ship. Wren came up beside me.

"What did you dream about? Don't tell me you didn't. I know how you are when you're dreaming." Wren says.

"I dreamt of the day I crashed on Ditz." I say.