Space Dust and Skin

Chapter One

     "Rafa, I'm going to run away. I mean it this time," Maia sobs. She slams the door, stomping across her room to fall onto her bed. "I can't do this anymore! I don't want to be married, I don't want to be queen, and I don't want to have to deal with everyone else's problems. Isn't it funny that I'm the princess, yet I'm more oppressed than many of my subjects?"

     "Shh, Maia. It's going to be okay. I need you to calm down. Your mother will be up soon to call you to dinner, and you can't be crying then." Rafa sits down beside Maia and strokes her head comfortingly.

     "I don't want to calm down, and I don't care about some stupid dinner. I'm done with all of this, Mom included. No one listens to me around here, and I know they never will." Maia jumps off her bed and begins to charge around her room. She flings open her closet and starts tearing elaborate robes off their hangers, stuffing them haphazardly into a bag on her cold marble floor.

     This rage has been growing within Maia since the betrothal, and now she feels like a forest fire, unstoppable and unstifled by the dank, cold air of this suffocating castle. Just as she's about to button her bag shut, Maia feels Rafa's arms wrap gently around her shoulders. She's overwhelmed by the gentleness of her nurse's touch. She goes limp in Rafa's arms, tears returning to her bright green eyes as she ceases her frenzied attempt at packing for a journey to who-knows-where.

     "Sweetie, I need you to listen to me," Rafa urges, "You can't do anything about this until after tonight's dinner. You don't have a plan, and if you get caught, you'll be in more trouble than I care to think about."

     Maia tries to steady her breathing for a moment before saying, "I understand, and you're right. You're always right, and I don't know where I'd be without you, Rafa. I'm just so tired of having to be what everyone else wants me to be. Can you tell me a story?

     "Of course." Rafa walks Maia back to the bed and they both sit down. "One day, when I was about your age and I still lived on the planet Earth, I went with my friends to the mall."

     "What's a mall?" Maia inquired.

     "It's a building with lots of big rooms where clothes and furniture and cooking supplies and pretty much any kind of item are sold. The rooms are called stores, and they are all run by different businesses. Anyway, I was with two of my friends from school, and we had never been to the mall without our parents before. We went to this one particularly fancy store, and we all picked out pretty dresses to wear to a dance at our school. My dress was as blue as the sky."

     "I still can't get over the fact that Earth has a blue sky!" Maia's tears had already dried on her silver cheeks as she listened intently to Rafa's story. "I can't imagine a sky being any color but gray," she sighed. "Everything about Earth is interesting. I remember all of the stories you've told me since I was little, about how Earth has lots of water and changing seasons and different governments, and Earthlings don't even get astrumagic. I wish..." Maia trailed off, deep in thought.

     Suddenly her whole face lit with excitement. "Rafa! Maybe I could run away to Earth! Life there would be so much simpler. I wouldn't have to worry about the Regime or my betrothal or any of it."

     "Honey, life will have its difficulties no matter what planet you're on. I just want to be certain you're making the right decision here. There are some problems that you just can't run from."

     "I'm pretty sure I'll be better off running from Eltanin. He's truly disgusting in every way. I can't speak my mind around him, and I know that when he's king and I'm queen, it'll be just the same. I'll never be able to change Jolah for the better. This planet is just as doomed with me on it as it would be without me," Maia huffs, letting her head fall to rest on Rafa's shoulder.