Chapter 1
Ariya hadn’t planned on being found. She didn’t know where she was in the universe but it didn’t stop her desire to find her way back home. The people were standing in front of the house she was currently hiding in. Dressed in protective gear, holding grapples and other gadgets she was unsure of how they worked. They hadn’t caught wind of her presence just yet. It would only be a matter of time. She knew the place she found herself in was void of any intelligent human life. Seeing the people surrounding the rickety house she was in made her question if it was the truth. Maybe she was still on her home planet, maybe it would only take her a few days to trek through the forest to a proper civilisation so she could go home. Even if the people outside were here to cause harm, there would be no way for Ariya to disappear. She could only close her eyes and hope they were here for something else. Not her. If Ariya strained her ears, she could hear shouting coming from the outside. Most likely orders of what they were to do.
Ariya scrambled away from the window she was using to observe the people who had appeared out of nowhere. She had locked eyes with one. They would now know that someone was in the building. Her eyes flitted around the room she had been holed up in for the past few months. She had nothing of terrible importance and it was obvious when looking at the minuscule items she had scrounged up from the different abandoned houses in the area. Bits of clothing and some imperishable food. She had been shocked to find large amounts of precious items that had been believed to be lost to time itself. Ariya had entertained the idea of grabbing a few items but ultimately decided against it. She had no use for the items as her current predicament stood. A rather loud crash startled Aryia from her thoughts. Abruptly reminding her of her impending doom if she didn’t try something. Her gaze landed on an elegant necklace decorated with a beautiful pure black gem. It had been the only thing on her that she had managed to not get taken from her. Her mother’s keepsake that she had given to her only daughter before she passed. Gems like the one before her possess strange powers that her home had learned to harness and use for themselves. She had never been taught, having been too young at the time, it had been a few years since then. She was now old enough to use the gem.
Her plan didn’t have a chance to come to fruition. Ariya had spent too long deliberating on what she should do after being discovered.
“Well, what do we have here?” A soft voice hissed. Ariya looked and came face to face with a woman. She was tall. That’s the first thing she noticed. The next was that she was holding her mothers necklace aloft, holding it in the light, allowing the black gem to shine in the light of the sun. Ariya hissed and made a grab for the necklace, failing to do so as the woman laughed and moved the necklace out of reach. “Is this your’s kitty?” the woman laughed again as Ariya made another leap to get the necklace back. Failing for a second time as the woman moved the necklace away again. Ariya hissed again, and the woman laughed, a loud boisterous one that put Ariya on edge. It confirmed one thing about the group she was with. They didn’t know how dangerous this planet was. There was no human on the planet, they had tried, but the monster that lurked in the shadows was waiting. For an opportunity. Noise is what draws it to its prey, Smell is what confirmed its meal. And sight gave them the location of each and every morsel of food they would be snacking on. Ariya had only managed to escape captivity with the help of it, and she wasn’t delighted to see it again. Surely it would mean death on her part. And every other clueless human that deigned to come to this forsaken planet.
The woman was looking at Ariya with a frown. She knew her silence was off-putting. Ariya had yet to speak. At the moment she wasn’t too fond of making any more noise than what had already been made. Ariya locked eyes with the woman then snarled quietly, bringing her finger to her lips, hoping that she would understand. She heard crackling, and the woman brought her free hand up to her ear and listened to something before going pale and dropping the necklace to the floor as she turned around, pulling out a gun that she had in her holster. It seemed her warning was too late. Ariya didn’t let that bother her. She dived for the necklace and brought it to her chest, cradling it like it was a baby, she could feel the faint pulse of power thrum through her fingertips and she sighed in relief, it hadn’t been broken. Without hesitating the unclasped the necklace and placed it around her neck and did it up once more. The Gem pulsed even more and it took a second for her to realign herself with everything. She hadn’t expected the sudden change once the necklace was placed on her but it was welcome. Her vision was sharper, sounds were clearer. They were the most obvious effects. Without letting herself dwell too long on what else had been enhanced with the gem she stood up from the ground. The monster that hid in the shadows was something she never wanted to see again, but something in her screamed to go and help. To go save the woman and her group from the gruesome death that was awaiting them.
Before Ariya could even think of running off to find the woman, the woman found her. She crashed through the house, Ariya paused and turned to the woman giving her a quick glance to assure herself that the woman would be fine while she helped everyone else get to safety. With that thought in mind, she turned and strode through the broken walls to the outside where she was met with what she could only call a massacre. Bodies were strewn across the scene, soft groaning could be heard coming from most of them, the silent ones were most concerning. She couldn’t discern if they were breathing or had just passed out from the pain. Ariya’s eyes landed on the monster and drew in a shuddered breath she needed to end it quickly.
A surprise attack works wonderfully when the opponent doesn’t know you are coming. The monster, the thing had been occupied by a man who lay on the ground, unarmed, scrambling back the best he could shouting slurs at the monster that she knew didn’t understand what they were yelling. The monster was drawing nearer to the man. It had already had a taste and wanted more. If she didn’t step in now the man would lose his life to something out of a nightmare. And for a brief moment, she wondered if it would be for the best. Whatever work had brought him to this forsaken planet he would not be able to continue. Shaking away that thought she pushed herself forward, and leapt, not giving herself time to marvel at the height or speed she had got. Ariya felt as if she had paused in the air, hovering right above the monster before she felt gravity pull her back down to earth. She needed to shake away any lingering fear. She needed to ignore her mind conjuring scenarios of her failing and also falling victim to the monster below. The blow she landed on the monster was heavy, it fell to the ground as she crushed it. Ariya struggled to gain her balance before something shot at her and grabbed her waist, the momentum of whatever crashed into her sent them flying, crashing into the ground and skidding to a halt at a wall. She could feel her clothing quickly become damp at sticky on her back. She knew that if she were to reach and touch her back her fingers would come back covered in blood.
Whatever had attacked her had done a good job of injuring her, if that was their plan. She hadn’t expected someone to launch an attack on her, she could barely feel her injuries, but she knew she was shaking, It had been unexpected and now she was on high alert. She looked down at the thing that had attacked her, only to come face-to-face with someone that was dressed in the same way as all the other people she had seen. He was a part of their group. The man grinned and pushed himself up off the ground before he turned around,
“Those monsters don’t stay down Girlie,” he laughed. The man pulled out a gun unlike the one the woman had used, it was larger. He lifted it to his face and pointed the barrel towards the monster that was still stunned from her attack and shot. It was a good hit, strong enough to make the monster go flying into the trees in a knot of its own limbs. The man dropped the gun to his side and put it back in its holster before turning back to her, “Sorry about that,” he said with a grin, “I was unsure of how long it would stay down.” Ariya took his hand and allowed him to bring her to her feet. The man looked her up and down before nodding, “You’re not hurt are you?” he asked, Ariya hesitated,
“I scrapped my back,” she admitted. The man winced and hissed out an apology, and motioned her to follow him, The people that she had seen strewn about groaning in pain had started to recover, some other people appeared from other degrading buildings lugging out the jewels and treasures she had seen in them when they say their comrades they dropped everything to help them to their feet and some started administrating first aid, it was rather efficient she felt. The man had led her to the woman who had been chucked through the walls of the house she had holed up in, She was now standing, brushing off dust and debris. She looked up and winced at the sight of Ariya.
“Not a great look Kitty,” the woman said Ariya frowned but didn’t say anything, the pain hadn’t hit her yet, and she hadn’t had to see what the state of her clothing was. The woman sighed and shooed the man away before she gestured for Ariya to sit, “You can Call me Erin, Kitty,” The woman said, Ariya nodded filing her name away for late use.
“Ariya,” she responded and Erin laughed,
“What a pretty name!” They fell into a comfortable silence as Erin looked over her back injuries, tutting occasionally. She had produced a first-aid kit from somewhere and was using it to clean her back and bandage it up to heal. Once Erin had declared her properly cared for, she was given some new clothes and herded onto a ship, it was nothing like the one she had been stuck in for s, and for that, she was immensely grateful. The group didn’t take long to bring everything on board and they set off. Ariya was relieved, she was no longer stuck isolated on a planet that would surely kill her. “So Ariya” Erin’s voice startled her, Ariya had been enjoying her escape from the planet she had forgotten that she was an unknown person on a ship filled with thieves. “Where did you come from, and where did you get that Gem?” And so Ariya told her. The woman was her first positive human contact in years.
“I’m not entirely sure,” She admitted “I was too young to understand where I live, so when they took me, and I managed to escape I didn’t know where I needed to go to get home, I spent months, on that planet you found me on, fearing for my life.” Ariya paused, to take a breath, it was the most she had ever spoken in years, and the loudest, “The necklace was my mothers before she gave it to me, I never put it on because I was afraid that they would take it from me if they found out about it, until today when I decided that maybe I should try and help…” Ariya smiled at Erin who frowned,
“Stay with us, Kitty?” The woman suggested, “We can look after you while we search for your home planet” Ariya smiled, today was slowly becoming the best day of her life. Erin gave her a sharp nod back and turned away, quickly barking orders at her crew- it had become abundantly clear that Erin was in charge. If she could guess, The man that had brought her to Erin to get patched up was second in command. She glanced around and her eyes landed on the man who cocked his head and gave her a short nod.
“You can call me Kai,” he said before jogging off deeper into the ship where she dared not to tread.
Erin was brash and hot-headed, Ariya discovered. She didn’t wait and observe before she charged headfirst into danger. Erin was crazy. Ariya had told her as such, only getting laughed at and brushed off. Erin knew she was crazy, and her crew knew she was crazy, but that was how they thrived. Aryia went with them, planet to planet, world to world, star to star, plundering abandoned homes, gathering precious material as requested on planets that you could only call a death trap, any work was valuable to Erin and her band of thieves. They threw themselves into danger with little regard if they would come back alive.
Ariya had spent many years alone and worrying for her safety. Now she spends her time worrying about her crazy family of thieves. Erin was not the only crazy person in her newfound family. Every single one of them was reckless, charging into unknown dangerous planets to make a profit, her worry had quickly faded and she soon joined them. Their brand of crazy was beginning to rub off on Ariya and she found that she didn’t mind. Her old family was slowly becoming a distant memory, Erin constantly told Ariya that she would find her home one day and that she would get to see her actual family one day. Ariya was beginning to hate the idea. The people around her were now her family, only death could take that away from her.
Death could easily take. Over the 2 years that she spent with Erin, Kai and their crew she had lost many. She knew of course, that the work they did was never easy, there would always be the chance that they would not get to their ship quick enough before being attacked and massacred. Ariya had been lucky to survive, her mother’s necklace was what kept her alive the majority of the time. But what she had they didn’t. Ariya watched as too many family members die and were soon replaced by bright-eyed recruits that believed they could take on the world. It was always on their first mission that they realise what they were about to walk into. She watched as their eyes hardened and their backs straightened as they became recruits to veterans. It was painful to watch the ones she cared for pass, but she knew it happened, Erin and Kai had always made sure to hold a memorial for anyone who didn’t survive the planet. They were kind to their crew. Their family.
Ariya had thought Erin had forgotten about her promise to bring her home. She had hoped that Erin had forgotten. Erin as hardheaded as she was, had never forgotten. And now it was time for her to go home.
There had been a time hours before when Ariya believed that she might be able to convince Erin that she could stay and live with her new family. But as she stared around the snowy tundra, her eyes landed on the bodies of her family despair welled up inside of her. A monster none of them were able to face. It reminded her of a squid. A squid with rock-hard skin, multiple limbs an ear-piercing scream and no apparent way to kill it. It had been promised that the mission to retrieve what the employer wanted wouldn’t be hard. There was no known danger since they were near civilization, they had lied. She had realised it halfway through the battle, she knew where she was, a memory replaying in her mind. It was her planet. Her old home. The squid monster decimated every single one of her new family. She was alone.
Kai, strong, reassuring quiet Kai. He lost an arm to save her. Erin lost an eye, they barely escaped with their lives. Squid and crew left far behind. They sat on a mountain mere hours away from the squid’s territory.
“This is your home,” Kai had whispered to her as they quietly mourned the crew.
“You need to stay here,” Erin had told her, “We can’t look after you anymore, you deserve a proper family.” Ariya had wanted to scream, to cry, demand, why they thought leaving her with a family she barely remembered, would be any better than following them back to their ship, where they would collect another crew and continue living their lives on the edge, even without an arm and without an eye, Ariya knew they would still push forward visiting planets deemed unlivable to collect precious items and resources. She could join them. She had come far in the use of her mother’s Gem. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t join them on their perilous journey as she has done for the past 2 years.
They had sat on the mountain for a long time, as anger and frustration stewed inside Ariya. She didn’t yell or get mad. She pushed it all down. Repeating to herself that it was always going to end this way. Erin had always said she would find a way to get Ariya home.
“I Guess this is goodbye,” she said at last. Erin’s breath audibly hitched but Ariya didn’t acknowledge it, She turned her gaze out to the view, only now recognising a city lying in the distance, that would be her first destination on her way to find her old family.
Erin and Kai had moved away, they were heading to the ship. Desire to join them welled up inside Ariya as she got up and stared at the ones she had come to secretly call Mum and Dad. Not that she would ever say it out loud. She wanted to say something, anything. But her throat hurt and she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
It had been a long journey. Ariya had met many people and lost just as many as she met. She had travelled all across the universe learning, and surviving for many years with people she now called home. Called family. She stopped and turned around once more, coming face-to-face with Erin and Kai. Their faces were red as they tried to hold back tears. Before she could second guess herself, Ariya ran towards them and drew Erin into the first and last hug they would share.
“Thankyou” she whispered into Erin’s shoulder, her eyes burning with unshed tears “Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou…” a few unwelcome tears dripped out onto Erin but she didn’t seem to care, bringing her arms to wrap around the shaking girl. And whispered words of confirmation. After a few silent minutes, Ariya pulled away and looked at Kai who looked distinctly uncomfortable at the idea of a hug. Instead, she offered a hand that he took. She didn’t waste a second to drag him towards her and give him a quick hug and pat on the back. She pulled away before he could complain, stepping away from them once more. She stared at them, drinking up their features hoping that she could memorise what they looked like, she didn’t want to forget them. “Are you sure I have to go?’ she whispered, she had lived with them, travelled with them. They had become family and now they were pushing her away, towards her ‘real’ family. Erin sighed
“Kitty…” she trailed off “It’s for the best.” Frustration welled up inside Ariya but she didn’t show it, Her eyes burned once again with tears. “You nearly died today,” she continued, “I don’t want to see that ever happen to you ever again.” Ariya winced recalling the giant squid monster from mere hours before
“I don’t see why you can’t come with me” She hissed, Ariya had thought she had controlled her frustration well enough but it seemed she hadn’t.
“You know why we can’t.” Ariya looked away. She knew. It was no life for a kid like her they always said. They always promised that she would be brought home. They said it every day even as she slowly became integrated with their team. Became part of their family.
“You always said we would be together, til we part ways.” She laughed weakly. Erin joined in and gave her one last smile.
“It’s time for a new chapter in your story Kitty,” she said, “Your other family.” Erin turned away and Kai lingered, he smiled,
“Don’t worry, we will never forget you.” He turned away and Ariya couldn’t keep it bottled up. She broke. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the walk towards the ship.
“I won’t forget you either she called.” Ariya turned away to once again look over at the sprawling city she had once called home many many years ago. It was different, more people had moved in, and they had finished building their third pitch for a sport she barely even remembered. She could see the large outdoor theatre that she remembered always being excited to go to. Nature had not been pushed away and forgotten. The entire city was covered in green, there was not a spot of cold concrete that other cities on other planets had been. Where man had built, they had also nurtured, making sure nature was still there to thrive. With one deep breath, she stepped off the cliff and flew. She could feel her gem thrum against her chest delighted to be used.
Her journey to the city from the mountain she had been on didn’t take long her thoughts raced as she wondered what her family was like now. She remembered her uncle and his flying ship, he had only just been starting out, and with how many years it had been she was sure that he had a large crew now. She could see a ship now, she had only been travelling for a little bit and already she could see a ship. It seemed to dwarf the city and she wondered if maybe, just maybe if it was her uncle’s ship. The city drew nearer and her feelings of loss multiplied but she kept pushing on. As Erin had said, it was time for a new chapter. She passed large trees and entered the city, it was bustling, and she could hear cheers coming from one of the large arenas, as she flew above it, she looked down to see strangely dressed people, fight She was unsure if it was theatre or the sport she remembered gaining popularity before she left the city.
The ship had only gotten large as she drew nearer it. She could see a name on the side. Ariya. Something built up inside her she realise. Oh. oh. He had never forgotten her. He had named a ship after her to remember his niece. All doubts were forgotten, she pushed herself up to the deck and landed on it neatly. And looked around. Her arrival had caused everything on board to halt as they all turned to look at her. She grinned and gave them a wave,
“I’m looking for my uncle, have you seen him?” no one responded, seemingly too startled to form a response. But they didn’t need to, a gruff voice spoke up, filled with untold emotion, it was a voice that she knew she had heard many years ago.
“Ariya?”
“Uncle” She responded, turning around to get a look at him. He had let himself go wild, with a large bushy beard paired with olive-tanned skin and few scars and mottled his face and hands, he was wearing what she could only call a ‘pirate outfit’ but she could still recognise him, he was her uncle. He seemed to come to the same decision as her. He raced towards her and scooped her into a hug, swinging her around as he laughed joyfully,
“I knew you still lived,” he cried, “No one believed me but I never stop looking!” A strong emotion bubbled up inside her and she smiled. Maybe Erin was right. Maybe it was the next chapter of her story.
