Prologue
A man sat in his throne, looking into his spying pool.It allowed him to see what other people were doing at the time, and he was rather fond of it. He saw figures dressed in red, marching back and forth in orderly lines. He saw another man sitting in a throne, a man under his control. He saw the man’s two children standing beside him, one a girl and the other a boy. He had one under his control, but the other was too much to handle.He couldn’t get to the child no matter how hard he tried, but he was breaking. His defenses were slowly crumbling away, and soon the boy would belong to him. He had tried to get to the man’s first wife and smaller child as well, but he had never managed it, and now it was too late for them.He had also tried to control the man’s second wife, but had failed. To his dismay, there were many from the Fire Tribe he could not get to, but he would find a way.
He switched his view to a small girl sitting in her bedroom, looking out her window. He had been keeping an eye on this girl for quite some time now. Her father had caused him enough trouble, and he wanted to make sure she didn’t follow in his footsteps. He would send one of his bear-coons to take care of her, to get her on his side. He would make the Fire Chief’s daughter follow the bear-coon, and discover her. It was all going according to plan. This girl was also very familiar with his son. They had been best friends for quite some time, until something happened in which the girl no longer wanted anything to do with the boy. The man shook his head thoughtfully. He had sent his son to Earth so he could keep an eye on things, but it turned out that his son was one of the goofiest people there. It infuriated him more than anything.
A small boy walked into the room and bowed.“Sir, I’m here to deliver a message from the Fire Chief.” The man sighed and nodded wearily. “He has been suspecting that there is a secret army somewhere in the Solarian Islands, an army planning a coup.He wants to know your opinion on his course of action, sir.”
The man sat straight upright in his throne. “Tell him that I am not concerned with the matter right now, if it turns into anything serious, then I will look into it more.” The small boy nodded and darted out of the small, dimly lit room.The man relaxed in his throne, he didn’t think that anyone in their right minds would dare to stand up to him.
But then, he thought, most of them aren’t in their right minds.He stood up and strode out of the room, his black cape flying behind him.He made his way to the balcony of his palace.Once he reached it, he looked out over the dark land of Romokka.Thousands of soldiers marched in orderly lines, preparing for battle, even though it would not take place for several months.He was eager to have yet another planet under his control, and this time, the Solarians had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.His lips curled into a wicked smile.
The time has come; there is no more escape.They have nowhere left to run to.They will be mine! The same small boy appeared behind him, carrying a sound amplifier.It was time for his speech. The man took it from the small boy, who backed away as the man spoke, trying to get all the soldiers attention.
“Warriors,” he said into the small microphone. All of his soldiers stopped and looked up to the balcony, bowing.“I am glad to announce that your ships are ready and now all that must be done is your training.” His loud voice seemed to echo through the night air. “The Solarians have nowhere to hide! As I always say, no one can escape Dunham, the king of all you see before you!”
Chapter One
A Secret World
As Mai sat and looked out her bedroom window, she thought how nice it would be to have rain again. It hadn’t rained for months and the summer heat was almost unbearable. She thought of how everything was going wrong. How everyone laughed at her and called her names. How she didn’t have a single friend. That they all thought she was weird. She was thinking about the previous day and what had happened.
Mai was walking around the neighborhood looking for something to do, when she saw two boys playing catch in their front lawn. She had seen these boys before, but only walking down the street. She ran up to them and shouted, “Hey! Is it alright if I play with you?” The two stared at her for a second then started whispering to each other, but still loud enough for Mai to hear.
“I know that girl. That’s that crazy girl Jim told us about, remember Dan?” said one.
“Are you sure Fred? She looks too pretty to be crazy,” said the one called Dan.
The one named Fred nodded. “We can’t let her play with us,” he said. They both shook their heads in agreement.
Then they turned back to Mai. “No,” they said together. “Just go away and leave us alone,” said Dan.
“Freak!” added Fred. Then they both started laughing. Mai could feel tears building in her eyes as she started running home.
As she sat there in her room thinking about these boys, she started wondering who was spreading these rumors that she was weird. She was tired of being the strange kid who didn’t fit in. they had even given her the nickname ‘opposite girl’.She was home schooled, but none of the kids that lived nearby were. So she was always alone. And when she did get to play with some of the other kids, they teased her. This particular day, she had been very lonely. She had spent most of the day in her room. She had only just changed into her pajamas. And over her pajamas, she put the blue robes her dad had given her before he left. Mai thought they looked good with her orange pajamas.But then something pulled on her arm and brought her out of her daze. It was her little brother Matty. His real name was not Matty, it was Mat, short for Matthew, but he seemed to like Matty much better. She had one other brother and his name was Wyatt. He was thirteen years old, one year older then Mai.
“What is it Matty? You shouldn’t even be up. It’s almost midnight. Wait a minute! How did you get out of your crib?” asked Mai as she picked up Matty and set him on her lap.
Since Matty was only an infant, he answered by pointing over to the door that led to the hall. Mai put him back on the floor and stood up to follow. Matty immediately started crawling out of Mai’s room, down the hall past their mom’s room, past Wyatt’s room and into his own room. There were toys everywhere. You could hardly walk into the room without stepping on a toy. Then he grabbed one of his toys off the ground. It was his favorite action figure, and it looked like the head had been pulled off.Matty started crying loudly.
“Matty, be quiet! You’re going to wake Mom and Wyatt!” whispered Mai. She took the toy from Matty, screwed the head back in place, and then handed it to him. He stopped crying and started sucking on it’s head.Mai picked him up and carried him over to his crib, and noticed that the hinges holding the bars in place had broken. Mai placed Matty in his crib, grabbed some string that was lying on the floor, and tied it around the bars as an improvised hinge.
“Now go to sleep, okay?” she said quietly, hoping that he hadn’t waken anyone.
As she turned to go back into her own room, she saw a mirror that was hanging above Matty’s dresser. She stopped to look at her reflection. She looked at her light skin, her orb-like blue eyes—the same eyes as her mother. She held her long dark brown braid in one hand and sighed.
How is it that if my hair isn’t in a braid, it can get tangled so easily? she thought.Then something else in the mirror caught her eye. There was a flashing orange light coming from out the window. She turned around, walked over to it and looked out. With every flash of light, she could see two shadows through the thick woods behind their house. One of the shadows looked like it belonged to a girl, but the other looked like nothing Mai had ever seen before. It looked like the girl was being attacked by what ever it was. She was in trouble.A surge of excitement ran through Mai’s body. Something was going on down there, and she would figure it out.
Without even thinking about what she was doing, Mai ran out of Matty’s room, down the hall, slipped on a pair of sandals, and ran out the back door. As she got closer to where the girl and the thing were fighting, she could see that the light was coming from fire. Only it wasn’t like a campfire, the fire was being shot out of the girl’s hands and feet as she punched and kicked, though she wasn’t physically touching the creature. She was standing at least ten feet from it, and shooting the fire at it. She looked like she was having fun. Mai stopped in her tracks and stared. If the girl shooting fire wasn’t weird enough, she could now see what the other thing looked like. It looked like a bear but with the markings of a raccoon and the teeth of a saber tooth tiger.Mai couldn’t move. She couldn’t feel her legs; she was frozen to the spot with fear, what was going on here, what was that thing in her backyard?How could that girl do that with fire?
The girl shot fire right in front of the creature, which finally scared it off. The girl sighed and turned, but flinched and staggered backwards when she saw Mai. She apparently hadn’t seen her there before.
Mai was suddenly brought back to her senses and started stuttering with a mixture of fear and confusion. “Ho-how did you…wha-what was that…”
The other girl picked herself up; she looked just as confused as Mai did and at the same time started blurting out a series of things. “How did you find me? What are you doing out here? You’re not going to tell are you?” She took a deep breath and—interrupting Mai’s stuttering—started talking a little slower. “Hold on what tribe are you from?” She had a calm, smooth sort of voice with a flat tone that sounded like it belonged to someone much older than this girl looked.
Mai continued to stare at her. She had no idea what this girl was talking about.She was still perplexed by what she had seen—what had she seen?
“Never mind,” said the girl in her smooth voice. “My name is Samantha, princess of the Fire Tribe, but I just like Sam.” She stuck her hand out to shake Mai’s.
Mai was finally able to speak again. “Uh…my name is… Mai.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say.She wasn’t a princess of anything, or anywhere, and she wasn’t the daughter of anyone important, so she just shook her hand. “You’re a princess! Wow!” She was trying not to look stupid in front of the girl—Sam—but she was still in shock and awe.
“Well yeah. I’ll explain later,” Sam said in her flat tone. Sam had her long, black hair pulled up in a high ponytail and was wearing strange red colored robes that looked very similar to Mai’s.Sam—strangely—had dark orange, almost red, eyes.Mai looked down at Sam’s feet and saw that she was wearing strange looking shoes that matched the color of her robes.
“You’re not going to tell, are you?” Sam asked again in a tone that was anything but nervous.
Mai finally realized she was staring, so quickly looked down at the ground. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not supposed to use my powers out in the open,” said Sam, shifting her weight to the side.
“Oh…that’s how you did it!” Mai exclaimed with excitement. “You have super powers!” Another surge of excitement coursed through her.Things were finally getting exciting for her.
“Spiritual… powers actually,” Sam corrected, rising one eyebrow. “You’re not from any of our tribes, are you?” she said smoothly. Mai shook her head, still not understanding what Sam was trying to tell her.
Seeing the confused look on Mai’s face, Sam started to explain. “You see, I come from a different planet called Solaria, and on Solaria there are ten different tribes: The Water Tribe, Mist Tribe, Ice Tribe, Wind Tribe, Plant Tribe, Light Tribe, Earth Tribe, Metal Tribe, Sand Tribe and the Fire Tribe. And the people of those tribes have powers, and the power they have depends on what tribe they are from. For example, if there was a person from the Water tribe, their power would be water. And if there was a person from the Mist tribe their power would be mist, and so on,”
“So….you’re from the Fire Tribe?” Mai guessed, trying to catch on to what Sam was saying as fast as she could so she could learn as much as she could about her new, alien friend.Sam had said, after all, that she came from a different planet, which would make her an alien, even if she was a human…wouldn’t it?
Sam’s face turned sour. “All ten tribes live secretly among the people from Earth, hiding our powers. None of us like it.”
Mai couldn’t help herself, she had to say something more.She didn’t want Sam to think she was scared or shy of her. “But if your people aren’t happy living secretly, then why don’t you just go back to your own planet?”
“About fourteen years ago, Solaria was attacked by another planet called Romokka. But we knew the attack was going to happen so we were prepared and had everyone except our best warriors evacuated to Earth. The war went on for eleven years.Then Solaria lost the battle. The people from Romokka took over. And as for the warriors, they were all killed,” said Sam in a sort of they-got-what-they-deserved tone. And she didn’t sound sad about this at all. She crossed her arms, leaned against a nearby tree and sighed.
“What’s wrong?” asked May. Though she didn’t think Sam was sad. The way Sam had sighed made it sound like she was frustrated.This girl seemed very complicated to Mai. Much like herself.
“What? Oh, umm….My mother was one of those warriors,” said Sam a bit too carelessly. Mai could tell this wasn’t what had been on Sam’s mind, but she forgot all about that. Sam had lost a loved one too, and Mai knew what that felt like.She had lost her mom a long time ago.
“I know how you feel,” said Mai. “My mom died when I was only five years old.” Mai had not told any of her friends this. They all thought that her stepmom was her real one. Sam looked at her and there was an awkward silence. “What was that thing that attacked you?” said Mai trying to change the subject, as well as keep the conversation going.
“That was a bear-coon, one of the animals Romokka uses for spying on other planets,” said Sam.
“But why would they use something so big?” asked Mai, confused. Sam rolled her eyes. She was obviously getting tired of explaining things. Mai didn’t mean to irritate her, but she wanted to know as much as she could about this new, strange land.
“Because, only the most powerful people from Solaria can see them. And when they use them it means they are going to attack the planet they’re spying on. That’s how Solaria knew they were going to be attacked.”
“They’re going to attack Earth!?” said Mai in shock, she had not been expecting this at all.
Sam nodded, then said, “Wait, you could see the Bear-coon….People from Earth can’t see them…” She paused and looked Mai over for a second, looking first at her eyes, and then her gaze shifted down to Mai’s robes.Her eyes seemed to widen as she stared at them.Her mouth was hanging slight open as she thought.Finally, she said, “Have you ever had something strange happen around water, Mai?”
Mai hesitated, and then slowly started talking, still debating whether she should tell this to Sam or not.She had once told it to a boy, a long time ago, telling him to keep it a secret.Nevertheless, he had told it to everyone else, and that’s why everyone thought she was a misfit.But Mai decided to tell Sam after all.She of all people would understand Mai’s story.
“Well….When I was four years old, I fell in the pool in the back yard, and by the time my mom came out, I was already at the bottom so she didn’t see me.I was out of air and so started waving my arms around trying to swim to the surface but I couldn’t. I was about to gasp for air when this weird bubble formed around me so I could breathe again. Then the water around me started swirling like a whirlpool and lifted me up and out of the water and back onto dry land.Then I saw my mom come running over to me, and started hugging me and asked me if I was alright and what had happened. That’s when I realized she hadn’t seen what had really happened. I knew she wouldn’t believe me if I told her the truth, so I lied. I said that I fell in the pool but was able to grab the edge of it and pull myself out, but I don’t know if she bought it.”
“You’re from the Water Tribe!” said Sam with a look of disbelief on her face, but she still kept her voice calm.
“What!?” Mai asked, shaking her head, not daring to believe what she was hearing, even if she wanted to. “So I have powers?” said Mai anxiously, holding her breath, excitement and suspense was overwhelming her.
“Yes. And if you want, you could come with me. I can help you learn how to use your powers. And I’m sure my father would love to meet you. He would be very interested that you could see that bear-coon. That’s what I was doing out here. I saw a bear-coon. By the way, everyone in my family can see bear-coons, it runs in the family,” Sam said proudly.“Only people who are very good at using their powers and are, or will become very powerful can see them.”
Mai, not for the last time that night, was very excited. Did that mean that she would become very powerful someday?
“As I was saying,” Sam continued, “I saw a bear-coon, so I followed it all day, and then it led me here. But then it saw me, and so I started fighting it. I could have blasted it to smithereens if I wanted to, but sometimes, its fun doing more then just sparring, so I practiced my basic Fire Powers on it. Then it finally had enough and ran off, and that’s when you came in.” She paused. “We need to keep this secret. That means, don’t tell anyone outside my family. Got it?”
“But I think we should warn people,” said Mai, wondering why anyone would think they should keep something as big as this a secret.
“No,” said Sam sternly. “Like I said, we need to keep this quiet. We don’t need to get people all stirred up.”
Mai nodded. “But I still think we should warn people,” she said under her breath, she did not agree with Sam on this one.Sam seemed responsible enough to trust, but this was one thing she’d made a wrong choice on.But Mai trusted her, and would do anything she said.She probably knew what she was doing.
“Okay then, are you coming?” said Sam in her smooth voice as she rounded on Mai, her red eyes flashing.
Mai immediately said, “I’m in!” After all, it was not everyday you met an alien girl with supernatural powers who said that there would be an invasion from another planet soon.Mai closed her eyes for a second to take it all in.Her whole life seemed to flash before her eyes.Not a single event stood superior to this one.Her life had always been dull until now.Now she could make a difference.This was so important that she thought when it was all done,she would get a medal from the President of the United States for her good deeds in helping to save the Earth from sure destruction.This was the most important thing Mai had ever done in her entire life.She was so excited that she almost felt sick to her stomach.And Sam, she was so beautiful, and strong looking that Mai felt completely safe with her.She knew that this would be that start of a wonderful friendship.She wondered just how powerful she would become.
Together, Mai thought, nothing will be able to stop us.We will be inseparable friends that will risk our lives to save the other…I can’t wait!
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