Chapter 2

The New World

In a star system, several hundred thousand light-years away from Earth:

The sun in this system was middle aged and was far away from becoming a supernova. This star system held five planets: one of them was close to its sun and made up of molten rocks. Two more were too far away from their sun to sustain any kind of living life form and around the smaller was circling the fourth planet, a small light blue moon. The fifth planet however, found the right elliptic course around the sun to support life. Its name was Cerinia. The vegetation on Cerinia grew plants typical for a tropical climate but these plants were much bigger than the ones from Earth.


This planet was more than ninety-five percent land covered. This planet was also unlike Earth because it was very bumpy and its mountains were much smaller, because the entire surface was made up of hills and valleys which had slipped together because of soil erosion. Only a few areas, which were occupied and cultivated by its inhabitants, were flat. The remaining five per cent of the surface was made up of many lakes and rivers which were dispersed around the whole planet.

The inhabitants of this planet have never seen natural snow before, which was due to the tropical weather.

Generally, this planet was occupied by many different animals. Some of them had lived there since the beginning, like the humanoid Cerinians. They were humans in appearance, and their skeletons were quite identical, but they didn't look similar at all in many other aspects.

If a human would characterize them for the first time, they would describe them as blue foxes which walk on their hind legs and use their human-like hands. Aside from their hands they had eyes that were bigger than human eyes and the irises weren't as black as the ones of their relatives, but featured most of the time a blue or turquoise iris. Despite their difference in size, their eyes were as good as human eyes. Unlike normal foxes, they wore clothes like humans to cover the special areas on their body, to keep themselves warm, and to protect themselves.

The male and female Cerinians differed in their appearance a lot, unlike humans. On one hand, the male Cerinians were only covered with only blue fur, which mostly only passed into a bright blue tone and then turned into a natural grey or white in advancing age. As with the humans, the male Cerinians were for the most part stronger than the women.

In contrast, the female Cerinians were rather petite, their muscles were a bit smaller than the men's, and the outline of their faces and ears assumed a more cat-like appearance. Furthermore, they had a lot of white in their fur: particularly in their face; on their tail; at the front side of their body; and especially on their throat and feet. In addition, they had hair on their head like a human's and they would wear it in several styles ranging from casual to elaborate depending on certain circumstances.

They were a peaceful folk, but peace couldn't always reign because of the Sharpclaw who were inhabitants of the planet as well. They arrived with stolen ships on Cerinia to only do one thing: to enslave the Cerinians and pirate their technology.

The Sharpclaw were very aggressive and obsessed with power and were extremely different from the Cerinians. They were lizard-like, their whole bodies were covered with scales, and they were predominant. But like the Cerinians they stood on two legs. The Sharpclaw were also crafty, conniving strategists and came up with a plan to win the war no matter what the Cerinians did. That plan was now in motion.


It was shortly after sunrise, the inhabitants of the village were excited because the carriage of the princess was on its way to the village. It was an honor if a part of the royal family came to visit a village. They opened the main entrance and let them pass. The inhabitants constituted a path, in whose middle the carriage was torn. Before the carriage passed them, the villagers bowed deeply, took their hats off to the maiden, and the children rejoiced and danced with happiness because of the royal visit.

The carriage was accompanied by eight equestrians--four on the front of the carriage and four at the back--to protect her if necessary. The enemies of the royal dynasty were closer than they thought.

When the carriage arrived in the middle of the village, the coachman tore at the reins and the draft animals stayed immediately. The coachman stood at his place at the front side of the carriage and opened the side door for the princess. They didn't need stairs, because as soon as the side door opened a small metallic pad slid out of the side of the carriage whereon she was able to climb.

She was a very young princess, her name was Krystal. She was barely older than a child from Earth in its second year in school. She was very eloquent and could understand the seriousness of any given situation. She came into the village to elate its inhabitants again because of the war against the Sharpclaw.

The Sharpclaw would attacked their villages and abduct most of the townsfolk to force them into slave labor. They also tortured them to uncover the secrets of their technology. Until now, everyone died before he or she bespoke these secrets.

The royal military was indeed strong in hand on hand combat, but against the majority of Sharpclaw and their several meter high walls, they were unable to mount an effective offense to overcome them and their fortress.

The stronghold of the enemy was composed of several ridges, which where peppered with guards and gun turrets. The only way there to get inside was through the air, but their flight technology wasn't that widely developed to manufacture aircraft which were able to fly. And the single flying creatures, the CloudRunners, the Cerinians broke ties with because of a conflict a long time ago.


Princess Krystal was received with acclimation and honor. As the women threw colored petals of all sorts into the air, the children handed Krystal floral wreaths and self made presents. The princess thanked heartily for these presents.

Finally the mayor came to her and begged her to his house and himself for a cup of tea and to tell her about the latest events. He was a comparatively young mayor and was highly esteemed because of it.

It was not a luxury house like the typical ones in the capital city, but was kept rather homely. It was still more beautiful and bigger than the other houses that the rest of the villagers owned.

They sat down in a study, which was rather large, and at every wall stood a shelf full of books in the Cerinian tongue. Within the room there was a desk with a few chairs around it. The mayor begged her to sit down and pushed a chair to her, like a cavalier, while she did so. After that he deposited a cup of tea with a trivet in front of her. He then poured tea in another cup for himself and sat down opposite to her.

"It's nice to see you, princess." He started.

"Thanks for the hearty greeting, mayor," She said taking her cup in one hand and sipped at the tea.

"The present days are anxious and not safe," said the mayor with an aggrieved voice.

"The Sharpclaw attacked many villages in our lands and abducted their inhabitants to their stronghold. I'm worried about that we will be the next."

"What brings you to that presumption, mayor?" the princess asked.

"One of our hunters spotted a Sharpclaw scout within the forest. He was headed in the direction of our village."

"I understand. As soon as I am back at the capital city, I'll submit your assumption to my father. He'll send you then an escort so you and the rest of the village will be brought safely to the capital city," the princess announced.

"Thank you dearly." He took a sip of his cup. "Well! Now that we've finished that delicate theme, how have you been in the past days, princess?" But before she had the chance to answer, a loud explosion sounded and people screamed in response.

The mayor hastily stood up and his chair fell over. His cup dropped to the wooden floor and cracked. "That's the Sharpclaw! They appeared earlier than I expected," He said as he went to the window and looked out at the situation.

Enemy soldiers charged through the blown up main entrance into the village. The villagers were bludgeoned with the Sharpclaw's edgeless weapons and dragged out of the village.

The escort of the princess drew their swords, spears, and staffs and faced the enemy forces. Some of the Sharpclaw clambered up the buildings and jumped onto the soldiers from above. They weren't prepared and all of the Cerinian soldiers were quickly disabled. Some other Sharpclaw lit torches and threw them onto the straw of the roofs of some buildings.

The mayor stepped back from the window so that he wouldn't be seen and the enemies wouldn't try to capture the princess and him self.

"We have to hide you, princess!" His muted voice reached out to her.

"I can't, I have to fight--"

"No. If you fall into their hands, they would be on the verge of winning the war. I know your father; he would do anything to secure your safety."

Shortly after that, the door of the room was pushed open by a loud bang and two enemy soldiers charged into the room onto Krystal. The mayor went to stop them but was quickly overwhelmed. Krystal's quiet outcry escaped from her muzzle, which she tried to cover with her hands. She saw the unconscious mayor on the ground. The two Sharpclaw soldiers closed in on her.

"Help me!"


John groaned and woke up. He heard someone calling for help and this call still sounded in his ear. It was a woman, a very young woman—a girl—and she called for help.

Dazed, he picked himself up off the ground and tried to answer the call. "Hello? Is anybody out there?" The echo resounded throughout the woods, but there was no answer. He tried again. "Hello?" Again, only his voice answered him back. John scratched his head. "I probably just imagined it."

He concentrated now on his own problems. He had determined that he had fallen deeper than it looked through the portal. "Not again..." He wasn't hurt, but he had—during the fall—messed up his t-shirt at his elbows and his trousers at both knees and was bleeding quite a bit. He also had determined that he fell about four meters and during that fall, broke several branches of some trees and then rolled down a small hill.

"Geez... That was a fall! Fortunately for me everything is in the right place," John said as he examined his body for fractures. Physically, he was ok. But, during his fall he lost his jacket and his backpack and he couldn't see either one of them. John thought that they might by laying somewhere in the bushes.

John examined his surroundings, taking note of every detail. He was in a clearing in a forest, which wasn't very bright because of the far reaching branches and the airtight foliage of the trees in his environment barely let light through.

Through a small break in the canopy did he see the sky, but it was clouded. That's why John couldn't say if it was morning or afternoon. After a short meditation, he thought that the time of day was not as important as where he was and he'd have to figure that out above all else.

But first he had to find his jacket and his backpack. Then he remembered his MP3-Player, which was fortunately still in his pants pocket and after a short test, he found that it still worked.

John managed to find his things, which luckily landed not too far away from his current position. John became aware that the gravity on this planet was very similar to the gravity on Earth and he didn't get any kind of super jumping or strength because it wasn't weaker.

He found his back pack and went through the contents. "Some schoolbooks and note pads, a pencil case and some pencils, and my almost completely filled one-and-a-half liter bottle and a ham sandwich. Not exactly the luxury I had before I came here. Well, MacGyver had to come to terms with less. I better eat the sandwich now, because who the hell knows what kind of monsters are running around here and could smell this!" Since it was really beginning to swelter, he took off his jacket and tied it around his stomach so as not to lose it. John thought it would be important to keep his jacket, because he didn't know if this temperature continued until night or if it would drop.

After he finally was ready to leave, John made sure to keep an eye out for any potentially existing civilizations or food or water sources that he might encounter and made himself aware of his environment so as not to fall into another hole.

"These are actually the same things as in a jungle on Earth," He thought to himself. "Trees, bushes, rocks, grasses of all kind that dangle from the trees and... dirt." The first proof that John then found, which proved that he wasn't on Earth anymore, was a bird. The bird was about the size of a raven and wore a red and white plumage. His breast held a dark-orange tone with visible thin, red stripes that ran horizontal. His head was raven-like too, but from his head to his neck was a Native-American-like head dress. John remembered the Native-Americans, but took note that the bird's head-dress was a bright orange to cherry-red tone. Again, he had a raven-like--but very down bowed—beak. His tail feathers were about a half-meter long and were a fiery red at the beginning and got brighter to up end where they finally ended in white.

This proof, however, was destroyed by a more useful heads up when the bird perched on one of the trees, which was covered with needles and leaves that strongly resembled the leaves of a maple tree. However, these were by far bigger. When the bird perched, the tree closed around it like a carnivore and did not let go despite the bird's intense resistance. The bird stopped moving and bawling some moments later. "Very well, then! I should keep this in mind: these spine trees are not very friendly." John said to himself as he made the mental note.

The first thing that he thought, after he had seen all these weird things, was: "When I wound up here, why not Ethan too? He would really like it over here. At least, we always wanted such an adventure but we didn't want to do it without the other." He sadly remembered some of the things that went against that theory and actuality impaired his mood. "He was only eight years old then, and he was only wearing his swimming trunks." He shook his head to dispel the dark thoughts. "If I find a native, I'll just ask him. That will settle it!" With his newly collected bravery he set off.

John walked through the unknown and to make the walk more enjoyable he plugged his headphones into the MP3-Player and started to listen to some of the music from his favorite band. He knew he had the right song for this situation on his player, so he searched for it and played it. "I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known. Don't know where it goes, but its home to me and I walk alone..." John really loved this band. They always hit the government with their lyrics at the exact place where it hurt the most and brought people together.

On his trip John saw some curious and fascinating things. For example: an apparently endless waterfall where azure water fell into the deep between stones and created a huge shroud of mist. "My shadow's the only one that walks beside me. My shadow's heart's the only thing that's beating." John passed rather large mushrooms that hopped away as he drew near. As is the rule, there were a lot of stones and toppled trees in the jungle and it was all in John's way. He had to climb over or walk around them in order to keep moving in the same direction. They didn't present any problems to him, but they were really annoying and he lost much needed time. During his trip though the jungle, John was finally able to see the sky. It wasn't as blue as the one on Earth, but had a more turquoise colored tone. He was able to see the sun, and as far as he could tell it was already afternoon.

It was astonishing to walk underneath two beautiful birds. They flew in a bow around each other, which was narrowed, and they almost touched each other's chest and until they broke apart, only to begin the process again.

The whole journey wasn't silent; it wasn't startling to John who used to hear singing from the two birds he has seen before. John was amazed at the beauty of the sounds and he turned off his music player to listen. It was a very enjoyable, soft singing--like out that of a wooden flute--and the tone resounded throughout the entire jungle. It almost inspired a thought inside of John that would make him think that this planet was paradise. The singing was colorful, relaxing, and entrancing to listen to.

Eventually the singing grew hushed. John assumed that the birds wanted to begin the "mating ritual" and decided it was best to move along.

Only now did he recognize that this part of the jungle was relatively quiet. Off and on John would hear the outcry of a bird or a very deep sounding croak of a frog. He could not constantly and that amazed him to an extent.

During his journey through the unknown John, had to stop to relieve him-self and to fill his bottle at rivers and lagoons where he was sure that some cow-like animals indulged in before. After some hours of walking, John had to admit to himself that his sandwich only filled him to a minimal degree. So, he used the same strategy to get more. He laid a distance away from some bushes with fruits or berries in the high grass, eagerly anticipating animals to either eat them or just walked pass them. Depending on whether the animals ate them or not proved if the fruits and berries were safe to eat. He would also have to try to catch an animal but he was confronted with two problems: he had to kill the animals, but was an ardent animal lover and would loath doing it; on the other hand, he had to cook or barbecue them somehow. The raw meat could contain E-coli or salmonella, which would probably kill him. "Hopefully there aren't any space-ticks here or something weird like that." John continued mumbling and began stalking. He had to scratch himself often, but that was caused mostly by his sweat or some kind of plant, that he was apparently allergic to. His skin went red without scratching it after he touched it. John thought that it would be better to use his jacket as a kind of blanket. So, he untied the knot around his belly and laid his jacket on the ground in front of him before he sat on it.

He tried some of the fruits, which he saw were eaten by the animals. They looked like raspberries with smaller bodies, and unlike usual, were bunched together as big as an apple. "Huh… they taste like pears with less size but have a strange strawberry like aftertaste," he thought and continued eating. When he had had enough, he picked some more and packed them into his backpack. He didn't know when he would find something to eat again. "Discretion is the better part of valor." He looked around. "This is a strange place," he thought loudly. "The sky is turquoise, the plants are numerous, and the animals look like they would have escaped from a laboratory."

Night finally settled in and he reasoned that it was a good idea to keep his jacket on because it grew colder. In the slowly fading sunlight he tried to make a bed out of fallen foliage and dead bushes. First, he swept a dry place under a tree with a still well leafed branch. With the branch, he cleared any stones and rotten fruits away. After that he searched his environment for dry foliage, which turned out to be more difficult than sweeping the ground because this planet held humid air and that was why less leaves and foliage were around. His so-called bed looked more than a raked up hill of leaves than a bed. "It's not like at home, but it's better than nothing," he thought. While he was looking at the absolute alien night sky, which was peppered with stars, Johns was amazed at the universe in the form of a swirl. He began brooding over where Earth could be in that cluster of stars and if he was still in the same universe he came from. While he thought he slowly began to fall asleep.

With all his thinking he completely missed the cataclysmic light on the horizon some kilometers afar.


Author notes:
So, my beta reader re-checked this chapter and corrected some errors.

Thanks to DarkInSpace

I also changed the age of Krystal, before she was about 5 now she is about 7, the reason will be mentioned later in the story.