Chapter Two:

The Verdant Fields

Kara Zor-El had usually obeyed her father's wishes, but he had been so obstinate lately. She was getting older, and he would have to accept it, but Kara was worried he never would. She was halfway through her sixteenth suncycle, and her seventeenth birthday—wherein she would gain mature status under Kryptonian law—was quickly approaching, but as far as Kara was concerned, not quickly enough. She could barely wait to finish up this year, her last in tertiary school, and head off for three suncycles at University. She had elected to go away for college, too far, her mother would say, when they had two of Krypton's best Universities within an hour of travel. Argo City University, located in the heart of its namesake's metropolitan area, was where Kara's father, the 'supreme scientist' Zor-El (as she liked to call him), worked and did his research. He taught a few classes as well, a fact that immediately discounted it for the young teenager. It was difficult enough belonging to one of the most recognized houses on Krypton and raised by one of the most important men in the city. It would be even worse going to a school when people would complain to her about her father's impossible exams on astrophysics. The other nearby school, located in the small university town Astatine, was where many of Kara's classmates were headed. Kara didn't say it aloud, but the fact that some of those classmates had been admitted there seriously damaged the school's credibility, despite its high rankings and enormous prestige.

Kara had decided instead that she would go to the University of Kandor, all the way across the Sea of Banzt. Not only was the city supposed to be one of the most cultured on the planet, the University had a renowned archeology program. Part of Kandor was built on the ruins of the massive tombs of the Xan, an ancient race of sentient beings that colonized on Krypton hundreds of thousands of suncycles ago, before Krypton's First Age. Access to these tombs, so famous they were one of the 13 Wonders of the World, was incredibly limited. But third-years in the archeology program took an entire unit on them, and would spend days studying them and learning about the beings that built them. It was an incredibly competitive and coveted academic focus, but Kara had never lacked for intelligence.

For now, Kara was on the back of an ion-bike with a boy her father disapproved of. She didn't like being cliché, and she didn't like the boy because of any rebellious streak… she told herself over and over and over again. He was in her year at school, though two tracks below her and with considerably fewer options for his future. His name was Ash-Den, and the two had been seeing each other for a few weeks now. Ash had asked her out to go to the Cineplex, and her father had blanched when he saw the boy pull up on his bike.

Kara had never been into boys, or boys had never been into her. She grew up 'lacking all the nice feminine qualities' her mother would say smiling, with a twinkle in her eye that always hinted to Kara—though it was never actually confirmed—that her mother had been the same way in her youth. Kara intimidated most boys, both with her brazen attitude and her jaw-dropping good looks, and she couldn't date anyone who was intimidated by her. But the boys were finally catching up, and her blue eyes and blonde hair down to her tailbone enchanted the hearts of many.

Now Kara and Ash were riding through the crowded streets of Argo City, weaving through traffic like water. Up ahead a giant holoscreen on the side of a building showed the launchpad of the Starfire, where scientists prepared for the shuttle's departure. Her father had reminded her about it several times today, but she had insisted that it was nothing she hadn't seen before. She and Ash were headed for the Verdant Fields just East of the city. The grass that covered the rolling hills there captured the moonlight in a unique way that turned the landscape a haunting, glistening green. Kara's father had explained to her when she was young that the grass itself didn't sparkle, but the grains of quartz rock that had been crushed and grinded over the eons and had unusually mixed in with the soil.

As they reached the outskirts of the city the traffic thinned out and Ash increased the bike's velocity. It roared ahead, its hover-thrusters kicking up a layer of a dust beneath them. Kara had put her long hair up in a tight braid, but with the wind blowing in her face the knot untied and her hair whipped out behind her and waved as the bike screamed ahead. Kara laughed and held onto Ash tighter and wondered briefly what it would be like to leave the city, to venture abroad, far from anything she had ever known. It would be exciting, just like it was to ride this bike with Ash, but also like speeding down these streets, she knew that part of her, a part which she would not reveal to anyone, was very scared.

They pulled off the road ten miles outside the city as the sun was setting.

"I hope these clouds go away," Ash said as he killed the engine. The hover-thrusters powered down and the vehicle's legs protracted and it came to rest on them. "The fields won't light up very well."

"We can always come back another day," she replied and hoisted herself off the back of the bike.

Ash ran a hand through his short brown hair to put it back into place. He looked at Kara and smiled his devastatingly handsome smile.

"So you'll want to come back?"

Kara smiled with the right side of her mouth and averted her date's eyes. "We'll just have to see."

Ash laughed with a single grunt and dismounted his bike. He extended a hand, which Kara took, and they walked out into the field. The sound of insects filled the air, the last of their calls before the autumn months would lower the temperature and send them into hiding. Their chirps were interrupted by the ring of Kara's holophone. With her free hand she reached into her bag and pulled it out and, when she saw it was her father, turned it off.

"Who was that?" Ash asked.

"Just my father. I can call him back."

Ash looked ahead and only nodded. Kara looked at him questioningly, wondering what he was thinking.

"You don't have to worry," she said, "he likes you."

Ash smiled in a manner that seemed to thank her for lying. "No he doesn't."

"He does! He's not crazy about the bike, maybe."

"Kara, it's okay. It's completely understandable."

This took her aback enough for her to forget that she was trying to convince him otherwise. "What do you mean?" She asked.

Ash shrugged his shoulders and said simply, "You're an El."

"So what?"

Ash laughed, a real laugh this time. "I'm a Den. Would you like to know my family history?"

Kara didn't answer, not because she didn't want to know but because she knew full well where this conversation was heading.

"My great-grandfather was a very mediocre mechanic in the city, my grandfather grew up around autos and ionbikes and opened his own dealership which my father eventually took over. That's it. That's all we got. Considering the history-logs Krypton has on its citizens, you've got to be dirt poor to not show up in. Or more likely someone changed their name a few generations back."

He made the last suggestion with just a hint of darkness. Kara understood why. On a planet where heritage and ancestry is paramount, a house would have to fall under great shame for someone to doff their name. A scandal particularly humiliating or a crime particularly heinous would be the impetus for a name change and an abandonment of ones heritage.

"Not having a history isn't such a bad thing, you know," said Kara. "It frees you from expectations. It can get… Burdensome."

They walked in silence for a few steps, the grainy soil beneath them, almost like sand, absorbing all the noise of their footsteps. "So why are you worried?"

"Not all the Els have been remarkable you know. Most of them aren't. Some were even disgraces! Two hundred cycles ago, my great great great uncle Har El got caught running an amph ring. No one remembers him. We've had ups and downs, just like every other house. But people only remember the greats."

"Well, come on, Kara, there've been a lot of greats."

Kara just sighed. "I don't want to compete with them."

Ash stopped and turned to face her. She looked into his eyes as he said earnestly, "You are going to outshine them all." Kara smiled and leaned him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thanks, Ash."

They walked for a few more minutes in a comfortable silence. It was one of the reasons Kara liked being with him so much. Not only did he not feel the need to speak to break the quiet, but also when they weren't talking it didn't feel like silence.

"How's this spot?" Ash asked. They were about 150 yards from the road, and were at the top of a hill that overlooked a little basin, the grassy pasture extending as far as the horizon.

"It's great," Kara responded, and plopped to the ground ungirlishly. Ash did the same.

Suddenly, the clouds above them broke and moonlight poured onto the field. Kara had seen this many times, but it never failed to dazzle her. The soil caught the light and refracted it, a glimmering green that reflected off her skin and cast the world in its eerie glow. It was like emeralds were evaporating from ground and as far as the eye could see the meadows shined with a burning jade, like a glass bottle.

"It's beautiful," she said, but Ash was looking at the sky.

"Blessed Rao…" He said in horror. His face had flushed of its color.

Kara craned her neck to follow his gaze. "What is—."

And then she gasped. Where the clouds had parted to give a little oculus so that the light could shine through, Kara saw Wegthor, Krypton's closest moon, half shattered, its eastern hemisphere nothing but a crater and cracks, like it was a fruit that had been bitten by a God, a tail of meteors trailing behind it as it orbited westward across the sky.