Chapter 3

He crawled into a small basement of a house near the space port, curling close to the thermal heater that took up one corner and squishing himself as close to it as he could.

He was so cold and he had nowhere to go.

His head dropped as he sat beside the soothing warmth, melting the icicles in his veins and thawing toes that were almost numb. Somewhere between the thankfulness of the partially open window that didn't shut properly, and his miserable thoughts he fell asleep.

I might have nowhere left to go

But I know that I cannot go home

These voices trapped inside my head

Tell me to run before I'm dead

Nightmares haunted him.

Voices yelled at him, repeating the often heard threats that had clouded his young life. Voices that threatened his life, his health and his physical well being. Voices that were always angry, never pleased.

And a smaller, softer, but no less insistent voice that begged him to do nothing to aggravate the first voice. That same voice, smaller, yet just as insistent, urging him to run. Knowing, even as he did, that his chances for survival were better off without the pain and the pressure.

The chances were better because someday that large, angry voice would beat him to death.

He woke, barely cutting off the scream that followed the nightmare, tears streaming down his cheeks as he burrowed his face into his backpack to muffle his sobs.

There were no gentle arms to hold him, no reassuring words to chase away the nightmares. He was truly alone.

Chase the rainbows in my mind

And I will try to stay alive

Maybe the world will know one day

Why won't you help me run away

He scrounged for several weeks in the streets of the ice planet's only city. He always stayed near the spaceport, looking for another freighter to take him to another world, someplace warmer, someplace where he could disappear without being noticed.

As it was, few noticed him anyway, and he was very careful about staying out of sight. His skills developed quickly, and he noted he was as lucky being under privileged when it came to scrounging as he'd been in his house.

He obtained a pair of boots and new clothing, even a few items he traded for credits for food, as his ration bars had run out in his first week.

He was sever, agile and lanky, tall for a child his age. His mind worked out scenarios for what he would tell the authorities if he was ever caught. Perhaps he was an orphan, struggling to make a living on what little skills he had. Perhaps he was the son of a hard off family, bringing those credits he earned back to his sick mother to pay for her medicine.

That lie had earned him more credits for his trophies.

He learned quickly, adapting to life on the streets and was forced to grow up in a very short period of time.

It was one of these times, the law almost having tracked his hiding place, that he stowed away on a freighter that landed bringing more supplies to the colony.

He stowed away in the cargo hold again, sitting close to the hatch leading to the crew cabins, making himself at home and helping himself to their supplies as they took them on, careful not to be seen nor heard.

This journey was longer, and he didn't know how long he was in hyperspace for. He just knew that this freighter had kept their hold full of air and was grateful for it.

The next planet he landed on he actually heard the name of.

Ennth.