A Hero In The Dark

Chapter 160: A Hero In The Dark

~ Six Months Later ~

I watch my Brother sit and play with Pixie at the table in the Common Area. He laughs and tosses a rubber bouncy ball – his favorite bouncy ball of a rainbow and blue color – for the bunny to fetch. She shapeshifts into a hawk and flies into the air to catch it after its first bounce. Then returns it to his hand before morphing back.

"Woah!" my Brother exclaims with such excitement. "Do it again! Do it again!"

John and I sit on another bench across the room. He holds me, his arm tucked close around my waist, and I hold him, my body and head leaning against his shoulder.

Pixie glances at me and I nod at her and smile. And this time, she morphs into a tiny cricket, chirping loudly while my Brother leans closer to inspect the new animal with glee. It warms my heart to see; it was one of the first forms she changed into. My Brother holds out a finger toward the cricket to touch its bright green back and that is when she jumps. She jumps from the table to the floor, startling him but he seems all the more excited by her movement.

I call her name and she jumps towards me, using her hind legs to make one large jump to cover at least 3-feet of distance before changing form again into a larger creature. Long and strong legs, sharp claws, pointy ears, and a blonde-to-orange mane around her neck. And then she is running at me.

Running at me as a lion. She runs at me and stops at my knees and I pet her on the head brush my hand into her fur. Brush my hand into her fur until my hand disappears into it.

"Hey girl," I say happily. Then I give her a quick couple pats on her back and instruct her to run back to my Brother.

She does and on her way she changes again from a mighty lion to a Komodo Dragon, another one of her common forms. And crawls eagerly and excitedly back to my Brother's place. He scratches at the lizard's scaly head and she shapeshifts back into her usual preferred form of the tanned bunny with the white round tail; the bunny I have come to love since I stumbled onto her that first day in the clearing.

When Sam hurries into the room from the cockpit with massive enthusiasm on his face, my attention shifts and my curiosity jumpstarts me fully awake.

"Guys!" Sam shouts. "Lexa says you might want to see this!"

"Is something wrong?" my Mother asks from her place in the middle of the room.

"Not wrong really; no," Sam answers. "Just come take a look."

None of us say another word and instead follow Sam into the cockpit. My Mother gestures to my Brother to follow and they latch hands before entering the cockpit with John, Pixie, and I.

"Lexa?" John asks. "What's going on?"

"See for yourself," is all she says in reply as she motions out of the ship display.

John and I do. And I cannot believe the sight that which I see.

There is a planet. A planet that is dark and grey, close to the darkest black the black of the universe and space surrounding it but not so. It is dark yet just light enough to be able to distinguish the difference between the planet and the vast void of space; it is dark yet just light enough to see where the planet is, where its outer borders end and where the stars begin. I don't know how far away we are from its atmosphere but it seems smaller than Earth. Much smaller in fact. At least ten times smaller than my own.

"Is that it?" asks my younger Brother hugging tight to my Mother's leg. "Is that your home?"

"It should be," Lexa answers. "Unless we somehow stumbled onto another planet on accident."