The vast expanse of space and light illuminated the entire universe with its shining stars and with its enormous whirling balls of fire aka suns. Nothing could have interrupted that peace….EXCEPT for the occasional fighting between the numerous planets aligned with the Galactic Council of Universal peace and the Shadow Supremacy. So this was a typical day to start off with- Hundreds of space ships hovering above one planet blasting each other off and the debris falling straight down and crushing innocent people. I promptly dumped the holorecorder inside my pocket and jumped over the crate we were hiding behind.
"Duck!!!!" I yelled, directing my words at the most ignorant person a man could ever be with. A bullet whizzed above us as Hank and I hid, the bullet missing our heads by an inch. "What's wrong with you?" I questioned, panicked but he ignored me and continued meddling with a circular object. I glared at him, infuriated and hastily grabbed my gun from the floor and then gunned down a Shadow trooper before standing up and dragging Hank to safety by his collar while he was meddling with a BOMB.
So anyway, the name's Van Gravlin and I'm the last of the of the Corpesian dynasty of the Plantigoran Empire. I'm a cool prince who would have inherited his father's throne if it wasn't for a war that tore apart the Tenoclese galaxy. Now that you know I'm a prince, if you think I'm all cozy in my luxurious palace, you're wrong because I'm with my annoying excuse of a cousin, hiding inside a ship against orders. If Hank's dad who also happened to be my uncle discovered that we stowed away, it was the end for us. Wish us Luck!
Literally, I'm hiding inside my uncle's flagship behind a pile of crates and due to unfortunate circumstances, we we're in the midst of a confrontation between the Shadow Supremacy and the Forexian Space Force. The Shadow fleet consists of two incredibly huge cruisers that were engaging in this massive confrontation. Basically, they're trying to conquer the planet. And again, I'm committing this "disappointing" (in my uncle's perspective) act with a person who's barely suitable, which is the one and only Hank- prince of Forexian and self declared scientist plus king of geeks.
By the way, we're human! We were doing our best to conceal ourselves from my uncle because he wasn't the calm type in such situation. And then there were the Shadow Walkers whom we had to evade. They had just blasted the walls of the cargo hold and entered the ship. The Forexians didn't even the have the time to hesitate. After an intense battle inside the hold, the Forexian soldiers retreated in to the corridors, barring the hold doors. The enemy forces broke in through the vents and entered the corridors firing at the soldiers out of the blue and the fighting resumed.
Hank and I stealthily exited the storage and climbed the stairs. The corridors were engulfed in smoke and cluttered with dead soldiers. It was suffocating and we were compelled to cover our noses and mouths as we tried to move towards the command bridge aka the control center of the ship. On our way, a bullet passed through and I swiftly pulled Hank behind me. "Give me your gun! Now!!" I ordered overcome by an adrenaline rush. I grabbed the gun from Hank and hid behind some crates fixed on the floor and began firing at point blank. Turns out, I'm a terrible shot and seventeen bullets were wasted on just one solider. And that one wasn't even downed.
We ran through endless corridors dodging gun shots and electrical crossbow arrows, allowing the Forexian soldiers to handle the Shadow soldiers. As we ran down the stairs, I could see my uncle fighting off a few enemies in the hallway and I stopped Hank. "We can't go that away! Your dad's over there and he won't be happy to see us." "There's a corridor to the left of the armory that will lead us right down to the bridge!" Hank replied, trembling. The situation was not good.
We ran back one corridor and turned left from the armory before stumbling upon the bridge doors. The doors were blocked from the other side and I tried as hard as I could to push the doors but my attempts were fruitless. I was tempted to ram the door with Hank's stiff skull but ultimately decided against it. "Move aside!" Hank yelled, grabbing a grenade from his satchel he hurled it at the doors, blasting them open. "You remember that now!??" I bellowed, annoyed.
"Uh I would like to remind you that I am not obliged to remember what I store in my bag! Plus I'm the prince of Forexia! I have royal stuff to do as well! How can I remember everything with thousands of things in my mind?" he retorted, and there was an unnerving calmness in his words.
We entered the massive chamber and saw officers and soldiers scrambling around. Dozens of enemy ships in confrontation with their Forexian counterparts were visible. The two of us swiftly hid behind a desk as we saw a familiar, buffed figure approaching. But even before we could breathe, uncle Antilles materialized before us with his sword pointed and ready to slash and pounce. He was about to strike but stopped just in time when he noticed it was us. A look of utter dismay and disbelief was thrown upon us.
"Um….Hi uncle Antilles… it's really nice to see you here…especially when you're not brawling outside…" I greeted, gulping. "Hi…. dad! Fancy seeing you here," Hank greeted nervously. "WHAT ARE YOU BOYS DOING HERE???" he roared. "Well… uh…we were going to the library and we I guess we took a wrong turn, ending up here," Hank answered in a tremulous voice. More Shadow Walkers were barging in and the Forexians were doing their best to hold them back. "Urgh I'm going to deal with you when we go home and this time, the consequences will be high," the Forexian monarch said, asserting superiority to his words.
He ran towards the doors where the Forexians were fighting, drew his sword and pointing it towards the enemy, chanted something gibberish. The opponents disappeared before reappearing outside the space-craft and dissolving. We shuffled off but felt the king scowling at us. Uncle Antilles had the "you're grounded" look on his face.
Suddenly, the Shadow ships began retreating and in no time, the Forexian flagship started descending towards the planet, followed by the other ships. The massive cruiser landed in the capital of Forexia, The Tree of Wisdom, and we could see the city spreading for miles and miles in to the distance. The most noticeable landmark was the ginormous tree sprouting up in the middle of the city, the size of at least three hundred storey skyscrapers.
The Tree of Wisdom was two things. It was the actual name of the massive tree and an academy was built around this tree to protect it and grant distinguished education to its students. The school was called the Tree of Wisdom academy while the capital city was also known as the Tree of Wisdom. The Tree of Wisdom city isn't the perfect example of modernity and was limited in towering buildings, retaining its ancient architecture.
The vessel landed in the assigned military base which was just a few kilometres from the palace. The royal palace of Forexia is also constructed around another giant tree but it isn't as big as the Tree of Wisdom tree.
Before uncle Antilles could spot us we sped off towards a flying limousine that was to ferry us to the palace. We boarded the vehicle just as he reached the door and told the driver to drive as fast as he could. The limousine sped off and I could see my uncle fuming at us through the rear window. We reached the palace in no time and promptly ran towards the huge mahogany doors which were encrusted with spiritual designs of dragons, that led in to the complex.
The doors swung open and Princess Megana Parkenson, sister of Hank and daughter of the king Antilles, graced us with her presence. She distinguished herself from her brother and she was bit more sporty and careful.
The heir to the Forexian princess had received the news from her father and she wasn't impressed one bit. The princess had been my constant savior for the past few years when we got in to trouble like this and had to escape my uncle's wrath. "This will be the last time I save you Van!" she snapped, noticing the expectant look on my eyes before sweeping back inside, followed by her long retinue.
I returned to the two storey room uncle had given me just a week ago. He always thought that normal SINGLE storied rooms weren't adequate. Thankfully, he cared about me as much as he cared about Hank; I didn't feel lonely at all because of him, Hank and Megana. Just as he loved me, he hated to see me onboard any spaceship because he didn't want to risk the futures of Plantigora, Forexia and the whole Tenoclese galaxy for any reason.
About forty five minutes later, soon after I had refreshed myself and changed in to my Blue and black robes, someone knocked on the door twice. Forexians took customs really seriously. Two knocks on the door meant that your maid or man-servant had brought you a message or something. "Come in!" I yelled and the same maid, who had brought me to Forexia entered. She had been my mother's closest confidante. The maid was holding two trays. One tray held blue and silver robes while the other tray had a pair of black boots designed with curved silver lines.
"King Antilles has summoned you to the royal court right now, Lord Gravlin. And he wants you to don this," she conveyed, bowing. "Thank you-!" I replied. Forgetting her name was a habit for me and sometimes it was intentional. She had to remind me every time. 'Irma, sir!' she corrected. "Oh yeah! Sorry! I'll get ready," I responded and hastily changed before following her to the throne room. Every other door in the palace was made of mahogany but the court room door had been exported from the planet Unitopia. It was made of marble and was decorated with attractive blue curves, like the ones you would see in your china. The herald announced my entrance to the courtiers and officials and the door opened instantly. Everybody was staring at me, exchanging awkward glances with each other. It was really humiliating and embarrassing.
"Silence! The king is about to speak!" the king's herald yelled. Hank was standing beside me with his attendants on his side. "You two have done something unforgivable! This is the seventeenth and last time you will do it… You're fourteen years of age now and private tutoring doesn't seem to be effective. You will leave the palace by dawn and go to the Tree of Wisdom academy, where you'll have plenty to do to occupy yourselves!" King Antilles ordered. Yuck!!School!! It was the worst punishment ever. I enjoyed private tutoring! I mean Uncle Antilles provided Hank and myself with the best tutors in the galaxy and it was so easy to evade them and sneak off! This was pure craziness!
He couldn't have been serious could he? Megana did tell me she would convince him not to punish us so I guess she still hadn't had the chance to do so. "But why are we the only ones? Aren't there more unruly royals that have to attend? And obviously I can't stay with Hank!" I protested but my objections were futile. "Yeah!! And I'm a royal prince!! I'm second in line to the throne!" Hank chimed in. "Hank! You're growing older! NOT YOUNGER! I will relinquish your titles if you continue behaving like this!! BE LIKE YOUR SISTER!! You better do as I command!!" the Forexian monarch bellowed, enraged by Hank's naivety. Megana smirked. Hank grit his and stared at the ground, ashamed. I was tempted to laugh at him for his over confidence but the gravity of the situation prevented it.
"But uncle, I can't be learning with only Hank like I've been doing for the past eight years!!" I cried and my uncle directed his gaze at me. "Don't worry Van! I have plans for that as well!" The marble doors swung open and a teenage girl with blonde hair and gleaming blue eyes entered, wearing silver and white robes. I guessed her to be an ambassador from the planet Yantin because it had silver and white flags everywhere. (I saw silver and white flags on my visit to Yantin.)
THE BACK STORY
Hi I'm Van Gravlin. First off, let me explain the current state of my galaxy. My galaxy is far away from the galaxy you earth-lings call the Milky- Way. Its millions of light years away and is christened the Tenoclese galaxy. The year is UY1121 (universal year) Around fifteen years prior, outsiders known as the Mythicans entered this galaxy and waged war against the peaceful solar systems that inhabited it. They identified themselves as the Shadow Walkers and soon had a massive army with their forces hailing from all the planets they conquered. Their leader- Shadow lord Blackett Nightsilver, was the most ambitious and heartless person ever known. This was known as the First Shadow War. Unfortunately, while a host of planets were able to withstand the conflict, my home world fell prey to their conquest and my parents sacrificed themselves trying to protect Plantigora. Fortunately, my mothers handmaidens ferried me to safety to the planet Forexia, where my maternal uncle ruled. He was the brother of my mother. I'm probably finishing up a whole page but I'll have to explain everything or you won't understand anything happening in this galaxy.