She came to this planet on a voyage. She hadn’t seen it in her radar, and this wasn’t her stop, but she needed fuel. She looked at her gauges to see what the atmosphere was like. Oxygen levels looked to be what she needed. Nothing read as a threat and from what she could see through her windows, it didn’t look like there was much life.
Her ship landed with a gentle thud, and she stepped off the landing. She looked around, took a deep breath, and exhaled, listening to the sounds of this place. It was quiet. Almost too quiet.
She packed her backpack with food and supplies. She put her laser gun in her leg holster and pulled out her scanner. She scanned the wide lands, trying to find a life source but saw nothing. She started to walk.
After a few hours she stopped. She needed water and some food to keep her strength up. As she sat on the green grass, she looked around. In the distance, she saw what looked to be a small hill hidden behind a vast forest, smoke pluming from its peak.
It looked still, like a day’s walk. But she needed fuel. She decided to head in that direction where the smoke would guide her. She pulled out a diary while she ate and marked her location so she could find her way back to the ship. Once she finished, she stood up and started walking.
A few more hours and she made it to the edge of the forest and stopped. She looked up at the towering trees. Grand shrubs and bushes with blooming flowers stood tall, almost over her head, and she realized she was not in a normal place. It was starting to get dark, and she needed to find a place to stay. She stepped foot into the forest and made her way down a small path, looked to be made by wild animals.
She came upon a small cottage covered in beautiful plants and flowers and the ground around it covered in green grass as though someone lived here and was taking care of this small place. She pulled out her scanner and scanned the house, attempting to find some sort of life. A small red spot appeared on her scanner. She carefully approached the cottage and peaked in the window.
A small child was alone. She went to the door and reached for the handle. Just as she did, the handle turned itself. The door opened and there was the child, looking up at her. She knelt and said, “What is your name”?
“Cindsely”, she said quietly.
“That’s a pretty name. My name is Blakely.” Blakely said. “Where are your parents?”
“I don’t know. They left to find food and I heard a strange noise. They haven’t come back.”
“Do you mind if I come in? If you are hungry, I have some food. I could make us some dinner.”
“Ok” said Cindsely as she opened the door cautiously.
Blakely went to the table and set down her pack. She pulled out some food and asked Cindsely if she wanted to help prepare their meal. Cindsely walked over and Blakely handed her some bread.
“Do you know where the pots and pans are?”
Cindsely pointed to a cupboard next to the stove. Blakely pulled out a small pot and chopped up some potatoes, carrots and an onion and added it to a pot of boiling water. When it was finished cooking, the two sat down and had a simple meal.
“Cindsely, you said you heard a strange noise and haven’t seen your parents? Do you know how long ago they left?”
“A couple days ago.”
“What kind of noise did you hear?”
“It was kind of a growling noise.”
“Like a wild animal kind of growl?”
“No. Like a growl and it shook the cottage a little.”
“Was it like a low rumbling?”
“Yes!”
Blakely knew then that that small hill was a volcano. She knew that it was still another half day walk to the volcano. “Cindsely’s parents had been gone for a couple days. It’s possible they made it up to the volcano and something happened,” Blakely thought.
“How long have you been staying here”, Blakely asked her.
“Not very long. This isn’t our home. Our ship crashed and we found this cottage. Daddy wasn’t sure he could fix it, so mommy and daddy brought all our stuff here.”
“Do you know if there are any animals around here?”
“I really haven’t seen any.”
“Ok. So here is what we are going to do. I can’t leave you here and if something happened to your parents, I need to find them. I need fuel for my ship, and I can take the 3 of you with me if I can find fuel and your parents, Ok?”
“Ok”, said Cindsely.
Blakely helped Cindsely a bag and refilled their packs with some necessary supplies. They went to bed to get some good rest so they could make their way to the volcano and try to find her parents.
When morning came, a small bright stream of light broke through the treetops and into their windows. They woke up, got out of bed, ate a little breakfast, and headed out the door.
The cool morning air was refreshing, and the sun sparkled off the dew in the grass and flowers.
Cindsely shivered a little and Blakely went back in to get a shawl for Cindsely. She wrapped it around her and took her little hand in hers. They started to walk. A couple hours went by and Cindsely started getting tired. They sat down for a quick rest and a drink.
Cindsely reach over and pick a large reddish-pink flower off a bush that was next to them. She handed it to Blakely as a thank you for helping her and not leaving her alone again. After a small rest, they stood up and started again.
A loud rumble shook the ground and terrified Cindsely. “that’s the noise that I heard”, she said.
“Oh really? I think that’s a volcano. I saw smoke before I reached the forest. Let’s keep walking.”
As they walked, they stepped over fallen trees, carefully through brambles the covered the path at their feet and crossed a stream or two. One of the streams surrounded by soft green grass invited them to sit and rest awhile. They made a little bite to eat and Cindsely fell asleep on the grass. Blakely knew she was tired, so she let her nap a bit and she decided to climb up a tree to see how close they were to the volcano.
She climbed to the tops and looked out to where the smoke was billowing from. “It’s not far now”, she said to herself. “Just another hour or so.” She started to climb down, and her foot missed a branch. She fell hard and fast hitting and breaking branches as she did.
She landed with a hard thud and “CRACK”. She screamed in pain. Cindsely woke up and ran to Blakely. “Are you ok?”
“Oh Cindsely, no I am not. I fell from the tree and broke my wrist and a couple ribs. My foot is broken too. I am going to need your help, ok?”
“Ok Cindsely” said.
“Ok listen carefully, ok. I need you get my backpack and then find some strong sticks, ok?”
“OK”, Cindsely said.
Cindsely returned with her backpack and then ran off to find some sticks.
Blakely dug through her bag for some bandages and rope. She wrapped the bandage around her ribs to bind them until she could get back to her ship. Cindsely returned with an armful of sticks.
“These are perfect. Ok, can you hold these two on each side of my foot and I will tie them down with the rope”, she said as she handed two sticks to Cindsely. With Cindsely’s help she tied the sticks to her foot like a brace and repeated the process with her wrist.
Cindsely ran off to find another much larger stick for Blakely to use as a crutch. After much longer than Blakely wanted it to take, they finally reached the base of the volcano. It rumbles again and shook the ground under them.
They looked around and called for Cindsely’s parents. There was no answer. They tried to walk around to see if they could see anything but there was no one. The ground rumbled and shook under them again.
Blakely looked up and a big plumage of smoke filled the sky. Pops and sparks started shooting out of the volcano. She looked at Cindsely as, what started out a small stream of thick red liquid, started running down the side of the volcano.
“IT’S ERUPTING!!!” Shouted Blakely. “WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE”.
Cindsely screamed and started running back they way them came. It wasn’t a full eruption and Blakely had counted on that to give them time to be able to get out of there safely.
She told Cindsely to keep running and she hobbled as fast as she could with her broken foot. They hurried as quickly as they could for several hours. Blakely was in a lot of pain, but it was pain or death as she wasn’t sure when the volcano would fully erupt. She needed to get Cindsely out of danger.
Suddenly Cindsely started yelling for Blakely to come to her. She had found something in the forest.
“It’s our ship!”
“What!” said Blakely.
“It’s our ship, it’s our ship.”
Blakely limped over to where Cindsely was. She looked up and saw a small light in the window.
“Are you able to climb up there,” Blakely looked at Cindsely.
“Yes, I think so”.
Cindsely climbed up into the ship and yelled “Mommy, Daddy.”
“Cindsely, did you find your parents”, Blakey called up to her.
“YES. I FOUND MY MOMMY AND DADDY”, She poked her head out of the door.
“Tell them they need to come down and we need to leave now. I don’t know how much time we have to get out of here.”
A few minutes later Cindsely and her parents emerged from their ship. Her mother was also injured badly.
“What happened?” Blakely asked.
“We went out to find food. Trazina fell. She hit her head hard. She has a concussion and isn’t very stable. It made her vision blur, and she has lost some her balance.” Blakely looked at her.
“We need to bandage her head. I have a ship about days walk from here. But I need fuel. Is there fuel in your ship?”
“Yes. I have a tank. I can pull the fuel from the engine. I’m Treagan by the way.”
“Blakely. And thank you. We need to get us all out of here. Get the fuel as quickly as you can while I bandage Trazina’s head.”
She reached in her back and grabbed the bandage wrapping her head tightly to stop the bleeding.
Once Treagan was done gathering the fuel they hurried out of there as fast as they could. The pain Blakely was feeling was more than she thought she could handle but they had to get to her ship if they wanted to survive.
After hours of stopping and resting and stopping and resting they made it back to the cottage. They gathered all the things they thought they could carry back to the ship.
They made a cart of sorts to be able to carry their belongings. And they ate a quick bite and started back out saying goodbye to the things they were leaving behind. A while later they reached the edge of the forest and stepped out into the vast green clearing. Blakely knew it would be a few more hours and they would be back on the ship.
After a few more hours they arrived at Blakely’s ship. Treagan filled the ship with fuel and Blakely and Cindsely loaded Trazina and their belongings in the ship. Then Treagan followed them in. She started up her ship and they started to fly up into the air. They looked out the window to give one final look at the land below and in the distance, they saw the volcano fully erupt, lava and ash spewing everywhere.
They took off in the sky as quickly and as safely as they could returning to the safety of space.
Trazina hugged her daughter tightly as Treagan helped navigate the ship.
They were free of that place and would never again look back.

The End