Zaran had heard the humans speak about survival of the fittest and how it applied to their own exploits. He shared the concept with his brethren and they had decided that on this planet the Randoni had to be the fittest. Humans had many worlds out there in the universe, the Randoni only the one. It had to be preserved for their species and all the other species with which they shared this life. If that meant compromising their principles, most of the Randoni agreed that their principles were meaningless if their species was wiped out. Some, however, saw this as a test of their adherence to their own morality. The council was split on this issue and the ensuing angers led to potential violence within their species, something unheard of for millennia. The elders of the Randoni council knew that violating their principles would doom them as surely as their annihilation at the hands of the enemy. The younger hot heads believed that the physical survival of their race was paramount. Tensions that had existed for decades through different philosophies were tearing their culture apart.
Most of their villages had been leveled when they stood up to the human leader Joseph. Little did Joseph know that this only goaded the Randoni into action. They had slunk away, Joseph thought with their tails between their legs to lick their wounds leaving the field open to him and his men. This thunder storm was unpredicted, but Joseph was unaware it had been manufactured by Fallon, a princess of the Randoni. Her abilities included control of such forces of nature as well as many others.
Fallon was a sweet young girl when the humans came. Only 9 Randoni years old at that time, she was one of the powerful maji already. She loved her planet and all that lived there, seeking harmony with every creature. Humans taught her to kill. Although she had not yet used the power to take life, she had learned that she had the capacity to do so. It was a frightening idea for such a young girl. Knowing that extent of her own power was both enlightening and terrifying. Even at her tender age, Fallon knew that her choices would drive her people into their future. Her teachers knew her level of power could be a temptation. They had instilled a strict moral code into the girl. Her awareness of the potential consequences of the wrong decision stayed her hand when her ire rose. She would not doom her people though displays of temper.
As she stood inside the keep, her small hands raised to summon the storm, Fallon’s soft golden fur stood on end, coming to its full 2-inch length with the electrical tension of her energy. She glowed, a soft yellow-blue light surrounding her, making her huge forest green eyes even larger. For someone so tiny she controlled incredible power. Only 2 ½ feet tall, the smallest of her age group, Fallon was respected by children and elders alike. Her posture was incredibly straight and she seemed to grow in size as the storm brewed. It was as if the power of the maj had inhabited her and caused her to expand physically in order to channel it.
Her family had been killed in the early days of the human invasion. She had been taken in by the maji clan, a group of those who wielded power beyond the norm for Randoni. Even the wizened, grey-furred Trefion was awed by the control this child had over their home world. She had summoned this storm in order to have her people covered while scouting the human camp and equipment. Her friends were among those on the scouting mission so Fallon was extremely careful to increase the force of the storm. Their lives and freedom depended on not being noticed or caught.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Chapter One
The drops of rain boomed like cannon shot as Efren’s tiny fur-covered body huddled inside the natural shelter of plants and trees. His sensitive pointed ears perked up as the swish of cloth neared his hiding place. Darkness hid him and his brothers from the intruders, providing a cover nearly impenetrable. Their very lives depended on invisibility. The pointed blue-green ferns acted as lookout as well. Their leaves, bending with the passage of the enemy, seen by the keen vision of the natives were tell-tale signs.
The rock in front of him shielded Zaran from those hideous dark eyes that sought him and his kind. The tiny sparkles of light from the stars reflected on the opaque surface of the monster shells. The laser weapons had a dull sheen as they swung back and forth in search of one of the little people. Even though the searchers used night vision the Randoni remained hidden. Their ability to camouflage themselves in spite of their light-colored fur allowed them to spy on the invaders with small risk of detection.
Little did Efren and his brothers know that their deaths were not what was being sought. Capture, a fate worse than extinction, awaited the unwary. They were the last of their kind and were being hunted for their powers. Too quickly had the humans eliminated most of the Randoni shortly after they landed on the planet, well before they knew about the powers the little people possessed, powers that could call down the wrath of the god of this planet or make it a lush paradise. The human reliance on technology blinded them to the possibilities of attunement with the environment on such a scale.
Ronji whined beside his master. His thick, dark grey coat was covered in water and bogged him down. It was his desire to loose his massive jaws on human flesh that drove him to coil his huge muscles to spring and yet his ties to Efren kept him still as the human warriors walked about seeking, searching and finding no one.
Zaran motioned to his younger brother to stay back as one human warrior approached. The boy, Efren, wanted to be included in the intelligence gathering party and yet he was too young to understand the danger. Death had not been much a part of his young life until the last year when the human beings overran Randon. He could not comprehend the end of his people much less that his own death could be imminent.
The Randoni were scouting out the human abilities with greater intent than they had done previously. When humans first appeared on their world they were accepted, welcomed. It turned into an old story that harkened back to Earth’s past, the invasion of new territory and the decimation of the native population. Efren had heard stories of how the humans had done this to others of their own kind in the past. Such stories were not believed by such a peaceful people until human fangs were bared when the Randoni tried to stop them from moving into sacred territory.
The idea that a group would be willing to massacre others for territory was too foreign to the Randoni. They lived in peace with the multitude of species on their planet. Their energetic sensitivity led them to know what other species were experiencing and gave them an empathic connection that refused to allow for cruelty. They killed for food, but in the most humane way possible. The concept of deliberate destruction of a sentient species shocked and horrified the little people.
The killings had mobilized the Randoni to defend their way of existence and their very lives. The need to take the lives of human invaders to accomplish this was against their code, however their continued existence demanded they set aside their values in order to survive. The Randoni culture was being pulled apart by the need to survive and yet maintain their identity. In their way of being all life was sacred. Taking of life was a necessity, but it was done with ritual and respect. The human invaders had not followed Randoni custom. They wholesalely slaughtered the little people. No offering of respect or ritual, not even a care for the bodies of the dead could be found in the humans’ behavior.
The rock in front of him shielded Zaran from those hideous dark eyes that sought him and his kind. The tiny sparkles of light from the stars reflected on the opaque surface of the monster shells. The laser weapons had a dull sheen as they swung back and forth in search of one of the little people. Even though the searchers used night vision the Randoni remained hidden. Their ability to camouflage themselves in spite of their light-colored fur allowed them to spy on the invaders with small risk of detection.
Little did Efren and his brothers know that their deaths were not what was being sought. Capture, a fate worse than extinction, awaited the unwary. They were the last of their kind and were being hunted for their powers. Too quickly had the humans eliminated most of the Randoni shortly after they landed on the planet, well before they knew about the powers the little people possessed, powers that could call down the wrath of the god of this planet or make it a lush paradise. The human reliance on technology blinded them to the possibilities of attunement with the environment on such a scale.
Ronji whined beside his master. His thick, dark grey coat was covered in water and bogged him down. It was his desire to loose his massive jaws on human flesh that drove him to coil his huge muscles to spring and yet his ties to Efren kept him still as the human warriors walked about seeking, searching and finding no one.
Zaran motioned to his younger brother to stay back as one human warrior approached. The boy, Efren, wanted to be included in the intelligence gathering party and yet he was too young to understand the danger. Death had not been much a part of his young life until the last year when the human beings overran Randon. He could not comprehend the end of his people much less that his own death could be imminent.
The Randoni were scouting out the human abilities with greater intent than they had done previously. When humans first appeared on their world they were accepted, welcomed. It turned into an old story that harkened back to Earth’s past, the invasion of new territory and the decimation of the native population. Efren had heard stories of how the humans had done this to others of their own kind in the past. Such stories were not believed by such a peaceful people until human fangs were bared when the Randoni tried to stop them from moving into sacred territory.
The idea that a group would be willing to massacre others for territory was too foreign to the Randoni. They lived in peace with the multitude of species on their planet. Their energetic sensitivity led them to know what other species were experiencing and gave them an empathic connection that refused to allow for cruelty. They killed for food, but in the most humane way possible. The concept of deliberate destruction of a sentient species shocked and horrified the little people.
The killings had mobilized the Randoni to defend their way of existence and their very lives. The need to take the lives of human invaders to accomplish this was against their code, however their continued existence demanded they set aside their values in order to survive. The Randoni culture was being pulled apart by the need to survive and yet maintain their identity. In their way of being all life was sacred. Taking of life was a necessity, but it was done with ritual and respect. The human invaders had not followed Randoni custom. They wholesalely slaughtered the little people. No offering of respect or ritual, not even a care for the bodies of the dead could be found in the humans’ behavior.
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