CHAPTER ONE- THE FIRST CALL

Three ships were lined up in preparation for battle, kept afloat by the disturbed waters of the Earth. Through the haze, we struggled to see the danger beyond us. And so, we held unto our own instincts as a protector and guide. Through the years, my people had learnt to pay attention to nature's call. The Earth was no longer the perfect prize that she once was. Now, she spoke a different language- a language of fear and warning. When our enemies were closer, the air would become slightly balmy, releasing a certain type of humidity so imperceptible that only the trained could feel it. When our enemies were closer, the waters would groan, releasing tiny ripples, so minuscule that only the trained could feel them. When our enemies were closer, smells of metal and iron would fill our ships. That was how we knew that we had to brace ourselves for the worst. Children were trained to fight as soon as they could talk. All men and women were trained to feel the wind, and build ships and rafts, out of wood and dirt. We are the Teranians. The strongest. The wisest. Our population is not built only of intelligence and wisdom, but of pain and blood. Often, our three divisions go to war with the three kingdoms of the Exteranians. They rely not on nature, or the strength of an individual, but on technology, and machines. While they train to polish their metals, we train to choke a man. While they train to put on their high-tech suits, we train to dodge swords and bullets. The only thing we have in common with them is the sun that gives us light and warmth each morning, and the waters which implore that just for a moment, it would be able to remain still and peaceful as it once was. The Exteranians bury and bathe themselves in luxury. They exchanged the blood of innocent souls for comfort, betraying their loved ones for the guilty life they have now.

Our leader, my father, blowed the horn, signalling for all other ships to be prepared to embrace pain. We were at battle because once again, the Exteranians stole something of ours. But this time it wasn't a resource like wood or our special dirt. This time it was our leader's daughter- my sister. I never understood why they clothed themselves in selfishness and greed, almost as if they love seeing their blood smeared on our swords and ships. They lived in perfection. They had the better resources. What else did they need?

All the other ships headed to the call of my father, and we braced ourselves for the Reddarts, which was a technology invented by the Teranians. They were tiny metal balls, with a red dot in the middle, which was able to blind a man in the space of a second ONLY IF you made contact. Over the years, we had perfected our defence, and the way we fought. We had mastered the skill of avoiding contact and dodging their crafty weapons.

Many of our men had climbed the shroud of the ships, in order to see what was beyond the haze.

"SIR!...SIR!", they shouted from above. My father was too angry to respond. His jaws were clenched, in his mind thinking of what would happen if his daughter was lost forever, in the hands of the enemy. Tears formed in his eyes as he looked beyond the murky haze. My sister was always his favourite. She was the one he loved, not me. My father never showed pain. Actually, none of us did. Our eyes spoke of suffering and distress but our posture spoke of preparation for war.

Everyone else was paying attention to our senses, seeing if the Earth would give us a sign that our enemies were near.

In the speck of a moment, our ears were deafened to the sound of a screeching noise, so loud that we were deafened in less than a second. I could no longer hear the men reaching out for my dad. In just a second, three small spheres landed on each of our three ships. We looked at it, analysing it for a quick second and thinking of what it could possibly be. The Exteranians rarely used new technology, and we knew the effects of each one. But this one was different. This one was new. I looked around at my crewmates, noticing the fearful expression in their eyes. In the distance, I could see my father, and many others on the boat, screaming. However, I couldn't make out the slightest thing. We were deafened. The ball was right in front of me, glowing beautifully. Our ships had stopped sailing. We all remained still, appreciating the beauty of the ball in front of us. I looked at Rhett, my closest mate. He was moving closer, wanting to touch the object on our boat. As I looked at the other boats in the distance, many people were trying to do the same. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Many people rushed to hold Rhett back as he was approaching it. But Rhett was strong, if not the strongest warrior we have in our land. I hurried to hold him back, screaming at him, inaudibly, so he wouldn't touch the object. It didn't take a mastermind to know that whatever came from the Exteranians was never to be touched and would only lead to pain and danger. I grabbed onto his arms, pinching deeply into his skin and urging him to stop. My words couldn't help me, neither could my gaze. Only my strength could save me and hold him back. In no time, he took out his knife and cut me in the throat. I am not the enemy, Rhett. I looked at him, blatantly. Did he mean to do that to me? My blood soiled my war clothes as I fell to the floor, paralyzed for an instant and unable to breathe properly. I very rarely saw my own blood on me. I very rarely smelt it or tasted it. The aim is to have the blood of the Exteranians on our weapons, not the blood of our own. To my surprise, nobody was helping me. They were all fixated on the glowing object that now robbed the attention of everyone on the ships. Before I knew it, Rhett was now one step away from it. He didn't hesitate to touch it and I only saw one millisecond of bright light before all three of our ships were destroyed, sending all of us into the belly of the unsettled waters.

We were still all deafened, swimming for our lives as the salty water entered our nostrils and mouths. Some were hanging onto the nets or broken pieces of the ship. Some were hurt, our blood oozing into the heated waters of the Earth. Rhett was swimming, looking at me with sorrow in his eyes. It wasn't his fault, nor was it the fault of any of us. The object was deliberately meant to lure us into touching it. That was the plan. The cut in my neck was slowly healing, but the salty waters would only make it sting as I swam for my victory. Blood was still pouring out of me, preventing me from swimming to the best of my ability. I was panting heavily, seeing thousands of my people swimming at full force, using our strength and years of fighting to glide through the troubled waters. Until, to our rescue, we heard another horn. Our backup ship. This wasn't the first time our three ships had experienced a deadend. We always had a backup. It sailed toward us, like a victorious king strutting through the storms of days, yearning for the safety and security of his people. We had all been swimming for about 20 minutes now. The water soon stopped tasting salty and started to taste like blood and burnt wood. Only so many of us could fit on one ship, and so it was a fight over who could get on the ship first. As the ship was nearing us, we all climbed up the wood, using our core strength to hang on loose ropes, halting us onto deck Luckily, most of my crew and I got on board safely. The others who were left in the waters had to go back to our land. They would have to swim for hours, but we were trained to use our muscles for long hours. It was even harder fighting while being drenched because we had trouble maintaining a grip on our weapons when we were dripping.

We had now reached the part of the waters belonging to the Exteranians, meaning that the haze was no more. The smell of Orchids and fresh fruit filled our nostrils, such a contradictory sense to the reality of what we were about to do: fight and defend. Our ears were still healing after most of us were deafened, but it did not take a strong ear to hear the horns of our enemies. They adapted our tactic of declaring war. I looked to the side, into the eyes of my people. We were ready. This is what we train for. This is what we were born to do.

Our only ship was now in front of three powerful Aquapods invented by the Exteranians themselves. They were three black spheroids, built only to bring destruction and cruise the waters of the Earth.

"FIGHT!" my father yelled as many of us started throwing our dirt sacks at the spheroids. It did not take long before two of them burst on impact. The dirt sacks were made solely of our dirt, and our acid. The Exteranians had tried to steal it many times. Upon impact, the dirt would release a certain toxin that leads to a brutal explosion. Many of them fell into the water, trying to use their high-technology suits to bring them up to the surface of the water. To our benefit, we were on the water, not on land. The Exteranians are not used to the water, because their home planet was made only of sand. That is one of their few weaknesses. However, in no time, we only had one dirt sack left to throw. The others had all sunk along with the wooden pieces of our ship when we were first attacked.

"Who will throw the last dirt sack?" I questioned.

"It's got to be someone with the perfect aim- we only have one chance".

Quarrelling commenced among us, but this was not the time for us to argue among ourselves. There was one spheroid left, and we were still in danger. Our swords and weapons were held tightly in one arm, our jaws clenched and gaze on the one spheroid. We would only start to attack when they did. Right now, in the centre of our oceans, was a ship and a spheroid, looking at each other in hopes that one would attack and get it over with. In a speck of a moment, the spheroid moved back.

"They surrender." my father whispered. "THEY SURRENDER!" he yelled as his happiness started to build up.

Jeering and cheering started to fill the boats, but most of us still stayed tense. We didn't know what was happening until the aquapods started to levitate.

"Did you know the aquapods could fly?" Rhett questioned. His voice was deeper than usual, normally how it's like when he's scared. I looked into his blue eyes, trying to forget the fact that he had a knife to my throat less than thirty minutes ago. But he didn't mean to…though it couldn't escape my mind.

"Pass me the dirt sack" a deep woman's voice commanded. Imani Myer. She was often feared among us, because she was the only one that could injure without remorse. Through the years, I had begun to like her, though her gaze often scared me. The spheroid was heading toward us quickly, and Imani was concentrating, paying attention to the rate, making sure to throw it once it was close enough. She threw it at full force…and the spheroid dodged it.

"YOU MISSED!" Rhett yelled.

The look on my father's face was horrible. I couldn't tell if he was fuming with rage at Imani, Imani's throw, Imani leaving us in vulnerability, or the fact Imani just ruined our chances of us ever seeing my sister.

The whole boat clenched our fists with our weapons in hand. We all knew there was no point in yelling now. Imani had just used the last dirt sack, and we were now vulnerable and in risk of being stranded in the ocean, miles away from home without transportation. Imani ruined us.

"SHUT UP, RHETT!" she yelled, throwing another dirt sack directly at the spheroid.

"Level sixty tactic…" I murmured. She had used a fake dirt sack to trick our enemies, and to know how they would react to the real one.

As their last spheroid burst on impact, the Exteranian crew, I guess about 100 of them, fell right onto our ship. They had no technology except their suits, which covered their whole body and face. And we had no more dirt sacks, or transportation. The fighting began, as the sun began to set. It was starting to become cooler, but the pressure of us losing was making it hotter than ever before. The Exteranians were using their suits to teleport themselves to different locations, dodging each time we used our weapons to strike them . The only solution was to strike faster- just like we had trained to do for years. Many of us were stabbing the Exteranians right where they would fall. We are all immortals, meaning that none of us can kill. But bringing someone down for just enough time means a battle has been won. Much of their black blood stained our ship, our clothes, our hair, and our weapons. We were winning. Before we knew it, there were only four left: The queen, her husband, and her two children- the most powerful in all three kingdoms. But they knew they were no match, and so decided to surrender.

"Until next time, Teranians". The queen, Bahati, angrily said.

"My daughter. Where?" My father asked.

Bahati pointed to the black sack that was left in the middle of the ship. There were so many of us onboard that I couldn't make out what it was.

"Your weapon sent most of my people overboard. Open the sack for us. If it's a bomb, we will all go into the waters, including you."

Bahati said nothing and ordered one of her children to open the bag. It was my sister, with scars all over her. She was shivering, and had the look of fear in her eyes. I needed to find out everything she saw and witnessed during the two days in which she was in their land.

Before we could even make a deal or attack, all four remaining Exteranians jumped into the water. We didn't wait a second before we started to sail off. Most of them would soon heal and decide to attack again.

I love fighting because I know that is what gives me the will to live. I would rather fight all my life and be free than remain idle and without liberty. This was the first fight of the first season of the year which we had just won. We sailed back into the gloomy haze that we call home, holding our swords firmly. Our jaws were clenched still and tensed at what had just happened. We kept our stance and our positions. We won. The victory is ours.

"Never let down your swords, for you do not know who will attack you in the light of day or darkness of night…"