Welcome to Merida, which I am intending to be the first book in a three-part series, chronicling the adventures of Merida St. Marie and her family and friends! 

Our story begins with Merida and her children, Will and Jori, at the Frawla Spaceport on Fairlitane.  

Suggested soundtrack:  Four Leaf Clover by Badly Drawn Boy

-- C.

MERIDA ST. MARIE

The Frawla Spaceport was oddly quiet for a place so busy and full of people.  I chalked it up to the Fairlitinians, whom, in my short residence on Fairlitane, I had come to know as cool, like the weather.  Calm.  Sophisticated.  Emotionless.  You could spot the foreigners immediately, with their carrying-on.  Xander loved it here.  

"But Daddy, when will we see you again?"  Will protested as his father hugged him.  He was seven, and wanted to know what the plan was.  What he was to expect from the day, the week, the month.  Well, that wasn't just a eight-year-old trait.  Jori was the same way, and she was five.  Her greatest frustration (and mine too), was that she couldn't tell time or read a calendar, so sometimes the answers she was given were meaningless to her.  I often found myself trying to equate things to known quantities, like, "we will get there by the time it takes to watch one episode of Crazy Things in Nature."  

"Soon.  Don't worry.  Your mother knows the plan."  

Yeah, thanks a lot.  Leave everything to me.  

"All set, then?" Xander said, giving Jori her hug and zipping her jacket up a little higher.  When he turned to me, I saw Jori out of the corner of my eye, lower the zipper again.  

I was suddenly struck by how handsome Xander was.  Perfectly-styled blonde hair, piercing blue eyes, tanned skin.  A confident aloofness that had always drawn me in, and made me try so hard to measure up to his exquisite standards.

"We'll talk, Merida.  And when I'll get back, we'll sort things out." 

"Six weeks, right?" I tried to re-confirm what he had told me.

"Yeah, something like that.  When I am done tying up things here.  Take care of the kids."  He turned to them.  "Alright, off you go, then."  

I adjusted my backpack and grabbed a hand from each of my children.  I looked down at them.

"Are we ready for our adventure?" 

My heart was pounding.  I had no idea where we were going.  I had never had to travel alone with the kids, or even just alone.  I had always followed Xander.  And before Xander, I had never left Li’tan.  

I turned around to see if he was still standing and waving, but he was already gone.  

Okay.  You've got this.  

I said a quick and silent prayer, took a deep breath, and led my children to find our transport ship.  

It was not an easy task.  Fairlitane, as a whole, was oddly organized, and the spaceport was no different.  After asking six people, one of whom was a woman who thought I was begging for money, we found terminal CC.   Our bags had been checked in upon entering the spaceport, so all we had were our backpacks.  We wore them onto the ship and found our berth.  

It was fairly cramped, as sleeping arrangements tended to be on the large commercial passenger transports.  The idea was to cram as many people on as possible.  But it was new-looking, maybe recently refurbished, and clean.  There was one twin bed, elevated over a queen bed, with short railings around each.  There was no bathroom - that was down the hall.  But there was a small monitor at the foot of each bed, for both entertainment and communications, and a few strategically placed cubbyholes to store our stuff.  And joy, upon joy, this one had a window.  It was a rare thing indeed, and worth getting excited over.  The children found it immediately.

"This place is pretty nice," I said.  I took a deep breath and sat down for what felt like the first time in weeks.  My shoulders were still tense, but knowing that we were in the right place and on our way meant I could at least relax for a moment.

"Yeah," Jori agreed, but in a manner that suggested she was critiquing.  "It's not as big as the one to Fairlitane, though."

"But it's way nicer than the one to Vendahli," Will added.  Jori and Will loved to evaluate hotels and ships.  This was the best part of travel for them.  I was just thankful that all of the experience had made them comfortable in these settings, and not troublesome, as some kids were prone to be in these new environments.  My children were no angels by any means, but at least they were good travelers.  They knew how to be good where it counted.  

I looked at my communicator watch.  

"How about we get ready for bed and watch a show to get sleepy?"

Jori and Will started to unpack their bags and put things in cubbyholes.  Minor skirmishes arose in the cubbyhole-claiming process, but I only had to step in once.  I think everyone was too tired to put up too much of a fight.

"How many days until we get there?" Will asked.

"The engine on this thing is pretty big and fancy.  ETA is three days."

"Wow!" said Jori, and then she paused.  "How many days is three days?"

"You go to sleep tonight, and wake up tomorrow, we're on day one.  You go to sleep tomorrow night and wake up again, then we start day two.  You go to sleep another time, and wake up again, and we're on day three.  Now go put on your pajamas."

After a trip to the bathroom, I turned on the monitors and synched them to the same channel.  It was a nature program about the wild forest dogs on the planet Emsteer.  Interesting enough that no one complained.  Boring enough that no one bothered to try to stay awake to see how it ends.  They were asleep in ten minutes.  

A news broadcast was starting.  Top story was something about the Jonell-Delmar Empire, old villains from my home planet’s history.  They were active again, but thankfully far away.  I shut off the monitor.  

The silence was deafening.  Like a roar.  And in that moment, I was reminded of the roar of the waves crashing upon the shore near the hotel my family owned on Li’tan.  You could hear them from the kitchen when the glass double doors were open wide.  And you could hear them from my room above, when I would leave my window open while doing schoolwork, paperweights holding down my assignments to keep the wind from blowing them off my desk.

I could not go back there now. 

I was to go back to Vendalhi and our apartment there, and wait for Xander’s return so we could "sort things out."

Ugh.  The anxiety was creeping back in again.  It felt like a weight on my chest and I couldn't breathe.  My throat was tightening.  I wondered if there was anything good in the mini-bar.  Did I really want to spend a fortune on a tiny bottle of Cendulan Ale? 

Yes, I did.  

I tore off the paper and took a swig from the tiny bottle, and laid back on my bunk.  I could hear the hum of the engines.  There was hardly a sound from the corridor beyond our thin walls.  

In three days' time, we would arrive on Vendalhi.  We would at least be back to our own things in a somewhat familiar place.  And there would be Mrs. Kardean upstairs to chat with.  And the park for the children.  Then we could unpack the rest of our things, and go on with life as normal as possible, and wait for Xander to come home.  Six weeks was not that long, and then we could figure out what to do next.  

I closed my eyes.  They felt so heavy, and the ache behind them was subsiding.  My body felt like I was sinking into my mattress, there on the top bunk, above my children.  My children were here with me, and we were all safe.  It was all going to be okay.