I slipped Temos' arm over my shoulders to help him walk as we cautiously started advancing into the dim hallways of the ship, occasional fires shed an ominous light on the piles at the other end that looked suspiciously like bodies. Muffled shouts and gunshots echoed through the vents. This was bad. 

„Are these your people?“, I whispered as we stepped through warm smoke that came bursting out of a pipe to the left of us.

Temos stopped to look down at one of the corpses bleeding out over the floor, „Hopefully not.“, he nudged the head aside so he could see the face of the intruder and exhaled a breath of relief.

„Well, they’re not my people. Which is good because I want none of my crew to die on this ship,…and bad because that looks suspiciously like the emblem of the Space Force on his chest.

My head, that was looking around, checking our surroundings, whipped around, looking down at the body.

I did not recognize him. I wasn’t sure if I’d even care if I did recognize him but it raised the question of what they were here for. To free me, to capture me, or to capture me and Wisp?

I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation at hand, as I was gonna face prison either way.

There was no way out, just an option preferable to the other, „I think we should go and have them take us into custody. At least we know they won’t torture or kill us.“

„Want to leave us so soon?“, the sudden voice from behind us made both of us spin around. Temos hissed in pain as he put too much weight on his hurt leg.

 „I would ask how you’ve managed to crack my door open, again, but I honestly don’t think I want to know,“ Ryan Wisp stood there, casually reloading his weapon before he looked at us through his ruffled hair, blood dripping down the ends of a few strands.

Faced with our silence he continued, „Well Mr. Quinn, either you managed to send off an emergency signal telling them where we are, or you have a tracker on you. Considering the fact that you are a wanted man, and I have shown you two nothing but hospitality-,“ both, Temos and I raised an eyebrow at each other, „I would assume the latter is the case and I think I know exactly where that is implanted.“ 

Before I had the ability to react Wisp had grabbed my arm, pulling me against him.

I was close enough to smell the scent of smoke, sweat, and blood, coming off of him, as he stowed his gun away on his belt and pulled a small device out of the back pocket of his pants, running it over my gauntlet. All was silent until a cracking noise erupted from the machine. His honey-colored eyes snapped to mine, narrowing as they changed, flashing in an electric blue before returning to the usual warm honey color.

There was a tracker on me.

„I would question your intentions in this endeavor but all I can say for sure is that your little invasion stunt put the lives of my people at risk.

And I-,“ he growled through his teeth and his grip tightened more with every following word that he spoke, „do not take lightly to people threatening my crew,“ he pulled his gun.

Shit.

Not a second passed, before my eyes that were fixated on his hand holding the gun, noticed the muscles of his trigger finger anticipate the movement that was going to follow and I instantly let myself collapse to the floor. He pulled the trigger and the bullet whizzed past me, above where my head was just a second prior, I flipped my body around to my hands and feet before taking off in a sprint, Temos running right next to me.

Yeah, we definitely had to find the Space Force. The question was just if any of them inside this ship were still alive. 

No doubt the whole docking port was surrounded by special force agents, we should be fine if we could get them to engage, they should have the manpower, as getting out of this ship has proven to be an impossible task before.

Wisp growled behind us and we heard him pick up pursuit, heavy feet slamming down with every step he took.

Avoiding the bullets Wisp was firing at us, whilst trying to keep our distance proved to be a difficult task.

We jumped over corpses and often nearly lost our footing when stepping on the blood puddles turning the floor into a slippery mess.

The more armored corpses we passed the more I doubted any of the Force were still alive.

No one was left who could help us but ourselves. 

This whole running away from evil pirates seemed to turn into a regular occurrence. After a while, my breath started to run short and we still hadn’t come across anyone but corpses. From the far side of the ship sounds of battle were echoing through the hallways. A fight was still ongoing which made us head in that direction, hoping to find the Space Force coming out as the winner.

The bullet fire from behind us had ceased a little while ago. Thankfully neither Temos nor myself seemed injured, but the chance of hitting a moving target whilst running yourself was pretty low, so I wasn’t entirely surprised.

My lungs were burning at this point, desperately trying to provide my vital organs with oxygen. I tried to keep pace but my feet started to slow.

Unfortunately for me, Temos and Wisp seemed to be in a lot better shape, which I realized when I felt the ghost touch of fingers trying to grasp at my coat.

Wisp was closer than I expected and my mind was sent reeling for an escape. 

I pushed my tired body to go faster. Temos was getting further and further ahead of me. There was no way I’d get away like this and I started panicking, the adrenaline pumping through my veins making me jittery.

Then, I saw an open room ahead. A corpse was blocking the door from closing entirely, letting the turquoise mist waft out into the hallway. It was the room that I tried to enter when we first broke in.

My heartbeat was pumping loudly in my ears and I picked up speed for a final sprint, then jerked my body through the tight gap, and right as Wisps‘ heavy body slammed against the door and tried to wrench it further open so he could slip in, I grabbed the leg of the corpse and pulled it back, making the door snap shut.

I leaned my head against the door, hissing through my teeth as I grasped my side, my ribcage heaving up and down as I tried to fill my lungs with air, then I turned around.

The entire floor of the room was luscious grass. A small pond was bordering a tree that was growing from the center of the room.

There was a hollow gap in the bark where a glowing, wispy orb was hovering inside, and spirits of creatures kept fazing into existence, leaping across the grass, swimming in the water or soaring through the air, then they disappeared again, the mist they left behind evaporating into thin air.

My mouth fell open at the beautiful scenery. There was a window at the back of the room looking out at the stars, creating a beautiful backdrop for the little garden.

I stepped further into the room. My worries completely forgotten, as a big, horned creature appeared right in front of me. It was a stag, and with a shocking revelation, I realized this was my first time gazing upon an animal from Earth before the planet had been destroyed.

I had found the Breath of the Earth, and all the souls it harbored lived on within it.

A barely noticeable pulse went through the room and the orb shifted its hue into more of a blue color, the mist wafting over the floor and all the spirits changing alongside it.

A small fox appeared next to me, watching curiously but weary as I reached my hand out towards the stag. Surprisingly, it didn’t just glide through the misty body but was met by a solid, soft surface. I stroked its wispy coat a couple of times, smiling to myself before the resistance against my palm faded and the stag dissolved, rejoining the fog on the floor.

I had never seen earth animals before and wished I could just stay in here, sitting down on the soft grass and studying the behavior of these creatures.

My attention was drawn by what could only be a cat. It was swiping its paw back and forth inside the pond. I stepped closer and realized it was chasing after a small fish before it stopped as it noticed me approaching, then it leaped up, jumped in circles around my feet, and evaporated, the small cloud flitting towards the other side of the room where it reappeared, did a couple hops trying to catch a butterfly and then it was gone again. 

How could Wisp just keep all of this to himself?

What gave him the right to refuse these creatures their home planet?

Several ministers of all sorts of different galaxies have voted for the Earth to be taken into the planetary recreation program. It could be beautiful again. I would be able to see the beauty from all the different stories with my own eyes but I wasn’t allowed because of some egoistical pirate that wants to keep this all for only his own eyes?

It wasn’t fair. My love for Earth was everything I still had left from my mother.

Then, a blue, misty movement out of the corner of my eyes drew my attention. I flinched a step backward, suspecting it was the captain doing his little trick but it was just the little fox stepping up to me.

He must’ve gone after Temos first, otherwise he would’ve forced his way in already.

I crouched down and held a hand out to the fox, checking if it was interested in a friendly interaction with me by signaling that I meant no harm.

It seemed intrigued by my offer as it took a couple more steps towards my palm, but then to my surprise, it kept on walking straight through my hand before it evaporated like the others. A shift of air on my neck made me turn my head. The fox was calmly sitting behind me. I stood back up to my full height and turned my whole body to face it.

It lifted its head, keeping eye contact before something odd happened. The fox stood up on its hind legs, the mist on the floor surrounding it started flowing towards it, as its shape distorted and it started looking more and more humanoid by the second. I took a couple careful steps away from the creature that was now standing taller than me and it only took a couple more seconds before a man I came to know well stood before me. The fox ears were the last remaining proof of the shapeshifting that had taken place before they also faded away into thin air and Captain Wisp started steadily advancing towards me.

„So, your snooping has finally made you find my treasure.“