The Princess of Planet Xeronis

Prologue She flew above the misty barren land on her flying bike. Canyon and rock spread for miles and miles below her. Although she had crossed this lifeless expanse several times without incident, this time someone was watching her from the depths. As she sped by like a rushing comet, a ten-horned dragon crept from his dark cave veiled by grey smoke from burning brimstone and eyed her like prey. He had terrible eyes and a body full of scars. He had been patient for two weeks now, studying her routes and calculating the flight speeds she could muster, and the next time that she was going to pass this way, he was going to get her. She flew again past an expanse of green trees and small hills. These were the woods she knew like the back of her hands. But three pairs of eyes had been watching her for two weeks now. As she shot past a group of closely packed trees, a dreadlocked man with two unusually large grey wolves crept from under the trees to get a better view of her. The wolves growled and grimaced and made to go after her but the man stopped them with the gesture of his hand. Though visibly excited and agitated, the wolves were surprisingly acquiescent. Their time was coming soon. She was not going to escape. *                *                  * There is a planet called Xeronis somewhere in the cosmos, somewhere either physical or metaphysical, a planet with magic and advanced technology, and the only way to go there from Earth is through a portal. The portal is usually opened from the Xeronis side by anyone with access to advanced technology. This is how Ben found himself transported to Xeronis from Earth. Ben was a delightful young man who loved adventure and who loved to spend time hiking in the mountains. On this particular day, he was camping with a friend and enjoying the night breeze. The night sky was clear and because Ben loved star gazing late into the night there was no way he was going to miss seeing the emergence of a portal in the sky above. Looking at the portal was like looking at a blue spiral galaxy, and its arms were in a slow rotation. Its center began to open up like the eye of a cyclone. Ben rose from his camp chair as he looked at this blue light vortex, and he looked and he stared in amazement. He had never seen anything like it. "Tinashe..." he called but kept looking up. Tinashe was the friend he had invited to accompany him to explore this mountain range. Tinashe was not used to the physically taxing hikes and rough terrain so he had already collapsed into a death-like sleep in his tent. Then suddenly, as if this was not strange enough, a little star-like object shot out of the free vortex and headed towards Earth. Ben discerned no shooting star. "Tinashe...?" he called again nervously and unsurely as the object fell towards him. He froze as the light got bigger as it got closer and closer to the ground. Reflex made him dive to the ground as the object shot past him like a sparrowhawk and pass the tents in a whooshing sound. Ben leapt to his feet again and saw the strange thing disappear behind the trees. It had not crashed; this was a landing! Curiosity made him charge after it and forget about trying to wake Tinashe. A sighting like this was priceless and could just vanish any time; there was no time to lose. He ran as fast as he could, brushing tree branches and shrubs from his way, and he slowed down to a stop as he spotted the object ahead. He then hurried to use the nearest tree for cover from which he could best see the object that had descended from the sky. He saw the object's light dim considerably and he could hardly believe what he was seeing. The object was some kind of flying vehicle that resembled a bike and its rider was a human.  A young girl with blonde hair alighted from the weird vehicle and she started looking around. Her outfit was glittering and had the color of gold. It was an outfit that was composed of a piece that covered her top and had laces behind her, a mini-skirt, boots, and a large silk cloak. She held some form of a flashlight in her hand and Ben did not like what it did. He saw her flash upon an owl, press a button, and then the owl just disappeared. To be precise, he thought he saw the owl turn into a million particles that began to flow towards the flashlight like water going down a drain and the particles vanished from sight. Then she was looking for more objects to flash upon. A frog was hopping by and as soon as she flashed her light upon it and pressed her button, the frog was absorbed into her gadget too. She began to move around and had to leave her vehicle behind. 'Is she an alien sent to collect data from Earth?' Ben wondered from his hiding position. He moved forward to get a better view and his foot snapped a branch. Her flashlight quickly flew in his direction but he had ducked behind the tree. Her gaze stayed. She was just about to move to the tree when a small rodent shrieked in the shrubs the other way. She then saw another opportunity and had to reluctantly leave the tree unchecked. The rodent led her far into the bushes. Ben was now safe to come out to the open. He closely examined the black vehicle and then decided to try something. He picked a rock and hurled it at the bike but a repulsive force deflected it before it could even touch the surface. "Cool," Ben liked what it did. The bike was large enough to carry at least four people. There was no exhaust piping which indicated that it did not use fossil fuel. The bike did not have wheels but its base had numerous plate-like rings made of crystal which were glowing off and on continuously along the rims. He moved to touch it but then stopped midway. 'Is it wise to touch an alien vehicle?' He thought. But he did anyway. Nothing happened. This was relieving. Then he saw a groove resembling a human palm just in-between the controls and the groove constantly glowed blue. This was another temptation to place his hand and match with the groove. He did. Just when he thought nothing would happen he made to remove his hand but found that he could not; he was stuck. The attractive force gluing his hand to the bike was so great that he panicked more when he heard a beeping coming towards him from the trees. She was coming back to her vehicle! Then, the bike released him. Ben turned to run for cover when suddenly a flash of light from the bike's headlights flashed him in the back causing him to turn into a million particles just as the owl and the frog had and he was pulled into the bike. To Ben this was like some weird transportation for one moment he was scampering for the trees and the next he was trapped in some giant glass cylinder. He then realized that it was a cylinder at the back of the bike and it was no bigger than a cup. The bike had shrunk his size and literally scanned him into this cage. 'Big mistake', he thought as his heart paced out of control, 'I should have never touched the alien bike.' Then she emerged from the dark and hurried to mount her bike, not noticing the red light flashing at the back of her bike. She shut off the beeping alarm from a beeper in her waist as she muttered something. Apparently, she had delayed so long on Earth that the vortex in the sky had begun to shrink. "Get me out of here!" Ben cried from the top of his voice. She did not hear him so he cried again and banged on the glass walls, not knowing it was soundproof. She put her palm on the imprint and the bike levitated five feet from the ground. She grabbed the controls and quickly ascended higher and higher towards the vortex eye. Ben watched helplessly as the Earth shrank from view and his blood went cold as they entered this tunnel of rotating light. The tunnel was 100 meters of hell and panic for Ben. What was he ever going to do? Was this an alien a*******n? He had read about people being abducted and studied aboard alien space ships and he thought they were out of their minds. Was he out of his mind now? The flying bike emerged at the other side of the tunnel at a different planet and it sank lower as the hole shut. He turned his gaze from the night sky that suddenly had different star constellations and two huge moons, and then he looked at this new world.