Five ships left the space station up above First Earth, all with the same destination: a colony planet called Fourth Earth; however, one ship, the S.S. Hephaestus, had a detour to a convict planet simply known as Planet X.  This ship had five hundred of the cruelest men alive and one thousand crew members.  The ships destined for Fourth Earth (or Planet #1-A39) required the colonists to train for life on the new planet, but no one was expecting what would happen in the near future.

            One day, without warning, the five ships entered a cosmic storm!  After much turmoil, only two ships survived: the S.S. Persephone and the S.S. Hephaestus.  This is their story on Fourth Earth.

            The two ships lost contact with each other after the crash; fortunately, they crashed in separate parts of Fourth Earth; the S.S. Persephone crashed in the lush, mountainous region of the planet while the convict ship crashed in the jungle, desert- like part.   The pilot, after crash landing the ship in a grassy field, started to count casualties.  There were twelve adult deaths, leaving six orphans (three boys, three girls) in the hands of an elderly woman, Widow Johnson, as their caretaker.  The colonists quickly buried the dead before the sun had set and began to set up shelters.  What they did not know was that they were being watched by two enormous cats up in the hills surrounding the campsite.

            The bigger cat, a male cat resembling a mix of an enormous Earth lion and Black Leopard, named Egon, looked upon the humans with curiosity. 

“What are those creatures, Egon?” asked a smaller cat that was similar to a Snow leopard (her camouflage was different shades was green), Binta.  Egon replied softly, “I don’t know, Binta.  They are not Abaddonii.  Our enemies don’t usually have that many kittahi, young; also, our enemies could not do what they are doing because they are brutes.”  

“We must go to the Adwin, Alphas,” declared Binta.  Egon nodded, and the two cats padded off quietly.

The captain of the S.S. Persephone (Captain Jim Kline), five adults, and one teenage girl, Vickie (who was a nurse- in- training), went out for two days to explore the nearby countryside.  In the meantime, everybody was to pitch in… the orphans two times as much.

            The orphan boys were named (from youngest to oldest): Paul, John, and Thomas.  The girls were named (from youngest to oldest): Mary, Ruth, and Margaret.  The six orphans were made to work harder than everybody else. “Their parents are dead. If they want to eat, they will work to make up for the slack” was what the captain decreed.

            Thwack! John dug his hoe into the hard earth, trying to get a row of soil ready for planting.  “I’m sick and tired of working harder than anybody else in this camp,” complained John as he rested for a minute.  Wiping the sweat from his brow and sighing, John went back to the hard tilling.  Margaret, keeping an eye on Mary (who was pulling weeds with Paul), replied, “I know, John. What can we do, though?”

            Margaret was like a mother to the orphans, even more than Widow Johnson was- who was asleep inside the crudely built cabin the men built for them.  Her mother was going to be a doctor when they landed but now she couldn’t.  Margaret, being a kind and caring soul, went over to the youngest orphans (who were no older than 7 years of age), and praised them on a job well done.  She hugged the two of them and helped them gather up the ugly plants to be burnt.

            Out of the six orphans, Ruth was the only one that felt like she really didn’t fit in.  For one thing, it was her dad and aunt that died in the crash; her mother died in a lab explosion when she was little.  Her aunt was a wonderful person, but she would have never replaced a real mother.  Another reason why she didn’t fit in with the orphans and the colonists was this: while all the people had either medium or dark hair and eye colors, Ruth had blonde hair and grey eyes.

            “I’m a freak,” Ruth whispered to herself as she sat in the cabin’s one multi-purpose room peeling onions the captain and other adults rationed out to them.  She began to cry from the sadness of being alone, the loneliness overtaking her.

            Night time came.  According to Captain Kline’s orders, everyone was to be in the camp’s perimeters by sundown.  Widow Johnson was not much of an authoritarian, but Margaret and Thomas made sure the orphans were together at all times.

            The orphans separated themselves- boys from girls- and began to bathe themselves after a hard day’s work in a creek near the cabin.

 “You know what’s funny, Ruth?” asked Margaret.

“No. What?” replied she.

 “We have not seen one single wild animal while on this planet.  Isn’t that strange?” “Well,” retorted Ruth, “just because we haven’t seen any doesn’t mean they aren’t out there.”

Margaret went silent at these words, now worried that this outcast- an outcast among outcasts- could be right.  Ruth was right, for up on the ridge up above them sat the two Adwins of the Ahaddii (“the Creative Ones”), Rupa (a green colored Earth Lion looking male) and Jinka (the black leopard looking female). 

Using his mind to speak to his mate, Rupa asked, “Which one is the most suitable? You said you needed one for your little experiment.”  Jinka was silent for a moment before replying, “The fair colored one. She is wise for her age and is an outcast among her peers. No one will notice her disappearance.”

Rupa nodded his head in agreement and the pair left.

The convicts were faring much worse than the pilgrims of the S.S. Persephone.  Firstly, they were in a savannah- like environment and had very limited amounts of food and water.  Also, there had been many deaths- mostly that of the crew, some of rebellious convicts- in order to establish a leader, Bruce Tigris.  Finally, what they did not know would bring an end to many human and non-human lives.

  They had fallen into the territory of the Abaddonii, “the Destroyers”.  These creatures were not afraid of the humans, yet they did not immediately come out of the jungle.  It took a week of surveillance to realize that this new being was weak and easy to manipulate; that was when the Alpha female and sole leader- Adwina-, a sandy colored tigress with red stripes, decided it was time to reveal themselves to the leader of the Two- Leggers, a convict named Bruce Tigris.

Bruce, after picking out lieutenants and running his men through drills, went to lie down for an afternoon nap.  That is when he had the vision.

“Bruce, wake up! We’re being attacked!” called one of his lieutenants, Jonnard Allen.  The head convict sat up immediately.  His dream was coming true!

“What are they? They are huge!” was the general excited babble among Bruce’s men.  Bruce stepped out of the ship and climbed the makeshift lookout tower, a tree house.

“DO NOT SHOOT!” shouted Bruce from the tower.

“Very wise decision,” said the Adwina, Jez, with a trace of a purr in her voice, “for if your catrine, pride, members injured one of us, we would attack.”  To prove her point, Jez extended her razor sharp black claws and growled, showing her fangs.

The fact that a huge strange colored cat was in their midst was odd in itself but the fact that it was talking was another league entirely!

“So you are Bruce Tigris, I presume?” asked Jez.  The convict leader nodded, speechless.

            “We have much in common. Let me and my catrine enter your den and we’ll talk.”

            Shouting, Bruce ordered, “Open the gate and let them in!”

            A strange assortment of cats came in; they varied in sizes from bobcats to cheetahs to tigers, and they were strangely colored, also.  This was the first meeting between the Abaddonii and the convicts.

Let’s return back to the orphans and the pilgrims. 

            All of the pilgrims had doused their makeshift cabins’ fires and turned in for the night.  Even though their fire had been put out, the orphans were still awake, listening intently, for now they could hear animals calling to one another in the forest beyond the camp’s boundary.  The children could hear growling outside their shelter’s door; Widow Johnson couldn’t hear because she was extremely hard of hearing.

            “What is it?” asked Mary in a very frightened voice.  Thomas, with a quiver in his voice, replied, “I don’t know, but somebody’s got to go out there.” 

All five heads turned to Ruth.  With a sigh, the girl got up from her woven reed cot and said, “Fine. I’ll do it.”

Ruth donned her boots and robe before twisting the door knob open and walking outside.

“Hello?” she called out.

Suddenly, like the crackling of a radio, she began to hear a silky voice speak in hear head.

            “Come to the edge of the dwelling’s light; our eyes reflect light, and we don’t want to scare you, Kitta- Ruth.”

            She was curious.  “How do you know my name?” she asked in a whisper, edging closer to the end of the light.

            The voice in her head laughed softly and gently, not insulting her either.  “We know many things, Kitta- Ruth. We know how every night you cry yourself to sleep and how you are rejected by your equals.”

Ruth knew deep down this was true; she entered the darkness and saw Rupa and Jinka.

She gasped in awe at the sight of the giant cats.  Ruth approached Rupa slowly and ran her fingers through his mane.

            Rumbling in delight, Rupa told Jinka, “This is going very well.” “Yes indeed,” Jinka thought back.

            Ruth looked at the Adwin with all seriousness before asking, “Why are you here?” In a deep voice, Rupa replied, “We have come to take you to somewhere where you will be accepted. Yet, it is up to you, Kitta- Ruth.” Looking back at the rundown cabin then back at the cats, the young girl replied, “I want to go.”

    Ruth held on for life as she rode on the male Adwin's back.  He was much bigger than a horse and faster, too; the Adwina kept up easily.  "We are almost there," Rupa announced.  With a great leap, the three landed on the other side of a thorny bush.  They made it safely to the Ahadhii main den; Ruth's new life could begin.

    Meanwhile, the meeting between Brutus, the convict leader, and Jez, the Abadonnii Adwina, just begun.  "I have a proposition that benefits both of us, Brutus," Jez said staring out a large bay window.  "What is it that you had in mind?" "An alliance," the Adwina replied.

    "There is an opposing clan, the Ahadhii, in the Northern Territories that has better resources than us. How many times have we tried to take the main dens where our enemies hole themselves after feasting while we starve."  Brutus hesitated before asking, "What prevents you from taking it?" "Creativity and magic- mainly magic."

    She continued, stating, "If you let me train you and your men, I will give you and your men half of the Northern Territories and its spoils. Do we have a deal?"

    Brutus didn't think long.  A better land? Spoils of war? He wanted in!  "We have a deal."  The pact was made with Jez scratching Brutus on the right arm just enough to draw blood; this was a blood pact.  "Tonight," Jez said, "the training begins."