Chapter 1

The Montressor sky was clear and full of promise. There was a slight breeze about, but it was no matter to the inhabitants of the planet. In fact, this was just the right amount of wind to send any solar surfer soaring into the sky. Which was why one teenage boy was blissfully flying away from his home and into the afternoon winds.

Things were different in the life of Jim Hawkins. He went on an adventure of a lifetime, fell in love with a now ex-pirate, rebuilt his home and his relationship with his mother, and now he was headed off to the Interstellar Academy. When he and Jasmine Sparrow found out that they were going to study to become Captain's of their own ship, it was like a dream. That dream then helped him build up the courage to show how he felt about the girl with a troubled history. Of course by the next day things became a little awkward between the two as they didn't know what steps were to be taken in their relationship, but after a couple of weeks they began to feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of being together.

Changes could be seen in Jasmine's life as well. She no longer had to steal or do other damages caused by piracy. Now she had an honest job working at the Benbow Inn as a waitress since she could not be trusted in the kitchens. Everyone who knew her well, have begun to see that her uncontrolled violent behavior was becoming a lot calmer. They no longer feared what she would do when she picked up a knife and this was a happier note to the girl.

However, Mrs. Hawkins often wondered if having her go to the Interstellar Academy would only make it worse. Of course there had been letters from the Academy that assured her the girl would be fine and it would be controlled if an accident occurred. This still made her worry though as the teenage girl had grown on her. Either way, she knew that it would also be a positive thing for the young woman to use her skills for a better cause and so she did make a fuss about the Jasmine going to the Academy.

The two teenagers had only a couple of days left before they went on their next journey and so they spent some time packing and enjoying their last days in Montressor by spending as much time together as possible, which often was by solar surfing, and with the people they cared about. This day was supposed to be no different, but it seemed that Jasmine had gone off without him. He worried about her, as he had spent some time preventing her from running away a few months prior, and he needed to make sure she wasn't doing something reckless. So he followed her.

Jim spent almost thirty minutes looking for the girl until he saw a glint of light coming from a distant cliff. Following the light, he then saw brown slightly curly hair flowing through the wind that belonged to the girl who was deep in thought with her notebook in hand.

Hoping to catch her attention, he yelled out "Jasmine!".

She immediately snapped out of her reverie, Jasmine waved as she began putting away her notebook. Jim smiled and then landed his board next to hers. After going back and forth on what her new solar surfer should be like, they then began the process of making it. The new board was blue and silver with a back up jet, a compass, a secret button that will make it go as fast as the speed of light, another button to make it the size of rock the size of Jasmine's palm and a white and blue spiraled sail that was light and resistant to certain damages that would occur in a race. This all came with a matching suit and helmet that also shrank. To this day, Jim still wondered how Jasmine was able to do the things she does with her board and it made him look a little incompetent, which sometimes got on his nerves.

"Aw come on, you're so protective of that thing." Jim starts the conversation as he sat next to her, indicating the now hidden notebook.

"A girls thoughts are a private matter when put on paper, you should try to be more respectful about that James Pleiades Hawkins." Jasmine retorts, smirking at the annoyed look Jim gave her when she used his full name.

"Touché." The boy relents and the conversation went silent.

They stared off into the distance and that's when Jim realized the beauty of it. The red-brown mountains seemed to glow as the sun shined down on them, making it seem as if they were on fire. The plants the grew below and on top of them blew against the breeze which helped with that imagery. It then dawned on him that this was the first time he saw his home planet as beautiful rather than a dirt wasteland with no hope of ever being seen as more than that. That was then he knew that Jasmine hadn't been writing in her journal, but rather trying to draw the scenery. If he hadn't spent as much time with her as he had, then he would never had realized this.

"I don't know if I should go." Jasmine's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he immediately turned to face her.

"Why not? I thought you wanted to?" Jim questioned, surprised by this news.

"That's the thing though, I'm not going because it was my choice. The only reason I got in was because of that mysterious person saved my butt when I should be rotting in a jail cell."

"Jasmine if that person hadn't done what they did, you wouldn't be here now."

Sighing, Jasmine got up and began pacing as she talked "I know that Jim, but I've lived my life as both a pirate and a thief and I know that isn't something a prestigious Academy as this would want on a person's application. My days of crime isn't also something a person like me would be rewarded for, so the only reason I'm going is because they want something from me which I would like to find out what it is but I know that my gut is telling me that it's not good."

"Maybe your combat skills have finally been recognized and they want to have you on their side." Jim joked, hoping to lighten the mood, but was immediately kicked for his efforts and flinched at the angry stare he was given.

"This isn't funny Jim! I wasn't raised with a gun in my hand to be used to protect people! I was raised to hurt a person and take their belongings as a pirate, not a soldier and the only reason why I was raised like that was because I was desperate to have a family who is now gone again!" When she was done shouting, Jasmine immediately realized that she had lost some control of her anger she had began to be taught how to keep in check. "I'm sorry Jim... I shouldn't have lost control." She said bitterly, sitting back down and staring back out into the distance.

Regret immediately flooded Jim as his words caused her violent reaction. After months of mental therapy Jasmine seemed to get her violent nature under control, but Jim now knew that the only good it did was teach her how to be silent about it. She never let on how much pain she was going through when her violence caused her to lose all rational thought and begin threatening anyone around her. He knew that choosing to be with her would mean he would have to help her not put a bullet through someone's chest. Besides him, the only things that seemed to bring her real comfort were their blobs of cuteness Morph and Percha, and her notebook she kept with her at all times. Jim once took a peek through it and once when he asked about the drawings in it, Jasmine told him it was a way for her to see the beauty in the world after suffering each dark step she took.

Now he could see her inner struggle of taking another small dark step and the only thing he could do was to take her in his arms and hold onto her until she knew he wouldn't let her go unless she asked.

Author's Note: Welcome to the world of my new story In the Footsteps of a Soldier. If you had not read the first one called In the Eyes of a Pirate, then I'd suggest you go do that before I continue on with this story. Leave a comment of what you thought and whether you'd like to see this continued as I'm contemplating what stories I truly want to be working on as I have two new rough drafts, a story I'm currently editing, and another one that I'm thinking about redoing. I'm also thinking about uploading a couple more rough drafts just to peek anyone's interest. Thanks for checking this one out though!