The Way Home

Chapter One

"Allura! Allura!" Keith cried, shaking her shoulders. Her eyes fluttered and cracked open.

"Keith?" she murmured. "What happened?" Allura raised a slender hand to her bruised forehead and looked around the ruined shuttle cockpit. When she looked out the windshield, she only saw dark, upturned earth.

"The Galra caught up to us and shot us down." Keith replied bitterly. "We crashed on planet Selva."

"Selva?" Allura cried. "That's way off of our original course!" She unbuckled the straps of the copilot's seat and started to climb up the now vertical floor of the cockpit.

"Allura, wait!" Keith called as he scrambled after her. Allura ignored him and pushed open the hatch.

Her sensitive ears popped as the pressure released and fresh, clean oxygen filled the cabin. The wet, earthy smell of a tropical forest mixed with the acrid stench of melted metal.

She climbed out of the ship and gazed around the sheltered canopy their ship had crashed through. The leaves were singed at the edges and a few rogue embers fluttered along the deep trench the vessel had carved.

Enormous trees stretched to the sky like pillars in a cathedral, blotting out sunlight with their flat leaves. In between, shorter trees tangled and twisted together. Vines dripped from their boughs like the tails of serpents.

When Keith came up beside Allura, the humidity clung to the exposed patches of his skin and collected on his breastplate in tiny droplets. He took his helmet off in an attempt to relieve himself of the oppressive heat, but to no avail.

"Can you get a transmission to the Castle?" the Red Paladin asked. A feeling like the mysterious energy that the Blue Lion gave off prickled in the back of his mind, only this feeling was much more ominous.

"I'll try," Allura said. Keith only half-listened to her as she spoke. His dark eyes roved over the wreckage of the shuttle, searching for a hope that it could be repaired. By the faint, guttering glow of the Balmera crystal shining beneath the hood of the vessel indicated otherwise.

Allura cried out in frustration.

"Nothing! They aren't answering!" she huffed.

"Maybe we should look for another ship." Keith offered. Allura's voice took on a more desperate tone.

"There's no time for that!" she nearly shouted. "We need to get off of this backwater world now!"

"Well, I don't see any way to do that at the moment." Keith replied sharply. "The Balmera crystal is broken and the ship is totaled. Why are you so excited to leave in the first place?"

Allura chewed her lip, her eyes wide in frustration.

"Everyone who's come to Selva…hasn't returned. Ever." she said, twiddling her fingers together uneasily. Keith was quiet for a moment, and Allura could see the gears turning behind his iron-grey eyes.

"Let's see if we can find someone around here with a ship." he said flatly. Then, he stuffed his helmet back onto his head and started walking.

As they walked, Allura's eyes adapted to the twilight dimness of the jungle and her skin adjusted itself to handle the humidity. Keith wasn't so lucky, and in less than half an hour, he was drenched in sweat.

"Doesn't this thing come with an air conditioner?" he complained, tugging at his collar.

"It should be able to regulate your body temperature," Allura remarked. She stopped walking and went to him, tapping his gauntlet and pulling up a diagnostic. "It appears to have been damaged in the crash," the princess concluded. "If only I had the parts to replace it…sorry Keith."

"Guess I have to leave it," he replied. In a few moments, he had stripped down to the black T-shirt and jeans he wore underneath his armor. The relief on his sweaty face was visible as he tucked his Bayard and sword into his belt, then left his discarded armor behind him.

"Are you sure?" Allura asked. "You'll be more vulnerable like this," The Red Paladin only grunted and fingered the Galra sword slung at his hip.

They only stopped once, and that was to refill their canteens. Every birdcall or rustle in the bushes made the hair on the back of Allura's neck stand on end.

However, she was only afraid of her surroundings when the sun set. The cries of birds rose in pitch and fervor until it sounded like screaming. Bloodcurdling howls echoed between the trees, guttural bellows resounded from above, and many far stranger calls rippled through the air.

Keith felt the rising uneasiness as well, and was grateful when Allura stepped closer to him for reassurance.

"I think I'm starting to realize why no one ever comes back," he whispered as a pair of glowing eyes flickered in and out of the foliage. Another scream sounded from the right, closer than before. He grabbed his Bayard in one hand and his Galra blade in the other. Allura held a gun.

But none of those weapons could have prepared them for what came next.