Chapter 1

She stared at the two figures in the fog. Both tall. One just a bit taller than herself, the second just a bit taller than him. Both were panting, gasping for air, breathing heavily. The taller man straightened up, punched the other. He fell, like a rag doll, to the cold, damp floor. The rain beat down on his back and his knee's scratched against the surface, tearing his jeans and ripping his skin. Blood and sweat stained the clothes of both men. The man who remained standing picked up a long, blackish-brown rusted object. He approached the one kneeling on the ground. He smirked slightly and raised his arm high above his head, grasping the metal rod, the metal gleaming in the faint starlight… Mei sat up with a start. Just a dream. Just the same dream she'd been having every night for the past sixteen years. Why was she always dreaming about her husband's death? She didn't know that he was dead. She hadn't been with him when he had disappeared. She had been on Akillian and he had been on shuttle to planet Shadow. At least that's what he told her. She had assumed he had perished in a crash or just decided to leave her. Mei glared at her reflection in the mirror opposite her bed. How dare she say that D'Jok had left her. He wouldn't do that. Mei examined herself in the mirror. Her elbow-length chocolate brown hair was greasy and dark circles surrounded her big, brown eyes. She was tall and slender, but her once smooth, creamy skin was now pale. Pulling her hair back into her signature high ponytail, Mei glanced at the bracelet on her wrist. She always wore it. She had never taken it off since the day D'Jok left. It had been his; it had belonged to his mother, who had died shortly after his birth. It was a thin piece of brown thread with a long bead with unique gold patterns on it and an amber and brown bead on each side. At the end of the string was a small, pale lime green bead. She had owned it for a brief time once, during her first Galactic Football Cup League. She had pretended to like D'Jok for career reasons, and he had given the bracelet to her. However, he asked her to return it after their so-called relationship had broken up his friendship with Micro-ice, his best friend. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Mei? Are you up?" Came Maya's voice.
"Yes," Mei replied, "I'll be right down." Maya was D'Jok's adopted mother, a fortuneteller who had raised him and was the only parent he had known until he was seventeen years old.

Keeping her promise, although she wasn't really in the mood, Mei quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a pallid lilac sweater and rushed downstairs. As usual, Jaina was already up. Wearing her usual baggy black jeans and a loose fitting, dark grey hooded jacket. She had abandoned her breakfast and was kicking a ball. Mei smiled fondly at her red headed daughter. She was so much like D'Jok. The hair, clothes, personality and love for football.

"Morning honey," Mei said, sitting down at the kitchen table.

"Hi mom," Jaina replied, obviously much more interested in the ball.
"Try not to break anything," Mei whispered. Jaina just rolled her eyes.
"Are your brothers up?"
"Doubt it."
Mei had been overjoyed when she had found out that she was pregnant, not to long after D'Jok had left. What had shocked her, and everyone else, was when Mei gave birth to triplets, a girl and two boys.
"Hey mom!" Shouted the two whirlwinds that rushed into the room, one of blocking Jaina as she attempted an imaginary goal towards the fridge.
"Good morning Ryland, good morning Brandon." Mei grinned. The boys were more like her, while Jaina like her father. Like Mei, the boys enjoyed football and had great defensive abilities. But they were not nuts about the sport, unlike their sister. And they both had their mother's chocolate brown eyes, Jaina did as well though.
"Mum, did you hear the news?" Gasped Brandon.
"I want to tell her!" Snapped Ryland.
Jaina laughed. "You guys are fifteen, not five."
"What is it then?" Mei asked.
Ryland shoved a newspaper into his mother's arms. Brandon cleared his throat and stood up straight. "Aarch has returned to Akillian!"