Full Summary:

Taken as a little girl, River Gold has always known a life of hurt. She has never been able to get away from the people that took her in the first place. What happens when she hides away on Serenity? Will River find her? And how does the rest of the crew take to the stowaway?

River of Gold:

Taken:

I was playing in the park with some other kids. My nanny was watching me and then the sky went black. All of us looked up and saw the moon over the sun. On my home planet, it is 325 days a year sunshine and 40 days of darkness. It was more or less the last time I ever saw my family again. During the dark day, a man who wasn't watching the moon walked up behind me, put his hand on my shoulder and whispered into my ear. He said that if I screamed, he would go to my house and kill everyone I loved and cared about. I said nothing as he dragged me away from my nanny. I saw the other kids around me turning away from the black sky and look towards where I was being pushed into a small cargo ship. The kids were making such a noise that the adults started noticing.

My nanny never had time to scream my name as the man got into the cargo ship with me and the ship disappeared into the darkened day. The FEDs were called but they could not find me or the cargo ship. I waited to be rescued for nearly two months before giving up hope that I would ever see my family and beloved friends again. I was six years old when they took me, they have had me ever since.

Ten Years Later:

I learned quick how to fend for myself. The people that took me weren't technically mean to me but they weren't nice either. We had left my home planet two months after they took me so as not to attract any FEDs to the fact that they were the ones that took me in the first place. A ransom had been demanded and my parents had paid but I had not been given back. The FEDs did find the body of a little girl too badly injured to get an ID. My parents buried that little girl thinking she was me because even though they had paid the ransom, they still hadn't gotten me back alive. Unfortunately, I was very much alive.

Over the years, I gathered seeds in separate bags and marked what they were and soil in a plastic box so that if I ever did get away from my captors, I would have some way of feeding myself. I also managed to get ahold of a substantial amount of the ransom that my real parents had paid to them. They never even knew it was missing because they didn't count it at all. I had enough provisions to last at least three months if I was careful with my stored food and money. I was getting ready to leave; I just needed the right ship to stow away on.

I went daily to my favorite spot on the planet, a river that had turned gold the first day I stumbled upon it. They left me alone when it came to my wandering around the planet. The Reavers didn't journey to this side of the planet because it was too cold for them, so I was left to wander around, looking for anything that I could take with me. I had built a small shelter for whenever I spent the night away from my captors. I always called them my captors because it was what they were and I had never warmed up to them. I had been slowing moving belongings from the house in town to the shelter I had built. My seeds and box of soil were together near the door, my bow and arrows were next to the door as well. I had a huge metal container that I stored nearly everything in and would use it to get onto the ship I was aiming to stowaway on.

I had a cache of weapons: from knives and swords, to guns and ammo, bows and arrows, and a few grenades that I snitched off of a few dead FEDs that had journeyed the wrong way and gotten themselves fed upon by the Reavers. I was always tinkering with something and had managed to make a portable floating sled, which I was going to use to put my metal container on. I would use the weapons whenever I needed to and against anyone if the time came. And it was almost about time to leave this moon behind and make my way out in space.

But would anyone notice that I was even gone? Would my captors come after me once they found out that I was gone for good?