Beginnings Chapter 1: Not that different

Two infants stared at each other through the glass viewports of their respective spaceships. They were incredibly different.

One was a Glaupunk, sitting back in his seat. He was tall and wide, with pinkish skin, blue eyes, and brown hair. He possessed the ability to fly, had powerful senses, and invulnerability. The child did not know why he had these powers, or what he could use them for, or even that he was special. He did not understand all that much yet. He was only three weeks old. He saw another kid that looked weird and stuck his tongue out.

The other child had blue skin, green eyes, no hair on his large head, and the thin body typical of a Tejjhan. He knew a lot of things, though he was even younger than his counterpart. He understood vaguely some of the characteristics of the other child that made him a Glaupunk. He knew his mom and dad wanted him to go away so he could find a destiny of some kind. He knew he had a minion that swam. This child could not fly, could be injured fairly easily, and had duller senses. Unlike the first, however, he could understand speech and had already begun to babble himself. He pressed his face up against the glass, eyes wide with curiosity.

Yes, the two children were very different. One rich, one poor; one smart, one strong; one white, one blue. There were two things, however, that they shared.

The first was that they were fleeing dying planets being destroyed by the same black hole. Their families, along with many others, had attempted to send their sons to safety. Unlike many others, they succeeded.

The second was that both children were being sent to the same planet. Their parents had not planned it that way, there was no cosmic destiny at work. It was simply Lady Luck tossing two sets of dice and rolling the same number. Earth was a healthy planet, similar enough to Tejja and Orta. Humans were, in general, a loving species, so would likely take care of a castaway child. There were many other planets that fit those simple criteria, but Sudhir and Arcani's parents happened to choose the same one.

The boys lost sight of each other in the burning atmosphere of their new planet. Only Arcani knew where both of them had ended up. Sudhir stayed rich, Arcani stayed poor. Sudhir was pampered and given free reign to do as he desired, Arcani taught more intensively and strictly. Neither child would ever know that their original parents would have raised them with much the same methods as their adoptive parents. Some things were truly universal.

A third child, thought of as a pet due to his aquatic nature, accompanied Arcani. Just like the others, he was individual in his own way. He wore no clothing other than a clear glass ball to contain his water. He was green, blue, and black, with brown eyes. In most visible ways, Valeriu was the strangest of the aliens to land that day. However, Vali would grow both physically and mentally at the same rate as human children. In this, he had an advantage over the other two.

Vali, fairly typically of an infant, understood very few things. Actually, only one. What he knew was not that he was loved or the face of a parent, unlike the children of most species. Vali was a Shallus. Like every Shallus, the very first thing he knew was that he was bound to his Tejjhan, Arcani. That bond could not be broken except by death. It was loyalty, love, friendship, servitude, parenthood. It was a requirement that he take care of the blue child that shared his pod to the best of his ability. This bond, already powerful, had been artificially strengthened by Valeriu and Arcani's parents so that both might survive. Therefore, Vali burned with determination.

He had a job to do, and by Lar, he would do it.