[Prologue]    [Chapter 1]   [Chapter 2]    [Chapter 3]    [Chapter 4]    [Chapter 5]    [Chapter 6]    [Chapter 7]    [Chapter 8]    [Chapter 9]    [Chapter 10]    [Chapter 11]    [Chapter 12]    [Chapter 13]    [Chapter 14]    [Chapter 16]    [Chapter 17]    [Chapter 18]    [Chapter 19]    [Chapter 20]    [Chapter 21]    [Chapter 22]    [Chapter 23]    [Chapter 24]    [Chapter 25]    [Chapter 26]    [Chapter 27]    [Chapter 28]    [Chapter 29]    [Chapter 30]    [Epilogue]
   

Chapter 15

Everyone was playing a game in the garden next morning. They were standing in a circle. Kane, Jaron and Rida were standing up, Corina was kneeling down, Mando, Loria and Pella were also kneeling down but had one hand on the ground and Lico was on one knee.
    Kane held the ball, it was pink. He passed it to Pella on his right-who dropped it.
    “Well I’m out,” she said and walked out of the circle. The Taklans still in the game moved in so that the empty space could be filled.
    Lico picked up the ball. It was pink so she passed it to her Dad on her right. It then turned purple so Jaron passed it back. The ball turned pink again and Jaron caught the ball in surprise. Lico giggled. The ball was still pink. Jaron passed the ball to Rida, then the ball turned bright green. Rida threw it to Loria in front of him. She missed it.
    “I’m out,” called Loria and gave the ball to Mando.
    The ball was purple. Corina would have caught the ball if she wasn’t wondering what her Mum and sister were talking about.
    She read their minds. “So they’re talking about the rules list.” She missed the ball that Mando passed to her. She put one hand on the ground and passed the ball to Rida with her other hand. The ball was purple. Rida threw the ball to Jaron’s feet on purpose so that Jaron couldn’t catch it.
    “It was his fault!” Jaron told everyone when he picked up the ball.
    “One knee down,” everyone said to Jaron. He groaned and went down on one knee.
    The ball was still purple, so the ball was passed to Lico, who passed it to Kane, then the ball changed to bright green. Corina held out her arm, ready to catch the ball. After ages, Kane threw the ball but Corina ducked at the last second.
    “Wimp!” Mando called her.
    “Mando apologise!” Jaron said sternly.
    “Sorry Corina,” said Mando. Corina picked up the ball-which was pink-and walked back.
    “That’s okay. Here.” She gave him the ball.
    The others carried on playing while she followed Loria and Pella inside the building. She could then hear what they were saying.
    “Perhaps you should get her a Wayan trainer,” Loria suggested. “Jaron ordered one for Mando and now our son enjoys the classes. He loves it best when Zana and Mwae-the trainer-do fight scenes.”
    “So that’s why,” Pella said. “I was wondering why a young boy of 7 was so polite.”
    “He also has very polished moves, Lico adores them so much that she wants to have classes now,” told Loria.
    “Isn’t she a little young?” Pella asked.
    “She’s 5 in 2 days, we promised her she could start the classes then.” Pella sighed. “What’s wrong?” Loria asked.
    “Oh, Corina seems so hard to handle,” said Pella. “If only she was like other teenage girls.” Corina opened her mouth.
    “Everyone’s different Mum, she might just need some time away from here, like a small holiday or something,” suggested her older daughter.
    Corina tip-toed away.

Corina sat on her bed. “Mum doesn’t know me. She doesn’t even want to know me. She just wants me to be easier to handle, to be the daughter of her dreams. Like Loria.” She walked over to the window. It was sunset  and she could see Loria and Jaron hugging each other while hovering in the air. “At least Loria tries to know how I feel. She makes better suggestions for a start.”
    Corina turned around. “She might just need some time away from here, like a small holiday or something,” she remembered her sister saying. The princess smiled. “What a perfect idea! To get away from this palace, I’ll stay with my sister.” She got out a huge bag and started packing it with clothes and hair things.

Rida walked to the airship pilots. “What’s the problem?” he asked the women.
    “We’re having some...difficulty finding out what the problem is, sir,” said the first pilot.
    “We’re detecting a life form in the cargo area, we don’t know what it is,” the second pilot told Rida.
    Rida looked at both them. “They have no idea what’s going on,” he thought. “I’m thinking it’s Corina. She was having problems with her parents and no one could find her when we were leaving. It makes sense.” “Carry on, we’ll sort it out when we land.”
    “Aye, sir,” said the first pilot.

The cargo door opened, Rida went in. It was dark inside. He stood still for a bit.
    “Corina? Are you in here?” He heard a little shuffle. “I know it’s you Corina.” He couldn’t hear anything. “None of us will be mad at you.”
    Corina walked to him slowly. “Promise?”
    “Well,” Rida thought about it. “It won’t be one of us who’ll be mad at you. Come on.”
    They went out of the ship and headed to a door. Tyrons all around them were moving and lifting boxes.
    “Can I eat something?” asked Corina. “I’m hungry.”
    “Not surprising,” said Rida. “It’s been a long trip.”

    “So what’s your idea of a good life?” Rida asked Corina. They were in his room.
    Corina smiled as she thought about this. “Well, I’d have everyone really happy and they’d get along, and as Queen, I’ll give orders to hold parties everyday. No one will be sad and no one will be hurt. Fighting will never exist. Plus, no one will have to work hard.”
    Rida just stared. “That life you’ll never get.”
    “What?” “Of course you can have that life, nothing’s impossible,” thought Corina.
    “You’re describing the perfect life,” Rida told her. “It’s something no one can have. You’re describing paradise, it’s a place we go to after death…It’s also something that you have to work for in life.”
    Rida got up from his bed and walked to his window. “Come over here Corina.” Corina walked to his window. “See all this? (The city of Sherran.) It’s because of hard work we could rebuild all this. We all chipped in, so many Tyrons feel that this hard work was paid off.”
    Corina slumped on a sofa. “It won’t be easy being Queen will it?”
    Rida looked at her. “No. Which is why you need to think carefully about how you’ll rule Telleria. The harder the work, the better the reward. But at the same time, there are a number of people who want the easy life. Being Queen is about solving problems.”

Jaron was sitting on his bed, going through his accounts to make sure the money added up. It was boring work but it had to be done. Mando and Lico were watching him from the doorway.
    “Watch me,” whispered Mando to his little sister. “I’m gonna fly to Dad real quiet and surprise him.”
    Mando, holding a paper ball, flew really quietly to Jaron while Lico watched on. Mando got right behind him and threw the paper ball at his head. Jaron screamed and Lico giggled. But Mando had tilted too far and landed roughly on the hard floor. Jaron stood up and looked rather relieved.
    “What do you think you were doing?” asked Jaron in his scary voice. Both his children were scared of him. “Come over here Lico.” Lico went to him, scared.
    Mando started talking quietly. “I’m sorry, I thought  it would be funny if-”
    “If you can’t stay in the air when you fly, then I’ll keep you on the ground,” told Jaron. “Do you understand?”
    “Yes,” mumbled Mando.
    Lico just stood and stared at the floor.

He got out of the water. He was really tired after swimming across the Sea. It was dark. Must be midnight. He was still panting. He had to keep going. “Muss find Jaron,” he thought. He drank something from his bottle, then carried on walking.

©Ruth Amy Louise Hüneke 2008