The Golden Keepers (The Golden Keeps Book 1) Read online

  The Golden Keepers

  EMA LEE

  The Start of a New Life

  Our world ended, just like that, in a blink of an eye. All I could hear were cries and screams of people pleading for their life. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move. My home is gone forever. Where will we go now? It feels like we have been in this ship forever. The captain says there is a planet that is similar to our planet. They call it Earth. I don’t want something similar to my planet. I want Planet Saruta back! The Captain says Earth is beautiful and is surrounded by water. And that it has all sorts of weather. Something called snow? It’s supposed to be white and fall from the sky.

  “Astra… Astra!”

  My mind finally focused. I looked over and saw my mother staring at me. “Are you okay sweetie? You haven’t talked for days” Has it really been days? Wow. I guess I’m just so stunned after all the events that have taken place.

  “I’m fine mom, just a little tired from everything I guess.” I said as I took a deep breathe.

  “I know it’s hard, but we will be okay. This Earth place sounds very interesting! I think we will enjoy living there!” Mom was trying to be joyful in the situation. Gosh I admire her for her confidence! I smiled at her and continued to look out the window where my planet used to exist, all that was left were a bunch of little stars in the sky, and it was like it never existed.

  “Mom” I whispered.

  “Yes Astra?” She responded in a calm voice.

  “How long will it take to reach Earth?” I tried to make my question sound like I could care less about Earth, but to be honest, this spaceship was killing me, and I was starting to smell like a dying cow.

  “We should be there tomorrow.” Mother responded as she handed me a glass of hot soup.

  “Drink Up! We wouldn’t want you to die!” Mom said while smiling at me trying to hold back a laugh.

  She always thinks she is so funny! I smiled and thanked her for the soup. One day left in this ship. I can do this!

  “Wake up Astra! Wake Up! We’re arriving right now!” Mom was so energetic! I’ve never seen her so excited to be somewhere before! I looked out the window and saw Earth. It was just like the captain said. Blue covered the planet. It was beautiful! I’ve never seen anything like it before.

  The Captains voice came over the intercom, “Attention everyone, we are arriving to planet earth! This planet is highly protected by a species they call Humans. I must warn you once we enter Earth these humans will be able to track us and will try to find us. Once we land you will need to abort the ship and hide as soon as possible. If you get far enough from the space craft they will not be able to spot you. We look very similar to their kind so try to blend in with these humans.”

  I turned to my mother and asked her “How does he know all of this?”

  “It’s called a scanning probe. Once we get close to a planet the scanner is able to tell us the dangers, species, and life on that planet.” Mother replied.

  Wow, the Captain is serious about this! I wonder what these humans look like. He said they look similar to us. I looked down at my pale white skin. Is it possible that we really could look similar? Will I really be able to blend in with these humans? My stomach started to twist and turn. Oh my gosh am I nervous? I started to breathe heavy and couldn’t seem to stop.

  My mother noticed and started to stroke my long curly brown hair saying

  “Everything will be okay, I promise”

  My stomach started to calm down. Those words reminded me of when I was a seven years old. I remember the big tall man in a black suit coming to our door talking to mother. I remember her crying on the staircase. I asked her what was wrong and she told me that Dad wouldn’t be coming home anymore, that he went to a better place. A tear fell down my face.

  Mom wiped my cheek and forced a smile on her face and told me “Everything will be okay, I promise.”

  Ever since I was seven I have always trusted my mom. I looked at her while she stroked my hair. Mother is a beautiful lady; she has golden blonde hair that hangs right above her shoulders and clear blue eyes, people can tell we are related because of the color of our eyes. They say our eyes are as blue as the Ocean. Most of my features are from dad. Mom turned to look at me and I smiled at her. She smiled back and reached her hand out to hold my hand.

  The Captain came out to give us an update, “Prepare for landing, please buckle up, this may be a bumpy ride.” The Captain left to return to his seat to land the ship. I’ve never been a fan of flying. I have always preferred being on ground where I was in control of my life, but I guess the options were stay and die on my planet or get in the ship and live. That made my decision a lot easier. I held my breath and closed my eyes, squeezing my mother’s hand. The ship started to get shaky; it felt like my seatbelt was barely holding onto me. I suddenly felt a great amount of heat hitting the front my body, sweat started to drip from my forehead, I felt like I was in an oven! We were heading towards Earth fast, the closer we got to the planet the slower the ship got. Finally, the Captain’s voice came over the intercom

  “Attention everyone, we have landed. Our current location is North Carolina, found in the United States. I advise all of you to grab your things and take off immediately!”

  The ship stopped moving. Everyone rushed to grab what was left of their belongings. Which were mostly two bags of clothes, I had a white backpack and a navy blue shoulder bag. And mom had one gigantic pink suitcase, it was hard to miss. We proceeded to exit the space craft. Once I was out the door I looked around at green trees and green grass. I could see the blue ocean in the distance, the wind blew in my face, and it felt warm and humid. All of a sudden I started to hear a loud beeping noise. I looked around to see where it was coming from but I couldn’t see anyone. The noise seemed to get louder and closer to us. I looked at my mother.

  “Run!” She yelled pushing me off the ship.

  I looked over at the trees that were near us and took off as fast as I could towards them. We started running at a rapid paste through the trees, while running I noticed a stump of a tree sticking out of the ground that I managed to jump over but once I turned to warn my mother it was too late, she fell and hit her head on a rock.

  “Mother!” I yelled while running back to where she was.

  She was on the ground completely still, I couldn’t see any movement. I felt a tear stream down my face. I lost my father when I was seven. I couldn’t lose my mother now. I put my ear down to her chest. Her heart was still beating and her chest was still moving up and down. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around.

  “How did I get down here?”

  “You took a hard fall mom.” I said while smiling.

  I looked up and paused for a moment, I saw an old brown building a few yards in front of us.

  “I hear noises this way. We must be close to the humans.”

  I helped her get on her feet and we walked towards the building. On the other side of it there was an area filled with humans.

  “Wow.” I said under my breath.

  They looked just like the people in my world. They have two arms, two legs, two eyes, a nose and a mouth just like me. They smelt different though, like a mixture of honey and vanilla. It was a smell I could definitely get used to. I looked over at mother and saw the cut on her head, something I realized was that the blood on her cut was now red. On Saruta our blood was purple, not red.

  “Mom, the cut on your head is red.”

  She put her hand to her head and touched her cut with her finger. When she looked at the blood on her fingers she looked amazed.

  “Well, would you look at that? I didn’t even k
now I had a cut on my head!”

  I smiled in relief knowing that she was perfectly fine.

  “Let’s go clean it up.” I told her.

  As we walked further into the town we found a fountain, I proceed to direct mother towards it.

  “Sit here mom, I will clean the cut on your head”

  I searched my backpack for my blue cloth. Once I found it I pulled it out and dipped it in the fountain. I put it up to my mother’s cut to wash the blood off her forehead. Once the blood was gone I dropped my cloth on the ground looking extremely confused.

  “What is it Astra? What’s wrong?” My mother asked with a worried look on her face.

  “Mom, don’t freak out but.. Your cut is gone.”

  There was no evidence that my mother was wounded. Her cut had healed by itself. I sat there and thought for a moment how it could be. Reflecting back to when we got off the ship I realized that I felt like I had more energy. I could hear noises coming from a far off distance. And I could run extremely fast in the woods. While sitting by the fountain, the sun came out from behind a cloud and my skin felt energized again. It felt a way that it has never felt before. I reached in my backpack and took out my pocket knife.

  “What are you doing Astra?” My mother said frantically.

  “I’m going to cut my arm.”

  My mom looked at me as if I was the most stupid person in the world, but she let me continue to proceed with my plan. I put the sharp blade to my skin and made a slit in my arm. The red blood started to come out of it. I continued to watch my arm closely. Once the bleeding stopped I saw my skin start to put itself back together. It healed on its own just like the cut on my Mother’s forehead. My Mother stared at my arm stunned.

  “Mom, I don’t think this is normal.” I said looking at her.

  “No Astra, it’s not normal. I think our body has a different reaction to Earth. We have more power and strength here than we did on Planet Saruta.”

  We both sat there in silence for what felt like an eternity. Finally mother turned to me and said

  “Let’s go find shelter.”

  I picked up my backpack and swung it over my shoulders and grabbed my shoulder bag, Mother grabbed her pink suitcase and we started to look for a place to live. I kept looking down at my arm, and at my mother’s head. I can’t believe our bodies heal extremely fast here. We walked through a white picket fence exiting out of the small town and entered the coast.

  “Wow, it’s beautiful” I whispered to myself.

  We started to walk along the beach. I took my shoes off and started to carry them. I could feel the warm grains of sand slide between my toes. The wind started to blow in my face and the smell of the salty Ocean entered my nose. I stopped for a moment and looked out at the clear blue water and smiled.

  “The Ocean matches your eyes.”

  I turned my head to see who was talking to me. I saw a tall man in a green swimsuit standing a few feet away from me. He had dark brown hair that hung right above his bright green eyes, and his skin looked as if it had been kissed by the sun. He smiled and began to walk towards me.

  “Hi, I’m Dillan”

  He reached his hand out to shake my hand. I looked down then proceeded to reach my hand towards his.

  “I’m Astra”

  I felt my face get red. He was definitely a human, because he had a strong sent of Honey and Vanilla. It smelt amazing!

  “So Astra, are you new here?” he asked.

  “Um, yeah! I just arrived today.” I responded as I observed his abs that looked as if they had been sculpted from marble.

  “Well how do you like North Carolina?”

  “It’s really beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like this before.” I said with probably the biggest smile I have ever had on my face.

  “Ha Ha. That’s good! Well I’m usually here everyday surfing the waves. Maybe I’ll see you around Astra!”

  He smiled and started to walk towards the ocean with his surf board tucked under his right arm.

  I turned around and looked down the coast, I saw mother in the distance waiting for me. I started to run towards her then I remembered my speed. I tried to run slow so the people on the beach wouldn’t be able to recognize that I was different but it was very difficult. Once I reached her she grinned and asked

  “Who was that?”

  “No one mom, just a guy.” I said trying not to show my true feelings.

  “What’s his name?” Mother asked.

  I swear she is the most nosey person I have ever met.

  “Dillan, he is a surfer, can we stop talking about him?” I asked.

  “Sure sweetie, whatever you say. I found a place for us to stay right over here!”

  We walked behind a rock that was right next to the coast. It had a trail going into a group of trees that we followed. Further down the trail I could see an old abandon home.

  “I know it’s not much, but I figured we could stay here, get jobs, and fix up the place. What do you think?” Mother asked.

  I looked at my mother and responded “I think that’s a great idea mom. It’s perfect!”

  “It’s not because of that surfer boy is it?” she said smiling.

  “Gosh mom! Let it go! I just talked to him that’s all!” I started to walk towards the house to take a look inside.

  The house was small and made of wood. There were no windows in the borrowed openings and no door. I walked inside the entrance to the house. There were two bedrooms with no beds in them and lots of water pipes with nothing attached to them. At least we had a tiny kitchen that consisted of a sink, stove, and oven. I knew it wasn’t much, but given the circumstance I’d say we were very lucky to find that house.

  The sun started to set and I still hadn’t taken a shower since I was on planet Saruta. I started to look around the house and couldn’t find the shower.

  “You have to be kidding me.” I mumbled under my breath.

  Mother was already asleep so I went outside to look for something that I could use to wash myself. I walked down the trail that led to the ocean. I stared at the ocean and had a crazy thought. I looked both ways and there was no one in sight. I started to take my clothes off and I ran as fast as I could into the ocean. The water didn’t feel that cold. It felt like a nice warm bath. I laid on my back looking up at the stars in the sky. They were beautiful, the way they twinkled in the night. I wonder if they could have been able to see my planet up there. Maybe it looked like the stars to them.

  Saruta was a planet that was about the same size as Earth. Accept our planet was covered in green grass and less water. The place my mother and I lived was called Chesmount Valley. It had a lot of trees with purple flowers hanging off of them. We had a small blue river that sat right in front of our little home. Sometimes I would walk out to the river, sit down and stick my feet in the water while I watched the horses run across the valley. The sky was always blue and nothing ever fell from it. I guess in a way, things never changed on planet Saruta, I guess that’s what makes Earth different. I think I’m starting to like Earth.

  I rolled back onto my stomach and started to swim to shore. Once I reached shore I put my feet in on the ground and walked up to shore. I grabbed my towel off of the ground and wrapped it around me to keep me warm.

  I looked down the beach where I met Dillan. Dillan made me feel different. Not it a bad way, but in a way where I felt special. I mean, he was really cute. And he talked to me. Dillan has had me smiling all night! I put my clothes back on and walked back to the house. Once I got inside the house I looked inside the bedroom and saw Mother. She was on the ground sleeping peacefully on a blanket she packed. I walked towards her, got on my knees and leaned over to give her a kiss on the forehead. I laid down next to her staring at the ceiling until my eyes got heavy. Then I fell asleep.

  The Past and Present

  I was in the kitchen washing the dishes when I heard a noise that sounded like an explosion. It shook the ground making all of our dishes fall
to the ground. It followed with screaming. I put the dish I was washing down and ran outside to see what was happening. All I could see was black smoke covering the sky. Something didn’t seem right. I went inside the house to find mother. She was sitting on the balcony that stood outside her bedroom.

  “Mom! What’s happening?” I tried to ask.

  I could barely breathe. Mother got up from her chair, walked over and held me in her arms.

  “I’m not sure, but we need to go somewhere safe!” She responded.

  We heard a knock at our door. I ran to open it while mother stayed in the bedroom. I opened the door and saw my best friend Sarah. She looked extremely worn out.

  “There is a space ship about ten miles away. We need to get to it.” She said frantically.

  “What? Why? Why is there a spaceship?” I asked.

  “There is no time! Pack what you can and follow me!” She said as she walked into the house.

  I quickly rushed to my mother and told her to pack. I went into my room and looked inside my closet. I grabbed all of my shorts and tank tops. A pair of sandals and my running shoes then I ran into the bathroom and grabbed a towel. It took us seven minutes to pack. Once we were done we followed Sarah out to the river. I turned around and looked at our home one last time. I couldn’t believe I was leaving it. I grew up in that home!

  “There is no time Astra! Come on!” Sarah shouted.

  Sarah started to run towards a hill that was in the distance.

  “The ship is right over that hill. We need to get to it as fast as we can.” She said.

  We started to run as fast as we could towards it. I looked at the ground to watch my steps, the ground started to get rocky and rough. The banging noise was getting louder. I turned my head to see what it was. Explosions were starting to come towards us, we could see trees falling, water flying up in the air from the river, houses tumbling to the ground. I looked in the black smoke that was covering the sky. I could see a space craft. It was destroying our planet. I started to panic and tried to run faster. We started to climb up the hill. I looked over at Sarah and could tell she was getting weary