The sky was covered by gray clouds laden with moisture; soft tiny drops were falling, accompanied by the warm summer wind. Water was dripping from the living leaves of the trees.
A roar split the clouds. A fireball ripped the sky, leaving a gap that showed a blue flicker between trails of smoke, crossed by trails of black smoke.
A great impact generated a roar that shook the entire forest. The area of the crash was shrouded in chaos, but the disruption did not stop the natural course of life in the forest.
The flames from the foreign object made it difficult to clearly distinguish what was what appeared to be a freshly fallen meteor.
Banging and groaning could be heard from somewhere, intermingled with the many natural melodies. A lid shot out of the fire, and the figure of a child quickly emerged, bursting through the flames.
His attention was focused on the smoldering, smoking ball, whose ambient humidity barely managed to weaken the fire.
-Damn it..." complained the young man, hearing the cries of two children upset by the disaster.
He looks around him and then at the sky, noticing the faint drops that seemed to want to help him. His breathing was agitated: the trip was hard and the emotions would not stop. Barely feeling able to move, the boy dug his fingers into the mud and began to stamp it against the surface of his transport.
He managed to extinguish the flames that covered the only entrance, and only then was he able to jump inside the ship, grab two things and quickly jump out with a second leap.
His feet touched the ground. The boy held the two objects with extreme care and ran quickly to hide them under a tree. Gently, he laid two babies on the wet grass. They were not objects. They were all he had left of his family: two children who didn't even seem to have reached their first birthday.
A nervous sigh was the young man's attempt to calm himself, but the rising flames made him even more desperate.
- No! The ship! -he shouted in panic, running away as he scooped up more mud from the ground and slammed it against the persistent wall of fire.
With haste, he covered the surface of the ship with mud, managing to extinguish the flames, leaving only traces of smoke that the drizzle helped to dissipate.
The boy fell sitting on the ground, breathing anxiously. He wanted to cry. It was all happening too fast. A tear slipped down his left cheek, but he hit his forehead with his own fist. She didn't want to cry. He wasn't supposed to show weakness...
The babies' cries brought him out of his distress. They had not stopped screaming for a single moment.
The young man trotted over to them, carefully lifted them up and returned to the ship, bringing them inside.
-I know there's a smell of burning," he said in anguish, "but it's better to keep them here than to leave them out in this damp.
He placed them on a metal bellows, lined with blankets that simulated a firm mattress.
I can't risk them getting sick right now...
He tucked them in to protect them from the damp cold. When the crying stopped, the young man felt a brief moment of calm. He took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind. He clenched his teeth tightly; his mind wanted to sink into sadness, perhaps anger, but his heart knew he must remain serene.
He walked a few steps inside the ship's structure and pressed a couple of controls to check for damage. Seeing that the panels were still functioning, he couldn't help but feel a slight flash of joy.
He turned to the communicator and found that it was still responding. He tried to turn it on, but there was no signal; only the annoying hum of the static frequency could be heard.
-I should have known... The planet was destroyed. Communications no longer exist..." he muttered, disappointed, about to turn it off, losing all hope. But he stopped, thinking.
The boy adjusted the communicator and started recording a message:
-This is Max Songoku, rookie warrior of the First Division of Soldiers. I need support. Planet Terra has just been destroyed, and I am alone with my brother and cousin. I managed to escape to Earth, but I don't know my coordinates or location..." he let out a frustrated sigh. If anyone is listening to this... I need help urgently...
The recording cuts out and Max plops down in the driver's seat, looking over his shoulder at the bellows that was pretending to be a cradle for his cousin and brother.
-Shit... What am I going to do now...?
A beam of light comes through the door. The boy steps out to watch the sky begin to clear. He walks around the ship, checking the structure.
-The ship lost both of its engines... it can still start, but it can't fly. And even if it could fly, it's in no condition to get out of the atmosphere...
Max stands, looking at the burned metal of his ship's structure. Something was watching him. The boy turns around and notices an older man: he was wearing a white kimono and a blue hakama, with a bamboo hat that barely showed his face; only a long brown beard was visible, the tip of which was tied with a white strip.
The man raises his hand, and this gesture immediately puts Max on guard. The man shakes his hand, waving, but is forced to move aside: Max had embedded his foot in the tree next to him.
He watched, amazed, how the boy was strong enough to break the structure of a tree. But he also noticed him anxious, scared... he was protecting something.
The boy's feet did not touch the ground, but he still tried to connect a blow to the man's abdomen, who protected himself with his forearm. Even so, he could not avoid being dragged a few centimeters by the power of the blow.
-Wow..." whispered the old man, shaking his numb arm. I didn't think you hit so hard. It was a mistake to block with your limp arms...
Rio with a calm and gentle tone. Max stood up and stood at attention, but the old man's words left him puzzled. Looking at him closely, he did not notice a hostile posture, even though he had been attacked without warning.
- Who are you? What do you want?" asked the young man, keeping his combat stance firm.
The old man brought his hands to his sword, taking a relaxed posture.
-My name is Baldur Brauner," he replied. To be honest, I don't want anything... What happens is that it's not normal for a meteorite to fall from the sky and hit my lands...
Max's gaze focused on his ship, which was covered in mud and looked like a meteor. Then he looked back at the old man, still on his guard.
"Your land?"
"You're not from around here, are you, kid?"
"How clever you are, sir..."
"Calm down, calm down, okay?" Baldur said calmly, showing his hands in a gesture of peace. "What's your name, kid?"
"What the hell do you care?" Max replied, ready to attack again.
"When someone asks you a question politely, you answer politely," Baldur said firmly, but without losing his composure.
At this response, Max lowers his hands slightly, gradually losing his hostile stance. He no longer knew what to do.
"I don't know what to do anymore... He dodged me easily and blocked my strongest punch with just one arm. It's not obvious at first glance, but there's a huge difference..."
"My name is Max Songoku," he replies, lowering his hands completely and abandoning his fighting stance.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Max..." Baldur replies, smiling kindly. "Tell me, Max, where are your parents? Are you lost?"
"What does that have to do with anything...?" Max shouts, frowning, but he notices a gesture from Baldur, suggesting politeness.
"Yes... I'm lost..." he confesses, barely moving his lips and speaking in a low tone.
He lowered his gaze, clenched his teeth, and closed his fist tightly. For some reason, he felt cornered. He didn't want to talk about what was happening to him; he didn't know him. Why tell an old man he barely knows about his problems? He's not threatening him, let alone intimidating him. It was his own mind that was betraying him. Max is carrying a lot on his mind...
"My parents... are dead..."
Unable to do anything, Max was completely vulnerable, his forehead pressed against the old man's chest, who held his head gently.
Baldur's eyes were closed, and now he understood the boy's attitude. It was just a gesture, but it was enough for Max to let his guard down, a hug with little contact, but it made Max understand that Baldur was not going to hurt him.
Baldur took a good look at the meteor, noticing that it was a metal structure hidden in piles of mud, and adding to that all the fingerprints on the ground and Max being in a place like this. It only led Baldur to deduce that Max was more than just a lost child.
"You're not from this planet, are you?" Baldur asked him.
Max turned away, his face slightly red, and looked away, trying to appear like a rigid soldier.
"No, I'm not from this planet... I come from a planet called Terra, a planet that belongs to the Terrans and the Senkaynes..." he replied, then clenched his teeth tightly. "But... it was just destroyed more than twelve hours ago..."
"That's a real shame... you must be in a lot of pain..." Baldur comments, with a somewhat sad look. "If you need to, you can come and live with me at my dojo until they come to rescue you or you can leave on your own..."
Max notices the old man's sincere gaze. He looks at his hand, which still has traces of mud on it, and then thinks of his brother and cousin, looking toward their ship. He looks uncertain. Should he go with the old man or leave on his own?
"I... I'm not alone..." Max confesses, turning to look at the old man. I'm taking care of my brother and my cousin..."
"I see..." Baldur comments. "You can bring them with you. They don't have to be alone..."
Baldur watches as Max heads for the ship. A moment passes and he comes back out with two babies in his arms. This sends a chill down the old man's spine; he never imagined that the boy was responsible for two newborns.
"Do you want...?" Baldur asks, extending his hands, intending to relieve Max of the weight of one of the babies.
"I want revenge... I want to kill the destroyer of my planet..." Max replies, completely misinterpreting the old man's question.
Baldur stands still for a moment, one eyebrow raised, looking at Max with a confused expression.
"I'm talking about carrying one of the children..." he clarifies calmly, stretching out his arms again.
"Oh... I... I'm sorry..." Max murmurs, looking down, visibly embarrassed.
"Don't worry... one tends to say crazy things in moments of vulnerability..."
"Yes... 'crazy things'..." Max replies, following Master Baldur. Heading to Mr. Brauner's Dojo.