Chapter 13, pg. 72-74
They awoke feeling rested, giddy, and thankful to be alive. Three suns beat down on them from a purple horizon, creating an astonishing purple atmosphere. How long they slept was lost to blank digital wristwatches.
Soulful crossed Lyn’s mind, watching the unknown stars that created life and gave them warmth to cheat death. What mattered most was that they were alive to continue their mission and find a way back home. Home resounded in Lyn’s mind, as a lump formed in her throat, wondering whether they would ever get home. “Do you think we will ever see Earth again?” Lyn murmured.
“God, I hope so,” Ali said. They hugged. Lyn whispered, “Thanks, we need hope.” Ali wondered what kept them going to defeat the demons of doubt and fear in their hearts, to fight on. Home felt like a distant memory, but it was all she could hang onto. Home sweet home, she glumly thought.
Lyn said, “I think we just climbed out of a wormhole. We are now lost on a planet that looks like Earth, but isn’t.”
Sade said, “I guess that alien mandala was a doorway to the stars.” Before Lyn could answer, a deafening roar caused her to freeze—as last night’s nightmare emerged as a gigantic shadow rushing over them. Jill screamed, “Run for your lives!” The monster plunged out of the blazing sunlight. Massive razor-sharp claws clicked, while four bulging yellow eyes tracked their heat forms scurrying below. Jill felt a blast of heat, smelled the stench of fiery breath, and dived headfirst beneath a rock ledge for shelter. Smoke rose from her hair; frantically she patted the back of her hair—only singed. Enraged, she thought, that thing tried to cook me.
Ali shrieked, “Watch out, it’s breathing fire!” The beast’s head jerked and one eye locked on Ali, who scrambled toward a jutting sharp ledge hanging above her. She leaped through air as the shadow closed on her, hoping the gigantic beast had a tiny brain and fallen into her trap. Consumed by the lust for the kill, the fiend ignored its reckless descent. Ali’s body heat and movement hypnotized one eye, while the Stargirls actions distracted the other three eyes. It flew blind, crashing head-on into the saw-toothed ledge that looked like an ancient chiseled spear. The winged beast’s roar turned into a rattling groan, the ground shook, and stones fell. Impaled, it hung precariously over Ali; a black waterfall cascaded, splashing steaming blood around her. She lay, trembling but triumphant, in the small ravine she had hurdled into at the last moment. She lay on her back, gaping at the hideous beast and torrents of blood bubbling around her. She hollered in victory. “I slew the Thunderbird.” Her quick wits had turned the grisly predator into dead quarry. Quite a coup, she thought when the Stargirls rushed to her side. Sweating, they stared in disbelief at Ali and the monster above. Jill helped her from the bloody mess. They patted her on the back for saving them and then sat in a circle, considering their impasse and resources, when grumblings from their stomachs gave birth to a creepy thought. Mad said, “I’m starved, do you think that thing is edible?” Taken aback by her startling question, they did some soul-searching; but in the end, hunger won over repulsion. They butchered the choice parts of the meat that surprisingly had an agreeable pungent smell, unlike its rank breath.
Ali yelled, “Fire up the Barbie!” Smoke from the alien barbeque escaped into the purplish sky, fed by wiry brush they had gathered, as a sweet smell made their nostrils flare.
Lyn said, “Hmm,” with a half-smile. “Let’s brand it a Star burger.” The outrageous idea made them howl. Her humor in the face of death surprised them. Once full, they cleaned their greasy hands and knives in the red soil. Jill said, “We need to give this way-out, red planet a name.”
Ali said, “How about Bahtra, in honor of our bad-mannered host who grudgingly gave us food for our journey.” They all laughed and said, “Bahtra it is.” Ali rolled the spare monster meat in a heap of halite to keep it fresh.