Alutia Rising, Anniversary Edition (Alutia Rising Series, Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

he recognize the
man staring back at him.
    He had always been of average looks at best.
His face one of hard curves and a pronounced jaw; outlining a nose
swollen from drink, tiny ears that didn’t quite fit his bobble
head, and lightly bearded cheeks covered in a thin layer of filth.
His once envied, dirty brown curls were fleeing from his forehead,
tangled with dirt, twigs, and other rubbish best left to the
imagination. The deep, bloodshot eyes that stared back at him
accusingly were the most prominent of his features; a perfect hazel
green that was soft, kind, and, most importantly of all, weak.
    Trent slapped the image away, dunking his
head beneath, scrubbing his thin beard, cheeks, and hair to try and
free the filth. He lingered, pulling his head free only when he
felt his mind begin to fade, gasping for breath amongst the swaying
grass.
    He fished the piece of jerky he’d plan to
give Toby again from his sack, placing it atop the old man’s cairn,
“Goodbye, Toby,” before moving back to the tracks, starting the
next leg of his journey...the journey of a hobo.
     
*********
     
    The view from Princess Sasha Vn’Oco’s private
balcony atop Tidelia Castle was beyond stunning; a magnificent
sight in which only a few chosen nobles within the NHA were ever
blessed to witness.
    Though is that fair? Sasha considered
for a moment, the idea she was allowed such luxury just because of
her standing as the third-princess of the 189 th NHA
galaxy, as well as being the adopted daughter of the castle’s
ruler, Countess Liana, irritated her to no end. But she, like most
other nobles of the minority realist standing, knew there was
little that could be done about these ancient traditions, only
nobles permitted to live on paradise planets like Tidelia.
    She clearly understood the reasoning behind
the tradition. Paradise planets being beyond rare, only one or two
found in each colonized galaxy, with never changing weather and an
environment idyllic for human habitation. Meaning, without proper
colonization limits, irreversible harm could be brought to these
pristine environments.
    I still don’t have to like it; she
fumed, leaning far over the balcony’s vine wrapped railing,
scanning the distant horizon.
    Rolling forests of densely packed trees
swayed gently in the wind, their rainbow leaves appearing like
dense fur painted upon a white canvas created by the perpetual
milky mist rising from its depths. Pristine meadows, blanketed with
flowers and bushes flecked with vibrant reds, blues, and purples,
crept from the forest’s edge, outlining Tileenia, the capital city
of the Tidelia Earldom, which spread just below the castle’s gates
to intermingle seamlessly with the local flora.
    Sasha took a deep breath, letting the clean,
sweet smelling air fill her lungs and clear her mind. She extended
her bare arms, fully enjoying the gentle caress of warm sunlight on
her fair skin, thanks to one of Tidelia's binary stars.
    Tidelia’s standing as a paradise planet was
due to a rare gravitational phenomenon, Sasha had learned from her
servant and tutor, Gil’Da. The binary stars in which Tidelia
orbited, were not only identical, both class 1 of the yellow-white
spectrum, but also followed an atypical rotation and orbital
pattern. This created a “corkscrew” type gravitational field,
allowing Tidelia to also follow an atypical orbital pattern,
leading to the planet being equidistant from both stars during its
entire orbital pattern.
    This resulted in a rare phenomenon where
sunlight would evenly bath both hemispheres of the planet during
the day side rotation, creating almost identical, temperate
temperatures across its entire surface, except in the scattered
mountainous regions.
    This rare environmental consistency provided
an opportunity for local plant and animal life to evolve and
thrive, given the inclusion of another required element for carbon
based life forms to exist; water. Tidelia had an abundance, though
if viewed from