Star Travelers, Through the Portal, Part 5, Princess Aine Arrives on Earth
Star Travelers, Through the Portal is the story of two girls, one from Earth and one from a starship somewhere in the cosmos, not too far from here, who run away from home at the exact same moment in time and switch places in a space travel portal. These two girls have the same name, same appearance, and could be twins.
In this story, you will have the opportunity to see the world of today from many different perspectives, to travel to many places including other planets in the stars. You will have the chance to contemplate your position in the world, to consider the concepts presented in the book and most of all, to focus your mind on world betterment in this time of extreme change.
Characters: The main characters in this story are two girls with the same name and appearance who switch places in a space travel portal: Aine of the Stars and Anya, of Earth. (each name is romanced the same: Ahn-Ya — which means “love” in Irish)
Setting: This story has a dual setting: Earth and the Cosmos and we switch back and forth between them to show the action is happening simultaneously.
Language Lesson
Vocabulary & Composition Skills: Learn the etymology of a word (its original meanings) to better understand a words meaning and nuances, so you can choose words accurately in your own writing.
As you are studying this week, please pay careful attention to word meanings and take some time to look up derivations or etymologies.
Vocabulary words to clarify using a dictionary: etymology, language, metaphorical, wind instruments, mathematical, pattern, imposed (also “imposed upon” — the phrase), harboring, orient (as a verb), divine (all definitions plus etymology), combustible.
Last passage, Princess Aine escaped the Starship and flew through the portal to an unknown world. Meanwhile, Anya of Earth, swung so high she too, flew through a portal to another world, leaving her backpack under a tree in Kansas. We turn again to Princess Aine of the stars…
Princess Aine gasped and opened her eyes and rubbed her temples. She was on her knees in the dirt surrounded by the most delicious fragrance she could ever remember experiencing. She focused her eyes on hundreds of beautiful flowers with their soft gently moving petals formed in a perfect mathematical pattern. Their fragrance was enhanced as she drew closer.
“This is surely heaven”, she thought. She rolled on her back and looked up at the sky that was so blue. She threw back her head and laughed. She had made it through the portal to a new world! A wonderful world! Oh, and it looked as though this might be the home she had imagined – a world of delicious smells and artful color! She lay there for some time as a bee buzzed about her and the birds dotted the sky, looking down upon her strange position amidst the rose garden.
Suddenly, she heard a flashing noise and water lifted and sprayed from the ground soaking the remainder of her tunic and forcing her to get up and run to a drier spot underneath an old oak tree, whose branches leaned down almost to the ground as if to lift her up and hold her in its arms.
There was a bicycle leaning against the trunk of that old oak and just beneath it a pack folded with a small blanket and a bottle of water. She lifted the bottle to her lips to drink and looked around.
“Is this heaven in my mind, or is this a different planet in the cosmos?” she wondered. Was she dreaming? Had she landed somewhere near or far that was so different from where she’d come?
She looked around for the owner of the pack and the bicycle. Seeing no one, she sat down, opened the pack, found the crackers, opened the crackers and started munching. Mmmmm, pretty good! They seemed real enough. She saw the map, the cell phone, and the flute.
She clicked open the flute case. She smiled, for it looked much like the wind instrument she’d learned to play. She had many times been imposed upon to play at royal functions as a girl. But she had tired of playing royal “approved” melodies and she’d wished to sing her own songs.
Princess Aine took each piece of the flute and put it together and began to play. Although her fingers stumbled, she produced a lovely sound, lovely enough to entertain herself and a few of the birds who had been harboring in the trees nearby and who joined her in a song.
“Oh,” Aine thought, “Perhaps the owner of the pack will arrive soon and tell me where I am.” They could meet and perhaps she’d make a friend in this new place. But no one came. There was no person or being that passed nearby. “How odd,” she thought. “It is as if the pack were abandoned suddenly.” She pressed the cell phone and it lit up. She was astonished to see the name of the owner, Anya Henderson. And there was her picture as well. Aine drew in a tiny gasp when she realized that this girl was so very much like herself: same dark hair and golden brown skin, same deep blue eyes, same height, it seemed. Even her name sounds the same! They could have been sisters. They could have been friends. They could have been twins!
Princess Aine’s fingers shook with excitement as she unzipped the pack and looked at the other items inside. There was a map with directions. Although it was not in her native tongue, somehow the words were easily readable. And somehow the description came to her lips easily spoken. She understood the written words, at least. Maybe this place really was her home! Her heart lifted brightly. By some divine motion she had been reborn in a new time or place. This was it!
She opened the map, resolved to follow its guidance. She put the backpack over her shoulders, and started walking toward lights in the distance that seemed to be the way of the map’s destination.
As she walked along the sidewalk, she saw the decorated homes and gardens. She noticed the transport on this planet appeared to be some carbon combustible wheeled wagons such as she had seen in museums – so very ancient! But she noticed that most of them seemed to be heading in one direction, which she followed. According to the somewhat scribbled lines drawn on the map, she was heading to someplace called “Bus Station”.
She saw a woman walking bristly and holding the hand of a small child. Princess Aine smiled at them which caught the eye of the boy. He strained to look backward toward her for a long while until his mother jerked his arm insisting he keep up with her. Aine followed them until they stopped and Aine asked for directions, showing the woman her map. The woman pointed. It was up ahead – she’d be there soon.
It didn’t take much to feel oriented in this new place, she thought. Although perhaps not entirely comfortable, she was so happy she’d made it through the portal, and she clicked her heels in a joyful little dance.
Shortly she arrived at the sign that said, “Bus Station.” It appeared this was the first step to her final destination, a place called “Chicago.”
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Language Grammar and Comprehension
- Clarify the difference between “passed” and “past” and find a way to memorize it so you will always remember how to spell each one.
- What are the root words of these words: divine, delicious, munch?
- Why do you think the author expressed when she described the oak tree in this way: “an old oak tree, whose branches leaned down almost to the ground as if to lift her up and hold her in its arms.”
