Amazon from the stars

Another project of mine that I plan to release later when I am done with Raptor or Superhuman Princess.

**************************************************

Prologue

My first memory was of seeing the stars through a transparent window. I saw planets and asteroid fields, I remember laughing as whatever I was inside of destroyed the big rocks and clapped happily when it happened. From time to time, I was simply dreaming of people battling a great threat and of being sent away by a woman with golden hair and green eyes. She was clearly sad from doing so. She tells me to grow strong and that she will come look for me soon.

I remember crying and for the vehicle's door to close up, then to be put to sleep. The next time I woke up was to see the vehicle I was placed in cross an asteroid belt, then a red planet that looked completely dead and to finally stop in orbit of a beautiful blue and green one. The vehicle then entered the planet and I found myself crashing on an island, more precisely on a beach. I think I slept again or did I faint?

\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/

~(Xenia)~

May 11th, 1993
Themyscira

Xenia who was fishing on her fishing vessel was the first to see it, a ball of fire coming from the sky and crashing somewhere to the north of the island. She was also the first one to let go of her fishing net and dive into the sapphire blue water at super speed avoiding schools of fish and sharks; her Atlantean heritage allowing her to swim at high speed and be the first to arrive at the location of where the fireball crashed and to witness the white sphere that had created a crater and glassed the white sand around it.

The Amazon frowned as she looked at the strange contraption still smoking with heat. Xenia's green eyes focused on the waves lapping up at the beach, with her magic over the sea she used a spell to collect water and threw it at the white sphere. Sizzling noises and vapor rose from the white surface and the sphere was quickly cooled. Xenia was no longer the only one on the beach, other Amazons had come to watch what was happening.

Xenia arranged her blonde hair in a loose ponytail and approached the sphere with wariness, her spear in hand. She jumped back when a door opened from the white sphere, she peered inside and was shocked by what she saw. Inside was a... child? No, a baby, barely one year old. Xenia approached and planted her spear in the sand.

Inside the sphere was cushioned with a pink and comfortable looking seat and some kind of machinery inside. Xenia took the baby in her hands and examined it. It wasn’t a boy but a girl with thick black hair and a… tail? “Why do you have a tail?”

The baby girl was sleeping and snored lightly, as Xenia looked at the cute thing, she suddenly wanted to keep her. But would she be able to? Already she was surrounded by other amazons gossipping and pointing at the white sphere. She heard the noises of horses racing and she guessed that the guards were already there. Xenia turned toward Antiope who climbed down from her horse and walked toward her. The blonde amazon then felt something furry wrap around her left wrist. She looked at her hand and saw the little baby sleeping in her arms.

Why was she so adorable? The blonde amazon was so mesmerized by the foreign child that she didn’t hear General Antiope arrive at her side.

She still jumped at the commanding voice. “Xenia. Where is that child from?”

Xenia looked up at the armored woman. “General… I found her in that machine that fell from the sky.”

The General’s blue and icy eyes fell on the thick haired baby and the spherical machine embedded in the sand for thirty seconds before making a decision. “We must go see the queen. Give me the child.” Antiope held her hands to Xenia.

Xenia stepped back, holding the baby protectively. “No.”

Antiope wasn’t used to not being obeyed, with an eyebrow raised she asked, “Your pardon?”

Xenia didn’t know why but she didn’t want to hand the baby to another person.  “I will follow you, she’s sleeping. I think we need to show her to a healer.”

Antiope and her retinue looked at the defiant half-atlantean woman, knowing that she was one of the best sorceresses on the island, they didn’t want to push and find themselves drowning. Antiope sighed. “Very well.”

Antiope turned to the white sphere and barked out orders. “I want someone to load that machine in a cart and ship it to science island!”

“YES GENERAL!” The guards then quickly dispatched some of the spectating citizens to go look for a cart.

Antiope walked toward her horse, jumped and landed on its back: turning to Xenia she simply said, “Let’s go, Xenia.”

The amazon simply nodded and followed on foot toward the center of the island, the royal palace.

\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/-\'/

Royal Palace
30 minutes later

Xenia wasn’t used to coming here, the senate and the assembly hall was where everyone gathered when news and laws needed to be discussed or adopted. But the royal palace was basically a place where no one but the guards, officers and the royal family were allowed. As they passed the heavy oak doors of the throne room, she was surprised to find that representatives of the temple were present while Queen Hyppolita and her daughters, Diana and Donna were present.

The throne room was all marble, gold statues and purple draperies in the color of the queen.

*Weren’t they supposed to be in man’s world?* Xenia asked herself.

Queen Hippolyta who was sitting on her obsidian throne wore a purple ceremonial dress lined with gold thread, Her black hair and blue eyes took in everyone in the throne room, until they zeroed-in on Xenia and her charge.

Antiope bowed slightly before her sister the Queen. “Everyone is here my queen.”

Hippolita nodded. “Thank you General.”

Xenia looked distinctly nervous as everyone’s eyes focused on her and the naked baby in her arms; but she wasn’t worried for herself but for the little treasure who slept through all that. To take her mind off her worries she observed everyone around her. The sorceress recognized Mala, Captain Philippus of the royal guard, the warden of Reformation island, Hera’s high priestess Eleni and one of the precious healers on the island, Keti.

Each looked attentively at her as if they expected something to happen. The Queen finally spoke and asked, “Xenia, you were the first to have found the child?”

Green eyes met blue; the sorceress’ voice didn’t quiver when she spoke even though she was nervous, “Yes, your majesty.”

Hippolyta ordered, “Bring her to me.”

Xenia held even more protectively on the baby. But after some time, complied. “I-I will.” She walked toward the Queen, walked the stairs of the dais and tried to hand the baby to her Queen. Hippolyta took the black haired baby from her hand but realized that she had another appendage that was wrapped around Xenia’s arm.

“Strange, she has a tail.” Hippolyta frowned.

The tail was firmly wrapped around Xenia’s wrist, the sorceress helped gently disentangle the limb from her wrist. The baby moved and made a sad face for a moment but her tail wrapped around the Queen’s wrist instead. Xenia couldn’t help but feel jealous for an instant, she saw Hippolyta smile in turn at the girl.

Diana, Hippolyta’s eldest daughter interrupted the scene. “She’s from beyond this world, mother.”

The black haired Queen looked at the god blessed warrior. “You know something about her, Diana?”

As Diana crossed her arms, her bracelets clinked together. “Yes mother, the watchtower detected an alien spacecraft coming from outside our solar system. And after sometimes the computer and astronomers guessed its path and they told me that it would land on paradise island, then I came here immediately to find it and see if it was a threat.”

Antiope was the first to ask, “The white sphere? The one Xenia found the child in.”

Diana nodded. “Yes, exactly, it looked like a sphere and travelled at high speed.” The warrior princess focused her eyes on the black haired baby. “So it had a baby inside. How strange.”

Everyone in the room was mystified by the origins of the child, Xenia didn’t care at all. She let them talk, and looked at the baby in her Queen’s arms. The healer, Keti, took a white sheet from one of her spatial pouches and handed it to Hippolyta who wrapped it around the baby. Donna, the queen’s youngest, tried to touch the baby’s right cheek but her mother batted her hand away.

Xenia smiled at that, however, she noticed the Temple’s priestess asking for attention from the Queen. She wore an all white toga and silver colored sandals and amazon bracers with an amulet with Hera’s symbol at her neck. “Your Majesty?”

Queen Hippolyta took her eyes from her pouting daughter and settled her gaze on the priestess. “Yes, Eleni?”

“Last night Apollo sent us a prophecy.” Eleni said loudly.

Everyone paid attention now, the queen in particular. “Oh? Go on.” She waved at Eleni with her free hand.

“Yes, my Queen.” Looking serious, the priestess nodded and proceeded to communicate Apollo's divinitory message. “It said that a daughter from the stars will land on the isle of paradise; that her fate is tied to a great calamity from beyond man’s world, she must be made strong and join the sisterhood or everything we are and everything we will be, will be lost. She possesses great power that will make her a warrior without compare, but the darkness and fury inside her heart must be tamed or she will rampage and be our destruction.”

Once she was done, Eleni looked up at the Queen who sighed and gazed at the babe in her arms. “Another crushing responsibility. The gods are merciless.”

Princess Donna looked more closely at the babe’s right temple and saw some strange marking on her skin. One shaped like a crescent moon and the other like a flame, she gasped. “She’s been marked by the moon goddess Artemis and Hekate the titaness of magic, mother.”

Hippolyta turned the girl’s head and saw the birthmarks. “I see, who will take care of her?”

“The one who found her.” Antiope said almost immediately.

The Queen’s gaze slid from Antiope to the half-atlantean sorceress. “Xenia?”

Xenia advanced and prostrated before the Queen, hope singing in her veins that she could take care of the girl she found. Everyone noted the eagerness of the woman, she was usually prone to isolate herself in magical research or liked to fish to make some money on the market.

Hippolyta asked with the babe in her arms. “Will you take this young one as your daughter?”

Xenia nodded. “I was planning on it you majesty…”

The healer, Keti, intervened. “She’s still a baby, your majesty. We must discover everything we can about her biology. She looks human, but the tail she has tells me that she’s different.”

Diana’s turn came to give some advice. “Being marked by Artemis often means that one has the ability to change into animals and change under the ray of the full moon, mother.”

Hippolyta agreed with that. “We will take precaution, daughter.”

Diana looked at the baby and smiled at her. Everyone received her well, not worrying about the prophecy at all. After all, they had a bad habit to self fulfill if someone took them too literally. The queen and Diana already made plans to treat the baby well and train her like Diana was trained.

Hippolyta spoke to the sorceress. “Xenia, do you have a name for her?” She stood up, walked up to Xenia and handed the baby to her.

Xenia took the child with reverence and thought furiously. The baby needed a name right now, something fitting. The sorceress turned to the warrior princess and asked out loud, “Princess Diana, you said that she came from the stars?”

“Yes she did.” Diana nodded.

Xenia turned to the priestess next. “Priestess, from the prophecy you gave us, I surmise that she may be the last of her people. Do you think so too?”

Eleni thought for an instant. She wasn’t the only one, who would send out their children without them to take care of it. The baby was clearly a refugee at this point. “It can be construed as such.” The priestess realized as she reread the prophecy.

Xenia smiled and looked at the child in her arms. “Then her name shall be Adrestia.”

Queen Hippolyta frowned. “She who cannot be escaped, an epithet for the Goddess of Vengeance, Nemesis. A heavy name.”

“She also has a heavy fate.” Xenia countered.

The Queen smiled at that, she agreed. The black haired child opened her eyes and looked straight into Xenia’s eyes. The babe lifted her hands and touched the sorceress’ face and cooed at her.

Xenia chuckled. “Welcome to Themyscira, Adrestia.”