Loud music blared out from the interior of the ship, then was silenced. A pair of dirty checkered sneakboots appeared at the top of the ramp. As they made their way down the platform, Eva saw that they belonged to a boy.

A human boy.

“Hello,” the boy said. He looked a couple of years older than Eva. His skin was tan, and his brown-and-blue-dyed hair was windblown and tousled. “My name is Hailey,” he said as he extended his hand out to shake.

Eva and Rovender exchanged glances.

A sideways grin grew on Hailey’s freckled face. With a chuckle he said, “Don’t be afraid. I’ve tracked you down from far away. I’m here to bring you back home.”

End of

BOOK I

Regional Map of Orbona

THE ORBONIAN ALPHABET

A common alphabet is used by the inhabitants of Orbona. The chart that follows is the key to unlocking their written language. The main alphabet consists of thirty-two characters (as opposed to the English alphabet, which comprises twenty-six), and many of these are derived from symbols of familiar objects, actions, or ideas. They are shown in alphabetical order with the compound letters at the end, although this is not the order Orbonians would use. Orbonians would align similar symbols alongside one another so that their youth could identify different characteristics more easily.

Orbonians write in a vertical manner and from left to right. Compound words are often broken up, with their individual parts written alongside one another as seen here in “the Wastelands”:

Capital letters are larger versions of the lower-case letters. Proper nouns use a large version of the letter with the remainder of the word written to the right of it, as can be seen here in the word “Lacus”:

There are many shortcut symbols for small words like “of” and “the,” both of which are included on the chart. However, the focus here is on the main alphabet so that readers may be able to decipher Orbonian writing in this and future books.

A “above” (the home)	B “banner”	C “close”	D “death” (absence of life)
E “eye”	F “flag”	G “guard”	H “home”
I “ingest”	J “jump”	K “kill”	L “life”
M “moon”	N “night”	O “open”	P “planet”
Q “queen”	R “rule”	S “sleep”	T “top” (of home)
U “universe”	V “voxfruit”	W “world”	X “examine”
	Y “yell”	Z “Zin”

Æ	er	eez	id
tch	th	the	of

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Every book has a journey of its own—a quest the storyteller must take to find the purpose of his or her tale so that others may fully enjoy what he or she has to say. Despite there being only one name on the cover of this book, there were many friends along the way who helped me craft the story you have just read.