Week Nine Story: Alora's Journal

Update:

This story is now on my portfolio. To see the revised version follow this link!

October 27, 3181

To be honest I am not sure how to start this, so I guess I will start from the beginning. My name is Alora. I am part of an expedition team that travels the universe in search of...something. The Captain hasn't really told us what we are looking yet because apparently we are not fully trained. Anyways, after I screwed up a tiny bit of the last mission and may or may not have nearly died I have been commanded to write in this thing. So here I am. Writing in this stupid journal. Apparently it is supposed to help me "connect" to my gift, but it seems to just be an annoyance so far. 

October 28, 3181

Hey, there. It's me again. Today my assignment is to explain more about my gift and my sisters. Remember, the whole "connecting" bull crap. So I am a dreamer. Not in some optimistic way, more in a I kinda can see the future/past/present in my dreams. My younger sisters are all gifted too, which is why we were recruited for this mission thing. Utarra is a guide. That means if you tell her to find anything, she can create a map in her mind and lead you to it. The only issue is she has to have a connection to the thing she is finding. Next is Artemis, the huntress. She has some amazing skills with a bow and arrow, but is always getting herself in trouble. Finally there is Eva. The all powerful life giver. Although all she has given life to so far is a couple of dead plants and maybe a fly or two.

October 29, 3181

Today was kinda weird. I had a dream about Artemis getting killed on a hunt but she hasn't left the ship since the last mission. I told the Captain and he said there is nothing to worry about. Probably just a flashback to the last mission.

October 30, 3181

Today we start another mission. Thank god, because I am sick of being on this ship. Artemis is supposed to go do some basic tracking on a small planet and observe the wildlife. When she gives us the all clear we are going to do a few training exercises and exploring. It is pretty routine but I am excited to see a new planet.

November 4, 3181

Well, it has been a few days since I have written. The Captain said I needed to write everything that happened to clear my mind. So here is the short version. Turns out that dream I had about Artemis wasn't just a flashback. As soon as she left to do the tracking I had a bad feeling, but I chalked it up to nerves. Usually Artemis sends some results from the tracking within a few hours, but this time was different. It was a full day and we had still heard nothing and I was starting to panic. The Captain told us to stay put but I knew I had to do something. It was easy to convince Utarra to track our sister but the baby Eva was another story. She has always played by the rules and it took us a full hour of threatening and convincing to get her to go to the planet with us.  It was easy enough to track Artemis with Utarra's gift, but the terrain was rough. Really rough. It was a struggle to climb through this weird living forest and with every turn there was some crazy creature. We mostly just ran from them since we weren't the hunters. Anyways we finally found Artemis wrapped in this crazy web thing. Utarra immediately had a breakdown and swore that she was dead. Eva was the real surprise. She was calm and walked to Artemis and placed a hand on her chest. Before we knew it Artemis was coughing and breathing again, but still in pretty bad shape. We brought her back here and got our own wounds looked at too. So that's all I guess. 

(The Ship, credit to Tombud at pixabay)

Author's Note

This writing is based of a story that originated in Congo titled How the Wives Restored their Husband to Life. In the original story there were three wives and each had a gift. The gifts were to dream, to guide, and the bring back to life. When the husband was killed hunting the dreamer dreamed of his death, the guide found a way to his body, and the life giver brought him back to life. In the end the husband chose most gifted wife, rather than appreciating them each.  When I read this story I really wanted to change the husband to a woman and to make them sisters in order to give them more solidarity. In the original story it seemed like a competition and the husband was the judge and I was hoping to make the story more about teamwork.

Bibliography

Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort, Richard Edward Dennett (1898). Link