The Firefly League: Once Upon a Planet, #1

By S. G. Basu

A Hero Will Rise . . .

Maks comes home to Appian for Solstice break, only to find the village in turmoil–poachers have struck the last standing forest on his planet.

Maks jumps in to help,  fighting age-old customs and flouting conventions that try to hold him hostage.

He soon realizes that the world is even more complex than he thought, and standing up for the truth is tougher when it means going against your best friend.

A standalone novella from the world of The Lightbound Saga.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamweaver Press
• Release date: Nov 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516355167

S. G. Basu

S.G. Basu is an aspiring potentate of a galaxy or two. She plots and plans with wondrous machines, cybernetic robots, time travelers and telekinetic adventurers, some of whom escape into the pages of her books. Books have been an important part of Ms. Basu's life. Even before she had learned to read on her own, she spent hours wandering in the stories her mother read to her. Soon enough, she was weaving a tapestry of magical tales of her own. Once upon a previous life on planet Earth, S.G. Basu trained to be an engineer, and her interest in science and her love of engineering shows up time and again in her books. She shares her home with a large collection of Legos, a patient husband, and resident inspiration and entertainer, her daughter. Find out more about the futuristic worlds she creates at sgbasu.com.

Book preview

The Firefly League

The Firefly League

A Lightbound Saga companion story

- S. G. Basu -

Contents

Also by - S. G. Basu -

The Firefly League

YOU can help

Also by - S. G. Basu -

About the Author

For Diana, my loudest cheerleader, idea-sparker, muddled-thought-clearer-upper, and friend

Text copyright © 2015 S. G. Basu

Image courtesy of © bigstockphoto/newyear2008

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author's imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Also by - S. G. Basu -

Check out the other books by the author:

Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy : The Lightbound Saga Book 1

Maia and the Secrets of Zagran : The Lightbound Saga Book 2

Maia and the Regency Protocol : The Lightbound Saga Book 3

Elementals Season One (A Paranormal Thriller)

Population Morpheus

Jumpers

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You get 3 FREE books for signing up – Jumpers (a paranormal thriller), The Firefly League (a MG/YA short story from the Lightbound Saga world, and Population Morpheus (a collection of near-apocalyptic short stories).

The Firefly League

It is easier to close a door than to open it to a stranger. Same goes for your heart. Never fear making new friends, seeking new ideas, and finding new beliefs. They will surely change you. But more often than not, they will make a stronger you.

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~From the teachings of Monk Hideliad, Old Order of ThulaSu

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One

The sky was starting to blush a little when Maks saw a speck of light quiver in the fog. It slid down the dark mass of hills to the west, and slithered steadily toward Appian. Maks pulled the blanket tightly around him, leaned forward and squinted hard.

Was it them? It was too far to tell.

The distant dot continued to expand, until it became a mass of flames floating toward the center of the village. On nearing Appian’s main street, it shrunk, coming apart in pieces as men and women carrying the torches went separate ways. Among the few people who headed in the direction of their house, Maks spotted his father.

Extracting himself out of the wrap, Maks bounded, tripping and stumbling, out of his room and down the stairs. He fumbled over the bolts at the front door, opening it just in time for his bleary-faced father to trudge in.

Maks’s father, Aleks the baker, was part of Appian’s foot patrol—a group of people who took turns watching over the Woods of Pening, one of the last-standing forestlands on the planet of Tansi. The patrol was not entirely new, but whenever Aleks visited the western rim of the forest, as he had the previous night, Maks waited up for him. That’s because the western rim included Lauden’s acreage, the doomed site where, about a month ago, tree-poachers had chopped down a hundred trees.

All good, Aleks? Maks’s mother Leahnora, who had been awake as well, asked, shuffling down the stairs.

His father slumped on a bench, refusing to look at either of them.

Took some again, didn’t they? Those blasted— Leahnora’s voice broke.

Maks had to use every shred of strength in his body to take that one breath. How many? he asked.

His father took time to take off his dew-covered coat. Fifty more, he finally replied.

Maks heard his mother gasp, and he could barely stop himself. Silence, thick and heavy, spread around them. This was the second time the poachers had struck. The first one had been bad enough—taking down hundred full-grown trees and stealing scores of saplings. Now, even with the patrol, they had taken fifty more. These poachers were bold and smart.

Come sit down, Aleks. Leahnora pulled a chair out for his father and started the stove. You’ve been up all night. Rest a little.

His father shook his head morosely as he lumbered into the kitchen. It’s useless, he said, sinking into the chair.

When did it happen, Dad? Maks asked.

Even before we reached there. The western rim was off the patrol’s schedule yesterday and it almost seems like . . . they knew that. Aleks cradled his forehead and breathed heavily. We have to set up patrols round the clock, he said in a thick, tired voice.

How shall we do that? His mother placed a large, steaming cup of tea in front of Aleks and deposited herself on another chair. The Woods aren’t tiny and there are only so many of us.

We have to try, Leah. Our forest is among the last ones left on Tansi. We have to protect it with all we’ve got.

Maks stepped away from the table and stared out of the window, his eyes scanning the dark hills that surrounded the sleepy village.

Once upon a time, their Tansi had been a green little planet. Once upon a time, their people, the Solianese, had been a power to reckon with. Not anymore. The Solianese Empire was gone, and only a few lucky pockets on Tansi still had some greenery—among them, Appian, a tiny village at the bottom of a picture-perfect valley surrounded by lush, rolling hills. Their forest—the Woods of Pening—was a treasure, Appian’s greatest treasure.

The Woods of Pening boasted of ten thousand trees, a number unparalleled in the continent. People of Appian were proud of their inheritance and took their job as tree-herders very seriously. Even when the energy supplies dwindled in the middle of a bone-numbing winter, not a branch on these trees were touched. The villagers understood it well—this bit of greenery, one of the few places where saplings grew naturally, was precious. These saplings could one day make all of Tansi green again, if they survived.

The forests were broken into smaller segments and allocated to villagers for nurturing. Lauden’s acreage was one such parcel of forestland placed in the hands of the Lauden family for upkeep.

We’ve got nothing, Aleks, his mother’s sharp voice tore through the room. How will a handful of people be everywhere? When you are at Lauden’s acreage, those poachers could be chopping down trees at the northern or eastern rims.

She had a point. Appian was a small village of thirty families with about fifty patrol-worthy people—not enough to guard all the acreages.

The problem had a solution, no matter how impossible it seemed to the people of Appian. Maks had named it the Firefly—a trio of watchtowers equipped with a simple communication device.

Maks scuttled back to the table. Mama’s right, you know, he said eagerly, catching his father’s tired gaze. "We can’t do this the old