Seven Planets. Massimo Longo E Maria Grazia Gullo

on a tree thanks to her silky wings, plummeted silently on Mastigo's soldiers, who had been hiding in the bushes. And she hit them to death, like a falcon hits its prey.

      Soon after that, the women ran to catch their children that had been sheltered by Zàira's hug, who was lying on the ground wounded. Xam and Ulica rushed towards her.

      The square was empty, and a strong wind began blowing like a whirl proceeding to the centre of the village, yet without destroying its path. Zàira, Xam and Ulica felt their bodies become stiff. As per magic, something was holding them back preventing them to run away. They spun around for several seconds before being dropped off on the edge of the floating island.

      For a second Ulica felt as if she was floating in the air. Her head was still spinning like when she was a kid and she would play ring around the rosie with her friends. She quickly came to her senses and went looking for her companions.

      Xam had already found Zàira, who had fainted and was kneeled down next to her: his dark eyes were full of sadness and were showing his weakness for that Orian girl that had always accompanied him in his adventures.

      Ulica walked toward them and being rational as always, she began checking on Zàira. She checked her pulse and said:

      "Her pulse is low, but nothing too serious. Her body is trying to reduce the effort, so that she can recover.

      She carefully turned over to identify where she had been wounded. She gently took off the backless dress down to her waist that she had tied behind her neck and allowed her to move freely.

      "She's got a wound on her left hip on her back. Luckily it is just a graze. The armour protected her."

      She had not lost a lot of blood as the laser had cauterized the superficial wound.

      "It doesn't look like vital organs were damaged, otherwise she would already be dead." Ulica continued.

      Xam was astonishingly staring at her. That untamed man that during a battle would not feel any fear or compassion for his enemies, that man that was used to the horrors and the blood of the battlefield, could not utter a word.

      He nodded as sign of approval.

      "We have to find a place where to cure the wound." suggested Ulica.

      Xam had already picked Zàira up and was proceeding towards what looked like a temple on the top of a green, luxuriant hill.

      Its proximity and its smell reminded him of that time during childhood when Zàira took him out of the Crystal Canyon on Oria. It had happened in one of the few moments where he had left the academy, which was his only known family.

      During school holidays, most of his friends would go back home to their families. However, not all kids were lucky enough: some of them were orphans like Xam, some others would stay to the academy because their parents were too busy climbing up the career ladder; some others would really come to families that were actually loaded with work. Usually a summer camp was organized and very often the destination was Oria.

      On that planet, the air was rarefied because of its small dimensions that caused a low gravitational force. All those who did not come from Oria had to carry along a small air compensator in order to guarantee an optimal oxygenation. Without it, they would have felt out of breath as if on top of a mountain.

      The summer camp stay in Oria was articulated in a series of tasks, but at the end of the daily activities, Xam would find himself causing trouble around the campus. Nearby there was a farm: it belonged to Zàira's father and that is how he met her.

      That summer their friendship got even stronger. Like all teens, they loved getting into more and less serious trouble. That night Zàira, in fact, told Xam about an enchanted place to her. However, she kept a part of the story secret so that she did not ruin the surprise, but most of all, she omitted that grown-ups would forbid going there because of its dangers.

      That is how she dragged her friend in their desert adventure. She asked Xam to wear his thickest boots and forbade him to bring along any friends: it was going to be their thing.

      They walked for a long time and Xam could not understand Zàira had made him wear those damn boots in that scorching hot day.

      Zàira had never been extremely talkative, so they walked a long way in silence until Xam, who was worn out, asked:

      "How many miles before we get there?"

      "Don't be a wuss. We're almost there." replied Zàira.

      "I really hope it's worth it!"

      "Yes, do not lose faith. All we need to do is climb up that hill."

      "Let's see who gets there first." yelled Xam as he was beginning to run.

      Zàira chased him, trying to stop him in any way, but Xam, who was caught up in the speed, did not hear her coming.

      She managed to tackle him at the top of the hill.

      Xam, who was lying face down and was amazed, turned toward her:

      "Why did he jump on me?"

      "Did you notice anything?" said Zàira, pointing at something over the hill with her finger. "Do you want to dive in?"

      "Wow, you were right. It is amazing!"

      An enchanted landscape was stretching in front of Xam's eyes: a big canyon before them.

      It was not very wide, but they could see the bottom nonetheless. The sides were decorated with bright, horizontal shades. The colour was fair and golden the closer to the tip of the canyon, whilst it was redder the closer to the bottom. It was split into two parts: the first one, which was farther away from them, was covered in amethyst crystals that would reflect the colour of the rock. The second was full of huge, bell-shaped flowers in which two people could have easily been sitting down. The bells were tirelessly moving like a bellow. In this way they would allow the plant to store more oxygen and would initiate a scenographic choreography.

      Weirdly, Xam felt that his body was lighter than usual. He was looking around amazed, and all that walking had made him hungry.

      "Well, this is a real nice spot for a snack. I really hope that you brought some food in your backpack."

      "You always think about food." smiled Zàira.

      She pulled out of her backpack a rope. She took off her boots and tied it to some bushes. After that she got closer to the canyon.

      Xam did not realise what his friend was up to.

      He did not even have the time to ask that he saw Zàira jumping in the void. Fear got the very best of and they ran towards the edge to see where she had gone.

      He overlooked the edge and saw Zàira laugh and float in the air.

      In that instant he would have wanted to kill her considering how deep she had scared him, but at the same time he felt relieved and happy to see her.

      Zàira quickly floated towards the edge and landed close to Xam.

      "Are you insane? I thought you hit the rocks! You could've warned me!" he said angrily.

      "And miss out on your face? You should've seen yourself." she said laughing very amused.

      "Well done!" Xam replied ironically, who felt teased.

      "Sorry, I did not mean to scare you." added Zàira realising that she maybe had gone over the top.

       "Never mind. Instead, what are you doing with those air supplies?"

      Asked Xam with a big smile on his face as he was thinking that he could not hold grudges with her.

      They were usual supplies that were commonly used on Oria to clean out tractors radiators that would fill up with sand.

      "They give the final push that I need to jump back in. The compressed air helped me accelerate and exceed the small increase in the gravitational pull by the edge."

      "How are you flying?"

      "It's