'Look, there’s been a big mistake, it’s just a chicken pox scar,’ protested Venus for the twenty third time.
‘It is not a scar from earthly disease Serenity,’ Pluto assured her. ‘You had that mark on your cheek when you were born. I know because I was there. It is a birthmark.’
‘Well, what’s so special about it anyway?’
Andromeda pressed a button on her metal wristband and a hologram leapt out of it and floated about in the air. It was the same symbol that she had seen on the screen in Skye’s space pod, a circle with cross underneath. ‘This is the mark of Venus, the symbol of your astrological ruling planet in your Solar System. The prophecy foretold that you would be born under this sign, and that you would be named after this planet, the planet that symbolises Peace, Love and Harmony in your world. This is the same code that we live by here. It also foretold that you would bear this mark on your body in your earthly re-incarnation.’
‘What a load of nonsense! It’s just a co-incidence,’ snapped Venus, although come to think of it, she couldn’t for the life of her remember if she had had chicken pox when she was young. She had always assumed that’s what the scar was. Either way, she was beginning to lose patience. All she wanted to do was get home. But had they done anything about it? No. They had taken her into the wooden house and now she was sitting on a pile of cushions, drinking some pungent herbal brew and eating black bread and some quite nice cheese, which she presumed came from the milk of the horned cattle grazing on the river bank. Gilgo was snuffling round in corners with his pointy snout. Occasionally he came and laid his scaly little head on her lap, gazing up at her like an adoring puppy. Pluto and Skye sat cross legged on either side of her and Andromeda sat opposite, surrounded by her bizarre subjects.
‘Serenity, allow me to introduce you to my chief advisors,’ she said smoothly. ‘These are representatives from the Seven tribes of Ventura. We were having a council meeting in Amrylla when the Chagrinians invaded our shores. We fled in order to set up this resistance movement.’
She indicated an elephant man with his trunk coiled neatly round his neck. ‘This is Ganeshon, leader of the Mastodonian tribe.’ Ganeshon bowed and raised his trunk in a salute. Venus half expected him to snort water all over her and wondered if she was meant to put a piece of bread in his trunk.
‘This is Kalia, queen of the Vishnuvians…. ‘She continued, pointing at a blue skinned, black haired woman with six arms, adorned with so much jewellery Venus was amazed she could sit upright. She had an intricate pattern of pale tattoos which covered her entire body like fine lace, many piercings and a delicate gold chain linking her right nostril and earlobe. Her costume was red silk edged with gold brocade. Kalia put all six hands together in a prayer-like gesture and bowed her head, her many bangles jingling.
‘This is Hanatsha, head of the Kumarians,’ continued Andromeda, indicating a stunning woman with creamy wings and a gorgeous white feathered plumage. She had skin the colour of dark honey, long blonde dreadlocks and multi-coloured head feathers which waved in a jaunty greeting. She looked like an exotic catwalk model.
‘There are of course several Monrovian advisors, people of my own kind here too…’ she waved a crinkled hand at several men and women who looked like her and Skye, with green skin, black slanted eyes and black wavy hair. ‘Unfortunately the representatives of the Feral and Mermian tribes are not with us, for evolutionary reasons.’
‘Scoundrels all of ‘em!’ growled Pluto disapprovingly, ‘one lot refuse to come out of the trees, the other lot refuse to come out of the water – waste of space if you ask me….‘
