Hansel & Gretel on Hexe's Moon ✓

On Hexe's Moon

Many years had gone by since rain had fallen on Vidarr. Before the drought, a strange sickness began infecting the vast forests across the planet. Day by day, the inhabitants helplessly watched the trees withering away into skeletons of their former green glory.

Scientists were at great pains to come up with a solution to the dying trees. But the moment they managed to produce the tree supplements (which looked like silver bullets and were shot in as such), the clouds vanished from the sky.

Eventually, the once lush planet which had sustained its human diaspora for centuries had turned into a globe of sand. It wasn't long before the richest inhabitants took all of the intergalactic spaceships, filled them with food and countess stacks of Jupiters (one of the universal currencies) and left Vidarr behind in a literal cloud of dust.

In time, the remaining Vidarri people retreated underground. There they found refuge from the sun's scorching rays and the sand tornadoes that turned the cities above ground into ghostly ruins.

Not long after, a rumour began circulating through the underground tunnels. Mr. Woods had heard the whispers on the hover-train that the food vaults were running low, and soon there wouldn't be enough to feed everyone on Vidarr.

At first, Mr. Woods did not want to believe that the food was running out. But as he looked at the reduced amounts of powder food packets in his metal container, Hansel and Gretel's father knew it was only a matter of time.

That night, Mr. Woods gave his two beloved children the last of the gingersnap cookies he'd bought before the dome markets closed down in the city. As Hansel and Gretel ate their treats, Mrs. Woods watched from the kitchen with contempt.

Her burning gaze soon drifted away from the children eating by the fire and to her husband. And he already knew what was on her mind. Mrs. Woods's blue eyes had a way of speaking without words.

She wanted him to send them away, so they too could become a part of the growing number of "missing" children. And as soon as Hansel and Gretel were sent to bed, the topic was broached once more.

"They have to go," Mrs. Woods said, looking at her husband as they lay in bed.

Mr. Woods did not respond; sending them away felt like murder, he thought.

"Did you hear me?" his wife asked, sounding annoyed.

"Is there nothing else we can do?" he replied. "Maybe we could just eat less food—I'll skip a meal."

"Skipping two wouldn't make a difference," she said coolly. "The fact is we have two mouths too many to feed, and you don't have a job at the lumber lab anymore."

Mr. Woods sighed. "Maybe we should just eat what we get together and—"

"And what?" Mrs. Woods interrupted. "Die together? Don't be an idiot. We can have other children when there's food again. Plus, there's a Talorian ship at the edge of the galaxy. Apparently, they picked up the Miller children. We could send Hansel and—"

"So they can become slaves?" Mr. Woods said incredulously.

"Better to be living slaves than dead Vidarri children," Mrs. Woods replied. "When the Talorians get bored with them, they'll just let them go. Maybe by then, the rains would have returned; they can come back, and we'll be together again."

"But what will I tell them?" he asked with a cutting feeling in his heart.

"That it'll be an adventure," Mrs. Woods said calmly. "They always like when you tell them adventure stories before bed. Now they'll get an opportunity to experience one of their own."