3. Drifting wishes

Io planet was covered with ashes, so no greenery was visible. Only dark soot shrubs were raising bare stalks without smaller embranchments �" everything showed that volcanoes are often active and it's not wise to stay here for any longer. Yet, how can you miss this chance to stroll on a planet, filled with warmth, that grounds can't withhold releasing it in a shape of lava. Children couldn't have passed Io, especially on such an expedition without any concrete boundaries. They were gathering experiences, while visited places itself didn't matter.

They didn't expect someone could live here. Sooty branches have moved, with cracking noises as if snapping. Bushes reversed with roots showing outward and regained another shape. It were the legs of the enormous spider�"crabs. Merry hid herself behind Tim, scared.

Ashes were dispersing and raising a panic: kids couldn't see anymore, they would rub their eyes and cough as throats were sore. After all grayness settled, enormous crab was already leaning towards Tim's face. While blocking Merry, Tim got stiff out of fear, but he wouldn't stand back.

“It was hard to fall asleep because of all this noise of volcanoes,” the crab was complaining in an old hoarse voice.“Why have you disrupted our slumber?”

The crab wasn't angry, just regretting, that his long awaited dream was interrupted.

“It was unintentional, we were only visiting planets, searching for a place to live,” calmly explained Tim, as he understood, there was no threat.

“No one besides us lives here,” the crab sighed heavily. “Only our thick armors help not to burn in the lava, while our solid legs aid us digging up back to the surface. Rarely any visitors appear. They come while pursuing their desires. We have an ability to fulfill wishes, but usually we only listen to whispers of wishers coming from faraway planets. But it was so long since anyone had set a foot here. Where did you come from?”

“Maybe you wouldn't know such an insignificant planet, called Eris,” again Tim answered for both of them.

“Most make their wishes while lying in the bed, but you came from so far, that I just must give a praise. I can reward you with a wish,” elder crab referred to Tim.

“Not me,” shook his head Tim. “Give this wish to Merry.”

Merry was looking past Tim's shoulder just by a corner of an eye, but boy stepped aside, so the crabs could see this girl.

“And who we have here,” crab squinted his eyes. “Well, little girl, please say your wish.”

And Merry asked to be lucky.

“No, this can't be... Nonsense, it is a violation of the rules,” elder became anxious, how to explain better, so the girl could understand. “The wish is such a thing, which has to be detailed. It is brought by a meteorite, so the more accurate is the wish, the easier the rock heats and with flames smashes into Callisto planet, where it leaves a crater. Then, only then, it comes true. If I released your wish into space now, it would drift without finding its way, never fulfilled. One day Callisto will crumble from blows, because way too many superfluous wishes make it quake. Its surface is already without any gaps, filled with pits made one on another, so think carefully about your wish.”

Then Merry replied, “I don't want anything more than the end of misfortunes and I feel sorry for Callisto. Thank you for your kind offer, but I won't make another wish.”

This was an ultimate virtue, ever seen by the residents of Io, the smallest greed possible for the child, yet they couldn't help in any way, because just a simple “luck” could not be fulfilled. Due to her nobility Merry has failed again.

Volcanoes were choking with lava, hurrying children to leave.