Chapter 1.
Night
"..will turn 14 in two days....Overlord will come...why is this one looking at me?.....scared.....should focus on her studies......bad...."
No, this was a very boring Drone. Lina turned her head away from it's nose less face , and closed her Third Ear, as she called it. She flinched as the machine gave her a small shock, because she didn't pay any attention to her studies. Then she tried to spend some time studying, but she could only look at her PC. It was soooo boring! Who cared about math these days anyway? But Overlords liked smart brains to be used for their creatures, so every kid had to study. Lina mentally laughed, as she thought about all those Drones she saw in a last couple of days.(the PC shocked her again as she typed in some numbers, thinking if she would put in something the machine would leave her alone for a while. Fat chance.) Those kids defiantly didn't study. Or their brain was damaged that much, after whatever They did to them in the Meat Factory. The girl shivered, thinking about the Meat Factory. ("Ow!", as the machine shocked lazy Lina again) For weeks now, she was trying to find out what happens to kids there, but none of the Drones thought about that. Lina knew, that probably no Drone will even know, and that she needed a Myrmidon, but she was too scared of them to come near.
Lina gave up trying to focus on the quadratic formula, and looked around. ("Ow! Stop it, you shit he.....chip!", Lina whispered) The boring Drone, was the only one in sight, so there was on one else to listen to. She had tried listening to humans, but their mind was too complex, with both words and images flashing very fast. Last time she tried, she was listening to the mind of a boy, who was sitting next to her. But he was thinking about either DNA he was studying, or his girlfriend. And his thoughts were so confusing, Lina didn't even understand who was his girlfriend.
The girl suddenly felt very tired. ("Ow!!! I don't CARE about the quadratic formula!". The girl tried to keep her voice quiet, so only the computer can hear her, if it had ears, of course.) She new it was a side effect from listening to much through the Third Ear. Third Ear was a name that Lina had given to her Change ability. It allowed her to hear and sometimes see thoughts of both people and creatures, and like most Change abilities was supernatural. She didn't know much about them, but she knew that most kids had some weird ability, and that no kids in times before the Change did. However Lina didn't know a lot about other Change abilities out there, since the only time kids talked about them was when there was no creatures around, and in Lina's Dormitory there were Drones and Myrmidons everywhere. ("OW!!!!! Stop it, Wire-Brain!") About half a year ago, a ten year old named Ella had escaped. She found a razor somewhere and had cut her tracer out, leaving lots of blood and legends behind her. Some girls said that Ella used some weird ability none of them had, other said she just was Irish, witch meant she was really luck and found a razor on the floor. Lina knew Ella wasn't Irish, she didn't question the lucky part. It was rare that someone escaped. Their were in Overlord's Emerald Crown's dorms, and there wasn't a lot of them, only a couple hundred kids. That meant they were heavily guarded. And since Ella escaped, there was twice the number of creatures everywhere. ("ow....")
The reason nobody wanted creatures to hear about the abilities, was that Overlords didn't know about it. Lina wondered, how that could have slipped from view of Overlords, when suddenly a new Drone entered in the room. He was followed by a boy, about Lina's age- twelve or thirteen. He had pale skin, dark eyes and even darker hair. He was also wearing black robes, unlike everyone else in her dorm. They all had to wear emerald, witch symbolized their belonging to Emerald Crown. Black rode was probably marked the boy as property of the Overlord Black Banner, whom Lina sometimes saw, attending Sad Birthdays. What was the boy doing in here? ("ow......forget you....")
The rest of the class was staring at the boy too, but he didn't look uncomfortable. He seemed to hardly care at all. His stare was rather blank, as if he was thinking about something.
Lina resisted the temptation to listen to his mind , because she was very tired. Instead she watched the Drones, as they spoke quietly to each other, and them the New Drone pointed at the bay, and the Boring Drone pointed at the computer next to Lina. The girl looked with amazement as the boy proceeded to his seat, and turned the computer on. Lina looked at him and noticed that his hair seemed to be shining blue in the light. She realized he was probably affected by Change physically, not only given the ability like most. ("Now, this is getting on my nerves......")
Then she looked at his arms, and she saw that he was wearing something that looked like fingerless, metal gloves. The girl never seen anything like that before. She looked at the boy and whispered:
-What's your name?- He looked at her and answered:
-Night.
She thought for a second, then opened her Third Ear, and started listening to the mind of the Boring Drone.
***
Finally, lunch hour came. Kids hurried into the huge Feeding room like a flood of emerald, happy to be out of those boring classes. Lunch time was the always fun, even thought the food was tasteless and looked disgusting. Lina joined a group of girls she knew, as the Myrmidons tried to line the kids up for the meal-giving stands. Myrmidons will give a kid who was out of line what was by their measures a slight push. However, the pushed kid usually ended up flying through the air, and getting lots of bruses and sometimes broken bones when they landed. Finny thing was, that the Myrmydons had a very accurate aim, and the kid always landed where he or she were suppose to be.
Lina's friends, Kitty, Pat, Carrie, Katie and Liza started talking about their classes and crushes, from time to time asking Lina questions, to which she answered without thinking, because she was more interested in the information she found out about Night. From Boring's thoughts she now knew that the gloves where placed on boy's arms in order to block something the Drone called "sharp knifes". Those gloves where also his tracers, so he didn't have his tracer inside his wrist like everyone else did.
"Sharp knifes" was the one thing Lina was confused about. What did the stupid Drone mean? Suddenly she remembered a page of a book wind once brought in to the Dorm's yard. The page was illustrated with a weird-looking man, who had very sharp nails, that looked like they where made of metal. That was probably what the Drone meant by "sharp knifes", and that was Night's Change ability for sure.
Katie brought Lina back to reality by pushing her.
-Lin, did you hear me? Do you know who that boy in the black rose is?
She was pointing at Night who was seated at a far away table by a Drone. The boy didn't seem aware that the whole Dorm was staring at him, and continued eating his tasteless goo.
-His name is Night, and he is sitting by me in Math class,-answered Lina.
-He is kinda cute, isn't he?- said Pat.
-But why is he wearing that black robe?- asked Kitty.
Liza was about to say something, when a Myrmidon walked past them. All the girls where scared of Myrmidons, those huge creatures with an emerald emblems on them.
Night
"..will turn 14 in two days....Overlord will come...why is this one looking at me?.....scared.....should focus on her studies......bad...."
No, this was a very boring Drone. Lina turned her head away from it's nose less face , and closed her Third Ear, as she called it. She flinched as the machine gave her a small shock, because she didn't pay any attention to her studies. Then she tried to spend some time studying, but she could only look at her PC. It was soooo boring! Who cared about math these days anyway? But Overlords liked smart brains to be used for their creatures, so every kid had to study. Lina mentally laughed, as she thought about all those Drones she saw in a last couple of days.(the PC shocked her again as she typed in some numbers, thinking if she would put in something the machine would leave her alone for a while. Fat chance.) Those kids defiantly didn't study. Or their brain was damaged that much, after whatever They did to them in the Meat Factory. The girl shivered, thinking about the Meat Factory. ("Ow!", as the machine shocked lazy Lina again) For weeks now, she was trying to find out what happens to kids there, but none of the Drones thought about that. Lina knew, that probably no Drone will even know, and that she needed a Myrmidon, but she was too scared of them to come near.
Lina gave up trying to focus on the quadratic formula, and looked around. ("Ow! Stop it, you shit he.....chip!", Lina whispered) The boring Drone, was the only one in sight, so there was on one else to listen to. She had tried listening to humans, but their mind was too complex, with both words and images flashing very fast. Last time she tried, she was listening to the mind of a boy, who was sitting next to her. But he was thinking about either DNA he was studying, or his girlfriend. And his thoughts were so confusing, Lina didn't even understand who was his girlfriend.
The girl suddenly felt very tired. ("Ow!!! I don't CARE about the quadratic formula!". The girl tried to keep her voice quiet, so only the computer can hear her, if it had ears, of course.) She new it was a side effect from listening to much through the Third Ear. Third Ear was a name that Lina had given to her Change ability. It allowed her to hear and sometimes see thoughts of both people and creatures, and like most Change abilities was supernatural. She didn't know much about them, but she knew that most kids had some weird ability, and that no kids in times before the Change did. However Lina didn't know a lot about other Change abilities out there, since the only time kids talked about them was when there was no creatures around, and in Lina's Dormitory there were Drones and Myrmidons everywhere. ("OW!!!!! Stop it, Wire-Brain!") About half a year ago, a ten year old named Ella had escaped. She found a razor somewhere and had cut her tracer out, leaving lots of blood and legends behind her. Some girls said that Ella used some weird ability none of them had, other said she just was Irish, witch meant she was really luck and found a razor on the floor. Lina knew Ella wasn't Irish, she didn't question the lucky part. It was rare that someone escaped. Their were in Overlord's Emerald Crown's dorms, and there wasn't a lot of them, only a couple hundred kids. That meant they were heavily guarded. And since Ella escaped, there was twice the number of creatures everywhere. ("ow....")
The reason nobody wanted creatures to hear about the abilities, was that Overlords didn't know about it. Lina wondered, how that could have slipped from view of Overlords, when suddenly a new Drone entered in the room. He was followed by a boy, about Lina's age- twelve or thirteen. He had pale skin, dark eyes and even darker hair. He was also wearing black robes, unlike everyone else in her dorm. They all had to wear emerald, witch symbolized their belonging to Emerald Crown. Black rode was probably marked the boy as property of the Overlord Black Banner, whom Lina sometimes saw, attending Sad Birthdays. What was the boy doing in here? ("ow......forget you....")
The rest of the class was staring at the boy too, but he didn't look uncomfortable. He seemed to hardly care at all. His stare was rather blank, as if he was thinking about something.
Lina resisted the temptation to listen to his mind , because she was very tired. Instead she watched the Drones, as they spoke quietly to each other, and them the New Drone pointed at the bay, and the Boring Drone pointed at the computer next to Lina. The girl looked with amazement as the boy proceeded to his seat, and turned the computer on. Lina looked at him and noticed that his hair seemed to be shining blue in the light. She realized he was probably affected by Change physically, not only given the ability like most. ("Now, this is getting on my nerves......")
Then she looked at his arms, and she saw that he was wearing something that looked like fingerless, metal gloves. The girl never seen anything like that before. She looked at the boy and whispered:
-What's your name?- He looked at her and answered:
-Night.
She thought for a second, then opened her Third Ear, and started listening to the mind of the Boring Drone.
***
Finally, lunch hour came. Kids hurried into the huge Feeding room like a flood of emerald, happy to be out of those boring classes. Lunch time was the always fun, even thought the food was tasteless and looked disgusting. Lina joined a group of girls she knew, as the Myrmidons tried to line the kids up for the meal-giving stands. Myrmidons will give a kid who was out of line what was by their measures a slight push. However, the pushed kid usually ended up flying through the air, and getting lots of bruses and sometimes broken bones when they landed. Finny thing was, that the Myrmydons had a very accurate aim, and the kid always landed where he or she were suppose to be.
Lina's friends, Kitty, Pat, Carrie, Katie and Liza started talking about their classes and crushes, from time to time asking Lina questions, to which she answered without thinking, because she was more interested in the information she found out about Night. From Boring's thoughts she now knew that the gloves where placed on boy's arms in order to block something the Drone called "sharp knifes". Those gloves where also his tracers, so he didn't have his tracer inside his wrist like everyone else did.
"Sharp knifes" was the one thing Lina was confused about. What did the stupid Drone mean? Suddenly she remembered a page of a book wind once brought in to the Dorm's yard. The page was illustrated with a weird-looking man, who had very sharp nails, that looked like they where made of metal. That was probably what the Drone meant by "sharp knifes", and that was Night's Change ability for sure.
Katie brought Lina back to reality by pushing her.
-Lin, did you hear me? Do you know who that boy in the black rose is?
She was pointing at Night who was seated at a far away table by a Drone. The boy didn't seem aware that the whole Dorm was staring at him, and continued eating his tasteless goo.
-His name is Night, and he is sitting by me in Math class,-answered Lina.
-He is kinda cute, isn't he?- said Pat.
-But why is he wearing that black robe?- asked Kitty.
Liza was about to say something, when a Myrmidon walked past them. All the girls where scared of Myrmidons, those huge creatures with an emerald emblems on them.
