Chapter 1- Little Girl From The Clouds
I gently swiveled my eyes open to an unfamiliar bright light, squinting to the clouds above me as the ground surrounding my pale body was moist and oddly sticky. I shudder gently, a cold breeze washing over me as I try to move my limbs, but to no avail. The crunching of grass fills my ears as a shadow slowly approaches and looms over me, blonde hair tied and a dirty lab coat drifting upon a pale form, scruffy beard lapping the man's chin as his eyes, glowing a neon green, widen my eyes in horror.
"This is her" He says softly in a calmed tone, as if masking strength. More shadows engulf my field of vision, a small figure with a fiery beard and a deepened scoff, the smell of alcohol watering my eyes as the man beside him looks at me with easy to read eyes, blue waves of terror. I look frantically to all of their gazes, seemingly all trying to muffle extreme emotions of guilt.
"Jesus…" The man with the glowing blue eyes said simply, crouching down to my level as I look at him more fully with a scared, confused expression. He too had a beard, brown and thick, and had a stern complexion. The man, glowing green eyes who I presumed to be a scientist, also went on his knees and started shuffling through a blackened wool bag. "Is there really a way we can fix her?" He speaks, turning to the scientist.
"Yes," a voice thick and deepened, unmatched by the other men "But not consciously"
He swiftly takes out a tiny vintage syringe filled with a clear liquid, lapping his fingers around it as he shuffles towards me. My vision dilates as I attempt to shamble away, my spine snapping as my screams fill the air, my mouth wobbling out of place. I look to them with panicked eyes as they match my expression, my throat filling with the taste of liquid copper.
"Wah whrong wih mee? I mouth out in bitter pain, sobbing as the hollow coldness fills my lungs. The scientist gently shuffles forward, pure dread in his glimpse.
"I promise I will fix you, please do not move" He says as he draws the syringe closer.
"May it stoohp" I pleaded as tears gently drift upon his pale cheeks.
"It's okay it's okay, shhh…" My screams become more tranquil, slowly my eyes fluttered close, my yelps falling to mere whimpers as the fluid pumped through my veins, but I didn't feel a prick nor fully painless after he lifted his empty syringe.
"Is it not enough?" The short man spoke in a brittle tone. I open my eyes to a bright, blurry marriage of faces, I barely could hear him, as if he was shouting at me through thick glass. I look to him with a cold, hazy glare.
"How is she still awake?" The scientist said in a different, panicked diction. The others look to him, sweat dripping from his brow as he looked to me with extreme and readable glances of guilt and pain. I looked back with sympathy, I knew this man wanted to help me, and i oddly trusted him, so I rise my head, and give a firm nod, my neck cracking and my head falling to the floor, the others lost their breath in a cold gasp as the taller man suddenly looks to a watch-like contraption with a bolt of dread.
"Jesus Christ Duncan, the radar is blinking, people are after us" The taller man said, showing the contraption that tightened around his bony wrist with shimmering blue eyes.
"Get out of here, take Honeydew with you" Duncan said simply, The tall man hesitated, giving the scientist a worried glance, then with a nod, grabbed the smaller one. From what I could see as my vision blurred, he perched the smaller man on his shoulders and ran out of the sun's glare, me squinting as the heat falls upon my skin.
"Hey Look at me" He says as he hovers over my limp form, blocking the sun as I glance up, jaw twisted in a grimace as blood pours from it. "Listen you are going to be okay, I just need you to stay very calm" His voice, smouldered and shaky, reflecting the panic in his eyes as he started shuffling around on the floor and adjusting me softly. Nothing felt searing like before, but a gentle pain running down every limb, like small cramps everywhere. It was unbearable, as slow definite shocks of true pain would wash over me every time I attempted to twitch or lift my limbs. I heard a gentle clap and a firm voice. "I'm sorry child" Duncan murmured, pressing his hands on my legs, my bones snapped and cracked into place as i sobbed and screamed, my voice fading through waves of pain and blood, a wincing feeling of my body searing and a million blades stabbing me as he gradually moved to my torso. I felt the blood being lifted from my chest, bones shifting and poking into my skin as I gasp for air. The area around me is coated in a dense steam and the scientist is no longer visible. I feel my fingers gently grasp the cold, wet grass as my head genly is shifted from side to side. My body, as if magic, if being revived from a corpse state feels like a million needles, but the relief is more terrifying than anything I've ever felt. The steam lifted, my neck now lifted and shifted into Duncan's lap, presses his fingers upon my broken jaw as it snaps and cracks into place, me letting out a shriek of pain, slamming my eyes shut. The warmth of the searing sun forces me to squint as I breath a sob of relief, looking up at the man's darkened gaze with sympathy.
"Duncan" I say in a brittle, terrified tone, my jaw fixed as his blond hair looms a shadow over his eyes "Why…?" I sobbed with tears in my eyes "How..?" His blonde hair masked his eyes, biting his lip. Suddenly A bullet rang through the air and Duncan shot up, my ears ringing. I attempt to stand, a bitter numbness washing over me, legs shaking as Duncan helps me up, tugging and pointing to a tower illuminating in the distance.
"This way, try to keep up" he hissed as he darts towards the tower. Another gunfire make my ears whistle, me galloping and swiftly collapsing to the floor with dust puffing around me. The scientist halts and runs back, hauling me in his arms and darting the the tower. The gunfires made me flinch, but he was seemingly used to it, hazely, I look to his eyes filled with determination, not a twitch of fear. Oddly to keep myself calm I look to the passion plastered on his face, a glint of blue in his cheeks as he bites his lip, an angered scream echoing through the trees. My eyes start to drift close as the numbness spreads to my head, looking to the scientist in which, in his last glance, looked to me in worry. In an instant the world is nothing but an echo, gentle murmurs stroking my ears as the voices call out as if they were under water, distant and indescribable. I feel myself fade not in numbness, but as if everything collapsed at once. I feel my lungs filled not with blood, but with a denser, darker, more painful fluid as my eyes unwillingly open, a man coated in black as his slim, slender form towered over me, uneasiness shrouding my head. An unnatural burning feeling in my soul arose, a bitter feeling of anger as my body shivers and struggles out of the braces that he, I presume, used to keep my body in place. He gently lifts his hood that masked himself with cold, narrow fingers white as snow. The voices still echoed around me and, even though the stone digged into my back and only his face was illuminated in the dark, small cellar; I still felt a warm summer breeze brushing my hair and the gentle booming of gunfires. Lifting his hood I saw a gouged hole in his head twisted in a terrifying grimace as oil pours from his jaw, eyes a pure crimson and glowing. My chest is filling and a trickle of liquid dwindles from my lip, for some reason no fear or terror filling my soul, but burning anger setting ablaze in my chest. A scream distantly echoes out as my mouth opens as I, unwillingly, spout out a name I only faintly remember.
"Honeydew" I hiss in a darkened tone, deepened and unlike my own "Where is he?" his gouged mouth widens in a deepened smile as he brings a cold, chalky finger to my jaw, wiping off the liquid that drips from my lip, blackened and shimmered like the oil that pours from his mouth socket. His eyes dilate as the wind howled through the cellar, looking deep into his eyes I see a reflection of a man, tied down and the blackened liquid dripping from his lip. It wasn't me, but a man that, in the crimson pupils reflection, had glowing blue eyes and pale skin that slowly lost its color. I felt the painful liquid fill my chest more and more until I was violently shaking. I would be screaming, I would be crying, but all I felt was this man's anger as my- no, his vision blurred into nothing but blackness.
I shot up, startling the dwarf beside me, who clutched the bed with eyes wide open in panic.
"Jesus!" he screeched in a humorous tone, a smile splitting his lips "Don't fucking jump out at me like that!" he chuckled, still shocked and surprise. I tilt my head towards him, who smiled warmly, dark eyes a spark of excitement, and a beard a fiery orange.
"It's you" I say calmly with a gentle glimmer in my eyes as I look up and down the small figures form, tan skin lapped in steel and a sword leaning against the bed. I gently lift up my body as the dwarf replies in a wild and loud tone, thick dwarven accent on his lips.
"Yup! Names Honeydew stranger, what's yours?"
"My name…" I looked away from his gaze, focusing on the room, Faintly remembering the way his name slipped off my lips in that bizarre dream. A giant window grazed in sunlight beside the bed, a blank, empty white room. My name…
"Honeydeew!" A deeped voice called, and suddenly a loud agape sigh flooded the atmosphere, smile fading into his reddened cheeks. I look to the door in which gentle, tapping footsteps flooded the hallway beyond it, a gentle twist of the copper knob as the door swished open, revealing a familiar man with a brown lapped beard, and glowing blue eyes.
"I told you to tell me immediately when the creature awakes!" He said, lividness flaring in his tone, the way anger dripped across his face seeming so familiar. I look back to Honeydew, confused to why he would call me that, but was too focused on his expression, as his reddened cheeks had faded pale as he too, had fierceness flaring in his eyes, making them empty and blackened.
"I was startled! I-I don't think we should-" I stood, something grabbing at my hips and wrists as the creaking of wood bouncing off the walls, Honeydew throwing himself out of the chair he was sitting in. I look down to my hips as cold metal tied to bungy cord ties me to the bed, slowly pinning me back with incredible force as I fight back, the metal pulling back my arms and making my shoulders pop. I quickly dart my sight to Honeydew in panic as my shoulders begin to crack unnaturally, my brittle shrieks filling the room as I try to keep my ground. Revelation flashed in Honeydew's empty gaze.
"Xephos! Stop! You're hurting her!"
I gave in, the chords throwing me into my original position as tears gently dripped down my face.
"My...My arm… it's-" Xephos strutted over, harshly lifting my left elbow and shoulder, and snapping the arm back into place with a loud crack. I wince and shudder, keeping his gaze.
"You're fine, but you won't be if you don't cooperate" he said with a certain sheen in his eyes. I knew him, the dream… the way bitterness creases his face, the familiar glimmer and color of his eyes, I could feel him radiating the blackened liquid, as if it's still conceived inside his soul.
"Sir…" I gently mumbled, sitting up as the bungee cords hanged loose. "Do- Do you know a man, pale… red eyes?" Horror crossed both their gazes, vision dilated as Xephos' skin faded almost as white as the man I spoke of. Silence ran in the air as my voice trembled "My dream, he… he did something horrible to y-" Instantly the chords snapped my back square to the bed, his from lingering over me.
"Who…." Curtains of brown hair shadow his gaze as horror drips down my spine, him pulling something shimmering and glistening in the sun out of his pocket "Who the fuck do you think you are?!" He said, inches from thrusting the emerald blade into my chest. Honeydew had yelped, screaming at Xephos, but my blind focus on the knife left my ears whistling. Moments of silence pass as his voice calms, lifting the blade. "Give me a name" He speaks strictly, eyes turning violet.
"I-I-I" I gently stammer, a terrifying smile splitting his cheeks as he runs his pale fingers up and down his sharpened emerald dagger. "I don't have a name" His smile grows, violet eyes swirling like rotating clouds, a terrifying shadow of insanity drowning his face as he pulls closer to me.
"Dont lie to me" He hisses, eyes swirling to a blood red, pupils dilating as tears streamed down my face. Gently, and subtly, I feel his cold breath pour from his mouth as he mumbles blindly, skin pale, insanity twisting his smile.
"Pneuma…" Gentle shivers coarse down my spine as he speaks the word, watching his eyes flutter shut and skin regain color. He is chucked backward, away from my face, me slamming my eyes shut. I feel the cutting of my ties, hear the drawing of blinds and heavy, weakened steps. Sunlight and warmth fills the room and I open my burning eyes gently, recollecting myself I rise and removed my restraints. I look to Xephos, sprawled to the floor with a syringe sticking out of his shoulder, calmed and relaxed, as if sleeping. Honeydew, approaching the bed, took my hand gently as his face was plastered in hope. My skin tingles gently, me looking down to see a pair of blue, transparent hands in his grip. He traces his thumb up and down my wrist, my heart thumping in my head as I choke down a whimper raising from my gut.
"My… my hands…" I say in a brittle, disbelieved tone. Is this why Xephos ceased to call me human? I snatch my hands out of Honeydew's grasp, running to the window and seeing the glass suddenly glow blue as my reflection glimmers on its dusty surface. My entire form, my hair to my toes, were and aqua transparent, misty form, my body covered by only a blackened robe. I gulp, turning to Honeydew with a tear trickling down my cheek "Why am I this way" I whisper as Honeydew smiles gently.
"We don't know, Duncan thinks it's an after effect of the Alchemy" I cock my head and he chuckled. "You'll soon find out how this world works" He says calmly, sitting on the bed and patting the space beside it, luring me to sit. I sit myself on the bed, wrap my hands in my lap and stare at the floor. "You see…" He begins with a gentle smile "This world is divided up by three major powers, Science, Alchemy and Magic" He then takes my hand from my lap and looks down upon me, as if a child he speaks to "Each take years to learn, and this world is divided in war agents each power to raise more dominant than the other. You may choose your own power to worship, but It will take time" He releases my hand and grabs a white bag lynched on the edge of the wood carved bed. "You must leave soon, we all have trackers lynched to us, only one person knows your existence, and if they find someone like you, they'll try to brainwash you and use you for abdominal power" My eyes widen.
"I-I can't live out there by myself!" I say, looking out to the dense forest beyond the window.
"I'm sorry, but you must know how to survive on your own" He hands me the bag and I uneasily throw it on my shoulders. He slips a ring on my finger, flawlessly fitting as he speaks years of advice "Find a shelter before dark, go as far away from here as possible, and avoid anything that breaths. You have everything you need in that bag to last you a week" I wanted to scream, to refuse, but looking to the man on the floor, I seemingly gulp and nod, twiddling the odd ring around my finger, it's glowing gem glistening in the afternoon sun.
"Thank you" I say softly, leveling with the dwarf and wrapping my hands around his cubby form, whispering in his ear gently "Why-why are you helping me?" I let go and look deep into his gravel like eyes, softened as a gentle smile splits his lips
"Cause I care about you" He says gently, silence lingering in the air as a strange look coats his face, looking to the floor and darting at me swiftly. Gripping my shoulders, I loose my footing at he leaps off the ground once more, fear crossing my face as his weight topples me over. I stumble and gasp as he shoves me backwards, the window shattering behind me, cutting my limbs as the cold afternoon air widens my eyes in disbelieve. Tears rush down my cheeks as I shriek, realizing that the only person that I truly felt safe with, with a glimmering sheen over his eyes and a confident smile, has thrown me through a window.