II

My breath fogged the cold windows in circles. I don't know how yesterday had been a perfectly gloomy day and gone to this coldness. I'd never seen snow before. It'd never snowed in JuneFlower, to my knowledge. As if just to prove me wrong, a white blanket covered about an inch of ground and flacks were still falling. Red glared from the pager on my bedside table.

It's snowing! –Yumé

I remember Yumé telling me stories about the snow she had seen back in OctoberRush. She was a strange one, Yumé. She would go on and on about things that happened in her old home, but when it came to people she couldn't remember even her own parents. I could remember, in clarity, what happened to mine.

I was born in MayBlossem, a city that exists around the Earth time of 2010. Everything I have to hide here was all the rage there- mp3's, cell phones, cars. It was great there. I lived in MayBlossem until I was seven. The raids were getting worse and my parents wanted me to be safe. The only place they could think of was here, in JuneFlower. Where the Hall surrounds us and border patrols keep the Army's raids at bay. But they were too slow. I was shoved into a pantry when the officer burst down our door. He demanded gold and treasures that we didn't have. But he wouldn't take that for an answer. He killed both my parents, beheaded them right in front of their hidden daughter.

The patrollers from the town found me some time later. I was told it was days, but it seemed like only hours. The scene was still fresh in my mind. Their bodies hadn't moved and neither had I. The patrol had to pry my fingernails from the wood walls of the pantry. As they were they found a rolled up slip in my hand. It was the acceptance letter to JuneFlower Academy. So they brought me here with nothing but the clothes I had on then and the fresh blood that had opened in my mind. I've dreamt about that night every day since, knowing I could've done nothing.

I was told it had snowed and rained and hailed the week I was moved here. It stormed with ferocity that no one here was used to seeing. But I don't remember. I don't remember anything about that week before meeting Yumé. She told me her name and I said mine but as I said Alexandra I had begun to cry. Only my parents had called me that since no children lived nearby and the adults only acknowledged my existence through a solemn, slow nod they'd give me. So I told her my middle name. Cole.

Everyone calls me Cole here. Cole- the master of thieves, the one to go to if you need anything stolen. The fifth chair oboe player in orchestra. Yes, I'm the fifth chair out of five. So what? The oboe is a hard instrument to play. Especially in the cold when it goes sharp. Like now. I tapped my pager.

Yeah, my heater's working, why? –Yumé

Why, indeed my little friend. Why does she think? Mine's broken down since I used part of it for target practice with some throwing stars I lifted. I'm going to her house.

Yumé lives about a block from here. Five minutes or so on foot, and here everyone's on foot. I remember those kids from yesterday. The tall one was kinda cool, he looked like he could be useful in a fight. But he was a bit too clean cut and nice to really help me out. The other one was too noticeable with that orange hair. You could spot him in a crowd within two seconds with that hair. He also had a weird build, long legs with too-broad shoulders but skinny all around. He had weird muscle structure, too, like he wasn't built for running.

Snow fell on my nose and eyelashes, reminding me of an old song that was on the mp3 I lifted. I felt a bit paranoid that the snow left tracks behind me, no stealing today. Any snow tracks would lead anyone who went towards the forest boundary would reveal the Thief's Path, as Yumé and I called it. We cut the path out of the Ash Forest so we could get to the road without being too close to the school or interrogation hall.

The interrogation hall is this giant white building where all of the higher authorities of JuneFlower work. They live in the outer ring- the space between the Outer Wall and the Inner Wall. We're in the inner ring, by the Hall which is actually a segment of the Inner Wall that is where our classrooms are. The girls' dorms are to the south, near the math and science rooms, and the boys' dorms are to the northwest by the sports park- which was coming into view now that I was nearing Yumés house.

I bundled into my blanket as a sudden frosty breeze hit my face at full blast. Looking up from my fuzzy shield I saw the boy from yesterday, Farren.

"Why are you wrapped in a blanket?" His sapphire blue eyes met mine and I saw that he wasn't wearing a jacket. In fact, warmth was practically coming off of him in streams.

"Why aren't you? Aren't you cold?" I skeptically gestured to his barely-covered torso and he shrugged.

"You're Alexandra, right?" I winced at the mention of my real name and cut him off.

"Cole, call me Cole."

"Alright, Cole, where you headed?" I pointed to Yumé's house, which was only a few seconds away, "My AC is broken."

"Mine's fine but Yumé said I should come over." I wonder if this has anything to do with the FSB box Yumé found yesterday, maybe Farren is the kid she saw being dragged out of the car.

"So, will you let me go now?"

"On one condition. Take me with you. I don't know where she lives." Farren's shy, crooked smile played his lips for a few moments as I stepped around him and made for the house that was just in sight. I punched the wood frame of the door and a click told me that the door had been unlocked. Kerrard, Yumé's roommate opened the door. Her blond hair covered most of her face and draped over her shoulders.

"Yumé's upstairs." She shrugged and trudged back to her room, closing the door with a soft click. I stomped my way up the stairs of Yumé's house that was so similar to mine. A kitchen, bathroom and bedroom on the first floor, a bedroom, bathroom, and study room on the second. Farren fell behind on the stairs and I was up when he was almost halfway there. I must admit, my first impression of him was that he was a moron. And he wasn't doing a very good job of proving me wrong.

"Yumé?" Farren and I called unintentionally in unison. It ticked me off a bit, I don't like people finishing sentences for me. But Yumé opened the door all the same. She saw me and sighed a bit, but perked up when she saw Farren. I know that look. Her electric blue eyes met my own black ones and the spark of adventure was clear. She grabbed my arm and rushed me into her room, not bothering to wait for Farren, but calling him forward.

"Come on, Farren, they're just stairs, be a man!" She shouted as I plopped onto her bed. There were so many colors in her room- the walls were green, the bed was orange, the ceiling was covered in trippy drawings I made, and by the large glass balcony doors there were crystals and mirrors catching the light and reflecting patches of rainbows all over her room. One glared into my eye and momentarily blinded me.

As I looked away from the scraps of crystal a white box caught my eye. It was about the size of a shoebox, maybe smaller. The sides were tied with brown string and there was only one thing that broke the whiteness: FSB-TO BE TAKEN. Yumé had told me about her own box, the one with her bunny in it. I could really care less, seeing as I never got to pack a box since I was wheeled here right after they found me.

Farren entered the room now and I can see that he is slightly out of breath. Wimp. But of course, I do march mellophone in the band here. Yumé's in orchestra, so she took track for her health elective. She's still not faster than me though. She walks strangely, too. Like her knees are at a weird angle. She sometimes forgets simple things- like how to walk, or that she's right-handed. She can be kind of annoying sometimes, just because she knows me too well.

She knows how I wish I could be pretty, how I think I'm not. I could really care less about looks, but she insists I think I'm pretty. She knows how I want to be important; she knows that I want to love someone. But they're all idiots here. No one is like Jared. Don't you dare call me insane when I say I have an imaginary boyfriend. Cuz I don't. Jared Steele is a perfectly awesome, ninja-warrior, who I want to marry someday. If I ever find someone like him, that is.

My mind is snapped back into perspective when a soft tapping at the balcony door catches my attention. A reddish-brown cat is clawing at the glass. The cat looks weird. He has blue eyes, really deep sapphire blue eyes, and longish red hair only on his head. The hair covers his left eye, but not his right, making him look like an EMO cat. The only thing that kept my attention focused was when Farren looked directly at the cat and said, "Dann?"

Now, normally cats would be named Mr. Whiskers, Fluffy, you know, cat names. But Dann? I knew Farren had reminded me of someone. This must be Farren Bright, Danniel Bright's twin brother. His twin had been sent here from JulySparks a year or so before I arrived and he was the one who showed me around on my first day. Dann was cool. I liked him. But why would Farren name a cat after his brother?

Farren and Yumé exchanged glances and she unlocked the door and let the cat in. DannCat strode up to Farren and glared, as if scolding him. Yumé pulled an old book out of the box that I now noticed had several holes in it. The cat was small enough to fit- it could've been in the box the whole day and if it was quiet, no one would notice.

"I hope you don't mind, I've been reading it." She said as she handed the old book to Farren, its binding was well-worn and the cover was torn a bit in the corner. Farren looked up at her in amazement,

"How did you get this? I thought that the last time I'd see Dann and this book was,"

"That day in the car. I know- I was, um, under it the whole time. I stole the box after they had taken you into the interrogation office. Dann was a very good kitty and stayed on the patio until you came. I let him in when I saw the snow, but he stayed out for some reason or another."

"You always missed the snow, didn't you?" Farren said to the cat, who was now on the bed licking his paws, but at the comment the cats head came up and looked Farren in the eye.

"Of course I'd miss the snow. I haven't seen it since we left that God-forsaken place. "Said the cat. SAID THE CAT. Yumé and I just stared at the little animal for a while, the small cat that had seemed only a little out of the norm that had just talked to us. And Farren looked as if nothing had changed.

"Did the cat… just talk?" The words barely had escaped my mouth before the cat came bounding to me and sat on my knee,

"My name is Dann, thank you. And, besides, I know you. Alexandra Cole Andrews." I was shocked. My face froze. The voice was deeper, but it was Danns.

"Dann, Danniel Bright….. you're a cat!"

"Tell me something I don't know. But don't fret, little Cole, I am a cat because right now, I want to be. Actually, I have to be…"

Yumé stood and took the cat up in her arms like she would any other animal.

"Dann, you're really Farrens brother? I was wondering why I kept thinking you were talking to me. I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me again. Guess I'm not that crazy yet."

"No, Yumé, you're not crazy. In fact, you're less crazy than a lot of people I know." Farren stood and took his, uh…. Brother from Yumé.

"Lots less crazy then our old pal CrimsonTears, eh, Farren?" Dann said sarcastically. CrimsonTears. She was the leader of the Army that was pillaging half of the planet, and ruling the rest. The leader whose troops killed my parents. They haven't reached JuneFlower yet, but who knows when they will.

"What do you know about CrimsonTears?" I pressed

"Everything there is to know. Actually, a bit less than Shay, our spy. But Farren and I are actually on our way to OctoberRush to train."

"Train? In OctoberRush? Why would you want to go there, why not New January, they have more powerful weapons?" Yumé's puzzled look confused me as well. Why OctoberRush, indeed.

"New January has been at war for eons, we can't expect their help. They've shunned our kind."

"Our kind?" I hope I didn't look as stupid as I felt, because all I knew of the Army was that they were a bunch of evil guys who wanted totalitarian rule.

"Our kind, well, me and Farren at least. We're Keepers. The Army wants us alive so they can stop the line of Keepers while they destroy the world. They want to kill everyone who isn't like them. And those who are like them, but resist, have an even crueler fate."

This was too much.

"Keepers? Come on, you can't be serious? Ok, where are the wires and cameras? Is this some New January show? What, is it called 'Let's make fun of the low tech kids'? Be serious now, a Keeper would prove that he's not just an animatronic kitten. " DannCat jumped from Farrens arms and I witnessed possibly what must be the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. He turned into a human. The fur on his body shrank into darkly tanned skin, the blue eyes turned into a jelly-like substance as the turned to normal size. The worst part? He was naked.

"Oh, yes Cole. You have been punck'd! Right, what great holograms, yes? You don't believe I'm the Keeper of Beasts now, eh?" My mind was scarred for life at this point, but Dann was right here, an actual Keeper. Most people live their whole lives not knowing a Keeper. And here was a naked Cat Man with his twin brother. Keepers.

"See this?" he pointed to a mark on the back of his neck, "This is a Keeper Scar. We have them. You can tell what Keeper someone is by the Scar and where it is represents the strength of their powers. See how mine is on my neck? It means I'm not all that powerful, unfortunately." His words became more slurred as he turned back into his cat form. "Farren has a Scar, too. On his right arm," Farren lifted up his sleeve to reveal a dragon scar that moved along a blood vain, "He is very powerful. For the Keeper of Wind, the arm is the best place for a Scar. Keeper of Animals is the chest. Keeper of Flight is best on the back, right between the wings."

"Like our friend, Iggy." Farren spoke up, interrupting his brothers rant.

"Yes, yes, yes… Iggy. The Keeper of Flight." Three Keepers all in JuneFlower. Wow. I wonder if anyone else knows this.

"And Lilly, hers is on her pinky- very strong. Perhaps the strongest for the Keeper of Earth. Shay on her face, pretty good for a Keeper of Light. Yumé's on her leg… I wonder how powerful that is for the Keeper of Fire."

I looked at Yumé, luckily she was a shocked as I was. Yumé was the Keeper of Fire? Since when? She never told me… She took off her socks, the long black ones she'd been wearing lately, to reveal a dark dragon marking. It was very detailed, you could see scales, teeth, claws, and where the spiraling dragon cut off around her knee you could see a pattern like flames.

"I'm a Keeper?" She whispered, covering her face to hide the surprise and excitement in her eyes.