Lina felt as though she would drop to the floor from exhaustion. She had been traveling most of the day before she came into Sparks and stopped by the library. There she had found Doon, and in that short time with him she had gotten to relax. She didn't even try to deny to herself that it had been the best part of her day. Being with Doon always made her happy, for she felt she could be completely herself with him, and that she could tell him anything, even her darkest secrets, and she knew he would never tell. Doon was her friend - her best friend - yet there was something about him that made him different from Lizzie, Maddy, Kenny, or any of her other friends. He was special; not only because he had been her partner in escaping Ember, but because of something else, though Lina didn't know what. He was just... special.

After leaving the library, she had talked to at least three dozen groups of people, and had just now arrived to her house, even after being home for the whole afternoon. Lina walked Fleet to the barn behind the house while Poppy chatted away merrily.

"...and yesterday in school, Chester McCartney called Myna a PIG, which is some sort of animal. Miss Jillian said they're still somewhere on the planet, just not in Sparks. And then after she punished Chester, she showed us a picture of a pig, and guess what color it was?" Poppy hopped up and down in excitement.

"I haven't the faintest idea," Lina said, though she already knew.

"It was Pink! Pink! Can you imagine a pink animal?"

"I guess. We saw that orange cat the other day. Orange is an unusual color for an animal," replied Lina, trying to stifle a yawn. The sun had set a while ago, and she knew that she and Poppy had already missed dinner. She tied up Fleet in the stable and closed the gate, as Poppy continued talking about how she had never seen a purple animal before.

Lina walked to the front door of Dr. Hester's house and stepped inside. "We're home!" she announced to whoever was there. She heard the shuffling of a chair as Mrs. Murdo, Lina and Poppy's guardian, quickly hurried from her bedroom to meet them.

"Oh, Lina! It's so nice to have you back. Your trip was good, I hope?" Before Lina had a chance to answer, Mrs. Murdo turned to Poppy. "And where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was when you didn't show up for dinner?"

"I'm sorry," Poppy replied innocently. "I was with Lina, and Lina was talking with lots of people, so we didn't get a chance to come home 'till now."

Mrs. Murdo sighed, but then smiled. "Yes, I know many of people are anxious to talk to Lina. Now, Poppy, let's get you some dinner and then it's off to bed."

Poppy nodded in compliance. "Yes, Mrs. Murdo." Then she dashed upstairs to the loft, where she and Lina slept.

Since Lina didn't want to live alone, or leave Poppy, she had decided to stay and live in the doctor's house, and Mrs. Murdo stayed as well, for she was the assistant doctor. But about two years ago, when the town got together to start building new homes, both Mrs. Murdo and Dr. Hester agreed that Poppy was getting too big for all three of them - Lina, Poppy and Mrs. Murdo - to share the upstairs room. They then requested to have a few extra rooms built onto the doctor's house- one for Mrs. Murdo, one for Torren (who was simply getting to big to sleep in the medicine room), and an extra room for guests or patients that needed to stay the night.

Lina sat down at the table as Mrs. Murdo set out two plates with some dried fruit, bread with jam, and beans on them. She and Mrs. Murdo then chatted about Lina's trip and the events that happened while she was gone.

"A roamer came into town today, and is trading goods tomorrow in the town square, so we'll have to make sure we're up and ready to go by tomorrow morning," Mrs. Murdo informed Lina as she ate her bread.

"And she brought important news!" Poppy exclaimed as she came down from the loft in her nightgown. She sat down next to Lina and started eating the food off her plate.

"Or so the roamer says," said a voice from the other room. Torren then came into view, frowning as he saw the food on the girls' plates.

"I thought you said there was no more dried fruit left," he stated accusingly. He then seemed to notice Lina, nodded at her - his way of saying 'hello' - and then went to the cupboards in search of more fruit.

"Well, there isn't anymore now. There had been just enough left for the girls, so I saved it for them," said Mrs. Murdo. Torren looked as though he were about to say some sort of retort, but shrugged instead. "Did you find anything interesting, Lina?" he asked, as he sat down and folded his arms across his chest. Torren had gotten a little more mature over the years, but you could still hear the jealousy in his voice when he asked about Lina's trips. He had always wanted to be roamer, like his older brother Casper, but had been told by both his Aunt Hester and Uncle Ben that he must be at least eighteen before they would let him go off and roam the lands. Unfortunately for Torren, he was only sixteen.

Lina gave him the usual update - description of the towns, the new people she met - while watching him try to pay close attention, as though he could become a roamer just by listening to her talk. His blue eyes were squinted, as though he was trying to see inside Lina's head, and his forehead wrinkled in concentration. His hair, as always, stood up in little blondish-brown tufts all around his head, and his lean body was bent forward slightly, so that he wouldn't miss a word Lina said. This was a look of deep concentration for Torren - a look he often acquired when he was trying to pay close attention to or study something.

Just as Lina finished giving her report, the door opened and Dr. Hester came in. "Oh, Hester, I'm glad you're home," said Mrs. Murdo, but the doctor was too distracted to hear her. She quickly bustled into kitchen put her basket of bandages into the cupboard before she turned around and noticed all four of them staring at her. She jumped in surprise.

"Goodness, you gave me quite a fright! I didn't expect you all up," she said. Then she stared at the ceiling, as if trying to remember something, then slapped a hand to her forehead and quickly went to the medicine room. "I forgot to make more of my poison oak remedy," came her muffled voice from the other side of the wall.

Mrs. Murdo stood up from her chair to go and help the doctor, but first said, "Poppy, as soon as you finish your food, put your plate in the tub by the counter and go up to bed. Lina, Torren - I would suggest you get some sleep as well." Then she hurried to the other room.

"I don't need sleep," mumbled Torren, who always disliked being told what to do.

"I seriously doubt that," Poppy said in response as she put her plate away. Then she turned around to face the two, saying, "Well, g'night Lina. 'Night Torren." Then she disappeared to the loft.

Lina smiled at the way Torren always seemed miffed when Poppy retorted to his retorts. She was only eight years old, and still she was even more outgoing than Lina had been at that age. She sometimes worried wether or not she was raising Poppy right - since both her parents had died be for Poppy was one. She worried if she was doing something wrong, or if she was supposed to be teaching her certain things but wasn't. It had helped having Mrs. Murdo share the responsibility of raising Poppy, but Mrs. Murdo had never had any kids, only a husband who had died during the coughing disease in Ember. But as Lina walked upstairs and saw Poppy snuggled into the blankets on her bed, she felt as though both her and Mrs. Murdo had done all right. Poppy was perfect to Lina, just as Lina was perfect to Poppy.

Lina undressed quickly and silently, then grabbed an old hair brush and walked over to the mirror above their dresser. She stared at her reflection. Her bright blue eyes shone even in the dim light, and her fair skin now had a splash of freckles across her nose. She brushed out her long hair, that had once been a dark brown, but had been turned light brown by the sun, and quickly braided it into a long rope down her back.

Lina walked over to Poppy and gently kissed her head. "Goodnight, sweetie," she whispered, and then got into her bed beside Poppy's and fell asleep.

·······

Lina awoke early to the sound of birds chirping. The night had felt too short, and Lina found herself still weary from her trip the day before. She glanced at the old, half working digital clock on the dresser, and was pretty sure it said about seven o'clock. She had found the clock on one her trips to the town of Brooks, and had taken it home and hooked it up to a diamond. It had been pretty useful, mainly in the winter when the sun didn't wake her up. But sometimes it made a loud buzzing sound randomly in the day, and the only way Lina could get it to stop was to unplug it, and plug it back in.

Lina glanced over to see Poppy's bed was empty. She stretched as she stood up, then got dressed and headed downstairs to find both Poppy and Torren up and eating breakfast.

"Good morning, Lina!" Poppy said cheerfully, as she grabbed a can of milk from their refrigerator. There weren't many people in town that had refrigerators or freezers, for they were expensive and needed multiple diamonds to power them, but the doctor had gotten both so she could have ice to give to patients and keep certain herbs or medicines cold, if needed.

Lina sat down with the two and they were soon joined by the doctor and Mrs. Murdo. After they had a quick breakfast and gathered their tradable items, they walked down to the plaza.

Lina once again marveled at the beauty of the town. Mountains rose up all around them in a valley, and the sun peaked up over their tips. All the trees had their leaves again, and the fruit trees next to the empty field all had little blossoms on them, in full bloom. The town has grown so much since we first came, thought Lina, as she looked at all the clusters of houses surrounding the city. Could this city grow and become the one in my drawings? she wondered. But as much as she wanted to find this city, she suddenly felt sad that this once small, peaceful little town might turn into a huge city with tall buildings and lots of people. She liked Sparks just as it was now, not too big, but not too small either. It's perfect, she smiled to herself, and she felt a swell of pride for her city. Not Ember, but Sparks. Her new city.

When they arrived to the plaza , it was already full with people. Everyone was out talking to each, passing time until the roamer was ready to start the trading. Torren had already started making his way towards the front, his Aunt and Mrs. Murdo following him.

Lina grabbed Poppy's arm and said above the noise, "I'm going to find Doon. Stay close to Mrs. Murdo so you don't get trampled." Poppy nodded and quickly caught up to Mrs. Murdo and the others, still trying to get through the throng of people.

Lina stood on her tiptoes, trying to scan the crowd. But even though Lina was taller than most girls, she could still barely see over anyone's head. She spotted a bench over by the fountain and stood up on it. Now that she was higher up, she could look down on top of everyone, and could easily spot Doon or his father when they came. But after a few minutes of surveying the crowd, Lina was starting to wonder whether he was going to come or not, for she couldn't seem to spot him anywhere.

"Who are we looking for?" a voice suddenly said in her ear. Lina jumped and almost slipped off the bench if Doon hadn't caught her. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you that bad," he smirked jokingly as he took her hand and steadied her on her feet.

"Doon, I could've fallen!" Lina scolded, only half seriously.

"Good thing I caught you then," he smiled. Lina smiled back at him. Then, almost simultaneously, they both looked down and realized they were still holding each other's hand. Lina gently released his hand and turned the other way, suddenly feeling slightly shy. What"s wrong with me? she thought, and to add to her perplexion, she felt her cheeks heat up. Doon either didn't notice or didn't care about her sudden strange behavior, for he hopped off the bench and said, "I think I see the roamer. Let's move closer to get a better view."

Thankful for the distraction, Lina followed suit and managed to slip through the crowd until they reached the front. The roamer had just entered the plaza, and everyone moved out of the way so she could pull her truck towards the front, where Lina and Doon were. The roamer had short copper hair that was pulled back into a braid and strong, muscular arms and legs - which was a handy feature for a roamer.

The roamer managed to get her wagon in position and then leaped onto the bed of the truck, and called out in a loud, clear voice, "Gather round, Gather round! I have items of great use, and important news! But first, let's start the trading!"

The roamer, who had confirmed her name was Penny, started by offering basic items, such as paper, a few candles, and pencils. Lina traded a bag of strawberries for some paper and pencils, for they were useful for messenger trips as well as drawing on. After a few pots and baskets were traded, Penny started bringing out the good items everyone wanted - electronic devices. There were fans, heaters, a string that had little light bulbs attached to it, and light bulbs themselves. Lina kept waiting for Doon to bid on some of these items, but he said he would save his diamond - what he was trading with - for something else.

Once the electronics were gone, Penny brought out a few more items most people regarded as useless. There were little toys and figurines, some dog collars, an old purse, and some jewelry. Normally Lina had no interest in jewelry, but when Penny held up some necklaces, one in particular caught Lina's eye.

It was a beautiful blue stone, the color of the sky on a cloudless day, encased in silver outlining and hanging on a delicate silver chain. It reminded her of Sparks, and all its beauty. "It's gorgeous," Lina breathed, her eyes transfixed on the jewel. Doon pointed to the one she was staring at. "That one?" he questioned. She nodded. She wanted to buy it, but then remembered she had already spent her items on paper and pencils. It was a strange sort of longing she had for the piece of jewelry, and it reminded her of another time long ago in Ember. She had felt that same sort of yearning for the color pencils in Luper's shop, and remembered how it had almost gotten Poppy lost or trampled during the blackout that had happened right afterwards. But what harm could come out of a piece of jewelry? she thought. But before she could even ask how much it was, the roamer put them away. Lina looked down at her feet, slightly disappointed, but then snapped her head back up in attention when the roamer called for silence so she could share her news.

"I just went to Brooks a few days ago, " she started, "and it was there I got the news. Now at first it was just a rumor, but then it became a fact when we got wind of what happened." She said all of this in a mysterious, ominous tone, as though she was telling a ghost story on a dark, stormy night.

"What happened?" called an impatient voice from the crowd.

"It was bandits!" Penny suddenly shouted. "Bandits have attacked the town of Shiloh, just north of Oakridge! And it's said," she paused for dramatic effect, "they're to come and attack Sparks next!"

Authors Note:

Hope you like the new chapter! Sorry it took longer for me to put this one up. I wanted to add that in this chapter there might be a few parts that don't make sense right away, but they will reveal their purpose later in the story (in case anyone's confused). I also just want to give a special shoutout to leafysummers for being the first to review my story! I really appreciate it :)

Please comment or review and tell me what you think!

Thanks :D