Chapter 3: A Sun-less World.

Later that day the headmistress smiled as she carefully placed the application and her letter of recommendation into an envelope. Before she had put the letter inside she had made sure to make the folds crisp, clear, and clean. She licked the tip of her finger and put it against the envelopes sticky side and then closed it neatly. Afterwords she cleaned her hand and inspected it. Finally, she nodded to herself happily. Perfect.

The headmistress checked herself in the mirror before she headed for the door just to make sure she was presentable and then left. She shut and locked the front door and then turned in the direction of the mayor of Canaan's office, Hallet. Hallet had been a sage a long time ago and had retired his mage robes for the office of the mayor. It was a good twelve minute walk from here to the mayor's, but she would take her time and not strain herself.

Truthfully though, the orphanage had been built at the edge of town and closer to the woods than the center of town and the mayor's office. More than once she wished that Canaan was reaping the benefits of the airships, ground wheels, or paddle boats. But the truth of the matter was that she'd even settle for a chocobo.

Canaan was just a small city that the orphanage called home, and it was a simple little community that was just far enough from the mountains up north that it still received the beneficial light from the Tower of Owen without its light being overshadowed.

The Tower stood like a beacon over fifty miles away from the city, its shining light was their sun that allowed crops to grow and people to see. Without the benefits of the Tower their continent would have died long ago.

High above even the Tower of Owen, there was a wall of water. It was not a flat wall, but rather a spherical shape that enveloped the entire continent and kept it shrouded in darkness. The sun didn't penetrate the wall of water and life on this continent would not have been possible without the Tower's light.

There were a few benefits and downsides to the light, but Canaan lived in a place that was neither too close nor too far away and thus reaped more benefits than negatives. But one of the downsides was that it was impossible to tell time without a watch or a grandfather clock. Fortunately the city had donated the orphanage another clock after Nick and Jeff had broken the first one 2 years ago, and it had helped her keep the children on the same schedule. Up by 7 A.M, and in bed for 9 P.M. It never occurred to her that this practice might have been the cause of the first time they broke the clock, but now she kept it locked in her room and safe from the children's playful hands.

As she continued down her way, she noted that all the children were playing a game of some kind in the fields and immediately her breath caught. But then she noticed that Ashley was there watching them and the headmistress heaved a sigh of relief. Ashley was an experienced fighter and enforcer of the law here in Canaan, and she had defended the orphanage single-handedly on more than one occasion. The children would be safe as long as Ashley was around. The headmistress continued to walk down the road confident that today would be a good day; not that it was ever night anymore.

Kyle was not the tallest boy on the field at the time, but at least he wasn't the shortest. Jimmy was almost three and a half feet tall which was short even for an eight year old. Kyle had the misfortune of being only four feet two inches. Jeff was about four feet ten inches, and Jaeger was just an inch taller.

Rachel, Elizabeth, and Nick were all almost or as tall as Jeff, but they were sitting out this game of 'Tackle', which was a game that Kyle was sure Jeff had just made up. Basically the point of the game was to tackle the person that had last tackled someone. When the game started the person that was 'it' would be in the center ring area that was marked by sticks. The others were on the outer ring, which is where the person that was 'it' would have to reach to be safe.

Jeff would murder him if he tried to go anywhere near his direction. Jaeger wouldn't hurt him, but then he'd have to hear how he got tackled by a girl and he didn't want to hear the other kids making fun of him. It didn't help that both of them were much faster than him and that meant running for a direction in between Jeff and Jimmy, or Jaeger and Jimmy would not be wise. So that left running straight at Jimmy, who anybody could pile through.

Kyle had decided on this course of action when suddenly someone poked him on the shoulder. Kyle turned around and looked up to find both Jaeger and Jeff staring down at him menacingly.

"If you go at Jimmy you had better let him win," Jaeger whispered. "I don't want to see you make him cry before he has to leave."

"And if you don't let Jimmy win, I'm gonna smash your nose in," Jeff said much more harshly as he hit his fist into his hand in his normal, but still very thick accent. "In other words, if you win, I beat you," Kyle stared up at Jeff and then turned towards Jaeger for a way out of this.

But Jaeger for once did not rescue Kyle from Jeff. Instead she just looked up at Kyle firmly and said, "I just might let him," Well, Kyle thought, that left him with but one option:

Quitting.

Giving up was a perfectly valid and manly thing to do under the circumstances. Kyle tried to tell himself this over and over, but he had no luck of convincing even himself.

It was then that a scream pierced the air as the children heard Rachel scream. Turning around Kyle heard Ashley yell for the children to run inside the house as she drew out her short-sword and one of the glowing crystals of light. It was then that Kyle saw what had caused Rachel to scream. A giant troll with green hair and gray skin had emerged from the forest.