Chapter Three

The three strangers walk through the new door and continue to stare at us. No one responds to White Tiger’s question.

“I don’t think that they’d appreciate your redecorating,” I blurt. They all stare at me, including Alekai and Telyn. “Y’know, with the black marks and everything,” I explain. A couple of them roll their eyes. Alekai stands.

“I am Crown Prince Alekai Emir Onyeisi Kankara Whitesky. I am pleased to make your acquaintance. Who might you be?”

White Tiger squints. “Your name is Crown Prince Alekai Prince King Ice Whitesky?”

Alekai goes red. “And who are you?”

“I’m Zephyr!” the short brown haired, skinned, and eyed dude practically shouts. His voice is rather high. His two companions roll their eyes in unison.

“I’m Drazon,” the tall black guy says, voice all rumbly and deep. I wonder if he lowers it on purpose to sound more intimidating. Maybe I should do that.

“Like dragon, but with a z?” I ask. Drazon looks at me, face expressionless. “Your name. Seriously, do I have to explain everything to you guys?” I mean c’mon, what else would I be talking about, seriously!!

“No.”

“I’m Nika,” the newer girl says, all pale skin and coiled black hair.

“I’m Tiago, she’s Telyn, and you’ve already met Sir Spoiled Brat,” I introduce. Telyn speaks up.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting a bad feeling about this place. Who’s up for an epic escape?”

We look around at each other. “Well, it’s not like we have anything better to do,” I say. “I’m in.” The others nod their agreement, and we all step out into the white hallway.

We wander around for a little bit, until, apparently bored of wandering, Nika places her hand against a wall, which starts to glow and pulse. Once the glowing circle is door-sized, it explodes, leaving the same black explosion marks that were on the other makeshift door. On the other side, there are just more white hallways.

“Oh, so that’s what happened. I was worried that one of you were carrying around grenades,” I say.

“I wish,” Zephyr says ruefully. “Imagine what you could do with a whole bunch of grenades.”

“Imagine the pranks you could pull,” Telyn says, eyes wide, imagining.

“Imagine getting the hell out of here,” Alekai says, rolling his eyes and stepping through the hole.

A couple of minutes later, Nika blows up another section of the wall and we go through again. This time, however, there are a few more colors than white. It appears that we’ve entered the armory or something along those lines. Weapons, clothes, vehicles, even some bits of furniture line the walls and floor-to-ceiling racks of the gigantic room. As we wander through the room, I let my eyes wander over everything in sight. After a few minutes, something catches my eye and I have to go back and take a closer look.

Upon closer inspection, there is an old-fashioned blue tunic that I recognize somehow, with a dark blue leather sword belt draped over it. Sewed into the collar in cursive is a name, Tiago Bluefeather. I let out a whoop and grab it off the rack, looking for anything else that I recognize. I spot some leggings, an undershirt, tall leather boots, leather gloves, and a cloak, all with my name on them, all varying shades of blue. At my whoop, the others had started hurrying over to me. Nika gets to me first.

“What was that?”

“Look!” I exclaim, showing her what I’m holding. “I found my stuff!”

The others overhear this, and they all dash off to look for theirs. Once they’ve disappeared, I make sure that they’re really gone, and quickly change out of my white uniform and into my clothes. When I put them on, I realize two things. One, that they fit pretty much perfectly, except maybe I used to be a little more muscular, and two, that there are weird slits in the back of the tunic and cloak, and along the sides from my hips to the bottom of the tunic, like I had wings and a bird tail or something. A picture of a bird pops into my head, a blue Merlin.

I peer inside my empty sword sheath and find a blue feather. I pull it out and hold it in my hand, feeling as if I’m forgetting something. I stare at the feather, lost in thought until I feel my cloak and tunic pull weirdly. I try to turn around to see if anyone is there, but the aisle is empty. Taking one last look at the rack and grabbing a blue knife in a sheath that straps onto my sword belt and a blue bag that practically sings my name, I turn and go looking for everyone else.

I find Telyn first. The first thing I see when I see her is that she’s no longer wearing all white, but red and reddish-brown and reddish-orange and has a bunch of weapons. The second is her giant reddish-brown wings and tail, neatly tucked behind her. I try to identify the bird. Red kite? No, maybe a red-tailed hawk?

“Uh, Telyn?” I say, right when she says “Uh, Tiago?”

“What?” we both say at the same time.

“You first,” she says, smiling.

“Were you aware the large wings and tail sticking out of your backside?” I ask.

“What?!” she exclaims, turning in a circle, much like I did earlier. Suspicion creeps into my mind like a slimy eel. I turn and run, looking for a mirror. Footsteps behind me indicate that Telyn is following me. I find a full-length mirror and stare in equal parts horror and fascination at the large blue with darker blue striped wings folded at my back. I turn and find blue striped tail feathers going through the slits at the side of my tunic. I hadn’t really thought that I had bird wings and a tail!!

Telyn is as amazed at her transformation as I am at mine. We look at each other in awe for a moment, then go race off to find the others. Once we’re all assembled, everyone takes a moment to take each other in, the costumes, the weapons, the difference in hues... Our transformations are pretty cool.

Drazon is in a suit of black armor that almost blends in with his skin. From what I can see, the suit is pretty cool. I’m a bit envious, actually. He has what looks like an awesome long black broadsword strapped across his spine, a quiver of black arrows (but no bow that I can see), and knives at his waist. His boots make him a couple of inches taller, which is unfair. I wish I were taller. Maybe I could ask him where he got his boots.

Nika is in a brief white dress with a halter top, simple black shoes, and a white bracelet, and she appears to have grown white and black striped wings, in addition to her black and white striped skin. I can’t see a matching striped tail, like Telyn and I, which is weird. She doesn’t seem to have any weapons, but maybe they’re just hidden somewhere. Or maybe, she fights without weapons. The wall vaporizing thing did seem pretty handy. But who knows, maybe I should ask her later.

Zephyr is in a multi-shaded brown vest and pants, with boots and gauntlets, but the rest of him looks the same, albeit the wooden boomerangs strapped to his torso, which explains his accent. He looks like a giant walking chocolate bar, or like he’s wearing a mud camo outfit. He has knives strapped to his calves, which are slightly curved and look wicked sharp. His eyes look a tad bit snake-ish, but maybe that’s just me? He’s currently staring, mouth slightly open, at Nika’s long pale legs, which are bare and must be freezing.

Alekai is wearing what must be his princely outfit, which looks ridiculous. I bite back a smirk. He’s wearing a silver-white robe with silver fur edgings and tassels going out from the center, which looks ridiculously fluffy and comfortable, and more than a little feminine. He has tall boots and soft looking silvery leggings. The sleeves of his robe envelope his hands completely. He has a knife in his boot, but I doubt that he can use it. The outfit is topped off with what looks like a small silver tiara on his head. A fluffy snow leopard tail sticks out from his cloak, and two furry silver-white ears are perched on his head amid his long silver hair. His human ears are nowhere to be seen.

I look at Telyn again, taking in the details of her outfit this time. It’s a long red leather jacket that falls just past her knees, with a wide necked reddish-orange shirt underneath, with brownish-red pants, and darker brown knee and elbow pads. I wonder what those are for? She also has the same reddish-orange color in her boots which come most of the way up her shin. A red leather belt holds her pistols, another going over her shoulder holds a sword sheath. Katana, if I had to say. Two knives sit in thigh holsters that are made of the same red leather. Red fingerless gloves cover her hands.

“Does anyone have the faintest idea of where the exit is?” Alekai asks. Drazon gives him a look.

“If anyone did, don’t you think that we’d be running like hell towards it, Prince?” Drazon asks

"How about we just get going?” Zephyr suggests.

“Otherwise we’ll be here all night, arguing,” I say, rolling my eyes. No one responds. We leave the room, jogging in a group. Out of the blue, the lights go out. We collectively stop, bumping into one another. Drazon, being at the front of the group, gets run into by everyone, of course. He mutters something that I can’t hear.

“Hey! I was using those!” I yell. I put my hands and try to figure out where I am. Look around at everyone, I can see that they're as lost as I am. Wait a minute... “Are you guys seeing this?” I ask.

“Seeing what?” Telyn asks.

“Um... Everything, even though it’s pitch black in here?”

“Wait a minute... I can!” she exclaims. "Maybe it's because of the cybernetics they gave us?"

"I don't care why, let’s just go already!” Alekai says, and runs off in the wrong direction. Nika mutters something under her breath, all I catch is prince, stupid and some words that I can’t repeat.

“Hey, King Idiot, it’s the other way,” Telyn yells after him. Alekai doesn’t respond, just turns back towards us and keeps running. He runs past us, and a few beats later, we follow him. We reach a turn, and everyone turns left. Except for Alekai, that is.

“Wrong way again,” Nika shouts, adding some insults onto the end. We keep going, trying to find our way out. Just for fun, we take a different path from Alekai, every time, seeing how long it will take him to react. We aren’t kept waiting long. After only a few times, he starts yelling.

“Seriously, guys! I’m starting to think that maybe you’re doing this on purpose,” he shouts, sounding injured. A couple of us are holding back smirks as Zephyr replies.

“Nope, dude, it’s all you. We’re just going with our instincts. Maybe you’re supposed to take another path.”

“Not alone! What if I’m attacked?”

“Don’t worry, Zephyr will come with you and keep you company!” I shout back. Zephyr turns to me, a confused and questioning look on his face.

“Yeah, don’t worry King Fluffycoat. Zephyr will keep you nice and safe,” Telyn yells, a devilish grin on her face. Quietly, to Zephyr, she says, “Just lead him really off track and come back to us, ok?” Zephyr casts a longing glance towards Nika, then nods and runs after Alekai. We turn and go the other way, putting as much distance between us as we can.

A few turns later, we run into a few of the white metal people, and we skid to a stop, nearly bumping into Drazon again. Telyn steps out in front of us, palms extended. I’m in the middle of asking her what she’s doing when bright purple flames explode from her hands, melting the cyber-people in seconds. We stare at her, in awe.

“What?” she asks. “Why are you guys staring at me?”

“You. Just. Shot. Purple fire. Out of. Your. Freaking. Hands. Why do you think?” I deadpan.

“No different from Nika destroying walls with her hands, and you guys didn’t gawk at her,” Telyn points out.

“True, but fire is a lot cooler than vaporizing stuff,” I counter.

“No, it isn’t, and let’s get out of here before more come,” Nika says, and we head off down the hall that the cyberghost people just came from, gingerly avoiding the still-molten pile of metal. After Nika destroys a few more walls, and Telyn melts a few more groups of cyberghosts, we find our way outside, and sprint for the cover of the trees. Once we’re deep enough inside, we lay down on the soft moss-covered ground and fall asleep almost immediately.

Author's Note

#DRAKA_FTW

Reviews

[A.Tarek]

you gotta post more, i like this kind of mystery...
rooting for you

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

Thanks! I'm glad you like it!