The Places We Go

Chapter III; Soleil

     After two weeks of traveling across the treacherous territory, Arlie and Soleil finally saw signs of civilization. Pulling their hoods up, they walked into the dark village that was Imperial City. It was much different than their own, which was filled with color and laughter and fun. This village had but three colors; gray, black, and brown. No one was outside despite the lovely weather, they were all inside, working. There was a clear path to the castle that cut through most of this seeming ghost-town.
Once at the castle, it was clear that the gate was heavily guarded. They looked at the castle in its entirety; there were four towers connected to the main building, and decided that Anastasia had to be in one of those towers. Both deciding to climb two towers by themselves, Arlie ran to climb the front-left tower. Soleil herself opted for the back right tower, and after the long climb up the rugged stones soon realized that it had no windows to crawl through. She decided to not try and get in by breaking stone unless they knew that Anastasia was in there.
Climbing down onto the roof, she tip-toed over to the front tight tower. As she walked, she saw that Arlie had done the same thing. Climbing the same tower now, they were able to help each other as these stones were a lot smoother and more compact than the other towers. Soleil saw a window and was able to reach its ledge, hoisting herself onto it. This, however, was not where Anastasia was being held, but instead the bedroom of her warden. Thankful that Luna herself wasn't in there, She helped Arlie in through the window.
They sat on the bed to catch their breath, when they heard the door jiggling open. Darting under the bed, Soleil and Arlie did their best to control their breathing. "For the last time, this is a happy accident. She hasn't threatened to hurt anyone yet." This voice was obviously Luna's. Though commanding and powerful, it had the capability to put you at ease no matter what she was saying. Soleil enjoyed listening to her voice, but quickly shook this thought off. She is the enemy, Soleil. She thought to herself. What's gotten into you! She told herself when the thought of Luna's voice re-entered her mind.
"Yes, but keep in mind that it's been two weeks. They're certainly on their way already, or here even now!" another voice pointed out. They sat on the bed, almost crushing Soleil. She saw a pair of boots being dropped in front of her as Luna took off her current shoes. "You might be right. We need to set up defenses now so that the new plan can be carried out." Luna cackled as she slipped one boot on. "Shall I go now?." The other voice said, handing Luna the other boot. "No, we have some time." Luna said, putting the other boot on and standing up. She immediately fell down as the boots had such a heel it was nearly impossible for Luna to stay stable. She made eye-contact with Soleil, who quickly closed her vibrant eyes, but it was too late. "They're here!" Luna yelled as she got up and fell down again.
Soleil and Arlie ran out from under the bed. Arlie drew her dagger, and Soleil her shiv. "Go, get the others. I can handle these two for a while." Luna said as she threw the unbalanced boots onto the bed. The guard ran away after handing Luna his spear. "Well? Who's first?" Luna said, positioning the spear. Both Soleil and Arlie jumped over her, Arlie landing behind her and Soleil landing on top of her. Luna went limp, so Soleil softened her grip since she didn't need to keep it up. Arlie got up, thinking they had won already. They had been fooled, however, as Luna easily flipped the script. Luna got out of Soleil's loose grip and pinned her to the ground, who, when trying the same strategy, found that Luna instead tightened her grip. The guards came in, but Arlie was able to fend them off as they were all particularly weak. Luna was a different story. Soleil was able to sweep Luna off her feet and both women got back up and began to fight. Luna eventually ran out of the room, Alrie and Soleil right behind her. Luna ran into more guards, who rushed to protect her, thought they were also weak against Arlie and Soleil. Once they had all been killed, wounded, or had retreated, it was only Luna against Arlie and Soleil. "Let Anastasia go. Now!" Arlie yelled. "How about a deal." Luna said as she struggled to get up. "I'll let her go, but one of you has to stay." She said, staring at Soleil. She felt a compulsion to stay, compressed it, but it bubbled back up again. Soleil wanted to get to know this place, get to know Luna, and get to know this world. She knew it was a trap, but wanted to fall anyway.
"I'll stay," She said, causing Arlie mass confusion. "Very well. Guard!" A guard came with Anastasia in cuffs. She looked dazed, confused, scared even. The guard took the cuffs off of her and onto Soleil after throwing Anastasia into Arlie's arms. He grabbed Soleil's arm and began to drag her towards where Anastasia had come. On the way up the winding staircase Soleil could hear a blast of wind coming from downstairs, followed by Arlie's screams. Soleil struggled to get out of the grip and down to where her friends had been, but once she was there all she saw was Luna walking away. The dim torchlight caused her black attire to create the illusion that she was merely a silhouette, gracefully walking amongst her fellow shadows. She was muttering to herself, and Soleil was only able to hear a little bit of it before the guard got her. "Only one guard left ... if she kills ... then I'd have to take her with me" Soleil was confused, but it seemed that the guard who was coming to get her was Luna's last soldier. When he got her back in his grip she did not resist, for she was too busy thinking about Luna's words and how she so longing wanted to know what her face looked like underneath the veil. You have to stop these thoughts, Soleil. She is the enemy, the one holding you here! But no matter how many times she said this to herself Luna re-entered her mind. She heard her voice ringing in her head, when she closed her eyes she saw Luna walking away. She could not shake her from her mind, and eventually fell asleep while repeating her name in an affectionate whisper.
Even in sleep Luna was there. Soleil dreamt often, but never like this. Every dream centered around Luna, though Soleil didn't know why. There was a dream of peace between the kingdoms, with Luna and Soleil standing on the bridge looking into the water. There was a dream where Luna had taken off her veil, revealing a gorgeous face. There was even a dream of a wedding, with strangely enough Dadokes as the officiant. After this dream she awoke, but Soleil didn't know if it was because of Dadokes' beginning to sing or these thoughts of Luna. Whichever it was, both needed to be repressed and cast out of her memory. Soleil knew these dreams would likely never come true, especially the last one. She thought of the first two dreams happily, then shut them off. You can't be soft. You must be strong. You must escape, before these thoughts get the better of you.
Soleil quickly got up and ran over to the window. She looked down and saw a beautiful garden... through bars. After struggling with them for a moment, Soleil realized that it would take years and much more strength than she possessed to be able to get them to budge at all. She looked up at the moonlight that shined down on her face. A cool breeze blew her long blonde hair back as she took a deep breath. It had only just now occurred to her that she could use her power, something that her family and only her family had possessed. Taking a step back, she got into position. Keeping her left leg sturdy and straight, she slowly moved to where she was standing only on her big toe. Her right leg, meanwhile, raised itself so the curve of her foot was touching the curve of her left knee. As for her arms, they were spread out to either side, her palms facing the moonlight. She shrieked the battle cry of her family, the Seegol family, and her transformation was complete. Hearing the shriek, the guard busted into the room. Soleil quickly bit his exposed ankle, causing him to collapse in pain. She attempted to fly out the window but found that the bars were too close together. She flew through the castle, knowing where she had to go. The only tower that had a window without bars was Luna's.
Hoping Luna was asleep by now, Soleil flew through the door that had been open to try and fly by. Unfortunately, Luna was wide awake and quickly closed the window shutters and the door so that Soleil was trapped in the bedroom. Her veil was finally off, as were the gloves, finally revealing her face. She had gorgeous brown eyes and black hair that framed her face perfectly, which was twisted into aggression at the bird that had disterbed her.
"We're nowhere near the ocean." Luna said, thinking that she was talking to herself. Soleil did her best to act like a normal seagull, hoping that Luna would take pity on the trapped bird and set her free. "Wait, which family is this one from.... Seegol! Show yourself, Soleil!" Soleil wanted to disobey, but couldn't resist the powerful yet soothing voice that commanded her to show her true form. Coming out of this form, she saw Luna's look of aggression become one of happiness, then back to aggression again. "I knew it. How did you get out of the tower!" She yelled, taking a slow step back towards her desk, reaching for the spear that lay on top of it. "I bit the guard pretty good." Soleil said, reaching slowly for her shiv. "Well, if you won't stay put" Luna said, grasping the spear. "I'll have to make you stay down."
Luna lunged forward to stab Soleil in the chest, but she deflected it with a quick movement of her shiv. This continued on for a while until Luna finally changed her tactic. She swept Soleil off her feet, jumped on the bed, and lunged at Soleil to hopefully stab her. In this time, however, Soleil had been able to roll out of the way and underneath the bed, hoping to hide. Luna quickly hopped off and threw the spear under the bed, only for Soleil to catch it rather than get hit by it. With both weapons in her hands, Soleil rolled out from underneath the bed and threw the spear back at Luna, who also caught it instead of being stabbed by it. In fear, Soleil ran to the door and flung it open, running down the stairs. Luna followed, and they came to the throne room. Being far behind, Luna took a gamble and threw the spear in Soleil's direction. It didn't hit her, but pinned her cloak to the wall. Struggling to pull the spear out from the wall to free herself, Soleil kept an eye on Luna, who was now hesitant. Snapping out of this hesitance, Luna grabbed a pair of cuffs and captured Soleil. She pulled the spear out of the wall with what seemed like no effort at all and brought Soleil to another tower. "I didn't want to put you here, but I must. You broke one cell door and your friend broke the other. All that's left is the place where my general used to sleep. Your other friend killed her off." Luna said as she threw Soleil into the room and closed the door behind. This time she wisely did not uncuff her. Without mobility in her arms, it would be impossible to become a seagull again. Soleil looked around at her new surroundings. This was a very nice looking room, with an actual bed and other furnishings. She laid down, under a blanket now, as she wondered what tomorrow would bring for her.