Hell's Towers

Chapter: 2 New And Old Faces. (part 1)

Now that Flos was officially hungry, tired, and ready to flying-sidekick, anyone was disturbing her. She was not in the mood to be messed with, mainly since nothing worked out.  She sighed so many times she was now light-headed. 'Damn you, Larua... Sighhhh! But I wonder why his personality keeps changing or is he just serious all the time.' She thought he was goofy and didn't care what happened around him. Maybe he was serious and let others think he was a mindless fool.

Her left path led her to multiple buildings, a mixture of Greek and Roman architecture, especially in the classical art form.  The course she happened to be on turned at one of the buildings. She was just about to turn when suddenly she hit something hard. Flos looked to see who she had collided with, only to discover that person she bumped into was no other than her older brother Ignis. “ I’m very sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was walking.” Flos said. She averted her eyes so she wasn’t staring at him anymore. “ You clearly weren’t paying attention. Please be more careful in the future.” He replied. He scoffed at Flos and continued walking. Flos thoughts were all over the place. ‘ Did he not remember me? Did my aunt do a better job keeping me hidden that my brother doesn’t recognize his sister?’ Flos felt hurt, “ Wow, talk about a crappy day.” she sighed. She felt a tear threatening to come out, and her eyes burned.

She had to take another turn, which led her through a vine-covered walkway. The sun shined so brightly, causing the green leaves to turn the path green. Flos focused on her breathing so that no tear could escape her eyes.  Keke, kekeke. " The littles want me to hand you this." A big grin spread on Larua's face.  He handed her a handkerchief, it had a carrot design, so when you folded it, it would be like a carrot.
"Thanks." she grabs the handkerchief, being very careful with the gift her newfound friends gave her.

Keke, "You know it must suck that your brother doesn't recognize you." -L
"I wouldn't get too close to this fire you're trying to add fuel to, and it could burn you." -F
Kekeke, kek keke. "Your right, but it looks like so much fun, adding more fuel to the flames." -L
Poke! "Oops, you got burned." -F
"What? You poked me. How is that supposed to burn." -L
Poke, poke, poke.
"Hey, Stop that! That's not very pleasant, you know? It's not funny, stop."-L
Poke, poke, poke. "Taste the power of the annoying sister. "-F
Major poking. "Fine, you win. I'm leaving. " Larua turned around and stuck his tongue out at her before leaving. 

Flos felt a little better now. It was somewhat fun, poking Larua. 'I wonder if I'll run into Lignum. I mean, I already run into one. Why not both.' Flo's thought. When she came out of the tunnel of vines, she was now in the area where she could find her home building, which is where most groups could hang out, waiting to have a talk with their team captain or to meet their new bait. Yes, bait. Living breathing bait.  A human bait.

Flos was looking for a building. The building's number she was looking for was 13. Flos found building 13 and heaved a sigh, annoyed. It seemed half the time, her luck wasn’t luck at all, and it seemed to cause more mayhem for her than anything else. The best example of her luck was running into her brother and getting put in a building with the unlucky number 13.  When she got closer, building 13 was a prime example of Archaic and Classical Greek architecture. But mostly Classical. 

Flos walked up to building 13, also called Aedis Tristitia. It was a Latin name, and it said ‘ a Temple of  Depression.’ ‘ Wow, talk about luck. Yay, for me.’ she said sarcastically in her head. Flos reached the doors and pushed them open, and walked inside. It was entirely the opposite of what you would have thought it looked like.

The inside of the Aedis Tristitia looked like an English library, with dark bookshelves and dark leather chairs. It had a musky pine forest and cedar tree smell. There were animal head trophies on the walls, fur rugs, and several red leather lounges as well, towards the back of the building, which wasn’t as open as the front of the building.

It had two big bathrooms, {one for the girls and one for the boys}. There were showers, spas, and other necessities in the bathrooms. And past those rooms was a kitchen. The kitchen itself had a wood cabin feel that was large and comfy. The kitchen was just used for coffee, tea, and other little things.

Flos was breathless when she saw how large the building was. To her, it was so inviting, almost like a siren’s call. She snapped off her train of thoughts clouding her brain and began focusing on the task at hand. Everybody in Aedis Tristitia was wearing uniforms. She also noticed some other newcomers who were wearing similar uniforms. She immediately stood out.

It didn't take long for everyone to notice her. She was a complete outsider and a newbie, but all the more reason to whisper about her. They all knew her fate, which was the fate of being bait. She stood firm, letting their words fly by her; she refused to show any emotions to hateful gossip.

Two girls and two boys decided to approach her; they chose to puff their chests out like prideful peacocks, trying to show they were better than her.

One girl was short and skinny; she had a pixie haircut and freckles covering her face. The other girl was taller but would still be considered short. She had strawberry blond hair pulled up in a bun. Both boys were about five foot eight inches. One boy was blonde, and the other had black curly hair.  All are wearing similar uniforms.

They smirked as they surrounded her. The short pixie-cut girl let out a shrill laugh. The other girl shook her head in disgust at Flos, and the boys began herding her closer to the girls.

"Look, country girl, there's only one place for you, which is in a monster's stomach. But if you kneel and kiss my shoes and beg like a dog, I might spare you." said the pixie-cut. "I'm sorry, I can't because I'm a human, not a dog." smiled Flos politely as she replied. "Are you stupid or something? You're just lowly bait. How dare you speak to you're masters like that!" Growled the Strawberry-Blond. "I don't think I'm wearing a collar that calms you are masters. So you're mistaken." Flos replied with a slight tilt.

One of the boys grabbed her arm and brought it up, so if he weren't careful enough, he would break it. The other one with black curly hair cracked his knuckles as if to threaten her. The blond boy whispered, "A bitch like you is better off dead. So how about you apologize like the ugly little bitch you are." the other boy smirked.

'I swear to God, I'm about to kick these guys in their nuts.' Flos thought to herself and did an eye roll at how fed up she was. She gritted her teeth and replied, "You must have lost some of your hearing; a bitch is a dog. And I'm clearly not one. No, I guess you guys went blind if you can't tell the difference. Am I right?"

She was ready to free herself when a strong, commanding voice came out, barking orders. "What the hell do you think you are doing? Should I give you feeding duties for a week?" Flos couldn't see who was breaking up this warm welcome.

He snatched the blond hair guy's arm, twisting it until the blond yelped out in pain. The Black curly hair guy was frightened; he looked like he was about to pee his pants. The girls ran away a long time ago, leaving their buddies to take all the blame. 

"No, sir. We're very sorry, sir. We'll leave now. Please spare us?" they whimpered. "Like hell! You find those girls who were with you and report to the general at headquarters. Now!" The mystery man replied. Flos could tell he was pissed. The two cowards ran off after saluting the mysterious young man.

Flos quickly did a slight bow and promptly thanked him for his intervention.  Only to be surprised that the young man was more like a boy.