Izzy's Story

Chapter 5

The next morning rolled around quickly, in Izzy's opinion. Being a demon hybrid, she didn't have to sleep as many hours of the day as normal hybrids would have. That made mornings very slow. Often, she would sit by her window and watch the light fade in every dawn.

Izzy didn't know how light got into Lower (since it was underground), but she was very thankful for it. She enjoyed the warm glow.

That was what she did that morning until it was bright outside. She then went and changed into an inky purple shirt that was torn at the bottom and simple gray shorts. Izzy grabbed her belt as she marched out the door.

As she walked, she realized that she had no idea where Liam wanted to meet. Rolling her eyes, she trudged to the market. She didn't want to have to go to the market again, but there were a couple of reasons why she was going this time. One, it was in the near center of town. And two, she knew Liam at least knew how to get there.

Izzy scanned the faces of the crowd squished into the town center. Nothing. Then a hand appeared on her shoulder and she spun around hissing.

"Hey, it's just me. Relax," Liam said, backing away.

Her expression softened. "Oh, sorry. I'm just not used to people touching me."

He smiled, "Okay, noted."

Izzy looked around. "Where did you want to go?"

Liam scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know, I just want to learn this place better than I do right now."

Izzy nodded. "Okay then, follow me. And try to keep up!"

With that, she pushed her way through the crowd and made it to the outside well before Liam did. She watched him struggle to make his way towards her. She giggled. Normally, he carried a confident tone, one that said he could figure his way out of any situation. But at that moment he looked plain uncomfortable.

Somehow, he squirmed his way out of the swarm of people and walked to her side.

"How do you do that?" he asked, out of breath.

"Do what?" Izzy replied, starting to walk again.

Liam mimicked her pace. "Do that," he said, gesturing back to the market. "Get everywhere so quickly."

"I don't know," she said looking at him, "I just do, I guess?"

Liam hummed in response. "I wish I could do that," he huffed.

She laughed, a sound that didn't normally come out of her mouth. She hadn't laughed in a long time... until she met Liam. Why did he make her feel so happy? She had only known him for a week and yet, she felt completely comfortable around him. He made her rethink her definition of humans.

Liam's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Where are we going?" he said.

"O-Oh! Right," she stuttered. "It's a surprise."

"Um, okay."

In reality, Izzy was directing Liam to the cliffs that surrounded Lower. They were her second favorite place, right after the forest.

When they arrived, Izzy showed Liam how to use the rocks as hand and foot holds.

"We're gonna climb to the top of that?" Liam said, pointing to the cliff top.

"Yep."

"Slowly, I am regretting my decision to ask this of you," he said, and Izzy couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

"Ha! Honestly, it's not that hard," Izzy said, already starting to climb the rock wall.

"Maybe for you! You have paws!"

"C'mon! This'll be worth it," Izzy promised.

"Fine."

After a few minutes of struggling, Liam finally made some progress. Izzy made it up first, naturally, and Liam followed minutes after.

"Okay, look over there," Izzy said tilting her head towards the edge of the cliff they were now standing on.

"Oh wow," Liam said, his eyes widening.

Spread before them was the whole town of Lower, surrounded by the purple forest all the way around except for the cliff walls on one side.

"Yeah, I've done a lot of thinking up here," Izzy admitted.

"I didn't even know you could get up here."

"Well, when you've lived here for most of your life, you go places people don't normally find."

"Huh," Liam said. "Are there any other places like this?"

"Oh, yes," Izzy said, grinning.