Civitas

Prologue / Freedom

Laya has been locked in the tower for all her life. As long as she can remember. Her room had no windows, and no doors, and was forever in darkness. Laya's only memory is of the time when she was told her name before being locked away in the tower as an infant. A man had placed a flower on the middle of her floor. The flower had dug itself into the ground and created floors and stairs. However, at the very top of the flower, where Laya's room was at, she was at the very tip of the tower. In darkness. Then, as if sensing the dark, the flower had started to glow, and had glowed for 7 years next to Laya, before one day it just stopped. Laya had become close to the flower, and treasured it's light, so when it suddenly stopped glowing, Laya had pleaded it to keep glowing, but, feeling the area where the flower had been, the only thing left was dust. The flower was gone. 
And Laya was alone. 
And for the next 7 years, she stayed alone, but did not falter. Laya remained hopeful, that one day, she would be free of the retched tower. 
So she danced. She danced in the darkness, to the sound of the thunder, the rain, the winter, spring, fall, summer, the birds, and most often; the silence. She had different dances. Happy ones, when the birds would sing, excited ones, when the rain would pound on her ceiling. Warm ones, when the summer sun heated the walls and ceiling.  And lonely ones, when the silence came once again. 
But sometimes, when the silence became too much, Laya would scream. She would pound on the walls, scream for help, even though she knew no one would come. Just to break the silence. That was all. 
But she knew something was keeping her alive. She never ate or drank. She never went to the bathroom. She never slept. She could talk in many different languages, she could read and write. Yet no one ever taught her. 
And then Laya received a message in her head. 
'ON YOUR 14TH BIRTHDAY, YOU WILL BE FREE.'
Laya laughed. She'd known this day would come. She knew!
One more week. Just one more week she told herself. 
But that week was the hardest for her. 
Images of lords and dukes, princesses and princes, were thrown into her mind every second of every day. Their species too. The faces and bounties of wanted criminals came next. After that the mansions of the royals. Then, finally, an image of the king. 
'I AM THE KING.' 
The king? Did that mean that the person who put her in the tower  all those years ago was the king? Why? 
That was the end of the messages. Laya lay still as she thought. Two days. Two days and she would be free. 
Laya got up. She would dance her last dance in this tower tonight. 
Her first dance in this tower would also be her last one. 
And so she danced to the darkness. 
She cart-wheeled and somersaulted, she spun and leaped. It was her best and worst dance.  
Then Laya did something she never did before: she sang. 
"In the darkness I will lie,
'till I really see the light,
I will cry, and laugh, and scream,
But I will not stop the dream,
To be free and out of here,
To the world that is out there."
And Laya kept dancing. 
On and on and on, until the tower shook. 
She stopped dancing. 
This was it! Laya would be free!
The tower shook harder. Dust and bits of stone rained down from the ceiling. 
A hole opened up in the side of the tower because of the shaking, the stone that were there, now outside. 
Laya did not hesitate. She jumped through. 
                                                                                 ~~~
The air whipped past her as she plummeted.  She looked down and saw a great expanse of blue beneath her. 
The ocean, she told herself. 
Her stomach felt like it was trying to force itself up her throat, and Laya loved the feeling. 
"WHOOOOOO!" she yelled as she fell. 
She hit the water without a sound, and into the deep she sunk, but found she could swim, and could breath in water like air. 
When she reserfaced, she looked back at her previous home, and saw it poke through the clouds. The shaking had stopped. 
Laya turned herself in the water and looked in the direction her tower was facing. 
"That way it is." she said, then started swimming. 

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This is my very first chapter!

I'm sorry if it feels childish and terribly written, but I have all these ideas pooling up in my head, and when I finally get them out into the real world, then...they sound like that.

(>w<)

Anyways, this is a new story I have tons of ideas for, and will soon upload more if I can come up with it!