Pyra

Chapter 5: Moon City

We walked for a few minutes through the woods. Soon a tall wall rose above the trees. It was made of stone and had turrets posted every few meters. It was Moon City's famous fortified wall. It had been built during the Second City War to prevent Sun City's military from getting in. A large titanium gate was straight ahead of us. I was walking next to Krystahffer.

"You ever been to Moon City?" I asked Krystahffer.

"Nope. Never even left Sun City before now," he answered. "And you?"

"I'm not sure. I don't remember anything before I came to the academy," I replied.

"Oh yeah... That must be pretty frustrating," Krystahffer said.

"Yeah... Especially when you have a serious medical problem," I said.

"Medical problem?"

"My killing thing," I replied. Krystahffer nodded. We walked a bit in silence.

"What's it like to have a family?" I asked Krystahffer.

"Well, when you need comfort they are there for you. You love them," Krystahffer explained.

"So you kiss and hug them?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. Not super into it like with a spouse but sort of," Krystahffer explained.

"So, what does love feel like?" I asked. I know I said I love Krystahffer earlier but really, I guess I just like him as a friend and he's really handsome.

"Well... When you love somebody you would protect them with your life. You wouldn't let anything happen to them," Krystahffer explained. I was about to continue talking about love when Maesyn interrupted our conversation.

"Guys be quite," Maesyn whispered.

"Why?" Krystahffer asked.

"Look at the sign over there," Maesyn replied. I looked at a poster stuck to the gate. I squinted to read the fine print. It was a wanted poster. 'RUNAWAYS WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE. BRING TO GOVERNMENT OF SUN CITY WHEN FOUND.' The poster had five pictures on it. Pictures of us. I gasped when I saw the reward.

"Two million kach!" I exclaimed. Ke'rahnda hushed me. One kach can be used to buy a cookie or something. About one thousand kach is used to buy a living unit. Two million is unheard of.

"I guess the government is really strict about runaways," Bodenn said. I nodded in agreement. Maesyn whispered and gestured for us to follow him. We followed Maesyn behind a tree not to far away from the gate. A small dirt path was in front of the gate. Nobody came in or out. Six guards wearing black and silver armor had electric spears held out next to them. None of the guards moved.

"We need a diversion," Krystahffer explained. "Somebody fast." Everybody looked at me. I have to admit, I am pretty damn fast. I can outrun pretty much anything. I even outran a magnetic motorcycle that was on a test drive (it was a dare).

"Dieannah, can you be the diversion?" Krystahffer asked.

"Do I even have a choice?" I replied.

"Okay, so when Dieannah diverts the guards we climb over the wall," Maesyn explained.

"Climb the wall? That's practically impossible!" Ke'rahnda exclaimed.

"I'll use my glyphs to create a pathway for us to walk on," Krystahffer said.

"Glyphs?" Ke'rahnda asked.

"It's like magic using spyrit," Krystahffer explained. Ke'rahnda nodded.

"Okay, on the count of three Dieannah, you go," Maesyn ordered. I nodded.

"One... Two... Three..." Maesyn whispered. "Go." I leisurely walked onto the dirt pathway. None of the guards moved. I walked closer to the gate. I was about to push the gate to open it when a guard spoke.

"Stop where you are. Let me see your travel permits!" the front guard ordered in a loud gruff voice.

"My what?" I asked. I looked up at the wall and I saw Krystahffer making his glyphs up the wall.

"What are you looking at?" the guard asked. He began to look up the wall.

"You wanna see something cool?" I asked to distract them.

"I'm not here to watch a kid do magic tricks," the guard growled and looked at me again. I shrugged.

"Show me your permit," the guard ordered.

"Are travel permits like permission slips for a trip?" I asked. The guard seemed to be getting frustrated.

"The thingy that lets you pass the giant metal door," the guard explained to me like I was a toddler. I understood. I needed some documents to pass through. I looked up at my friends climbing the colossal wall.

"What are you looking at?" the guard demanded as he began to look at the wall. I grabbed the guards shoulder and made him look at me.

"It's a very interesting wall," I said staring into the guards blue eyes.

"Stop playing with me," the guard demanded calmly. I could tell he was going to loose his temper soon.

"Oh permits... Yeah..." I said to the guard. He smiled with satisfaction. I reached into my pocket. I made some dirt fly into my hand.

"Here you go," I said offering the guard the dirt.

"Who are you trying to fool? Do you think I'm some kind of idiot?" the guard yelled.

"No... I don't think you are, I know you are," I said slyly as I blew the dirt from my hands. The dirt turned into fire and it scorched the man's face.

"That girl's one of the runaways!" a guard on the left yelled. I smiled and began to sprint towards the wall. The guards ran after me but the were soon lost behind me.

I looked up, my friends were already over the top. I closed my eyes and summoned all the spyrit I had in me to fly over the wall. I jumped with a force that made the ground shake. A large crater was where my feet had been. All the guards flew backwards into the forest. I flew straight over the wall. The wind whipped my face painfully. I landed safely on the other side and I left yet another crater. Everybody was waiting for me.

"Please, don't leave anymore footprints," Krystahffer said. I laughed. Maesyn began to run and we followed after him. I could hear the guards slowly opening the giant heavy gate behind us. They were yelling angrily. The guards at the turrets began to shoot at us with bow and arrows. My friends had to leap from left to right to avoid the arrows. I let them fly straight towards me and the stopped a meter from my body.

"Keep running," I told my friends. They kept running into the forest. I turned around and faced the wall. My spyrit was running low from that amazing jump over the wall (which was awesome). I couldn't do too much more. I could just do one last hat trick. The archers in the turrets thought it was a good idea to fire at me because I wasn't moving like the others. All the arrows gathered in front of me. I turned the arrows around and they caught on fire. The arrows began to fly towards the archers that they came from. Agonizing screams rose from the turrets that we're now ablaze. I sprinted to catch up with my friends. I felt tired for the first time in weeks from using up so much spyrit. I was actually panting. In a few seconds I caught up with everybody else.

"You never seize to amaze me," Krystahffer said with a smile. I smiled back. Hearing that from Krystahffer made my heart flutter. We kept running into the forest until the wall was out of sight and the fires couldn't be heard anymore. We slowed down and stopped in a small clearing. The trees in Moon City were shorter and looked a bit unhealthy. The dirt ground was a red hue. The sky was a mix of warm colours because the sun was setting. The sun itself was a bright orange and red gradient. I sat down on the floor.

"Dieannah you okay?" Maesyn asked me.

"Yeah. I nearly depleted my spyrit," I told him.

"You have to be careful. I know you have freakishly large amounts of spyrit but you can be really hurt if you lose it all," Maesyn explained.

"I know. I'm not in year one," I told him.

"I guess it doesn't really matter now that the fighting's done," Maesyn told me.

"Well guys, wasn't that a nice greeting into Moon City?" Bodenn asked. I was about to reply when Ke'rahnda screamed. I looked behind me and I was about to scream too.