The Riches of Power

Sanctuary

POV Micheal

I had jolted awake from my sleep. I have no recollection of the dream the spooked me so I was left to wait in the dark. The moonlight shone in and its pale grey light was easy on the eyes. I was laying down on the beds we had set out and my head was closest to the door. I was able to watch out the window. I sighed as my thoughts wandered to one of my companions. She was beautiful, and she's been whirling around in my head for some time. Her blonde hair and green eyes, were always so charming.

I squinted out into the darkness, I saw something. It was flying around in the sky and it was much too big to be a bird of any sort. I continued watching hoping to get a glimpse as it flew past the large train window, and I did. One large batlike creature circled into view in the distance, following it was another, and another. I watched in fear, should I wake everybody up? I wasn't sure, but a knot started to form in the pit of my stomach. I slipped out from the bottom bunk and walked out of the room and went next door to the girls sleeping compartment.

I put my ear up to the door and I could only hear light snores and decided it would be ok if I walked in. After opening the door, I looked inside. None of the bunks had been pulled out and everybody was simply leaning on each other as they slept. The only person awake was Taryn and her icy blue eyes stared at me inquisitively.

I stood there awkwardly for a moment before asking in a hushed whisper, "Should we be concerned about the flying bats outside?"

"The gargoyle? No, not at the moment at least. They aren't attacking, but they are trailing us. But waking everybody up would be pointless, we couldn't do anything about them if we wanted to." She answered. I guess it was true, but if I was asleep I would like to know that there were demons nearby. She saw my worried look and tried to reassure me " Don't worry, if theres anything that you need to worry about I'll wake everybody up."

"Aren't you going to sleep?" I asked, because I knew I was extremely tired after today. There was no way that she could just pull an all nighter.

"Nims don't sleep" she said with small smile. I returned the smile and nodded, stealing a glance at one of the corners, and closed the door. I made my way back to my own bunk and laid down.

I let the smooth train ride lull me to sleep.

POV Karen

When my eyes fluttered opened, the train was coming to a stop, and the sun was already above the horizon. I nudged Trinity and Pieper awake who in turn woke the rest of the room up. I let out a yawn as I rested my tired head in my heads. My neck was sore along with the rest of my body, and that sleeping position was an absolutely terrible idea. I grunted as I stood up and we made our way off the train. We were the only ones to get off of this stop. The station was old and wooden it was once painted a dark green with red and gold trim, but all of it was faded and chipped.

The brush around the tiny wooden platform was overgrown, and vines climbed up the railings and support beams and then dangled off the roof. There were many wildflowers spread within the bushes and the overgrown grass. Jumping grasshoppers were spread around and butterflies fluttered peacefully from one flower to another. Though this place was abandoned and old it was enchanting. The sun was very bright and there was a very peaceful feel.

The train had started moving as did we, following Elaina down a narrow dirt path. We walked many hours in the sun, that grew only hotter. Soon I was sticky with sweat and the dirt that we kicked up as we moved. I took a sip of the bottle of water I had gotten from our backpack. We walked off the path and gratefully hid under the shade of a lone tree in the sea of grass. The fact that I just

Plopped down in the dirt and that my brown hair would be dusty and knotted because of it, didn't really matter. I poured some of the water from the bottle onto my lips as I lay down, and some of it dribbled down my chin. The I opened my mouth wide and poured the remainder of the bottle over my face. As I wiped the sweat mixed water from my eyes I thought 'scratch that, I'll have mud in my hair' I laughed to myself. As I lay there my hands played in the dirt beside me, running it through my fingers. That's when I grabbed small, but smooth pebble.