Over the wall

Over the wall ~4~

Liana grips my hair as tears run down her face. I feel warm liquid on the back of my neck, my own tears run down my cheeks and onto Lianas soft dress. She didn't die. She's alive! I'm not alone anymore.

We pull away and look at the crowd around us. People smile and laugh with each other, embracing. Shona stands in the midst of the crowd. Her smile the brightest. She beckons to me and I pull from Liana, making my way to her.

"You are the first female Fallen in nearly 5 years," Shona says to me. I look at Liana, but if I'm the first female for 5 years....and Liana has been dead for 3...how did she get down here? "Liana was Brough through a special door in the wall, she didn't jump...thus taking the Fallen status."

The boy, 'Reggie', comes forward again. He looks sort of familiar.

"I've sent word to the castle. To have a room prepared for Caierah. Would you like me to clear the people?" He asks.

"Yes, my boy. Please stay with us though, I have a question to ask of you," Shona placed a hand on my lower back and led me on a path through the trees. "I'd like to train you. As a female warrior and possibly, in all time, the head of my guard force."

My mouth hung open, a woman as a guard? How scandalous! But I guess that this is very much a different place to Vlencia.

"Y-yes. Yes, I'll do it." I respond, my mind taking measures of it own. But I need to shake off the life I had back in Vlencia, new place...new me. Shona smiled and looked my body up and down, my torn black and white dress and bare feet. A sparkle glimmered in her multihued eyes, I feel a weird tingle in my skin, rippling into my bones. I look down to my feet and see black leather boots forming on my feet, a slight sky pigmented glow around them, it creeps up my legs...my feet glued to the floor. Black dripping after it like paint, covering my calves and knees, soon to be thighs. It is a silky material, my dress starts to disintegrate, turning into butterflies and fluttering off into the trees. As the glow reaches my waist, feathers in shades indescribable start to sprout from my hips, short ones at the front, leading down into a large one that sweeps behind me; touching the ground daintily. I pay no heed as it covers my chest and swoops over my collarbone, leaving my shoulders exposed.

Shona smiles. "Befitting of one of my Fallen." She says proudly, assessing me. Reggie looks stunned, he is so very familiar.

"My queen, what are these shades that surround us? I've never seen such....such...," I begin to ask.

"Colours, my child. Colours are what they are called. Red for the way an apple shines, green for the grass below, yellow for the dandelions, pink to be put on show, blue for the skies above, orange for the fruit so sweet, gold for the ring of love and purple for where sky and land meet," Shona recites. Almost a song in her lovely voice. My world is so...colourful.

"Reggie? Who were you...over the wall?" I ask, as we begin to follow Shona down the path, she hums and skips merrily for an older woman.

"I was a butlers son. In the Anderson HouseHold. Your HouseHold, when I came, I shed my skin as Reginald Tanner and became simply Reggie, as you fondly called me," Reggie's smile is the brightest one I've ever seen. R-Reginald Tanner...he died in a motorcar accident 6 months ago, his father was horrified...he was never the same. Reggie's hair is the same colour as the dandelions that frame our path. His smile blinding as he sees my recognition of him.

"Your...your father...he was never the same," I began.

"But I wasn't me up there...I was who they wanted me to be. My hair colour wasn't black, my eyes weren't silver. My hair is blonde and my eyes are hazel. I'm free here, Cai. Free." He said, looking fondly into the mountains as they came into view along with a town, the mirror image of Vlencia, but all of the 'colours' that Shona described.

"Red for the way an apple shines, green for the grass below, yellow for the dandelions, pink to be put on show, blue for the skies above, orange for the fruit so sweet, gold for a ring of love and purple for where the sky and land meet..." I was stunned as I recited this ditty. So many colours, such festivity.

The difference between Vlencia and Salem was the colour and the tents set up along the streets. Small ramshackle huts were built from cloth and had people milling out side them, buying wares and food. Children ran and played and chattered, no seriousness lingered in the air. It was a place of happiness. As Reggie and I walked past, people bowed and curtsied to me, like I was Shona herself; dancing up a head. There were stairs leading to below ground, people streaming in and out, laughing and talking. The buildings were those of Vlencia but made a home, made colourful and happy.

I could be happy here, I could live a full life...and have someone like Reggie by my side, I could grow to love him as I grew to love this place in my mere hours of being here.

Twas heaven on Earth and I was never going to let it go. I would do what ever Shona and these people asked of me, I was at their service for saving me and Liana from Vlencia.

Liana, I was never going to let her go again, my big sister, my best friend, my only family.