Outside From Anthropology

Chapter One: A Nightmare and a Night Owl Too

Cold winds pierced my face and nothing could be heard except the faint thrum of electricity. I was surrounded in darkness lying on my side against a cold stone floor. I felt no pain but somehow I knew I was bleeding. Instantly, a blue ball of energy appeared and gave off a blinding light. Though my vision was blurry, I could see a large figure approaching from the energy's source. I could then hear a far away voice calling out my name desperately.
"Snap, Snap, can't you get up? I can't help you anymore!"

Suddenly I opened my eyes as a gust of cold wind blew through my bedroom. My heart was beating so loud I could hear it and I laid there paralyzed with adrenaline for a few moments trying to calm myself down. Waking up from a nightmare like that feels like suddenly jumping into an ice bath and it's difficult to recover from. Not that I didn't have lots of practice as I tend to get nightmares quite often. I dug my face deeper into my pillow, my pointed ears folding over into the pillowcase, and I tried to rearrange the half dozen blankets on top of me that were now wrinkled and uneven after a night of tossing and turning. It took me a minute to process everything. I realized that school must have been canceled today if my parents had not woken me up. I didn't suprise me, my school is canceled whenever snowfall makes it too dangerous to travel anywhere which happens pretty frequently. Realizing that it was pointless to try to get back to sleep after the experience I just had so I decided to walk downstairs and sit in front of the fireplace to get some warmth. I peeled the stack of blankets off one by one, preparing myself for the coldness of my room, and stood up, shivering as my feet touched the cold stone tiles. I shuffled over to my mirror and combed through my short navy hair with my fingers, noticing that my normally dark blue skin had grown pale, probably due to the cold as well as my recent scare. I had always been proud of my blue skin. Not only did it remind me of my mom, it was also a color that was rare among Ivilux, my race, which is known for colorful skin and hair as well as wing shaped ears. After looking at my reflection for a while longer, I put on my thick winter tunic, hood, gloves, and wool leggings and slipped into the hallway. After passing dozens of iron doored chambers used to house the guard captains I slid down the massive picture-lined staircase and finally made my way into the palace's common room. As I stepped towards the fireplace, now dying after having burned for so long, I could hear water boiling in the kitchen and a high pitched humming sound. This was surprising, as most of the royal guards who lived with my parents in the palace would be out on patrol at this point in the morning.

"Hey Snap! No class today, I'm sure you can tell. What are your plans? There's certainly enough snow out there to make a fort but I'd have to advise against that. I don't know if you looked outside but we're up to four feet already and it's not even noon!" Hummed a bubbly voice coming from the kitchen. There I saw Pony Pony, a healing specialist for the Royal guard and my older sister Captain Mel's girlfriend, cooking porridge. As she stood over the pot her beautiful emerald skin appeared to glow next to the burning stovetop. I was barely conscious so her question threw me off for a second. As I thought about an answer I shuffled closer to the massive iron stove and was relieved to feel the warmth on my skin.

"Um, I dunno..." I said, wondering if I should tell her about my nightmare.

"If you're looking for something to do you could go to the palace library, I'm sure they could use your help to sort books!" She suggested.

I looked at her for a moment to see if she was kidding. No one at the palace library would need my help, they probably hadn't needed any help in decades. I couldn't remember the last time I saw someone there that wasn't either from the family that runs it or some poor lost soul stuck looking for information on the long outdated and impossible medium of scrolls and leather books.

"I don't think so... Do you have any idea where my parents are? I didn't think that they had a patrol today."

"You mean General Gretchen and Cyrus? They don't, but last I heard they had an important announcement to make later today with Queen Aura so I assume they are off preparing for that. Is there something you needed to tell them? I know Mel is training right now but you could probably go talk to her if you'd like." Said Pony Pony, as she poured porridge into a wood bowl and slid it over to me.