ira

Chapter 9: City of Glitter

 Everyone had regrouped at the fire and shared stories. Sark started to open up to Rowena, which I was glad for. Ehs was on the verge of drunkenness. He had brought along a canteen full of liquor and decided now was the perfect time to chug almost all of it.

"You guys. Listen. We should sing a song. 'Cuz then we'll become better friends." He stumbled around and sat down near the fire.

Rowena, Sark and I looked at each other and shook our heads,

"I'm good."

"No thanks

"Sorry, but not a chance."

Realizing his defeat, Ehs began to sing and dance, keeping us thoroughly entertained. It was only after he almost stumbled into the fire that we decided to stop him. I took his canteen away, dumping the remaining liquid into the sand, and Sark got him to lie down and fall asleep. Rowena decided that she needed to check up at her base. She disappeared into a cloud of smoke, leaving Sark and I. While he was rummaging through his bag, I decided to take a walk up to the top of the cave and lay in the sand under the stars. It was so calming. Just listening to the wind and watching the stars.

"Careful, you'll get sand in your ear." Sark walked up next to me and sat down.

I smiled, "I wish that was my biggest problem."

He looked at me, "What do you mean?"

"I'm just worried. I haven't talked to Zedon since I first met her. Does she even remember me? What do I say? What am I supposed to do? As far back as I can remember, she never hung out with us, never talked. She was always so alone. Whether it was by choice or not, I feel bad. Sark, I'm so worried. I don't know what to do. I thought I would be able to figure it out, and everything would be good, but it's not good. At all." I rubbed my sore eyes.

Sark ran his hand through my hair, untangling it, "Listen. I know you're worried, so am I. But I believe in you, and what you can do. You have so many people standing behind you, all people that believe in you and want to help you. You'll figure it out. I know you will. You have a talent at getting through things. And if it means anything, I remember Zedon looking up to you, considering you were the first. She'd probably be glad to see you. Even if she doesn't remember you at first, she'll probably be glad to see someone of her kind."

I nodded, "Yeah, I suppose. Hey... Do you remember Knave and Axod well?"

I could see Sark shift around, "Yeah. I remember them."

"Tell me a story about them. I want to remember. I closed my eyes and listened.

Even though I couldn't see, I knew Sark was smiling, "Alright. I remember one time when I had just met them, and you guys had all just met each other. We were all in the training room, working on defense and offense. Knave, of course, was amazing and strong, really good at offense, not so good at defense. You were good at both, which amazed everyone. Zedon was good at offense, not very strong, though. Then poor little Axod," Sark snickered, "He wasn't good at either. Could never get the hang of throwing a punch or deflecting one. He was much better at making others feel better. That's when we knew he would be a medic. The funniest part was when Knave was trying to show him how to swing. Knave had perfect form and was dumbing it down significantly for Axod. He told Axod to take a swing, but something must have happened, because the next minute, he was on the floor laughing. Knave was trying not to laugh as he yelled at him, telling him the reason he fell was because his feet weren't placed right. It was great, everyone was laughing, even Zedon. Axod still never figured out how to throw a punch."

I smiled wide, remembering that great time, "That was great... I miss them."

"Me too... Well, no point dwelling in the past when the present is here. Why don't you go rest? It'll be morning soon, and I'm hoping we can make it to the next city by noon." Sark helped me up off the ground and walked with me back to the cave, where Ehs was still fast asleep and there was no sign that Rowena had come back yet.

I laid down near the fire and watched as Sark sat near the entrance, watching everything outside. I could hear the wind blowing back and forth, the sand running up against the rocks strewn across the ground. It took me a while to fall asleep, but once I did, I dreamt of Axod and Knave, and how much I missed them.

I was awoken by someone shaking me vigorously and yelling at me, "Ira! Get up! What is wrong with you! Get up!"

I suddenly shot forward, startling Rowena, who was flung back, "What's wrong? What's going on?"

She sat back and caught her breath, "We've been trying to wake you up for the past two hours, we had begun to think you were unconscious."

"Oh. Sorry, I guess I just had a good dream I guess?" I undid my hair and ran my hands through it.

I studied the color of my hair, a very pretty teal color. It was dark but light at the same time. I never thought about the color, I always knew I was born with it. Some people were born with strange hair colors, but nobody ever thought it was strange or weird.

"What did you dream about?" Sark came up behind me and asked me.

"It was of Axod and Knave. It felt so real... Like, I was right there with them. We were all back in the labs, all hanging out. The scientists came in and wanted to do some tests, so Axod went first. He came back out with a dead look on his face and told us to run. I remember him grabbing my arm, I could feel how cold he was."

Sark grabbed my arm and was shocked to feel that part of my arm was ice cold, "What? It was only dream... It... It was probably just the, um, floor. You had that arm on the floor, and it must have gotten cold."

I shook it off and stood up, "We should probably get going. Where's Ehs?"

Sark gestured out of the cave, "He went on a little walk, thought it would help with his hangover."

I nodded and made my way out of the cave. In the distance, I could see Ehs standing on top of a rock. I decided to join him.

As I got closer I noticed he was breathing heavily, "Hey Ehs, what're you doing out here? Sark says we should be going soon."

"Just trying to sweat out this hangover. Sorry, am I putting us on hold?" He turned around to look at me.

I shook my head, "No, you're good. Are you okay? You're not one to exercise."

I could tell he was faking a smile, "I'm fine, just tired," He jumped off the rock, "Let's get back to camp so we can get going."

Before I could say anything, he started to walk off towards the cave. I trotted along after him, noticing the interesting creatures that had suddenly shown up. Rowena waved her hands in the air, gesturing for me to hurry back into the cave.

I walked in, "What's with all the creatures out there? They weren't there yesterday."

Rowena shook her head, "Those are Sand Snatchers. They use the sand to form clouds that they hide in. I would say we should just be able to walk right past them, but these ones look larger than ones I've seen before."

I looked over to Sark who was quickly gathering things into his bag, "We should get going. The next city over is about a half a day's walk and I'd rather not fight these things"

We all agreed, packing our things and heading out.

-

It was very late at night when we started to notice lights in the distance. I rubbed my eyes, thinking that it might have been a mirage.

Ehs spoke up as we got closer, "Well would you look at that. The City of Glitter."

The shining city in front of us was decorated with multicolored lights, and menacing royal guard waiting to greet us as we entered.