Underground

Prologue

Estelle
"Lift with your legs, Estelle! Your legs!" Draven, the boss of Delivering Pangaea, yells at me.
I turn my head and shout back at him. "A single person can't lift a whole crate!"
"I can help!" My twin sister, Maverick, says, jumping up from the break bench.
Maverick was no doubt the brawn of the two of us. One time she took out a whole swarm of Norisks, Pangaea's biggest predator, with her bare hands.
"Thank you." I sigh, as she comes over and helps with the lifting.
She laughs, turning to Draven. "Who's this to?"
"Zonner, he wants it by the time the core turns blue." He answers.
I nod. "On it."
Maverick and I leave the limestone workhouse and start the walk to Zonner's.
"Did you know that below us in another world?" I ask.
Maverick shakes her head. "I don't believe in that, quite technically, Pangaea is the only world that matters to me."
"But what about the people that drill through the ground, and take some of our crystal?" I ask.
"Ancestors to the Norisks." She answers.
I sigh. "I want to go there."
"Stop talking crazy or I'll tell mom." Maverick threatens.
"I'm just curious, I'll get over it." I sigh, again, sadder this time.
"Hey, I'm sorry, but it can't be done, impossible." She says.
We reach Zonner's soon after that, dropping the crate on his porch, then turning and leaving.
"You head home, help mother with supper, and I'll go back and deliver the rest." Maverick orders.
I nod, starting the walk home alone.
As soon as I arrive home, the smell of capstcha reaches my nose. The ripe earthy smell filling the air.
I walk into the limestone house. "Hi mom, I'm home." I say, dropping my jacket on the bench by the entrance.
Mother doesn't answer.
"Mom?" I ask, walking into the kitchen.
There sat Mother, Maverick, and Arlen, leader of the south.
"What's going on?" I ask.
Arlen puts his hands on the table, folding them into a hard ball.
"I was on my daily walk through the town when I saw, your dear sister Maverick here, looking troubled, sitting next to Draven's shop."
"And?" I ask, sitting next to him at the granite table.
"I asked your beloved sister, Maverick what was bothering her. What did you respond with Maverick?" Arlen asks.
"My stupid sister wants to go below." Maverick says, looking at the table ashamed.
My mother looks up at me. "How could you?" Tears stream down her aged cheeks.
Arlen smiles wickedly. "Well, Estelle Zaveri, you should be careful what you wish for."