Unchained

Al

The Vladonald War... never heard of it. Almost two decades of fighting, and what were the results? Dead people... not much else. I had so many questions. Why did the war start? What happened afterwards? What did the law entail?

I inspected the page for details- there was one. At the bottom there was a small signature in chicken scratch. I couldn't tell exactly what it said.

I made out an A-L, and the O at the end. "Okay," I muttered under my breath, "I'll just call you Al for now." I tucked the sheets into the folder attached to the page on the Hulta in my book. I tried not to stress out over the meaning of this. Not realizing how exhausted I really was, I crashed immediately. 

~*~

After breakfast, I went back to The House of the Leaders. Maybe Fane would let me look at some of the books there. I tried pushing the door open, but it was locked. Maybe it was a pull? Nope. I knocked on the door hoping someone would be there.

Suddenly, a pale face appeared in the doorway catching me by surprise.

"Hello Kodiak. Didn't mean to scare you. Who are you here for?"Kiyoshi said quietly.

"Hey, yeah, is Fane here?" I said trying to get over my jittery nerves. 

"Go. On. In."

I kept my head low and walked in. Kiyoshi seemed in a bad mood for some reason.

"So..." he drawled, "You and Fane, how long have you been friends?"

"Since I came here," I said suspiciously.

"So you two are pretty... tight." I nodded my head at this statement. "Cool, nice talking with you Kodiak."

I gave Kiyoshi a small smile and went inside to find Fane. He was sitting at his desk looking through large stacks of paper. He glanced up, "Hey, you didn't catch me on a good day. What's up?"

"Could I look at the books?"

He nodded, so I made my way up the ladder to search for plant books. It didn't take me too long to find a book that would be useful. It wasn't about plants, but about the war.

I took a look at the table of contents. Timeline, people, uniforms, history, and many more.

They were all about the war.

One of the last chapters was titled 'New Technology'. The Hulta plant should be under it. I quickly flipped to the page. Types of bombs, missiles, aircrafts, watercrafts.... Hulta plant.

A picture at the bottom of the page caught my eye.

The Hulta plant was a dangerous weapon, so there were safety measures added to it. One of them was a glass pod that covered the plant when it was in use. At first, it looks like an ordinary piece of glass, but one it is placed on top of the plant, it turns into a seal. The glass will have words on them depending on the person who used them.

It was simply a picture of glass. "Glass," I said aloud. I liked the way it slipped of the tounge. Interesting... if Aubrey wanted me to get a Hulta plant there must be one here along with the glass.

I quietly tore the pages out. Stealing was also against the rules. Why wouldn't it be? To prevent it, our clothes don't have pockets, so I was stuck.

"Thanks man," I whispered to Fane as I was about to leave.

Fane, falling asleep on the desk mumbled, "Uhuh sureeee," before hitting his head on the desk, "What happened?!"

"Dude, relax. You just fell asleep... and hit your head," I said rubbing my own head. That must've hurt a lot.

He groaned. "I really didn't get any sleep man. I'm go-gonna sleep now," he yawned climbing into his bed.

As I came to the exit, Kiyoshi was still at the desk near the door. It was only him. I could have easily slipped out without anybody noticing that took the pages.  My life hates me, so at that point Shreya appeared in the hallway with a box. I hid in a little corridor. She handed the box to Kiyoshi. I sprinted for the door, but she turned around. Go me!

"Hey Ko-" she stopped abruptly. I gave her the largest smile I could muster.

"What you got there?"Shreya said sucking her cheeks in. She obviously knew that I had something with me.

"Nothing," my voice was high pitched and squeaky

"Cool. If it's nothing can I take a look at it?" I was stuck. I turned out my hands surrendering the paper. "You know stealing is against the rules."

I tried to play it cool. "Exactly! I wasn't stealing, I was borrowing!" 

I never said I pulled it off. I said I tried.

"Well if you were supposedly 'borrowing', why did you hide it?"

I didn't know what to say. I was completely stuck. No way out.

"Hey, relax Shreya. Give the guy a break. He didn't intend to do anything bad with it," Kiyoshi helped me out. Kiyoshi! So you could imagine my surprise. He snatched the papers out of Shreya's hand and waved them in the air. "He was just taking a few papers, no biggie. It's not like he's gonna overthrow us and start a rebellion." I scoffed at that idea. Rebellion? Turns out Kiyoshi did have a sense of humor.

He handed the papers back to me, and Shreya gave in. "Never again," she said and left.

"Thanks man." I was really grateful. I don't know what would have happened if Kiyoshi wasn't there.

"Sure, anytime."

Hey readers! I know I've been inactive for a while. Life has been crazy! 

Hope you guys are enjoying the book! 

Can anyone tell what the name is? (The picture is at the beginning of the chapter).

~EverFaith03