The Kingdom

Captured

The next morning, Zoe was the first to wake up and decided to go outside in search for more food and dried items. "Good morning, Tol," she greeted the calm beast as she chirped back in return. When she looked back at where the beautiful lights shined, all she could see was just the Arche that it floated upon. Though, it was just a small black dot in the distance. Zoe ventured out the pillar and scanned the area for anything useful and essential. The breeze today was perfect, with its cool and refreshing winds, relaxing scents, and the grand scenery. It blew through Zoe like it was nothing and made her hair fly. Of course, this made it impossible for Zoe to see, but the weather here was different compared to the weather back in Ludere.

"Oh, Ludere," Zoe mumbled to herself, remembering what happened yesterday wasn't a dream. "Please, Mom, be okay," She prayed as she blew a lock of hair out of her face and went to work. But the wind just doesn't like her today, blowing her hair into her face. Soon enough, Zoe had enough and hastily put her hair in a ponytail, causing it to be messy. "Stay!"

Sighing, she finally saw a patch of dried items and bent down to pick it from the ground. From one patch to another, she found many tan coloured areas of dying and dry grass and crunchy brown leaves. It took her a while to find this a bit odd until she looked up, where familiar black clouds started to roll in. Black tunnels of smoke dripped down from the clouds and onto the isolated island where it transformed into those horrid Umbras again. Luckily for Zoe, there was some cover for her to hide in and quickly jumped into a bush. She covered her mouth to stop her from breathing as she shut her eyes as tight as they could. Fingers trembling, she listened closely for their footsteps and as they grew farther and farther, soon enough she dared to peek out to make sure. Zoe sighed in relief, noticing that they were gone. That's when she realised that Jackson was still sleeping. "Oh God―"

"What the? No! Stay away! Stay away from us!"

Zoe was just about to blow her cover by running into the danger, but she regretted staying there, hearing her brother scream. She could see and hear Tol trying her best to protect her caretaker from the dark enemies, but all that resulted in her getting injured. The Umbras conversed through low clicking sounds and hand gestures. Through all of that, Zoe guessed that they were looking for her and quickly made a run for it, towards Tol and hopped on her back. "G-Go!" she ordered through an adrenaline rush. Surprisingly, she managed to listen, like she wanted to get out as fast as she could as well, and took off like she wasn't going to be able to fly again. The Umbras jumped islands just as quickly as Tol could fly and they weren't breaking a sweat and scared Zoe. "Don't look at the eyes, don't look, don't look!" she told herself and shut them tight. When Tol gave out a scared chuff, Zoe opened them and they were about to crash into an island. With quick reflexes, Zoe tugged at the reins to go left and Tol was happy to do so. She looked back and the Umbras were losing their proximity with them, but Zoe just needed to make extra sure, so she darted up and farther into the clear skies and waited for a few moments before looking back. The Umbras were gone.

Although it seemed like days, they had been flying for hours on end, and Tol and Zoe were starting to get tired. Bad news for them, there wasn't a single place to land. "Sorry, Tol. I don't know this part of Vivet. This layer has too much space," Zoe apologised. Tol whimpered as a reply and shook her head. Thanks to the rush, Zoe had forgotten to grab the pack full of food, and their hunger was lowering incredibly fast. Zoe scanned for anything to land on. Anything, but there was nothing. "Just a few more, Tol. We'll find something, I promise." Zoe yawned, stretched, and slept on Tol's back. "I'll be taking a rest, Tol, okay? Just for a few minutes."

****

After eight hours of flying, it was already dark and Tol gave a yelp of happiness which woke Zoe up. "I'm up, I'm up," she answered, only to find some sort of Arche. It was large and sectioned into what seemed like the five main islands. Each having its own fortress like building. "Oh my goodness, an Arche? Let's go!" Then Zoe flicked the reins to encourage Tol to go faster. Finally, they landed and Tol was never more happy to lay down into the grass and fold up her wings. A slight whimper in relief escaped her and Zoe smiled. "I'll be back, Tol. I'll go find some food."
   
It was more traveling for Zoe as she walked onto the unknown island. It was surprisingly thriving with much more energy, with torch-lit lights and cobblestone flooring, it was so much like a medieval kingdom. "Woah," she said in awe. It was nothing like this anywhere else. The crowding people, the scenery, everything. "Hello! You must be new here! I don't recognise you anywhere," greeted a cheerful, human being, which was odd. Most of the humans live somewhere else.