Roots

Aurora: Lily

We all walk up to the roof where our transportation awaits us. As we go up the elevator I notice Ethan's head is down and he's extremely quiet. I shuffle over towards him and grab his hand, my fingers interlocked with his. He looks up surprised and then flashes a warm smile.

I rest my head on his shoulder and feel him kiss my forehead.

We arrive on the roof, the wind whipping around our hair. A glass ball is opposite us, and we stepped inside. The sphere lifts and starts to drift down a waterfall. Once we reach the bottom, we get off and walk up to the wall next to the waterfall. A carved pathway leads behind the waterfall and we follow it. As we head farther through the dark passageway, a light starts to emit from ahead.

We emerge into a wide cavern with a gold building in the center. The hospital grows all their herbs and plants here in this cave, growing under the moon rocks. The rocks are a light purple and glow, it's truly incredible.

A few doctors run up to us, relief in their eyes. "Thank goodness you're here," she sighed, "we've had to double security since the incident and the patients are restless."

"Can you show us where it happened?" Nathan asked.

"Of course, right this way." Another doctor says, leading us to the front door. When we step inside, it looks like any other waiting room except for a large hole in the center of the room. "We took the victims to the third floor for inspection, and cleaned up the mess as best we could."

"Okay, we'll head up there right now and see what's wrong," I confirm, leading the way to the elevator.

Ethan follows closely behind me, and I realize that this is where he works. He is a healer, like a doctor, but he also fights alongside us in battle.

The elevator ride was quiet and short, everyone having questions blazing in their heads. When the door opens, Nathan brings his hand to his face, muffling a gasp.

A couple doctors and nurses walk around the bodies, inspecting them and taking notes. Rose walks up to the closest victim. A young boy about five years old lies in front of her, his veins dark green. I can feel Ethan shaking behind me, I again realize he has another secret about this. I grab his hand and look him in the eyes. He slowly starts to relax and looks down. I can see how embarrassed he looks and I whisper so the others can't hear me, "It's not your fault, you know that right?"

"I feel like it is," he sighed.

Alex is over by another victim, a syringe in his hand. He carefully extracts some of the dead doctors blood and puts it into a sample bottle. "Hey guys, check this out."

We all gather around him and watch as the blood swirls around with only a small drop of the green poison. It then starts to spread, infecting all the blood until it's all green.

Ethan finally speaks up, "I'll take this back to the lab and check it out, maybe I can find out what it's made of."

When we get back to the lab, Ethan goes straight away to his office to investigate. I chase down Nathan as he prepares to go to his training session.

"Hey Nathan, wait up," I shout.

"Hmm? What's up?" He asks flustered.

"I just want to say congratulations for our first mission. It takes a lot of courage to do stuff like this and I thank you for helping us."

"Oh," he says with a breath of relief, "Of course, I've always wanted to make a difference in our world." He nervously looks down at his watch which starts to ring. He covers the name of the caller and backs away. "Haha, well I better go now, I'll catch you later."

I stare after him with a puzzled look. This was our first mission and we were all nervous no matter all of our training. Not too long ago we graduated from Ceira College. Ethan and I were studying in biology together because of his passion for science and my passion for potion. Alex shared my math class where I met Nathan. Rose was in Ethan's History class and were partnered up for a few assignments. We were all top of our classes at graduation and were chosen to defend our world. I still couldn't get rid of that suspicious feeling even after lunch.