Alone and Unafraid

Chapter Three

After putting on an unfamiliar set of black clothes, I exited the strange room.

"Took ya long enough. I see you're wearing my clothes." A female voice spoke beside me. I turned to see a blonde petite girl at my side, "You must be Annalyn. I'm Tajule, but you can call me Taj."

"Uh..."

"Oh! I see, you're still confused. I'm your tour guide, I'm here to show you around Fortress."

"Oh, uh... Ok... But, I have a question, why do you all call me Annalyn? My full name is Sieanna."

"Haha! Well, that may be but Annalyn is your gifted name."

"M-my what?"

"Wow, you've really got a lot to learn. C'mon, I'll show you around." We started walking down a dim hallway until we reached a set of wide double doors.

"You're about to meet The Prophet, he's the one who gifted you your name. He's not an Angel, like us. You do know about Angels, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, The Prophet gifts each new angel with a name. He is always conversing with The Elite."

"Is that all he does?"

"He also gives prophecies. Neat, right? He predicted your arrival. Lets go in and see if he has something for you. "

She opened the doors, revealing a large room lined with sketches and drawings depicting what seemed to be some kind of ancient battle. In the middle of the room, there was a man, sitting limp on a chair.

"What's wrong with him?"

"He disconnects himself from the earth to be in the prescience of the Elite."

"But I heard one of them in the woods..."

"Occasionally they'll prescience themselves here disguised as nature." I remembered the sound in the wind, and connected the dots.

"Oh, so, what kind of angel are you?"

"I'm a Lover, and despite what you've heard, we're not all bad." She smiled up at me, her brown eyes shining.

"Oh, uh... Is there anything else to this Fortress?"

"Not really, there's six bedrooms and a cafeteria upstairs. The only angels here are you, Cespar, Gosford, Lin and I."

"Lin?"

"Ah, yes, he's also a Lover. Same age as me, too."

"And you're, how old?"

"Lin and I are fifteen. Gosford is forty-five, and Cespar is twenty-three."

"Wait, you're fifteen? Isn't this a little dangerous?"

"Uhh, no? I don't know. I guess I've just been used to this life for as long as I can remember. Let's head upstairs."

She skipped out of The Prophets area and past the room I woke up in, heading to the other end of the hall landing in an elevator.

"What room was I in before?" I asked, finally catching up with her.

"Wow, you ask a lot of questions. That was the healer's room. That's the place we use when someone needs help. The other two rooms down there are the training room, used to train for battles. The second one is the obvious prophet room."

"Wait, battles?"

"Uh, duh. Angels fight Demons, that's, like, basic logic."

"Demons? No one mentioned demons!" The elevator doors opened and we exited into a dining area.

"This is the cafeteria, the kitchen is in that room," she pointed to a door in the corner of the room, "And the bedrooms are there, yours is on the far right." She pointed to a hallway with a series of doors.

A middle aged man sitting in one of the dining chairs came up to us. The bits of silver in his hair shone with his eyes.

"Hello, Annalyn! It's good to see you awake and... Not running from me."

"You're Gosford, aren't you?"

"Yes ma'am." He smiled as I shook his hand.

"You sounded so much different in the woods."

"You must always speak formally when talking to The Elite. Sorry for the injuries, by the way."

"It's... alright, they're gone now."

"I assumed Cespar healed you. By the way, he would like a word with you. His room is second to the left."

"Uh, ok thank you." I cautiously left the group and headed to Cespar.