Dust

Chapter three: Arrival

We stopped at Nica's city by one in the afternoon. The old lady who was sitting next to me had reached her stop ages ago and I was seated next to a vampire man who we had picked up in a smaller town at the edge of the vampire region.

The bus came to a halt and I looked out the window to see my best friend standing at the bus stop. Her straight red hair cascading down her shoulders. She was wearing a black coat, black jeans, a black beanie, and her black converses. She loves the color black, as you can tell.

The guy next to me got up and left. Nica got on the bus, scanned the seats and smiled when she saw me. She walked over to me and took the seat next to me.

"Hey," she said with a sigh as she sat down.

"Hey. You sound a bit better from last night." 

" Yea. since I wasn't able to sleep, I did some research. Turns out if a soldier was to die during the battle, their family will fall under the care of the royal court if the soldier was the family's main source of income. But that doesn't make me less scared of dying."

"Yea..." I said, a bit taken aback.

"So do you think we will be living in the castle?" I asked trying to direct the subject as far away from our possible deaths as possible.

" I don't know, maybe. We were told to report to the castle."

"And the royal training grounds are there," I added.

It was silent for the rest of the ride, both of us nervous about what was to come.

four hours later we arrived in the Capital City. The capital was beautiful. people of all kinds stood at every corner werewolves run in packs in their wolf forms, and dragon shifters decorated the sky with their beautiful wings of red and blue.

But what stood out the most was the castle.

The windows reflected the sunlight, giving it the appearance of hundreds of shimmering diamonds. The towers reached high into the sky, some even past the clouds. Gardens of trees and other plants stood perched on lower rooftops. And around the castle was a lake of clear blue water.

"Wow..." I heard Nica mutter from behind me.

The bus pulled over at our stop. We paid the driver and stepped out.

"Well. Were here. So what do we do now?" Nica asked.

"I guess we go to the castle."

So we started walking in the general direction of the castle.

We arrived at the bridge. A guard stood at the gate Directing people to the different places they were supposed to be. We walked across the bridge towards him.

"Hi, we are part of the new youth army. We were told to come here." Nica said

"Okay. Go to the office, It's on the first floor of the west wing, second room to the left." He said in a monotone voice.

"okay thanks," I said.

"Did you get any of that? Because I didn't"Nica whispered at me.

"Well, that's because of your terrible sense of direction. And yes, I know exactly where we are going."

She nodded and we started walking. We arrived at a door with a sign that said: 'Recruits for the Royal Youth Army''     

I hesitantly stepped forward and knocked on the door. I was answered by a cheery voice telling us to come in.

I opened the door and we stepped inside a luxurious office With white painted walls and houseplants everywhere. In the middle of the room behind a desk sat a lady with a massive afro and big rimmed glasses. She smiled widely, in a way that almost seamed psychotic.