Forever Land

Chapter One

Chapter One: Welcome to the Underground.

Kaede

Welcome to the Sky Oasis. Also known as the Forever Land. My name is Kaede Bliss.

I'm eighteen years old with a passion for running from my problems and sleeping in alleyways. Technically, I'm an orphan, but since I'm an adult now, seeing as I turned eighteen two months ago, I feel as though I should have a say in my decisions.

But that's not how it works up here.

I'm under Safety Vision. Even if I'm an orphan with almost no city recognition, somehow the higher ups have me under their list of "kids" they need to keep watch on. It's stupid, and it's just another way of keeping track of the population.

Being an orphan has its ups and downs. The ups are that you never have parents yelling at you to clean your room, the downs are that you don't have a room to clean, because you're homeless.

A bit of history on the Sky Oasis. I live in the country Devera. It's not one of the biggest countries, but it is the most popular. The Sky Oasis, Forever Land, whatever you wanna call it, it's a huge attraction for photos and tourism, but only in the winter months, when everything is snowy and white, and the Snowflake Festival goes all throughout town. It's amazing, even for someone who can barely afford to play the janky Festival games.

Unfortunately, the city does fund my education. Last year, the mayor decided to pay for fosters and orphans to get educated, but at the time, I wasn't entirely into the system, so they couldn't get me. After being caught once by Edge Patrol I was finally put down as orphaned and now I have to go to school this year, going to school with regular kids with family. But, because of complaints from parents, orphans take separate classes from fosters and regular kids.

Anyways, back to the present, right now I'm hiding behind May's Palace (It's a diner), waiting for them to throw the old food out. Nasty, I know, but I'm hungry. One thing about going to school is that I get free meals.

The back door opened and I crouched further behind the dumpster, making sure I didn't make the gravel under my feet crunch too much. The garbage woman took a deep breath before opening the dumpster lid, quickly chucking two full garbage bags in.

She quickly dusted off her hands and rushed back inside, just in time for me to dive right into the dumpster before the lid closed, holding my breath, rummaging through the garbage bags. My hands touched something gooey from the first bag and immediately I snatched my hand away.

I grimaced and dug into the second bag, my fingers brushing against a box. I knew I would have to go up for air soon so I swiftly took the box out of the garbage bag and opened it, to be delighted with 6 old glazed donuts.

"Score!" I finally exclaimed, before gagging and shoving the garbage bin lid open, coughing and retching from the stink. My body struggled to squirm out, but with one last push I managed to fall face first onto the ground.

Thankfully, I still had my donuts.

With my emotions bouncing back to normal, I got up and started walking to my hideout, snagging one of the donuts and breaking it in half. They were stale and the glaze wasn't as sweet as I wanted it to be, but it was food, and it wasn't rotten or moldy.

I sighed and took a bite, crunching down on the stale food, taking a sharp turn into a dead end alleyway. Suspicion evident on my face as I looked left and right down the sidewalk, I slowly walked toward the end of the alleyway, crouching down slightly. I knocked three times on a brick that was ever-so-slightly a different color than the rest.

I stood up straight, smiling slightly as a slot opened up in the brick foundation. Two slanted eyes stared back into my own, and the person's eyebrows furrowed as they saw me.