With a thud, my body pounds against the cushion that the Sky Towers...
The Sky Towers.
Holy crap.
I, by myself, all alone, nobody with me...
am no longer in the Sky Towers, nor am I in the Pure Souls' Domain.
I am on the Ground.
I am in the Grounded Area.
I gulp, "What did you do?" My voice is trembling, and I'm asking, begging the man to tell me what was going through his mind when he did all that.
He stays silent, and I can't even bring myself to stare at him.
I slowly gaze up, all the way to the Edge of the tower, and I shake a little bit. That's what we fell down?
That?!
I let out a cry of shock and anguish, backing up from the cushion as far as I can. Getting off of it, I look around me.
The buildings are...dilapidated. They're made of this weird material, and all the buildings are...cubic. Not cubic, but rectangular. It's nothing like the buildings in the Sky Towers. The ones that are sleek and tall, thin and vibrant with colors.
This?
It's an oddly dull grey.
...
It's beautiful. It's more ordinary than anything I'd ever seen, even in the books that I'd read!
"Lady Purus!" The man hisses, and I whirl around to look at him. He looks more frantic, alert. "I hear voices!"
My eyes widen, and I look around, trying to tell where the voices are coming from.
There're voices from a bunch of places! It's like they're all circling in, whoever is coming!"
"Another one?" I hear a voice drawl, and it's smooth and relaxed. "Man, wonder what they did." The voice is crooning, gentleness filtering in.
Someone clicks her tongue, "I'm gonna guess...I dunno, got into a fight or something?"
The first voice snorts, "With who? A Pure Soul? As if."
"Yo, yo, hold up," a third person whistles, and I back up a little bit, unsure what to do. "I think there are two of them!" I gulp, whirling around to see if I can pick anything out.
I can't. I feel like a cornered animal.
"Two?" The...first voice clicks his tongue; I think he's a teenager, probably around my age. "Well, let's hurry up!"
The man takes this as his chance to make a run for it, but I can't. Even though I'm far less injured than him, I can't even bring myself to move.
"Where'd ya think you're going?" The second person giggles, her voice too light to even sound like she's really angry. "C'mon, now. Introduce yourself!"
The guy who dragged me down here stutters, not sure what to say. He's run into the shadows, but before long, he's dragged back out, followed by a burly guy wearing a muscle shirt who's holding him up by the arms. He's got a vicious scar on his right eye, and his thick eyebrows don't do much to make it seem like he's docile.
Next comes a short girl, probably a little younger than me, wearing ripped jeans and a baggy sweater. She's twirling a butterfly knife, skipping alongside the taller man.
"You were right, Jae," the girl whistles, impressed. "How'd ya know?" She tosses the knife up, catching it with practiced ease, and I can feel their eyes on me, watching.
"Scream," he...Jae gruffly explains. "You heard it, didn't you?"
The girl shrugs, "Meh. Wonder what she did, though." She skips up to me, and I instinctively back up. "What's your name, Princess?"
"Hm, you got one thing right," the first voice drawls again, finally coming out of the shadows. He's definitely young, probably around my age for sure. A tight shirt on him, blue shorts, and some...sports shoes on his feet. I've never seen them in person before!
"Huh?" I ask, dumbfounded.
"She is pretty enough to be a princess," he croons, walking up to me. "Tell me, girl, what'd someone like you do to get all the way down here? Isn't that your little perfect world? Why'd someone your age even risk that?"
I gulp, deeply breathing, eyes darting over to the man who dragged me down here.
He seems to notice, following my gaze, "Mm, did he make a weird scheme with you?"
He hisses, "No! I didn't mean to bring her down here!"
Jae hums, "You believe 'im, Ruby?" She hesitantly nods, waving a hand absentmindedly. At that, Jae lets him go, but stops him from fleeing again by moving to the nearest possible exit.
"So what 'appened?" She questions, and hearing her voice a bit more, it's like she's so...loose.
"I...I hurt her, and when The Council —"
"Shuddup 'bout 'em," The first guy rolls his eyes playfully, holding his hand out to me. "Cay, pronounced like the letter 'K.' Short for Chaos. I know, weird."
I roll my eyes, "Well, I was named Melan, the root word for black."
"Pfft, really? Now that's lame," he snickers, and I can't help but crack an amused smile. "Now, what brings you down here to the ground? I know he did, but was it a scheme or somethin'?"
I shake my head, glancing back at the Towers all the way up there, "No, he grabbed on to me and dragged me down. Lib tried to save me, but my grip wasn't strong enough."
"Lib?" Ruby asks, disbelieving. "As in, Lib the Pure Soul?"
I nod lightly, "Yeah...Oh, I should probably tell you."
I reach near my chest, reaching a little deep in there to retrieve my soul.
Once I pull it out of my body, holding it in my palm, I can just feel light rolling off of it in waves, nearly blindingly so.
I wince, the glare of the light too aggressive for me to handle at the moment. It's pretty dim here, but not pitch black, so the light's still not really good to look at right now.
"I'm...Melan, the Pure Soul. Melan Purus," I nod curtly.
Cay gapes at me, before lightly chuckling, before blowing out into full-out laughter, clapping a hand onto his forehead.
"Holy crap, you're Melan Purus!" He howls, while his two friends seem unbelieving as well. "Man, we really got a big one here!"
I gulp, "D-Do you not like Pure Souls here?" I asked the question meekly, unsure where to go with the conversation.
Cay scratches his head, shrugging, "Never had a Pure Soul down here, so never knew what to expect. Heard you're s'posed to be the Humble Queen, whatever that's s'posed to mean."
Ruby snorts, "Bull. All them up there's pretentious assholes. Hell, they blast their announcements up there for us to hear but don't even speak to us."
I nearly gag at the announcements, "God, those sucked. I just wanted to...not be treated like a queen all the time, you know?"
Jae licks his lips, "Well, if you ain't like none of those assholes, y'should be fine."
"Assholes?" I tilt my head.
Ruby clicks her tongue, "The ones who come down the tube thinking they're still so much better than us. Never told us what they did to get down 'ere, though."
Cay hums, "Mm, we should probably take you somewhere, right? We'll take ya back to base."
"Base?" I parrot, genuinely confused this time. I'd never heard of something like that from the books I'd read.
"Yeah, our base," Ruby answers. "There're a few...gangs here, you feel? Nothing to the point of killing each other, but sometimes a few fights pop out here and there."
"Why would you come for us then?!" The man hollers, before being smacked roughly in the back of the head by Jae. "Ow!"
"Jeez, everyone up there a much a wimp as you?" Ruby whines, shaking her head in disappointment. "Man, Mel, you really are around a bunch 'a wusses."
I think about it. There aren't any sort of fights that go on up there. Nothing big, and the only fight I'd heard of is when I got knocked out from a head blow.
"So, you coming with us?" Cay rolls his eyes, amused.
"You didn't answer my question!"
"'Cause nobody round here really likes the Sky Folk. They all just gathered up and formed a group of their own, but they don't really talk to us. Figure most of us are insane."
Is it really that tough to live down here? No, it can't be!
"Well, Mel, you coming?" He points his thumb in the other direction. He holds his hand out to me. He smiles gently.
"W-What will the others think of me, though?" I tentatively ask, somewhat concerned.
He scoffs, "Long as you don't flaunt it like some weird amulet, should be fine."
I look over at Ruby and Jae, who seem a little hesitant to accept me. Ruby's twirling her butterfly knife around, eyes narrowed while Jae crosses his arms, tapping his foot somewhat impatiently.
I gulp.
"I'll come with."
~~~
"So, this is our base," Cay croons, gesturing grandly to their hideout. "Nobody else really tries to look for people from the Edge other than us."
I look around. Dim, flickering lights hanging from the corners of the walls. They're like...Christmas lights.
Neon lights that spark every now and then, brick walls. No windows, but I know we're high up.
"Welcome to the Vultures," Ruby sighs blissfully as she plops down on one of the couches, putting her knife on the table. "Yo, Jae, cook somethin' up for us!"
The man, who introduced himself on the walk here as Ruby's boyfriend, nods subtly and heads into another room by pressing a button.
"Vultures?" I parrot, tilting my head.
Ruby snorts, "Yeah. Started with the three of us, and now we're a mid-level gang with about 70-80 members with us."
I gawk, "Really? How are you only mid-level?!"
Cay hums, grabbing a ball from a corner of the room, "How many people live up there, Princess?"
I scratch my head, still not moving from the entrance, "I'd have to say...200, 300 at most? 350 if you include—"
Cay throws the ball that's made out of leather and shaped like a lemon at me, and out of instinct, I try catching it, hiding my face away.
Ruby whistles, "Good catch for a Pure Soul. Heard y'all are treated like babies, even among the Sky Folk."
Cay smirks, "Well, Princess over here's s'posed to be the Humble one." He plucks the ball out of my hands. "Gotta say, thought you'd get hit."
I hesitantly open my eyes, only to be met with his welcoming ones.
I blush a little, sheepishly chuckling, "I-I tried to train with Lib when I was still up there..."
"What, him?" Cay snorts. "He's cool and all, but he's never played any real sports."
He slings an arm around my shoulder, and I shake with the impact, unprepared.
"Cay, you sure she's fine to stay? Maybe she should stay with that dude who dragged her down here."
Cay clicked his tongue, "Mm. You wanna try testing her or something?"
"Test?" I parrot again, curling my arms closer to my side.
Ruby nods, "Yeah. You ever went on an obstacle course?"
I shake my head, "No...I've seen jungle gyms and climbed ropes before, but nothing like that."
Cay nods, "That'd be perfect, then! We can put you on an obstacle course, see if you'd succeed, and boom! It'll all go good...if you show it."
I gulp, feeling Ruby's eyes on me, "Well, Mel? You got it in you?"
"Dinner's ready!" Jae calls out, and it's the first time I've really heard him. He's...loud. Brawny. And his voice is what someone would think of when you think of a lumberjack.
Cay grabs my hand, and I flush, "What, Princess, can't handle a little physical contact?"
I shakily nod, "N-Nobody ever did that stuff with me at home...not even holding my hand..."
Ruby coughs in amusement, "Then you got your start now. C'mon, we gotta eat."