Alayna clutched her infants to her chest, praying that they wouldn't find her. She examined her surroundings, the dark room lit only by the moonlight. She glanced at the walls, sky blue with puffy clouds. Alayna remembered painting it with him… Don't think about him; he's gone now.
She remembered painting the poems on the wall with him and mocking him for his terrible handwriting. She looked at the two cribs, one painted red, one painted blue. Alayna was hidden under the blue crib, clutching her children, trying to calm them down. One of them stopped crying; the other was quiet, listening for the intruder just as Alayna was. She looked at their neon blue eyes; she had never seen anything like them. The only other person who had those eyes was him, but she knew she would never see those loving eyes again. Those eyes that seemed to see right through her.
At that moment, she heard the creaking of the floorboards. Alayna startled slightly, and the baby that was crying a few moments ago went silent. Alayna leaned her head against the wooden wall. She placed one of her children on her lap and felt in her pocket for seeds. She found what she was looking for; she found the seeds that she was going to plant in her garden. She found Ivy.
Alayna, her hands around the seeds, then dropped them silently on the floor, willing them to creep across the floorboards towards the hall. As soon as they were in range of the men, she asked the Ivy silently with her mind, How many men are there? In her mind, the Ivy returned in a squeaky, shrilling voice, "There are five men." So, Alayna thought their boss was not taking any risks. He knew her abilities were as strong as his, but of course, he would not come himself. He had to send his minions.
As Alayna heard the men creep closer to the room she was in, she scanned the room for anything she could use to hide Pyra and Aqua. In the corner, Alayna saw a third crib—the one painted green, the one that didn't make it. Alayna remembered creating a secret hiding spot where she could hide her children if she needed to. She quickly crept forward toward the hiding spot. She pressed the wall in three different places: a small cloud, a big cloud, and a medium cloud.
A small slit in the wall opened up, big enough to hold Pyra and Aqua but far too small to hold Alayna. She kissed her children on each of their foreheads and whispered, "Goodbye. I hope that I'll see you again someday." Then, she placed one of her children in the compartment, but at that exact moment, the five men stormed into the room. Alayna used her body to hide the compartment where one of her children was already stored, but the men had already seen the first child in Alayna's arms. One of the men ripped the infant from Alayna's arms; the child wailed in fear.
Another man with blackened teeth and gray hair that looked like it used to be red stepped forward and asked in a rasping voice, "Where is the other one?" Alayna used the ivy from before to creep along the floor in a way that the men could not see and slowly closed the compartment.
At least one of them is safe, Alayna thought.
"She's not here. You'll never be able to find her," Alayna lied. She tried to control her heartbeat and, in turn, her emotions, just in case of empaths. Sure enough, another tall, skinny man in the back tilted his head in confusion, obviously trying to tell if she was lying. Then, he nodded, reassured himself, and said, "She's not lying." Turns out the emotion-controlling lessons did come in handy after all. She reminded herself to never mention this to Brian; he would never get over the fact that he was useful in any way.
"Our boss instructed us not to harm you. He thinks that you could be useful in the future, so you'll be coming with us." They grabbed Alayna's arms and dragged her out of her home.
A few hours later, three people entered the wrecked home. They spoke in whispers to one another.
"Didn't Alayna say that the compartment was here?" one voice asked.
The other replied, "Yes, and she showed them how to open the compartment."
They gently grabbed the wailing child and whispered among one another about what they were going to do with her.
"We need to hide her among the humans. That way, she'll have a better understanding of their world, and she'll be safe from them."
"What about the other child?" one of the men said. "We have to try to find her as well, same with Alayna."
"We will, but first we need to make sure that this one is safe." The three people—not people, they had pointed ears—walked out of the wrecked home and hid the child in plain sight where nobody could find them.