Angeline opened her eyes. She saw the same sky as before. A dark orange color with the clouds slowly swirling around on themselves like a whirlpool. Whatever had happened, it must have knocked her out of the cave. She tried to sit up, but her body felt heavy and refused to move. With effort she managed to move her hands and felt around her surroundings. She expected to feel loose sand, but instead it was a hard rough surface, like the bark of a tree, or the surface of a large stone.

Once she got full use of her hands again, Angeline worked on her arms and legs until she was at least able to twist her body. She rocked her body back and forth, like a turtle trying to right itself until she managed to flip onto her stomach. Unfortunately as she did her body flipped again on an incline and she rolled downhill.. After a few rotations, she plummeted.

Angeline landed flat on her stomach. Luckily her head didn’t hit the ground, but the impact sent a sharp pain through her entire body and knocked the breath out of her. She laid there for a few minutes waiting for the pain to subside when a panicked voice came from her side.

“Who are you?”

Angeline turned her head and saw a pair of tan bare feet standing next to her head. Looking up, she saw a woman staring down at her. This woman had black hair and wore a white chiton robe with a golden rope belt tied around her waist.

“What’s going on?” Angeline asked. She pushed herself up into a seated position and wiped her face. “Where’s Scarab?”

The woman took a step back. “Answer me or I'll call the guard.”

“The guard? What are you…?” Angeline stopped and gazed behind the woman. She expected to see the trees of the island, but instead she saw a large golden cocoon-like structure, about the size of a small house, that stood on four thin legs that were rooted into the ground.. A door was embedded into the side with a set of narrow stairs leading to the ground.

Angeline spun her head in every direction. All around her were more of the cocoon buildings. They were all lined up side by side in rows. “I’m serious. Where am I?”

The door opened up behind the woman and a boy peered out. “Mother?”

“Get back inside?” The woman did not take her eyes off Angeline. “Are you from the guild? You’re not supposed to be below the Geyser Line.”

“Mother, you shouldn’t speak to them that way.”

The woman ignored the boy. “Leave or I’ll call the guard and they’ll report you to the guildmaster.”

Angeline got up. “Listen. I do not. Understand. What you. Are talking about.”

The woman ran up the stairs and pushed her son back inside. Before she shut the door she pressed her hand onto the top of her doorway. It was an engraving that appeared to look like a bird. There was a few seconds of silence before the engraving began to vibrate. It then stopped and let out a ringing sound. The sound seemed to echo before Angeline realized that the building behind her rang as well, followed by the one next to the woman’s house, continuing in a diagonal pattern until the ringing got farther away until it could no longer be heard.

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For a long while, Angeline stood there. No one else was around. She looked down and was surprised to notice that no pain was coming from her leg. Well, no pain from the gunshot she had suffered from before. The dull throbbing of falling from the roof was still there. Her pant legs were torn up and the blood was still there, but there was no wound.

Before she could contemplate this further, she was interrupted by the ringing sound returning. It followed the same pattern in reverse and ended with the woman’s home. When it ended the woman cracked her door open and spoke.

“They have been informed. They are coming. May they be merciful.”

Angeline ran. Most others of her kind would stay and fight whatever was coming, but she knew when it was time to escape and it was one of the reasons she was still alive, and they weren’t. As for where to run, her instincts betrayed her here because it was impossible to tell where anything was when it all looked the same. Minus the one she was running down, there were no roads and no alleys. Just rows upon rows of those cocoons. Her only goal was to get away from the direction of the ringing. Whatever was coming would most likely come from there.

As she ran the wind started to pick up. It blew with short bursts propelling Angeline a few inches forward with each step. Each gust of wind was accompanied by a whooshing sound, which got progressively louder. Risking a glance behind her, Angeline gasped and nearly stumbled to the ground.

A bird was flying above her. It was huge, about the size of a military sailing vessel, and was the same color gold as the buildings. Bright orange lines of light snaked across the body and wings of the bird in indistinguishable patterns that began and ended at the eyes. The eyes themselves were bright yellow lights that burned like the sun when directly stared at. Angeline tried to blink tears from her eyes from the stinging light but they obscured her vision.

Angeline blinked furiously, trying to clear the blinding light from her eyes. Her lungs burned, but she couldn’t stop. She veered left and ducked underneath one of the buildings, hoping it would shield her. She crouched low and peered up, watching the massive bird circle above, its glowing eyes scanning the area like searchlights.

The whooshing sound of the bird's wings had ceased, replaced by an eerie silence as it hovered above. Angeline’s pulse hammered in her ears. She tried to stifle her ragged breath to no avail. She bolted from her hiding spot, keeping low trying to lose the bird. But the bird followed.

A metallic creak echoed above her, followed by a soft whirring. Angeline risked a glance upward just in time to see the bird’s beak opening wide. From the dark cavern of its maw, something shot out. A metallic chain shot towards her, like a coiling snake.

She threw herself forward, narrowly avoiding it as the grappling hook slammed into the ground behind her. The chain was pulled back into the bird’s beak and shot out again.

She leaped to the side, barely dodging the chain as it whipped past her. Her foot caught one of the cocoon’s legs and Angeline crashed to the ground shoulder first. She crashed into the side of one of the cocoons, her shoulder taking the brunt of the impact. The chain retracted again.

Angeline forced herself to her feet, and stumbled out onto the main road again. Before she realized it, the bird screeched and swooped lower. It shot the chain again and this time it managed to wrap itself around her several times. The chain tightened quickly, squeezing out all the air from her body. It pulled back and lifted Angeline off her feet, squeezing her even more. As she got higher into the air, her vision went blurry and then everything, once again, went black.