I hear light footsteps in my room as somebody passes by me, a shadow slowly past as I decided to keep my eyes closed. The shadow stopped for a brief moment as if contemplating, but then a blinding light beams across my face.
I let out an exasperated groan and flip over, looking over at the digital clock.
It's 7:02, great.
"Wakey-wakey, I have eggs," Lucas said casually, setting a ceramic plate on the glass coffee table.
"Just ten more minutes..." I say, burying myself under the comforter, shielding myself from the sun.
"Huh-uh, now," he responded impatiently, peeling the comforter back off of me. I give in and sit up slowly, blinking the blurriness out of my eyes. Lucas gives a quick snort.
"What?" I grumble.
"You have a major case of bedhead," he picks up a hairbrush from the dresser and throws it to me. I catch it with ease, "Might as well get ready, but we won't be doing much today."
"Then why get up at seven in the morning?" I ask.
"Because I'm lonely," he retorted, "Hurry up, your eggs are getting cold,"
I groan and force myself out of bed, grab a dress and pair of legging out of the dresser, and make my way to the bathroom to change. Once I finish dressing, I look up at the mirror and grimace with embarrassment. My hair was, indeed, a mess, with strands sticking out in every way. I sighed, ran my fingers through my hair, and brushed through it with my hairbrush, deciding not to put in the effort to tie it up. Fluffing it, I walked out of the bathroom and sat down with Lucas to eat the eggs he had brought me.
"This was kind of you. Don't you have anything else to waste your time on?" I ask, trying not to sound sarcastic.
He shrugs, "I was instructed to watch over you so you don't do something stupid,"
"Great, thanks for that," I say, this time my sarcasm evident. With my fork, I poke the egg gently, letting the yoke ooze out of the side, "Maybe I'll go commit arson."
"I'd rather you not. It just makes more work for me," he responds, sounding distracted. I shove the egg into my mouth and swallow it quickly. His eyes drooped a bit, and his head lulled as if he were about to fall asleep.
"Not much sleep last night?" I ask
"Mm," he responded.
"I'll take that as a 'yes' then," I sigh.
I look back at my plate with tired eyes and finish off the rest of the egg slowly, giving Lucas a little bit more time to have a cat nap. I stand up quietly and walk over to the tiny kitchen in the corner. Despite being like a hotel room, it was actually quite large. It was equipped with a bathroom, kitchenette, and a small sofa with a TV. I put the plate in the sink, rinse it off with soap and water, and then put it in the drying rack.
As I walk over to the sofa, I notice a bookshelf in the corner of the room, right next to the grandfather clock. Even though I grew up in The Slums, my mother made sure to give me an ample education. I can read, write in manuscript and cursive, do basic math up to Algebra and Geometry, and I also have experience in biology and medicine. But what I loved most was actually History. We grew up without many books about history at all. This was mainly because The Archives were burnt down in a skirmish with the SG and some rogue savages. It had always been my dream to work in The Archives one day, so I bet you can imagine the disappointment I felt when I learned they never planned on rebuilding them. We have archives online, of course, but something about the real thing made it different. First of all, people from the slums aren't allowed access to the internet for legal purposes, but touching actual artifacts with your hands makes it possible for you to imagine what it might be like to live back in the past. It was something about that which made me curious. But now, all of the remains of The Archives were thrown in a little storage room somewhere within and below The Capital. The old archives are reduced to ash now, and nobody is let in or out, but it's not like anyone wants to go there anyway since the place is crawling with savages.
I pulled out a book at random and opened it to the first page. It turned out to be a medicinal alchemy book describing how different medicines were made and distributed worldwide. I quickly became sucked into the book as I read about its fundamentals. Lucas breathed audibly as he slept peacefully at the coffee table, almost on the brink of snoring, but not quite. I chuckled inwardly to myself as I continued reading.
About an hour and a half later, Lucas stirred and finally sat up from his awkward sleeping position. He blinked a couple of times before letting out a groan and stretching. I ignored him and continued to flip through the pages quietly. He stands up and makes his way over to the sofa slowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes while yawning.
"You mind if I turn on the TV? There's a festival today, and they're supposed to be streaming it on the news," he asked, breaking the silence. I sat there confused for a second.
"A...festival?" I say questioningly.
"You do know what a festival is, right?"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I shook my head in response, "No, what's that?"
He stifled a sigh and furrowed his eyebrows in thought as if trying to come up with the right words to explain it, "It's kind of like a party outside in the streets that goes on for a couple of days. They are normally held in memory of something important. Here, it's best just to show you." he said, picking up the remote.
I put my book down and slid over to one side of the sofa to make room for him. Lucas plopped down next to me and turned the TV on, flipping through the channels. He stops on a screen displaying the streets of The Upper City. Rainbow-colored balloons filled every merchant stall, and foods from around the world were displayed in glass cases. Carnival games were scattered everywhere, along with little kids and couples gathered around them. People were walking around with cotton candy and massive lollipops while simultaneously hauling gifts and goods from the stalls.
"Whoa!" I scramble out of my seat to look at the TV closer, "What's this in celebration of?" I ask.
"The founding of Edoris, if I'm not mistaken. They have it every year," he explains, letting another yawn escape his mouth.
A flurry of rainbow shadows floated past my bedroom window, creating an image I couldn't even describe with words. I quickly scurried over to the window to see what it was.
"Look, Lucas! The balloons!" I exclaim, pointing up to the balloons that had just passed. He hides a small smile with his hand, disguising it as pushing up the frames of his glasses. I barely take notice as I look down at the streets below. It was just what I had seen on the TV moments before, except more full of life and laughter.
"I don't think I've ever seen a place so happy before..." I say with a smile, which was slowly turning sad, "We don't have festivals, or parties at all for that matter. I haven't seen children this happy in so long, even when I was a kid."
"You didn't have many friends as a kid?" he asked with sympathy.
"Well, it's not that I couldn't make any friends, even though I was timid. It's just that it was more beneficial for kids not to have friends in the slums. Most don't reach adulthood, so it's easier to just..." I pause briefly to think out my next words, but Lucas interrupts me.
"Do you want to go?" he asked me suddenly, changing the topic.
"Pardon?"
"The festival, it's supposed to go on till midnight tonight. You might not ever get the chance again," he says teasingly. My eyebrows shoot up.
"Really? Are you sure?" I ask with caution.
"Yep, we have nothing else on the schedule anyway, so why not?" Lucas gets up from his place on the sofa, "Plus, it's nice out. It'll be good to get some fresh air."
I nod vigorously, "Please!"
"Alright, alright," he agrees, letting out a faux dramatic sigh, "Let's go."
Lucas turns to walk out the door as I continue to look outside. There were so many things that I had no idea about. Don't get me wrong; I hate the upper city. But Lucas was right. I might never get to do this again. I look over to my pistol on my nightstand. Maybe I should-
"Blair?"
I shake my head to snap out of my thoughts, "Coming!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laughter and little screams of excitement filled the air around me as Lucas and I walked out into the streets. A mechanical float with what looked like Strider rolled down the road, with flocks of children giggling maniacally while trailing behind it. I gave Lucas a puzzled look.
"That's quite a gruesome thing to be laughing at..." I comment. Lucas notices my confusion and explains.
"Most kids don't think that they really exist, like mythical creatures or something like that. Ugh, if only they knew what those things were really like." he said as he rolled his eyes in obvious distaste, "Nasty creatures, they're a real piece of work."
"I haven't had the greatest experience with them myself. Todd made me go out scavenging in a Strider's territory once. Not a fun day, or the next couple of weeks after that. I had to stay in the hospital for more than a few weeks, and that's also how I got the scar on my arm..." I try to say nonchalantly, but I shudder from the mere memory of the occasion. Striders are the only thing you should fear more than savages and even your own death. They used to be called Machinas, made by Decatech. Half gigantic mammal, half robot killing machine. When I say gigantic, I mean absolutely humongous. Think of an elephant, and then think three times that size, big enough to stomp you into the ground and leave no trace. That big.
They used to be docile, but then we found out that they could fall victim to The Phantom too, that's where they got the name "Phantom Beasts." They went absolutely ballistic, tearing down buildings left and right and killing anybody in their path. After that, they retreated into the outskirts, away from human civilization. Every once and a while, you would see them walking about, therefore earning the short name Strider. They're also extremely territorial. They would tear you limb from limb for sport, so we tend not to wander into a Strider's territory unless absolutely necessary.
Ignoring the screaming children, I take a look around me. It was so much better than I had originally expected it to be. Confetti littered the streets, and people all around seemed to be enjoying themselves. I see a pretzel stand not too far away and reach to tug on Lucas's sleeve, but he's not there.
"Lucas?" I call out. Had I already lost him? There's no way he could've gone far. I spun around in a circle, trying to assess his location, but he was nowhere to be found. I back up and accidentally bump into someone behind me.
"Watch it!" the girl shouted from behind me.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" I apologized. All she did was roll her eyes and cling to the arm of what I can only assume to be her boyfriend.
"Stop looking at him!" she snapped.
"What?"
"My boyfriend, stop looking at him. He's way out of your league!"
"Oh, I wasn't trying to-"
"Whatever, go away. I don't even want to look at someone as hideous as you." she stalked off with the man beside her, leaving me in the dust.
"Okay then," I stared at the sky blankly, "I was only looking because I was wondering how you were anywhere in his league anyway," I muttered with as much sarcasm as possible.
I continued my search for Lucas; however, it was impossible for me to see over the big crowd towering over me. Starting to lose hope, I called his name again.
"Can you hear-" I begin.
"Yes, I can hear you." A voice calls me from behind. Before I could react, the owner of the voice grabbed my wrist.
"AH!" I whipped around, tugging my wrist away, but the grip was too strong.
"Calm down; it's just me," Lucas says calmly. My darting eyes finally rested on his face, "Oh." I said flatly, "Where were you?"
He didn't respond but instead started tying a string around my wrist. I looked up to see that the string was attached to a balloon twisted up to look like a flower, bobbing in the air as he looped the string around.
"What's this?" I asked, clearly confused. He nodded at his handiwork and finally responded, "So that I don't lose you in the crowd."
I rolled my eyes and glared, "I'm not that short!" I yelled at him.
He only responded with a smirk and looped the middle of the string around his index finger, tugging me along, "Come on, let's go."