Chapter 8: Reunion

I follow Sol, and Soa follows me. Being outside and not getting beaten for some reason, makes me happy. Who knew? I feel the warmth from the sun on my skin, it shakes, jumps, I get goosebumps and then the sound, people talking, carts rolling, food cooking, burning, sizzling. Singing at me, telling me to eat it, and moving, placing one foot in front of the other. Pausing each step, amazed at the feat I just did. All of these moments hit me like a brick wall and I realized that for the first time in what feels like a year, but only a few weeks, I feel free.

But something is creeping in my mind. Something pitch black, something haunting me, I can't help thinking of it, because if I don't, it would be denying myself of the mystery that I would love to solve.

"How did you know I'm not guilty? Why did you decide to help me?"

" oh, I found something, or something found me"

Something? Wait. Does he mean like it was a chance of fate?

"Do i know this "thing"

"He said he knows you"

"Wait, is it bob? Is he free? Oh my, I feel so happy knowing he's fine and didn't go through what I did."

His face reminds me of an adult, tired, and a little kid is holding onto their coat, and he just wants to be done with me.

"Dude, i don't know a bob"

Wait. not bob? Then it must be Greed

"Wait, you found him, how? Where was he?"

"I was sent here by my guild, they told me elves were disappearing here and they had no idea what it was. And since I was here before I already had easier access than some others of my guild. And when I entered The Ground 6 days ago, I was looking for the cause of the disappearance. At night I was walking around, and he found me."

"Hold up, wait a minute…. I have so many questions."

"Don't ask them i'm too tired to answer"

"How are you in a guild, aren't we the same age? Also you've been here before??? And are you telling me that Greed is the reason people are disappearing?"

"Not that I know of. And like I said, I don't want to answer your question, so stop."

" but, but"

"I really am starting to regret helping you."

"Oh ya, thank you for that. And how did you become an adventurer?

Adventures are people who go out on missions and quests with their familiars and get paid doing certain tasks from their guild, the task or missions vary from finding a cat, to stopping a flood. It all depends on your skill. Most people at our school dreamed of becoming one after they graduated, but it's very difficult. I never wanted to be one because It didn't seem enticing enough, but now that I'm traveling the world.

"But you're sixteen, how? I thought you had to be 20."

"I didn't want to wait that long, so I found my guild leader and challenged him. If you want to become an adventurer and not of age, you need a recommendation from an adventurer with 10 years of experience. He recommended me and I passed the exam."

"Wow, who won the fight?"

I hit a nerve

"Tsk, he did"

Remind me to not bring it up unless I want to make him mad.

"Do you think I can become an Adventurer?"

He laughed

"What"

He puts his fingers in his mouth and whistles, everyone is staring at him weirdly. 

But all he is doing is starrying down, he sees them, no he doesn't, he knows that they are seeing him but he doesn't care. I hear a caw and I look above, it's a bird. Is it his? It's diving bombing us, it's going fast, really fast, it's like a bullet cutting the wind. It's coming closer and closer, and it's not slowing down. And before it hits the ground it caws like every other bird, but it disappears in a flash of lightning. Everyone is shocked, and out of nowhere, his bird appears behind him, it's grown, it's just as big as him now. I had no idea what it was. Its feathers had changed too. It now had shorter ones, and they where light blue at the base, but an angelic white on the tips

It's sitting still but the air around it is moving, sparks from its still body are leaping out, wanting to touch, it was child-like. It waved, flickered, and sounded soft. If i knew better i might be tempted to touch it. 

"Touch it"

"Your bird?"

"Ya just touch it"

I moved my hand, and its body was still cracking. The closer I got, the closer the arcs got to me, and the higher my hand moved, the faster my heart beat went. Boom. boom. Boom, it's a bird, it's Sol's bird. What's the worst I can do?

I place my hand on it, its feathers are soft, it's like a pillow, light blue and white feathers that I could fall asleep on easily.

" Kreios use after shock"

And without hesitation, the bird moves. I feel a slight twitch and kreios is behind me. But I'm still touching something. I look at my hand and its kreios, or the outline of it. And then it shocks me. It is not like a shock from rubbing your socks on a carpet and then touching someone. This was like being struck with a bolt of lighting. I cough and black smoke comes out of my mouth, and I'm still standing, but I don't think I can move my muscles if I want to. Then his bird kicks me with his large leg and thankfully his sharp claws didn't cut me. I landed into the side of a cart so it was better than a wall. And Sol is laughing, even Soa. I forgot that she was following us, i didn't hear her at all until now.

"Haha, very *cough cough* very… funny" I fall back into the cart and relax.

Sol walks up to me and stands over me, blocking the sunlight from my eyes and with his usual serious tone says

"No, i don't think you have what it takes"

To be honest, I don't really care what he said. I know right now I'm not strong enough to be one, but soon, very soon I will be.

"Wait, where is he?"

"Where is who?" Soa says, just as confused as me.

"He's in the city."

I look around, and sol looks at me like im stupid

"Here?"

"Actually, this is the kingdom. The city is below"

"Soa, what does that mean?, is the city below ground"

And she doesn't speak but i can tell she wants me to follow, and i do, and leads me to 15 meters high brick wall

"This wall circles the entire . It protects us if anyone finds out the true location of the kingdom."

"Wait so if this is the kingdom, then where is the city?"

"God your so stupid, hope on kreios"

"No. no no no no. I am not doing that again, not in a million years."

Sol hopes and then Soa. If I don't hope on I'm going to seem like a douche so….

We are in the air. And oh my god, this feeling is amazing. The wind in my face, blowing my spiky hair which is now flowing like a kite in the wind. The wind is forcing me to smile, well it's not so much of smiling, but forcing so much air in my mouth that you can see my teeth gritting and my eyes are dry. Soa looks just as happy as me. But Sol just holds on, not even enjoying his own ride on his own familiar. I mean it's been a few weeks, how could he already be used to flying. As soon as we started flying, I started whooping and hollering, trying to tell everyone I am here. I'm flying.  And I can reach my hand out and touch the clouds, but all my hand does is pass right through it. And I'm looking around at all the clouds and I see a cloud which looked like a face, it looked like my mom's face.…. I miss her so much it hurts, but I don't want to feel sad at this moment.

Finally sol breaks through the clouds, and look below. The kingdom that was just above my head is now below me.

"Welcome Zeph, to the Elf city below the kingdom."

It's even larger than the kingdom, buildings tall and long. Roads, fountains, vendors and parks. The scenario is beautiful, it's much different from Afron's industrial feel. Here the air feels cool and healthy. Wait, I just realized something. I decided to stand while we were still flying, and use Soa as a post to lean on, and I can tell from not even looking at her face, she didn't like me leaning on her. But I still stand and from the bottom of my soul I yell.

"GRRRREEEEEEEEDDDDDDD. IMMMMMMMMMMM BAAAAAACKK." i guess i shouldn't have been standing, because it was a lot harder trying to sit down when your flying on a bird's back, and i slip and fall.

"Um sol, Zeph is falling"

"What else is new?"

"No he is falling very fast, I guess less than 10 seconds before he hits the ground."

"Wait he fell, of course. Hold on"

I was screaming, not like how people get excited when they open a gift and it is what you wanted. I was screaming. I mean I'm young, and in the sky and I can see the ground, and I'm falling very fast, ofcourse im gonna scream.

"Zeph, we are coming"

I see Sol and Soa flying towards me, but just that simple act of rotating just a little bit to see them, made me start to twist and turn and twisting and turning do much made me start to feel sick, and as Sol is about to catch me, I hurl. The last of that prison food went up a lot easier than going down  and the look of it floating towards near Kreios, and the look of the bird matched its owner, disgust.

"I'm letting him drop"

"Please *vomits violent* please *starts to gag because his uvula is hitting the back of his throat thanks to the wind* oh god" this is it I'm dying.

I finally stop spinning, but I'm now heading to the ground face first and it's finally starting to move faster and faster towards me. This is it, I'm about to hit the ground and before I hit it, I close my eyes and cover my face with my arms because I don't want to see when it happens. Here it comes, I'm about to hit!!!!!

Okay well now i feel stupid. It's been at least 20 seconds and i'm still alive, i decided to move my arms and open my eyes and look. I'm floating, but it's not in the air. I'm looking around and it's a dark blue about to be black surrounding, and I'm in some fluid. I look above and I see the sun but it's moving, flowing uptop like I'm under a pool and I'm staring at the sun, so if I move towards it i….. 

"Hey greed, spit him out"

"(greed mouth is stretched out facing the sun) i'm trying, he doesn't seem to want to come out"

"Fine i will get him out, stay still" and sol looks like he is about to get a running head start and dive into greeds mouth, but before he jumps, he decides to kick greed instead, and that worked

Greed spits me out and I land on the ground, gasping for air, and start to kiss the ground because I'm finally on it and not falling towards it.

"Mwah mwah mwah, thank god, oh thank god i'm alive"

"You do realize where you went right?"

"Nope"

"You landed in your familiars mouth"

"Oh, whats wrong with that?"

"Look around you, what do you see."

"Some fluid?"

"And what did you just do?"

" I just…. (i just now realized what Soa was getting out)Dear god please kill me"

Soa laughs, why is she always laughing at my pain. And I'm just laying on the ground face first cause I'm too tired to do anything. Oh wait. I jump up and look behind me, its Greed, he's grown too, still dark and still the ghost like flames are on him but he's changed, his eyes are still red like mine, but his are now bigger, and so is his body, he went from my knee height to be my mid thigh. 

I go up to hug him, but before I can do so he jumps up and lands on my shoulder, he's still really light. That's honestly really reliving, we stand at each other silently, but we are speaking telepathically (i will now use (') when zeph and Greed are talking)

'Hey loser, how you been'

'I've been better, i'm back with you so i could be better'

'I feel ya, i was just laying here mouth open and this dumb kids falls in it and i didn't even get to eat him.'

'Must suck to suck'

'Speaking of sucking, how was falling off a cliff and breaking every bone in your body, do you want a kiss? Will that make you feel better? Come here, give your familiar a hug'

I miss this honestly.

"Okay Zeph, Soa, now that we are all untied we need a plan to prove zeph innocence,"

'Why do we need to prove your innocence'

'Oh if i don't prove that i didn't kidnap a sprite, destroy buildings, and didn't murder 20+people. I will die before the end of the week by the king, just usual stuff I guess.'

'Ahhh it's just a normal tuesday, we got this'

It indeed was not another tuesday and they definitely do not "got this"

It's a week later and there is a large man with an axe above my head, and hundreds of elves throwing rocks and moldy food at me, and music in the air like this is a celebration. But, I'm going to die.

"Hey king, remember the time i made you laugh, come one, you know me, you don't need to do this"

He looks at me and back at his people, cheering him on as he holds his hands up, grasping for their attention and grasping from their cheers, when all eyes are on him, and not a single person is upset, he must feel like a god.

"Just let me go, I will be out of your kingdom and your hair in a jiffy, you can like totally let me free."

"Haha you are funny boy, but i cannot do that"

But you're the kingggggg, you can do anything. No one will care."

"That's where you're wrong, everyone cares. If they didn't then you wouldn't be here "

I look at the crowd and in the front is tama, and he's grinning as i'm about to die. And shortly after making eye contact. He starts chanting "kill the killer, kill the killer" and within 3 more chants everyone is chanting it now. Well I guess this is it. I'm looking at the crowd and back at the king, and he's looking too. But turning his eyes, scanning his audience looking for someone.

"Where's your friend"

"Sol?"

" he seemed to be intelligent, and must have had a reason to believe that he could find evidence that proved you were innocent, what did you 3 do for all of that week. "

" Hehe, well you see…."