Chapter 2 A New world.

The story of beginnings, a story thought by the church during her second life. Though many of the things thought in it were most likely wrong, lost in translation or simply due to the passage of time. Nonetheless the book still held some truth to it and a warning of what was to come if mankind didn't unite and grow strong. For there were other forces at work in the stars, forces that would not wait upon mankind to sort itself out.

Thinking of it now, it all felt so hazy and a distant thing to her. What was her second life she could not really recall, or her first for that matter. It all felt so distant to her now. The only thing she could really recall now was her third life.

She could remember a desolate world, dark cloudy skies that always rained down ash upon the great ruins of once mighty cities of old. There was no clean water, no food, no life, only endless hunger, death and despair.

She could remember burned bodies standing still like statues, above ground in the empty, ruined streets of old, while only bones of the dead were to be found in the sewers where she lived.

She remembered hardly ever venturing above ground and only living off of rats, bugs and whatever she could find under ground in the sewers. For above ground the tall red demons ruled and roamed around, endlessly searching for them, for any survivors to feast on.

Many times they tried to find her, but they never quite could, for she was small and resilient. And she had a secret, from her past life she had managed to bring with her the power of light. A light that kept her alive and warm, a light that she could use to grow plants for her to eat and cleanse water for her to drink.

Thanks to it, she managed to survive unlike the others who quickly all died, leaving her all alone to survive. Living like a rat in the sewers life seemed so blink and hopeless to her, until one day the sky was lit by fire.

Great explosions shook the ground all around, the demons fired back and it seemed as if the entire world was a blaze. For many days and nights it went on until suddenly thousands of metallic transports, that seemed like hawks flew through the clouds firing their guns as they did.

Many of them burst into flames in the air, but many more managed to land. And from each of them she saw thirty two men in green coming out firing their flashing guns as they did. Some hawks brought with them armoured machines, tanks and troop transports. And in one of them the Sargent and his 12 friends came.

They and the others came to the city, pushed back the demons and in the midst of the fighting they found her. In the beginning she hesitated to approach, but the Sargent was kind and gave her many good things and so an ever lasting bond was made between them.

They called her little girl, mascot or later on just blondie. They were kind, they gave her many tasty things and thought her many things as well. She learned many things about their weapons, their armour, gear, little Betty the armoured machine, bullets and all their things.

She was their little mechanic, medic and moral support as they said. Riding with them, fighting against the demons and surviving, life was dangerous, but she liked it and life seemed good. But one day the demons attacked with great force unlike ever before, the night was lit with fire again and the horizon shook and blazed with fire. The Sargent seemed panicked, he talked of the fleet being pushed back and taking heavy losses.

He had talked of the fleet a lot to her, and she was apparently supposed to go there someday, but she knew not what it was. All she had seen were schematics and pictures of the ships that formed the fleet, but never had she seen it.

Then she could remember red pods caming down like rain. Their metallic frames came down fast, too fast for the anti-aircraft people to shoot down. They came with loud and heavy bangs crashing down. And then they opened up releasing six demon's bigger than any she had ever before seen.

They were huge with hulking armoured frames, wielding big guns that blasted little Betty to bits with ease. It blew up taking 3 of her friends with it. Gunner, driver and loader were gone, they were all her friends and it hurt to see them go.

She remembered being angry, taking a energy rifle off the ground in her anger, it felt heavy to her, but not too heavy for her. She fired it at the hulking beasts, each blast of it, pushing the hulking demon slightly back and melting its armour a bit.

Desperately they fought, explosions went off around them, more of her friends fell, turned to bloody messes as they fell dead into the trench. They took one down, melting its head, but more came and more of them fell.

She could remember the Sargent there right next to her, something hit his shoulder ripping it fully off. Such a thing she could sadly not heal. But it didn't matter as a inferno bomb fell there before her, or well that's what she remembered that it might have been called. But what happened then she couldn't recall.

She felt herself being alive still, but it was dark here where she now was. She could hear a low engine growl close to her. It sounded a lot quieter and weaker than that of little Betties. She wanted to move, but her hands were bound by something hard and metallic. She could even hear the faint sound of two men's voices speaking.

She tasted blood in her mouth, her clothes were wet and smelled like urine, she could hardly breathe, it was suffocating in this small dark place.

Thinking of it she could recall some of the waste lands cars having places like this, although a lot harder than this was. If she wasn't wrong then she was in the back of a car, in a cars trunk with her hands bound, or more specifically cuffed.

Her hands were small, she could almost slip her hands out of the cuffs, but not quite. Though this wasn't a problem for her at all, thinking quickly she broke her own fingers, it hurt, but she was used to pain, this was nothing to her.

With her fingers now broken, she easily slipped her hands free of the cuffs and snapped her fingers back into place. It still although hurt and so she looked into her core and there next to her heart she felt it, the light was still there.

For whatever reason it was weaker than before and not connected to her. Focusing on it she managed to start it back up again, causing magical veins to start spreading throughout her body, bringing her warmth and healing her. It wasn't fast, but after a few minutes the pain faded from her fingers and she felt her strength begining to return.

Focusing on her hand she manifested a small light there and could see nothing of note in the trunk, but the interior of it did feel amazingly smooth and soft to her touch. Never had she seen such a interior in a trunk of a car before, it seemed so luxurious and fine to her.

Lost in the moment she could then hear the car suddenly coming to a stop. Hearing it she realised that she should probably get out, but sadly the trunk was locked and her kicking didn't help to get it open at all. Although it did make the men yell in anger and come over to the trunk.

With a click it opened and she was met with two masked men dressed in black with hoods on their heads. The fabric of their clothes seemed so fine to her eyes. The Sargent had always told her of people like them, nobility they were called.

They looked at her in surprise as the one to her left said. "The fuck, howd the bitch get out those cuffs? I thought I told you to make them tight?"

Hearing this the man in the middle in front of her suddenly became distressed as he said. "But I did, I swear."

The man on the left merely shook his head and said. "AHH, whatever doesnt matter now. Just get her out and go clean her in the stream. The clients are gonna be here soon, we gotta make her presentable for them before then. I don't want to see any blood stains on her."

To her it seemed that the Sargent was truly right, she didn't know what was going on here, who these men exactly were, but they most definitely weren't nice. Laying there she could see the man reaching out towards her to grab at her waist, but as he did she could see what looked like a gun tucked in the front of his pants sticking out.

And so as the man grabbed her by the waist and seemed intent to pull her out, she reached out and grabbed a hold of the gun.

The man stopped for but a second as if realising this, but too late. She found a grip and pulled on the small guns trigger.

A loud bang was heard, her ears rang a little, the man yelled in pain and she pulled out the gun into her hands as the man staggered backwards.

The gun was strange, something that she had never seen before, but she was no fool to firearms. Without hesitation she aimed the gun at the man's head and pulled the trigger again. "Bang!" The man was hit and immediately went limp as he fell to the ground like a rock.

Her hands hurt a little from the knock back of the gun, but she recovered quickly. The man on her left was now yelling something in a little panic as he attempted to pull out a gun of his own, that seemed to be stuck in his pants.

Seeing it she aimed again and pulled the trigger. "Bang!" the man's shoulder was hit, he staggered backwards and she shot again. "Bang!" A miss, the gun was so unsteady in her hands, she had never shot such a shaky gun before. Seeing it she couldn't understand what it was that she was shooting, where were the bright lasers?

Lost in thought for but a second or so, she noticed the man had started to run further down a winding dirt road, and as she aimed at him, she stopped and noticed the lushes forest around her. With wide eyes she looked at her surroundings, there were trees, bushes, flowers and a beautiful blue sky above.

Her aim fell and she became lost for a long moment there. She was unable to understand what it was that she was seeing. For never had she seen such bright colours, such a lushes forest and such a beautiful blue sky. Maybe once she had seen such a thing in her other lives, but that she could not remember, the only sky that she could remember was the dark and gray ashy sky that she had always known. But more than anything what amazed her was the abundance of light everywhere around her, it was so bright and as she looked up she could see it. A bright ball that the Sargent had said to be called the sun, and it was beautiful.

Looking around she then also noticed her own pink clothes. She wore a pink hoodie with a white cat face on it and pink pants with white text that she didn't know how to read, and she also had white shoes finer than anything that she had ever seen before.

Seeing her own clothes and all that was around her she felt lost. What was she wearing, who put these clothes on her, where was she, what was going on?

But her thoughts were quickly cut short as she heard three engine sounds coming towards her. They were coming fast, just some ways away down the winding dirt road where the man in black had ran.

Hearing them coming her way she knew it not to be good, and so she hopped out the trunk of the car and ran to her left into the woods and up a forest hill.

Running up the hill, past many bushes and trees she went, huffing and puffing in exhaustion as she did. Her body was small, so weak, it was not like before, where were her muscles?

Then she could hear the engine sounds come to a stop on the road right behind her. Car doors opened and yells of many men came. Glancing backwards she could see at least ten or so men in black coming for her.

They were coming fast towards her, up the hill with their much longer legs. She couldn't out run them, this she realised and so she stopped at a large tree, turned around and began to shoot at them.

They were now maybe only thirty meters away from her now, as she then took aim and fired. Six shots she let loose in quick succession, but only managed to hit one in the leg causing him to fall behind some bushes.

The men scattered and hid behind some rocks and trees, she too went to take cover behind a tree as she waited for her opportunity. She could hear a sly sounding man yell to her. "Hey, dont shoot little girl! We don't want to hurt you alright! Just come out, put down the gun and let's talk, ok! We are working with the police, ok! So you can trust us, we are good people so come to me little girl. I won't hurt you, I swear. You wanna see mommy and daddy don't you? So just come here, or else!"

The girl could only scoff in distain at the man's words. She wasn't much of a talker or a people person for that matter, but even she could understand that this man wasn't being truthful. He was evil and who ever these police were, they were probably evil as well, she figured.

So she held her position, listened and waited. A few moments passed, she could hear the men whispering something to one another in a language that she couldn't understand. Then she heard a snap, of a branch to her right.

Turning to look, she could see a black figure creeping there behind some bushes. She didn't hesitate, she pointed and fired. "Bang bang bang bang!"

Four shots rang out and a yell was heard. "Ahhh!" The black figure fell and then the crackling sounds of the men's guns began. She hid behind the tree as her position was pelted by many shots and many wizing sounds.

She could hear the men using this gun fire, to try to creep in closer to her, but she didn't let them. Seeing the dark figures in the bushes, she waited for a calm in the shooting and then fired three more times. "Ahhhh!" Yelled a black figure as he fell and then she heard a clicking sound. Her gun refused to fire anymore.

Had she fired too much, she wasn't sure. From her experience she knew most guns to be rechargeable and capable of firing at least fifty or so times. So to see the gun go out so soon, was baffling to her.

The firing began again, they didn't seem to see her properly and were merely firing blindly as she then heard one of them yell. "Fuck she got Ronaldo! Shoot that bitch, fuck the money! Kill her!"

Hearing the mans angry words, and with no working weapon in use she felt panic and fear come to her. Not seeing a use for the heavy gun, she dropped it and ran. Crackling and wizing sounds came as she hopped over some small stones and ran further into the hilly forest. She ran with all her might past some bushes and deeper into the forest.

The men came running now towards her, yelling strange words that she had never heard and threatening to kill her. Not looking back she just ran and ran, in the distance she could hear lots of rumbles like a heavy toxic rain storm was going on there.

Not knowing what it was she just ran towards it hoping to find something of use there. And as she ran through some bushes she came to a cliff side with a beautiful waterfall, with water so plenty and pure that she could hardly believe it, for never had she seen such a thing before. Walking close to the edge she could see that it was a big twenty or so meter drop down to the decent sized body of water below.

It wasn't too big of an drop, but she didn't know if she could trust this water, was it toxic, but more than anything she felt worried as she knew not how to swim. But hearing the men's voices coming behind her, she remembered back to the Sargent and how he always acted fearlessly in the face of danger, and so she jumped.

Falling through the air, her hands flailed mindlessly around as she then fell into the water with a light splash and then sank. She tried to struggle, she tried to swim, but had no idea how. She could only wait and hope for land to come as the current pushed her forward, and into a raging river.

Within the water she spun and spun around, her breath slowly started to leave her and she could feel her consciousness beginning to fade. Then she spun, hit her head and was tossed out the raging river and down another water fall again. Below she could only see an even larger body of water that was surrounded by mountains covered by trees on all sides. Seeing it she screamed and fell. "Kyaahh!"

Once more a small splash was heard and she began to sink, lower and lower into to the dark depths. Hope seemed lost, was she going to die again, but just then she saw a splash of water above her and some one coming down towards her.

A hand then grabbed her smaller dainty little hand, although it wasn't much larger itself, but stronger feeling nonetheless. It slowly pulled her up and as it did, it grabbed her by the waist, she could see the sun above her and then they emerged.

Feeling weak and almost unconscious, she could only lay limply against this somebody as he dragged her onto a rocky shore and pulled her closer to the trees and onto a batch of grass.

Then she saw him, a young boy, worried looking blue eyes looking at her, short blonde hair swaying in the wind and a cute boyish face, nice white teeth moving as he said. "Are you ok, please tell me that your ok and not dead? Oh God, oh lord, oh Jesus, your dead aren't you? Ahhh, no no no. This is not good, I'll surely be accused of murder now, won't I? Like in those TV shows? Oh God, oh no, moms gonna be mad."

The boy kept on rambling seemingly scared and unsure of what to do. He seemed quite cute to her, he was much like the Sargent but a lot smaller. He was but a young boy, the first boy that she had ever met alive and breathing.

She wanted to smile and say something to him, but as she tried, she suddenly started coughing out water violently. It seemed that despite her best efforts she had still managed to intake a lot of water as she had been drowning.

The boy grabbed a hold of her and lightly patted her on her back, as he said. "Oh thank god, there there, just let it all out. It's ok."

Coughing out what seemed the last of the water, she couldn't help but tremble lightly, she felt so weak and in need of a good long rest. "Are you ok now?" The boy asked softly, sounding concerned as he did.

Not one to talk much, she merely nodded her head and layed down on the soft grass to catch her breath. Laying there, feeling the grass beneath her, looking up into the partially cloudy sky and the sun there, she felt like she was in a dream. This whole place, this forest covered hilly valley, this lake and all felt so unreal to her, so beautiful. What was she even doing here, where was here, she didn't know?

Then the boy placed something light into her right hand, as he said. "Strawberries, always great to make one feel better, dad always says. Eat them they are my gift to you, but I ain't giving you my fish ok. I've not had a lucky day of catching them today and mom's soon going to start making supper, so she needs them all for that, ok. So don't ask."

Confused as of what the boy was speaking of, she looked up and noticed him in some black rubbery pants, with a long rod in his hands with a thin string attached to it that had a small ball and a hook there with a worm, which he then tossed far into the lake.

Pushing herself into a sitting position, she then began to curiously eat the tasty strawberries, something that she'd never eaten before, but definitely liked a lot. And while eating the boy stood there looking towards the water with his pole in hand as he then asked. "So anyway what were you doing up there? How'd you wind up falling down the waterfall anyway? I mean, I'm guessing your from the city, but like surely even you know that what you just did ain't all that smart, right? Well Dad does call you city folk dumb, always wouting for the democrats, big mistake that is, he says and I agree. Seeing as you clearly can't swim, something that I already learned as a baby."

Sitting there looking curiously at the boy, she couldn't help but notice that he seemed to like to talk to himself a lot. Sargent called it a side effect of a sickness called shell shock, a true horrible sickness that effected many during wars, making their heads all funny.

Honestly she did like him talking a lot. She usually just liked listening to others talk, as she didn't talk, pretty much never.

But soon the boys rambling came to a sudden end, as something pulled on his pole. He let out a happy cheer. "Haha, yes, I got one, I got one! Oh and it feels like a big one too."

The boy pulled on the pole and began slowly reeling in his catch, which she watched with great interest. Then the big fish came flying out the water, it flopped around and struggled, but the boy quickly managed to drop it into a bucket full of water with a splash.

"Yes, I did it. I'm the master fisher, the fisher king of Lake Mansfield, yeah!" Hearing the boys cheer and him calling himself the king, she felt confused. Who was this strange cute looking boy?

Taking a look at the bucket she could see three fishes of different sizes swimming around there. The fishes also being quite strange and unlike anything she had ever seen, for they only held two eyes and seemed so smooth and pretty to her.

Then she felt the boys eyes come upon her, and noticed him hesitantly reach out his hand to her as he asked hesitantly. "Mmm, so what's your name, I mean, mmm, I didn't ask it already or did I? Oh well, I'm Alexander by the way, but not the great, just Alexander Love. Although my family just calls me Alex for short, but you can call me king, king fisher, hehe, or Alex is fine too. So anyway what's your name? What should I call you?"

Looking at the boys hand, she knew not what to say. She didn't usually call herself anything, people just called her whatever they wanted to call her. Thinking on it for a moment she then grabbed the boys hand, he squeezed hers and pulled her up off the ground.

Coming to stand there in front of him, she noticed the boy to be a good head taller than her, forcing her to look up at him, as she stuttered out a response saying. "I, I'm, blondie."

The boy looked confused as he heard this and immediately questioned her. "Huh, that's not a name? No, what's your real name? What do people call you? Come on, I just saved you didn't I. So like at least give me your name."

Unsure as to what the boy ment, she confusedly just said. "I'm, blondie."

Hearing this the boy shook his head seemingly disappointed by her answer, as he then looked to the side and noticed there a beautiful white flower. Seeing it the boy showed a smile and declared. "Fine, if you don't want to give me your proper name, then I will call you Lili. Like the flower, I think it suits you, since your skin is really smooth and white like that white Lili flower."

Suddenly the boy seemed red in the face, he turned away and stuttered out his next words seemingly in shame as he said. "And and, like the flower, your, your cute, and and, mmm, beautiful too. You know."

Hearing the boys words, he quickly found herself to like them. She liked the flower too and so she showed a happy smile to him and said. "Ok, I'm Lili then, thank you King."

The boy looked to her with an embarrassed face and quickly said. "No, don't call me King. Alex is just fine, Lili."

And then as if he was in a panic, he grabbed the rod, put it against his shoulder and grabbed the bucket with two hands, while saying. "Oh, mmm, its getting really late. My parents are going to get worried soon, so I'll be going now. It was nice meeting you Lili, let's see each other some time again. Mmm, you know, as friends, or if you'd like, we could. Mmm well, whatever, I'm going to go now. Buy."

Confused again by the boys odd behaviour and words, she looked to the sky and could see the sun already falling, causing the shadows of the world to rise. Thinking of it she too should go somewhere, she knew not where those bad nobles where, but she probably shouldn't stay out in the open here.

So not knowing where to go she began to follow Alex as he slowly carried the bucket. The bucket seemed heavy, the boy was struggling with it as he wobbled around as he walked next to the lake shore. There she could see a faint trail on the ground leading into the distance somewhere.

Following Alex they quickly came out of the tree covered shore and to a field of many bushes filled with strawberries like Alex had given her just some moments before.

For a moment Alex put the bucket down and stopped there to rest, seemingly exhausted by the short journey. She came to stand next to him, looking curiously as to what he was doing.

Standing there he noticed her and said. "Why are you following me? Just go on without me already. I don't need your help, I got this, ok."

Looking around herself, she could only see bushes, trees and the strawberries. Seeing it she knew not where she should go, what she should do. With no clue on what to do, she just started picking and eating the strawberries. Her stomach was grumbling after all and she felt hungry.

Seeing it, Alex then commented on her actions from the side saying. "Hmm, I see you like my strawberries. But it's fine if it's only you who eats them. Just know that it's I and my dad who planted them here, a pretty cool place to do so don't you think? Took a lot of effort clearing the trees out of here, but it sure was worth it as this place is hidden, so we don't need to pay anything for it. Unlike all our other fields."

Sitting on her knees in the dirt, with strawberries in her mouth she just glanced to him and nodded happily. Hearing his words she could only surmise that Alex too was a wealthy noble then, for he had such a plentiful and beautiful land here. Although Alex unlike those men seemed nice, he gave her permission to eat the strawberries, he saved her and gave her a name, so she liked him.

So it was sad to see him go. Kind as he was he didn't seem to like her following him, so she stayed behind and after a while of eating went to look for a place of her own.

Although to her everything here seemed like a good place to just lay down and stay forever and ever. But she did want something a bit more, a shelter of her own.

So she then looked and found a nice tree close to the lake and field, with some grass around the tree where she build a simple shelter of sticks and stones for herself. A simple shelter that was supported by the tree in the center of it and her own gathered rocks on its sides.

With it done and a makeshift door of sticks made. She crawled on in, closed it and fell on her back. Feeling the soft grass underneath her she felt so calm there.

Closing her eyes she listened to strange sounds of the forest and quickly found peace in it all. She felt no threats here, the bad men were somewhere else, and no demons, explosion or environmental hazards were here. This place seemed so safe, so colourful, so warm with good food, clean water and pure clean air for her to breathe. This place felt like a dream, like heaven or the Eden Sargent spoke of. But where was she exactly, where was Sargent and the demons, she did wonder.

With so many thoughts in her mind she knew not if she could fall asleep, her clothes were wet as well. But soon luckily exhaustion kicked in and she fell a sleep.