Daylight

'Don't be so loud

Echoes start a prowl

Chirp click zip tick

Dead brick

Gone architect

Halls ancient

Forever breaking

Wild making

A brand new home'

***

Just as Felix had left the Wilderness Chambers, he had to return.

He had finished walking down the stair tower and was back on the abandoned shelf platform where he had encountered the dragons before. He sighed looking at his notebook map. He had drawn a little 'X' over where the forceful push could have possibly come from, and it was definitely past the wall the dragons had vanished into. He was going to have to go over there if he had any chance of discovering anything. Still, Candle Tower was so tall and wide that the force could've struck at any floor, including those he didn't have access to.

Something told Felix that it must've been relatively nearby for it to have such a large impact on everybody back at home.

He just hoped that whatever it was wouldn't randomly kill him.

He put his notebook in his pocket as he arrived at the new hole in the wall he had discovered just an hour earlier. He crawled through. On the other side he froze. More dragons, just standing around in the hallway. They glanced at him but they didn't seem to care that Felix was there. Still, Felix didn't relax. He kept glancing at the hole, hoping that they wouldn't mind if he crawled back in.

They glanced at the hole and walked over to him. The four dragons carried things in nets and baskets, including eggs. Felix crouched down to the floor and held his neck, but he still took a peek at the majestic creatures.

A dragon stuck its head through the hole Felix had come from, it then squeezed itself in and onward to the other side. The other dragons followed, all of their grey scales disappearing behind the wall, until a single barbed tail left Felix's view. He could still hear them as if they were an infestation in the wall. Since he was out of sight, Felix moved forward down an odd hall.

This hall was a corridor that was lined with lockers three feet taller than him. Some of the doors were still intact despite glowing mushrooms growing on them.

It was dim, but Felix still had his lantern.

He noticed a marking over one of the doorways. At first it looked completely alien, but as he approached and lifted his lantern to the sight, the meaning suddenly became clear.

'House of the Whiptail's'

Felix stood up straight and pondered it. Somebody wrote this at some point. Its purpose was probably to tell people whose house this was. Was this a house?

Felix looked down the corridor lined with lockers. Instead of walking down the rest of the corridor, he swung the 'House of the Whiptails' door open and entered. It was a large room with old creations and rotting old ones. All of the ancient chairs in this room were neatly stacked in a corner. They had been there so long that they were rusting into one another. Weaved baskets also littered the floor. Felix picked up one. It was long and cylindrical, like it would carry some type of instrument. Instead of an instrument long metal tools were inside. Felix didn't understand their purpose, but instead thought about the basket. It was the same type of basket that the dragons were wearing. This must've been their home.

The back wall of the room was filled with thick fabrics making a webbing of what might've been hammocks. Under the hammocks was a hole in the ground. Felix looked down into it but he didn't see any way of climbing out. Some things were better left alone if they couldn't be explored responsibly. He turned back to the doorway and walked back out to the main corridor.

Felix wondered about the whiptails as he continued down the hall, away from their home.

The dragons left their home in a rush it seemed. Most of the baskets were still filled with things, and left messily along the floor. The only reason for this desertion must've been the force that struck the tower. That would be enough to strike fear into any animal. Felix took his notebook out of his pocket and turned to the map pages. If he wanted to find the source of the force he was going to have to go further down the corridor.

At the end of it, a large stairwell that went up and down sat in front of him. Down the stairwell was darker, so he decided to go up. The floor above was almost identical to the one below. Lockers and rooms making a rectangular shape. The only living thing around was slimes eating the mushrooms. Felix supposed that dragons didn't eat them.

Felix looked down the hall that looked awfully like the one he just went down, but with one difference. On the outer wall was a double doorway with its doors long gone. Just outside of it were chambers that were not walled with lockers, probably another section of the tower. Felix followed it and found that he was right. A new section of tower was in front of him now.

These chambers seemed underdeveloped. The inner parts of walls were exposed even further than erosion would've done to them. Piles of brick, pipes and marble slabs were rotting on the floor alongside unfinished halls. The worst part about them was the maze it seemed to be creating. As he wandered deeper in one direction Felix felt an old fear start to sink in. He was well versed in recognizing seemingly endless hallways, but walking through these reminded him of when he was young and getting used to the wilderness.

Breaking the cycle was another, even bigger staircase than Locker Chambers stairwell. These stairs only went up one floor instead of spiraling through multiple. Felix followed them upward to the next floor which was a similar maze, although the hall in front of him seemed oddly bright. He followed down the bright hallway. The closer he got, the more the light appeared to be coming from the end of the hall. It was so close now, just a turn to the right might be enough to expose it.

Felix turned the corner to the right.

All of it seemed to come into his mind so quickly, it shocked his system like a camera flash.

A giant cylindrical metal thing had gone through the wall of the tower and had shattered a portion of the tower's outer shell. The entire bullet-like craft was sitting there in the room amongst the damage. The hole it left behind was massive, exposing the clouds, sky and blazing sun of the outside world. The light was like nothing Felix had ever seen before, and the sky appeared impossibly far, even greater than any room he could think of.

Could the sky really just keep going? And if that was true, where was he in all of this? Was the tower really the only thing besides this blinding void of a sky?

Felix felt himself become dizzy. He leaned back into the wall and looked away from the sight. The more he looked the more it seemed eager to suck him into it. Fling him into the endless air and have him fall forever, be forever confused and unable to look away.

Peeking, he looked to his right at the strange cylindrical artifact that had barged its way in. It wasn't as confusing as the sky, so he didn't mind looking at it. It was as long as three train cars but two times as large. Felix noticed an open door on the side. He thought about running back home and leaving it be, but he knew something like this was what he had been looking for throughout his travels here.

Everything in the Wilderness Chambers was old and fading, but this was entirely new. He'd always wanted to see something new, something wonderful and incredible, something no gwenen had ever dared look for.

Felix glanced at the sky again, looked away, and began to inch to the door on the giant artifact.

The door was a lot larger than he was, and much more square shaped. It didn't really faze him as anything strange. Most of the doors in the Wilderness Chambers were made this way.

When he reached the door Felix peeked inside to a cozy looking kitchen area. The floor was tiled, and a wooden table and chairs were surrounded by cabinets, counters and an oven. The ceiling cut the cylinder structure in half. The top half was probably another floor. Felix walked into the structure. He immediately noticed a strange hum of electricity inside it. It was alive and well lit like the chambers back home.

To his left was the kitchen and the rest of the structure. To his right was the front of the structure.

The front was a plain room with a large chair and a control panel that was crammed with a number of buttons and switches. This wasn't something Felix wanted to mess with, so he continued into the kitchen instead. He could barely reach the cabinets attached to the wall or the table which was a similar height. Looking at the chair, he supposed he could climb in and did.

In the chair Felix twiddled his thumbs. It was the same size of all of the chairs in the Wilderness Chambers. He hadn't seen very many tables though. This table was made out of wood just like the chairs, but it was covered in a red tablecloth with little white flowers on it. Felix hadn't ever seen flowers, so he thought of them as a pattern rather than a plant.

On top of the table were three containers of some sort of condiments. One was short, rounded, and shiny with a detailed design painted on, while the other two were tall wooden and identically cylindrical.

Hopping down from the chair, he went further to the left of the entrance. The doorway to the next chamber lead to something like a hallway. It was a really short hall, but to the right of it was a door.

It was closed so Felix moved on through into the next chamber.

This chamber was carpeted and dimly lit. It had a large couch and two bookshelves built to fit the curved walls. They were so stuffed with books that Felix didn't know if he could pull one out without making a mess.

Unlike all the other chambers this room wasn't cut in half at the top. At the end of the room was an entrance to another chamber. To that doorway's right was a staircase visibly going up to the top half of the other chambers.

He walked past the entrance of the stairway and went into the next room. The doorway here was blocked by plastic strips, but Felix walked right through them. This chamber seemed to be the last on the first floor, and was also the brightest. The ceiling was low again but was lined with lights. It reminded him of the sun outside, although not as hot.

The room itself was filled with rows of long tables that had growing green plants in them. The floor was hard and metal with little indents in it. Felix dipped a finger into the dirt of one of the plants. He brought his hand back to his body and rubbed his fingers together. It was still moist.

Felix heard something.

He crouched down and swiveled an ear to the door, and then his whole head.

Something had walked downstairs and into the library room.

Felix was hidden because of the door made of plastic strips, but there wasn't anything stopping the creature from walking in and seeing him. Felix couldn't even properly escape either. The exit was in the same direction as the creature. He was going to have to hide.

Felix looked under the plant tables. There was too much room under them, he would be spotted almost immediately unless the creature was blind.

His eyes darted around the room for somewhere to go. Next to the doorway was a sink. Under it were two doors that probably held in the plumbing. Felix went around the plant tables and crouched down to the sink. He opened up the doors and crawled in. There were bottles and pipes and buckets in there but luckily enough room for himself. He closed the doors and waited.

Felix waited for a while before the creature walked into the plant room. He could hear its footsteps but could only imagine what it was actually doing.

It walked to the corner of the room, stayed there for a bit and then walked to another corner. Felix wished he knew what direction it was looking. Maybe then, if the creature's head was turned, he could walk out the door and escape.

Felix pushed the cabinet door open just a crack, but he couldn't properly see anything with all the plant tables in the way. He opened it a little further. He could see the creature now. It was shiny, red, white, and tall. Its head was away at a corner, looking at plants.

Felix pushed the door open completely. He kept his eyes on the creature, and crawled out toward the exit. The creature began to turn while Felix was crawling under a table. Felix panicked, trying to get back to the sink, but he tripped around the leg of the table. The bumped table screeched across the metal floor.

The creature jumped up into the air like a surprised cat before leaping again, straight at Felix. It clumsily collapsed over the plant table and grabbed him with its big read talons. It picked him up by Felix's armpits and slammed his back into the wall. Now Felix could see the creature up close, and understood what was once confusing shapes.

It was shaped like a dragon but was made entirely of a smooth white metal. All of its joints were highlighted with red on the inside of them, so when these joints moved they exposed a red painted interior. Its claws were the same red, along with its feathered wings and red rectangle eyes without any pupils. Its horns were chucky but short, and curved down at the end. Its snout was long and boxy, and crinkling up into a scowl.

Felix screamed when he was pinned. The pressure the creature was putting on him was making it hard to breathe. He thought back to the dragon attack earlier in the day.

"No!" He gasped.

The ears of the creature twitched.

"What's your purpose here!?" It boomed at him. Its voice was male, smooth, and low, and right now, loud. Felix was in a panic, but wonder was mixing with his fear. A talking robot dragon who fell from the sky was right in front of him. There were cool ways to die after all.

"I was just wandering around!" Felix coughed a response.

"Where are you from!?" The creature roared.

"The ADC! Adolescent Chambers! Er, Candle Tower?!" Felix didn't know what would satisfy this creature's question.

"What are you?" The creature asked.

"A gwenen! I'm a kid!" Felix squeaked.

The creature waited a moment and loosened his claws, dropping Felix.

"A talking gwenen.. Sounds suspiciously unnatural," The creature grumbled. He put his front paws on the ground standing on a more natural four legs.

"What? No, I'm not unnatural, or suspicious, I'm just curious! Y-you hit the Candle Tower with your apartment. I wanted to take a look!... I'm sorry," Felix stumbled across his words as Error watched with the same stern visage.

"Hmm," The creature walked up to Felix. He held him in place with a claw on Felix's shoulder and used the other to peek behind his ears, his head and inside his mouth. He tapped the collar with a talon, "What's this?" The creature asked.

"Uh," Felix glanced at it, "It's my collar. I need it. I can't take it off," Felix said. He held it with a hand, protecting it.

"Why do you need it?" the creature asked.

"I just do... I'm.. I'm not sure why," Felix swallowed. He could feel his tail curl around his leg in fear.

"How come you look like that?" Error asked.

"...Look like what? I've always looked like this.." Felix became anxious that he was ignorant to what the question really was.

"...I guess I've been gone that long.. Gwenens used to be on four legs, and didn't talk. Similar to an ape. You know what an ape is?" The creature asked.

Felix shook his head.

"Forget it then.. I'm still not trusting of.. this, so I want you to leave," The creature said gesturing to all of Felix.

"Why don't you trust me? I'm unarmed and you could easily handle me," Felix showed his empty hands. He was pushing his luck, but he desperately wanted to know more about this creature.

"As if being unarmed was ever enough to stop any monster. You may know that, or not, but I won't test my luck just because you seem innocent. Get out," the creature said.

"A-alright!" Felix began to walk out, but he didn't look away from the creature, "What's your name?" He asked before he left the room.

"Error. Grnhmm.. you?" Error grunted.

"Felix, I'm Felix," Felix chirped.

Error raised his brows in surprise before folding them into a scowl.

"LEAVE!" Error boomed, flashing canines. He pointed for emphasis.

Felix scampered out as suddenly as Error yelled.

***

'long as I dash

high as I fly

Sharp lines crowd behind.

I want to escape

I need more time

What I won't do

ends all in my stride'