1 - Curious introductions

The Town below was laid out

like a flock of misshapen, blocky, animals. The flickering lights from the electric, industrial lanterns and hanging oil lamps, twinkled merrily in the cold night.

Hefty, wood and iron wagons passed almost noiselessly through the streets, pulled by pairs of magnificent cloud opwas. Or in other words, gorgeous white horses with wide, fluffy manes that were seemingly made from clouds. Their dusted, dainty hooves covered by layers of thick, white hair. In the center of each's forehead we're two curved horns reaching upwards to the sky. Their drivers humming sweet, catchy songs through the deep recesses of their stuffy beards. It was a quiet night, a peaceful night, a perfect night.

A girl sat on a scraggly rock outside of the lively Canyon Valley City below. Canyon

Valley was exactly as it sounded, a long, flat, desolate area of hard formed canyon rock, covered by layers of dust and sand that stretched on for seemingly ever in every direction. But somewhere in the middle of it all, was a sunken hole where Canyon Valley City lay. It was the only place for miles where lush, green, foliage grew. It was on the outskirts of the Desert Empire, far off from

any other communications or from the capitol, Kikowaena. However, it wasn't a burden on its country, seeing as the city itself was near impossible to find, and even more impossible to attack, making it a perfect place for runaways to disappear and self appraising criminals to get a new start.

The girl atop the large boulder sighed and rose to her feet, brushing the sand off of her lap. She was a tall fifteen-year-old girl, with waist length glossy silver hair tied up a long high ponytail that swished with every movement and eyes filled with more colors than you could count, swirled together in a detailed spectrum of the rainbow.

Her skin was tanned and roughed up; her smile as bright as the sun. She wore a long sleeved, white button-down shirt with black dress pants sporting a light brown leather belt with silver buckles, two delicate silver chains clipped from the front to the back. The pants tucked into knee-high paddock boots, fashioned from fine black leather and were raised slightly at the heel. Buckled to her left thigh was a long strip of light brown leather. At

her waist was a string of small pouches closed by the same silver buckles. Finally, sitting atop her shoulders was a long coat, styled like that of a mad, aristocrat scientist. It was colored black with ornate silver swirls running

down the collar and hem. It had partially cuffed sleeves and two rows of silver

buttons on each side of the break point, obviously unbuttoned.

"I guess it's time to give

socializing a try." She said with a smile.

Without fear, she ran and

leaped off of the side of the curved rocky wall, sliding down the rough cliff side and deep into the coarse foliage below.

A few branches smacked her on the way down, but she just laughed and brushed them away. Before she reached the bottom, she kicked the wall of rock and landed neatly on the ground. The forest was dominated with great, tall, oak trees, and looming pines, it's floor covered with soft lemon grass and pincushion moss. It was kind of odd, she was

outside of a desolate, and barren land, yet everything on the inside was a beautiful paradise filled with life. The entire valley itself was around one hundred acres wide and fifty acres deep.

It was a clean circle with two pouring waterfalls on opposite sides of the barren walls. The girl pushed through the endless maze of plants until she finally came across the little town hidden within. It was placed near the center and was quite small despite the valley's large girth.

If she remembered correctly, the population was a little under fifty, so not too much to go by. She continued walking through the mini jungle until she reached a small cobblestone path. She looked up and a smile of amazement crossed her face. The building were in placid, neat rows of four by four, creating a block of dim, multi-colored houses. The main road ran through the center while two smaller roads split off from it and wove their way through the other houses. Each house was either one or two stories tall with hard, black shingled roofs.

The same wagons she had seen before were now parked on the roadside. As she looked closer, she saw that some of the buildings had signs on them that read, bookstore, or market indicating that the area before her was a

shopping plaza. However, at the end of the road was a small but long building with a huge sign in front of it reading, school.

"What the hell is a

school?" She asked, scratching her head.

"It's a place us kids go

during the day to learn about things." A voice replied next to her.

"What, but don't you learn

everything from like your dad and aunts and uncles?" She replied.

"I mean sometimes, but I

guess they just think it's easier."

"Oh." She turned to the

side and saw a young boy standing really close next to her. She jumped back and

he finally realized what he had done, scampering to the side as well.

"W- who are you?" He asked,

crouching low behind a boulder.

"Who are you?" She

screeched back.

"I asked first." He

replied, narrowing his eyes at her. She narrowed hers right back.

"Fine, my name is Paent."

She said warily.

"Paint? P-A-I-N-T?"

"No you idiot! P-A-E-N-T."

"Why do you spell it like

that?!"

"I don't know. What's your

name, if mine's so special tell me yours!"

"It's Azmund." He mumbled.

"Azmund?"

"But I go by Oz!" He

corrected, standing up quickly.  She approached him and stared intently.

He was an odd one, she could tell. Why did his name start with an A, but he

preferred to go with O? This was quite the mystery indeed.

"Why are you looking at me

like that?" He asked, clearly unsettled.

"Because you're weird."

"HEY!" He protested,

standing up even more.

"Oh, well it could be that

I'm not used to being around humans." She leaned back. "I heard you creatures are

weird and that some of you are weak but since you've managed to survive this

long, I guess it all works out."

"Why are you talking about

humans like you aren't one?" He asked suddenly. She choked on her own breath

and stopped.

"Ah yes, uh, humans,

because I myself am a human. Heh heh heh." She laughed nervously.

"Uh huhhh." Oz agreed

concerned.

"Well, I guess if you've

never been here before I could show you around." He suggested. She nodded

vigorously, clenching her fists with excitement. He started off and she bounded

after, chattering to herself.

"Azmund, Azmund, Oz,

Azmund." She kept saying his name in different tones of voice and different

pitches.

"Why are you repeating my

name?" He asked curiously.

"Because it's a funny name,

I mean like, A but an O. You know?" He stared at her.

"No?" She asked. He

slightly shook his head.

"Aww." She slowed to a walk

beside him. "You haven't been around people very often, have you?" He finally

asked.

"No, I've been alone since

I was eight."

"And how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Oh, me too, except I turn

sixteen in a few months."

"Aww, that means you're

older." They continued talking as they walked, eventually turning down a narrow

street and entering a cheerful looking neighborhood. They saw a few others out

for late-night strolls, but Oz would just wave and continue on. After a little bit more walking, they reached a house nestled right passed the halfway point of the street. It was a light pinkish-red house with the same black roof as the others. The walls were a bit slipshod, and the door was already partly open. He stepped up the stairs to his porch and quickly checked the mailbox outside. Seeing nothing he hurriedly entered the house.

"Dad, I'm home!" A friendly

looking old man with short brown hair and defined cheekbones turned around. He

was wearing a pink and green apron and holding a large wooden spoon in one hand. His sparkling amber eyes and light skin matched the smear of chocolate across his nose almost perfectly. He looked similar to Oz, who also had that soft brown hair and sweet amber eyes. Plus, they were both pretty tall, compared to her at least.

"What are you making?" He

asked as she entered the house.

"Brownies, obviously." He

replied with a smile.

"Oh, is that a new friend

of yours, I've never seen her before." Oz nodded.

"She just came into town."

"At such a young age too.

What's your name?"

"It's Paent."

"P-A-E-N-T." Oz

interrupted. His father nodded with a grin.

"Well Miss Paent, you are

welcome to stay here until you figure out what to do." She beamed,

"Thank you!"

"Here, I made dinner. Sorry I got home so late; the breeding center was a little bit in shambles."

"Why, did any new arrivals

come?"

"Well, we got permission

from Queen Snawni to begin breeding Opwas since the trade routes are being

jeopardized. We began sorting the males and females into groups before they were delivered for a better grasp on the whole operation, so I was held

back a bit."

"That's great!"

"Hey Paent, what if I take

you tomorrow to see it?"

"Okay!" She had no idea

what was going on. Oz's father served up a plate of steak and small side salads. For dessert he made sure to cool the brownies and top them with sweet vanilla bean ice cream. It was the first good meal Paent had had in a while. After he finished, Oz washed his plate in the sink and rushed upstairs, calling out for Paent to follow.

"Coming!" She called back,

rushing to the sink and following the same steps he did.

"Wait a second." Oz's

father said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Hm?"

"I just wanted to say thank

you." He started.

"For what?"

"Being friends with Oz. You

might not know this, but he has a hard time making friends due to his overly friendly nature. People just think he accepts others too easily. You're probably his second friend."

"Oh, really, well that's

great then, because he's my first friend." Oz's dad smiled.

"You two have much in

common don't you." He let her go and watched her silver hair disappear up the

twisted staircase. He smiled.

Oz was in his room, rustling through his desk. His room was a fairly small square with a bed in the back corner and the desk adjacent. In between the two pieces of furniture was a rectangular window etched with white. The floorboards were a calming lime wood and the walls a solid light blue. He had a circular white rug in the middle of the floor and that was it. The were covered in hand drawings of various animals and plants.

"So, this is your room?"

She asked, rocking back and forth.

"Yeah! Does it remind you

of home in any way?"

"I mean, maybe my old home,

but I left that long ago, I guess I could go back one day, if I could find it." She frowned and rested her head on one of her hands. He shut one of his open curtains and turned on a little lamp on his desk. His switched off the lights

hanging from the plastered ceiling and soon the room was half-filled with an

orangey glow.

"Does not being able to go

home make you sad at all?" He asked, plopping down on the carpet in front of

her.

"Well of course it does.

But I've just found other things to smile about. You know?" He shook his head.

"I can't say I agree with you, everyone in this village has at least one scarring thing happen to them, mental or physical." He looked up at his wall of drawings and stood up. He walked over to the left wall and carefully plucked the piece of paper from the plaster. Carrying it back over, he held it up for Paent.

"You see, five years ago I

got attacked by those things, it's called an iliohaé." The creature on the paper was a wolf, painted a charcoal black with a red stripe down its back and four fangs that poked over its lip and downwards at the same time. In the

drawing, its body appeared to be smoking.

"This thing?"

"Yeah, they're common

stowaways on opwa transport ships from the Cloud Kingdom."

"We're those cloud horses

out there opwas?" He nodded.

"A lot of people in the

desert use them for their cool skin, adaptability, and high stamina. The Desert

Empire and the Cloud Empire's are good trading partners and on good terms."

"Soooooo, does that mean

everything here is great?"

He smiled.

"I wish, but we still have

minor crimes and thefts. No society is ever truly perfect." She nodded

fiercely.

"I knew that, that's why I'm going from place to place, starting here." Oz tilted his head.

"You see, when I was by

myself, which, uh, was a lot, I saw all these little towns and cities in the

desert!"

"Really! I've never been

outside of the valley before!"

She nodded again slowly.

"But there this one I went to, I think it was called Murdra-."

"MURDRA!" Oz screeched.

"You mean the city only second to the capitol itself in the Desert Empire!"

"Well maybe, I know it was called Murdra. But the thing is, this city, it was like no one could do anything at all. Some guy was there, and he was using a weird organization called the government to practically starve the city."

"The government? The government doesn't do that, they help protect everyone on the continent."

She shook her head.

"Some guys were there with him; I think I heard him say they were soldiers?"

"Yeah, that's the enforcers of the laws used by the government."

"Well, he was giving the guy permission and stuff to do whatever as long as they got supplies."

"What! I don't believe it, the government is supposed to protect us, they always do."

"Not there, but there's something else. There was mention of this other city, lost to the ages past. Actually, not really, only like twenty or some years ago. Anyway, apparently it's some

lost legendary island that floats in the sky. You know what. I think I wanna find it."

Oz stared at her in disbelief. Find a massive floating island? It seemed pretty impossible. I mean wouldn't have someone already have seen it and reported their findings? It seemed pretty outlandish in his mind but when he gazed into Paent's eyes, all he saw was a fiery determination ready to burn down the world.

"Well, what's so special

about this island?" He asked, resting his head on his hand.

"Well from what I read, it

looked as though freeing the island from whatever that book said, would restore

the eternal peace on this land forever."

"That would certainly fix

some things." He breathed.

"But that's all I can say,

I had to leave before they saw me." She fidgeted with her fingers.

"Ozzy, time for bed, you

know it's passed eleven." His father called out from down the stairs.

"Okay, I'm going to pull out the extra mattress for Paent!"

"Okay, but hurry, you don't want to wake up too late, even if it is a Saturday." The boy got to work, pulling out a large mattress from within a dark closet down the hall. Together

they coated it in fresh white sheets and a thick woolen blanket. They both settled down in their separate resting places before, ever so slowly falling asleep…