Dragon Thief and the City in the Sky

Chapter 4: Leaving Raftel

The time for action has arrived, arguably a little late but regardless its here. The stakes have been raised to life or death now. There's no telling how many Kroftel will execute twenty four people died by his command the last time an amateur serial killer who simply got lucky, was on the loose. Nobody has ever seen the Dragon Thief's face. Catching him is a whole other story. On top of all of that this guy has this armor that gives him powers or something. I can only hope people will catch on to their beloved priest before it is too late.

Noah and I have debated our options, which are severely limited. We can stay and hope for the best or head for the balloon and leave. However I'm not going to put it past Kroftel to start ordering his minions go and blindly shoot up the streets. We need to leave or die trying. He is already issuing arrests warrants on random citizens. In fact every immigrant who moved to Raftel within this year may be on the execution list. It may just be our desperation or paranoia getting to us but history has proven its self already. As long as Raftel aimlessly obeys Kroftel nobody is safe. I may be safer than others given my family's status. Noah on the other hand is a different story. The Campbell's don't have any status in Raftel. his father just assists a banker. They are expendable.

I don't want to leave Noah alone so I'm going with him. Right now we're both on our way to the balloon. Hopefully we're not alone and we'll have more of a chance to make it on that way. We travel the streets lightly. Each of us carry a knife, food to last us a week if we are careful about its consumption, and our valuables that we can sell in the Below.

The circular blue-jeweled necklace my grandmother gave me should hopefully go for a lot. Then again I have no idea what a lot is in the Below. I'm sure the currency is different and for all we know what sounds like a lot of money in Raftel can be nothing in the Below. Between the two of us we have no idea what's expecting us either. I know a few countries but I know nothing about the geography or even culture.

Planning and deciding whether or not to go took the entire day. It's eleven o'clock at night now and we just left Noah's house. Deep down I pray that he reconsiders us attempting to escape Raftel. No common sense hits us. We just press forward to the New Family district, the district where the balloon is held. It's on the other side of Raftel and we'll most likely take a couple hours to get there. We'll have to go through about 7 districts indcluding the District where it all began and where Kroftel lives. Its called Heavenly District.

The Heavenly District is filled with the two most sacred buildings in the city. The Heavenly District includes religious attractions such as a 100ft tall monument of our founding father Cedric Martin, George Demoin, and Solon Habier. There's also Gods Temple, the most beautiful structure I have ever laid eyes upon. The temple is a raised hexagonal prism shape made of light gray and tan bricks resting on a series of pure gold pillars. All around are long vertical colorful stained glass windows that extend from the bottom to the top. At the top acting as a roof is a large cloud white dome. Access to the temple has been restricted for years. Actually I don't think anyone was ever allowed into it. All it is now is a monument for our love to God. Even newcomers say the building is the most beautiful thing they've ever seen.

In the very center of Raftel is the Grand Cathedral, where Kroftel and his priests dwell. The building isn't as large as Gods Temple but its about 5 stories high. It has an old castle look to it because it has pointless hollow towers sprouting out from the top that are there for no other reason than decoration. The entire building is made of stone bricks. Every Sunday Raftel gathers to the Grand Cathedrals main hall where Kroftel leads mass for four hours straight. The Cathedral is large enough to hold the ENTIRE population of Raftel. It's a tight fit and not everyone has a seat but we can all fit in there, more or less. Above the main hall is the barracks for Kroftel and his priests who live with him in the Cathedral. Though it may not be as big as the cathedral height wise, all around the Grand Cathedral is much larger than Gods Temple.