The Seven Revels

Addiphate

(Author's note: Sorry this chapter took so long! With school starting up again and life being life, I didn't have a whole lot of time or energy to write. Anyway, thanks for being so patient guys! <3)

 Jen landed the Nightjar in the most inconspicuous field she could find. Indigo, Quill, Garrett and Psi were stationed at the doors, ready to get off the ship as soon as they landed. They each had their jobs, and the time frame had become increasingly limited. Jen opened the doors and called "Good luck!"

Indigo and Quill leapt out of the airship and Indigo didn't try to hide her relief at touching solid ground again. She slipped to her knees, then rolled onto her back, taking deep breaths of the fresh air. Despite it being the end of February, the night air was warm as it caressed her face. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine she was back in her grandmother's cornfields.

"Indigo, we need to go," Quill said, his voice urgent but gentle. Indigo took another moment, another deep breath, then opened her eyes.

"You're right, I'm sorry. I just..."

"I know. Believe me I want to lay down in the grass and just... not move for weeks, but we just can't."

"I know." She pulled herself to her feet and brushed her legs off. "Let's go."

"Remember the plan?"

"Find the closest airships, get in, get the food, and get out."

"Right. If anything goes wrong and we get separated, we use our whistle signals to find each other."

"And if one of us is caught, we keep going without them."

"I still think that part of the plan is stupid," Quill said. "It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to leave anyone behind after everything we've been through to make sure all of us made it this far."

"All of us didn't make it this far though."

Quill didn't respond for a few minutes.

"We're wasting time," Indigo said. "Let's go."

As they ran down the road, trying to keep away from the street-lamps, Indigo couldn't help but notice that Addiphate felt... a lot like Earth. It was missing something though. She couldn't tell if it was the two moons, both a bluer color than the single one on Earth or if it was the absence of familiar constellations. Maybe it was the lack of that corn field smell that she had grown up breathing or maybe something in her body just... knew it wasn't home, and as much as she wanted to stay, she couldn't.

She followed Quill as he slipped into a small cluster of trees in the front yard of a small house. The golden lights from inside were slowly being turned off, and Indigo could imagine parents poking their heads into their children's rooms, scolding them to go to sleep, and flicking the lights off. The thought made her smile.

The airship loomed beside the house, a large, dark shadow. Quill quickly swept a flashlight across it, illuminating, if only for a second, the word Halcyon.

"Halcyon? Any idea what that means?"

"Not a clue," Quill said. "It's not a word I've ever heard before... Let's go."

Indigo thought again about the lights flicking off.

"Maybe we should just wait a few minutes," she suggested. "Not long. Just a few minutes to make sure everyone inside is asleep."

"We're on a tight schedule," Quill reminded her.

"Yeah, yeah," she said. "I know that. But look at the size of this ship. There's bound to be plenty of food on there."