"Vestibulum ut tibi obviam non possumus. Primum ad vigilemus nostris perdidit heroine a forma somno et suus paratus."
"Vedete possum."
Soft, muffled footfalls.
"Melody, its time to get up." a sweet voice rings through my ears.
I flip over, moaning. "Five more minutes."
The voice laughs. "It's already noon, we let you sleep an extra hour."
My eyes lazily flutter open. Chris stares down at me with an amused expression. I hold out my arms. "Carry me."
He laughs, sliding his arms under me. "Yes my queen."
He lifts me off the bed with ease, cradling me in his arms. My hands fall, resting on my stomach. He walks me over to the glass room, setting me down on a little glass chair. "The outfit is next to you." he informs before closing the door, leaving me alone.
I groan, pulling my top over my head. "Thanks,"
~
Stealth stands in the center of the nature walk hallway, her arms folded over her chest.
"Finally, what took you so long?" she asks impatiently.
"I'm sorry-" Chris begins but I cut him off.
"I'm tired!" I whine
Stealth rolls her eyes and begins down the path. "Four years asleep and you're still tired?"
I shrug as we enter the inner cavern.
"Is it just me or is it colder in here?" I shiver.
Chris pulls me closer to him.
"Just you," Stealth answers casually.
"Okay, so what are we dong today?"
"Well, what did we do yesterday?"
"I believe we showed her around the city and the palace." Chris answers.
"So that just leaves the training center."
"Wait, what about the dungeon and-"
"You can show her that on your own time." she snaps.
We remain silent out of shock.
~
We finally reach the end of the inner cavern and enter the grand hall. Stealth leads us to the air lock door that Talon dragged Joe through yesterday. I notice that all of the tables have been stripped of all their silverware, plates, and other dinning utensils.
The air lock door opens, sending a sudden burst of air my way. We walk in, Stealth leading the way. All is dark for a while, and then the sound of another air lock door opens, a white light piercing the black veil that surrounds us. I shield my eyes.
We step through the threshold and into what appears to be a gym. Areas on the wall are padded, as is a large area in the center of the floor, covering practically the entire space in cushions.
"This is the gymnasium." Stealth proudly proclaims. "We mainly use this room to spar with one another."
An air lock door in the far left corner of the room opens. A tall, slim, yet muscular female walks into the room. She has long hair that has been pulled back into a high ponytail, though it still flows down to her waste. Her eyes are a light shade of blue. She's in a tight, gold with blue rimmed jump suit, though it looks more so like a full body leotard. She looks very pretty.
She makes her way to the center of the room where a padded dummy stands. She begins punching and kicking it in ways I never knew possible. The dummy bobbles around so quickly, all I see is a blur. We watch in amusement as she does this for what I assume is two minutes.
But it's when she flips over the dummy to deliver her final blow that I recognize her.
"Jessica?" I ask, befuddled.
She stops and stares at me. A smile starts on her face. "Hey! Congratulations!"
I laugh. "Thanks,"
I feel kind of stupid considering I saw her when I woke yesterday.
"I hardly recognized you," I admit guiltily as she hugs me.
She laughs. "Must be the outfit."
I laugh. "Must be."
She takes a few steps back. "So what are you doing here?"
"We're giving her a tour." Stealth answers.
Jessica's eyes flash to Chris and her expression falls. "And why aren't you training?" she barks.
He backs away defensively. "I'm part of the we."
She's still glaring at him, then turns away after gnashing at the air. She returns to her punching and kicking giggling.
I roll my eyes. "Damn Chris, it takes effort to piss her off."
She squeezes me playfully and I laugh.
"But anyway, we also use the gymnasium for those specializing in gymnastics and hand to hand combat." Stealth begins to walk around the border of the room towards the air lock door that Jessica came in through. "Now follow me and we'll move onto The Collumn." She stops in her place. "Oh, by that way, the palace has a special name, Mee Sow el Ree, which means Immortal Home of Life, and we refer to this building as Niemock, or Temple of Strategy and War. Know these terms." She spins back around on her heels and continues to walk down the path.
Chris slides his hand in mine as we walk through the air lock door and into another very large room. Everything is a metallic blue. We're standing on a tan color sand path that swerves left and right, although I can't tell where it leads for it is blocked out by these large columns. Sticking out from the floors, walls, even the ceiling are these large, hexagonal columns! Some go out a few yards, others go out thousands. Some are curved, other go straight out.
"This is what we call The Collum." She begins to walk along the sandy path, Chris and I trailing behind. "This room is mainly dedicated to Talon. As I'm sure you've noticed, the ceiling goes immensely high."
It's then I look up. The ceiling seems to just go on and on and on, for miles maybe! I force myself to look away.
"We use this room mainly to improve our air force but sometimes Jessica will use it as some sort of flip course and jump from one beam to the next, so it also hols the name of a gymnasium. Sometimes we use it as an obstacle course as well."
"Don't tell her but we also play paint ball in here." Chris whispers.
"Any questions so far?" Stealth turns around as we approach another air lock door.
"Just one, why is the ceiling so high?" I look up for only a moment, but long enough to see an auburn figure blur past above me. I'm a little alarmed, so I return my gaze to Stealth.
"Oh, we also use this as a shuttle launch."
"Oh," I reply, stunned.
"Hey,"
"Gah!" I shriek, jumping away at the new voice.
I look up to see Talon laughing. "Is she always this jumpy?" she asks with amusement.
I groan and walk back over to Chris who immediately pulls me into a hug, though he's laughing a little.
Stealth rolls her eyes. "How's training?"
Talon shrugs. "Okay, I guess. Say, do you know who's changing the columns? Every day I come back and they're lower. Not only is it a hassle to adjust, but it's screwing up my course plan."
"Talk to Jessica, I've heard she's got a story, quite the rebel that one is." Stealth turns around and begins to walk towards the air lock door.
"I knew it was her," Talon mutters. "Well thanks! Have fun with the tour!"
"Will do," Stealth calls out as the air lock door closes behind us.
"Don't worry, Talon's not as bad as she seems." Chris assures me.
"Thanks, woo,"
Taller than The Collum, denser than lead, what I guess is thousands and thousands of trees lay out in front of me.
Stealth turns to address me. "Welcome to Saltus." she proclaims proudly.
I take a step forward, looking all around me at the towering trees. Looking up I see a clear, blue sky. "Damn, this is beautiful!" I gawk.
Chris laughs, hugging me from behind. "Paint ball, stage two." he whispers in my ear.
I giggle.
Stealth continues to walk the sand path. We follow her. "Here is where Talon lives."
"Lives?"
She nods. "Yup, after all, she is a bird."
"Does that mean she lives in a huge bird nest?" I comment sarcastically.
"Actually, yes."
"I was joking."
"Yes, but I wasn't."
My expression falls.
"See, in the center of this area is a very large tree. And on the top of that tree is her nest. Though, it's not your ordinary nest. It's still made out of twigs, but it's shaped like a box."
"Box shaped?"
She nods. "Yeah, since she doesn't live in the nature walk hallway like the rest of us, she lives here."
"Ah," I nod in understanding.
It's then we pass the base of what looks like a wooden skyscraper. Its then I realize that "This is the center tree, right?"
Stealth nods. "Now, not only is Saltus used to house Talon, but it is also where I practice archery, as well as an obstacle course."
I nod in understanding.
I can see the next door ahead of us, but shriek when a man jumps down in front of me. I jump back into Chris, squealing. He holds me, laughing a little.
I look up to find a tall man in a dark brown thing robe with short brown hair and hazel eyes. He's laughing, face structured almost as a child.
"Derick?" my voice squeaks.
He laughs. "What's up lost heroine?"
I can hear Chris laughing behind me. I roll my eyes. "You have the worst version of humor, you know that?" I scold.
"Don't worry, Melody, we are well aware." Derick smiles widely.
Chris pulls me closer to him, holding me from behind. "Sorry, but you should know, Derick and I are quite the rebels."
I roll my eyes.
"Uh, it's nice that -- you know, never mind, just -- we need to move on!" Stealth huffs.
"Okay," Derick steps to the side and we walk through the door.
We enter into a dome-shaped room, the walls glowing white. I can see the next door off in the distance at the opposite end of the dome.
"Welcome to The Dome, where our undercover agents-" her voice trails off as the white surroundings shift into what appears to be a run down city.
All three of us look around in confusion.
"Uh-" I start.
I hear a quick burst of wind next to my ear followed by a black blur. It hits the wall. I approach it cautiously to see a ninja star.
"What the-" another one comes, but it pins my sleeve to the wall. I squeal and turn to face Chris who wears an expression of shock, as does Stealth. I squeal as another star pins my other arm to the wall. Two more come, pinning my legs to the wall. I turn to see Chris who is on the ground, coughing like no tomorrow. I catch Stealth disappearing behind the door. My eyes widen. Does she not see that we are in some sort of danger?
"Chris!" I scream as I spot a large black blur on the roof of the building across from me. I turn to find him flat on the floor, eyes closed. My eyes dart back up to find the figure leap down, landing softly. I can hardly believe that they just jumped down a twelve story building and they're not dead. The figure darts towards me, cutting through the air like a dagger. The figure slaps their hand down on my shoulder, digging it into the wall. They press their other elbow into my other shoulder, a switch blade held up to my neck. I begin to panic at the sight of the weapon.
I look up to find two narrowed yellow snake eyes glaring at me.
"Step away from the girl," commands a strong, brave voice. I turn my head to find Stealth standing by the door, a black bow in one hand, the other on an arrow pointed at the figure in front of me. The figure doesn't move.
It's silent for a while. I can feel my face grow red with panic.
"I'll give you five seconds to move away. One..." Stealth commands. "Two..." my eyes dart to the figure, eyes still focused on mine. "Three..." Stealth stands, arrow ready to fire. "Four..." Chris remains unconscious on the floor. "Five,"
"Wait!"
My head turns to find a guy holding out his hands. His face is concealed behind his hood.
The figure doesn't move at first, but after a while, hesitantly backs away. The figure turns to face the guy. "What?"
I'm shocked to hear a female's voice come from the figure.
"They're real!" the other says.
"I know,"
"As is, that's Melody and Chris!"
She pauses. "Oh," she slowly makes her way over to me, taking out the stars from the wall. "Sorry bout that."
"Whatever," I fling the apology away, running over to Chris, kneeling down by his side.
"Knock out gas, it'll wear off in a minute of so." the female responds.
Stealth lowers her arrow. "You used knock out gas?" she comments, expression in disbelief.
"Yeah, it's only training." the figure shrugs, walking over to the guy. "Why waste the poisoned gas?"
A moan escapes Chris's lips. His eyes flutter open. I smile widely. "You're okay!"
He smiles. "Yes," he sits up. "What-"
"Knock out gas."
"Ah,"
He stands up, holding out his hand.
"Head rush?" I guess.
"Yeah," he responds.
"What are you guys doing anyway? Don't you know that we're training?" the guy asks.
"Trust me, we're well aware." Stealth sheaths her bow. "And we're giving Melody a tour of Niemock. I thought I told you that."
"Ah, got it now."
"Uh, who are-?" I start
"Uh, the ninja is Torra, the guy in the hood is Flight." Chris answers.
I nod.
We're silent for a while.
"We should probably move on." Stealth decides to break the silence, beginning down the path.
Chris and I follow behind.
"Okay, we'll catch up later," Calls out Flight.
"Sorry about attacking you," Torra apologizes.
"It's okay," I reply as we make out way around the buildings.
"She usually makes a better first impression." Chris comments.
"Don't worry, I won't hold it against her."
"Anyway, we use the Dome to train our undercover agents. We can program the surroundings to whatever we'd like."
"Neat," I sigh.
"Yup,"
We walk through the next air lock door.
So far, I've been not only a victim of childish pranks, but also attacked by a ninja. Huh, I've been attacked by a ninja, that's something I never though I'd say.