The Lost Boys (Chapter 1) [rough draft]

 The Lost Boys 

One

HIS FATHER YANKED HIM FROM THE STERILE APARTMENT. All three of their dreamer pods were open. A small wisp of mist curling from each one — pure oxygen. They looked like three sterile eggs that were big enough for people to lay down inside. The nursemaids had done such a good job at keeping the apartment clean. The room reeked of cleaner. Had it been years since he’d been out of his dreamer pod? The pods were white, the walls were white, even the personalized hard-drive Atreyu’s father insisted on having, was stark white. 

Atreyu grasped for the white corridor, one of his fingernails snapping from his grip on the wall. “No!” He cried. The quiet hum of computers was left behind as Atreyu was shoved into the white hallway. It looked like the hall of a hospital in the Dreamscape.  

Atreyu’s father ripped his dreamgear helmet from his head and threw it against the wall, leaving a mark. His father never laid his “real” hands on him before. They didn’t spend enough time in Truth for physical contact. No Upperclassmen did. They spent all of their time in the Dreamscape — in their sterile pods. 

Atreyu’s father’s fist landed on his cheek. The pain felt similar to what a punch felt like in the Dreamscape, but the repulsion of human flesh actually touching human flesh made Atreyu hurl before he could consciously recognize the pain. He was on his hands and knees, blemishing the stark tiles with his bile. A red handprint was beginning to form on his cheek. 

“Shamasson!” Atreyu’s mother hissed. To Atreyu’s knowledge, his parents never touched either. Until that moment when Mishella grasped her husband’s wrist before he could pummel Atreyu again! Atreyu, just like his parents before him, were made in birthing pods, similar to dreaming pods, but they stood vertical. Atreyu was made from carefully selected material within his parents’ gene pools. His mother might have held him once or twice when he was released from the birthing pod, but then he would have been placed in a dreaming pod. Touch was not common practice. Shamasson, however, was too angry with rage to care about the anathema of touching. But there was a horrified hesitation that flashed over Mishella’s eyes when she realized she’d saved Atreyu from a second hit — through touch. “You’ll kill him!” Mishella cried. 

“He’s an abomination!” Shamasson thundered. Atreyu scrambled with all he had towards the elevator.

“Let go of me!” Atreyu screamed. Tears were welling in his eyes. The creature, an aye-aye, hissing from his shoulder. The creature was stuck between protecting his soulbond and adhering to his soulbond’s command to not hurt his father. Atreyu didn’t know what the lemur could do, but he’d examined the barbed quills on her tail. 

“Shamasson, he’ll die!” Atreyu’s mother cried. She grasped Shamasson’s other arm. Desperately trying to pull him back. There was a hesitation in Mishella’s strength, from connecting with Shamasson’s skin — Atreyu’s father easily shrugged her off. She fell off balance, landing hard. The Harts didn’t spend much time on their own feet. Their muscles forgot how to move with balance and swift reflexes. All symptoms of spending too much time logged in  

Shamasson was much thicker than Atreyu knew his avatar to be, and it wasn’t muscle. But, the man knew how to throw his weight around. Atreyu was thrown against the wall in the hallway. For a moment his father’s grip left his arm. Atreyu tried to escape. His scrawny body was the complete opposite of his father’s bulk — a perk of the genetics that his parents had chosen for him. The aye-aye stood her ground between Atreyu and his father. She hissed and cackled at the pudgy man, brandishing her tail threateningly. Atreyu could see that the quills, hidden in the fur of her tail, seemed to be lengthening.  

“Get back here boy!” Shamasson snapped. 

Atreyu’s soulbond sent images and influences through their minds. Atreyu noticed it was getting easier for him to understand what the creature wanted. The image of quills sticking out of Shamasson Hart’s face seared into Atreyu’s head. He shook his head. They just needed to get away. <No,> Atreyu thought. 

The hall drew to an end and Atreyu couldn’t get the window open fast enough. He hadn’t even thought about what he was actually going to do once he got the window open. They had to be fifty or more stories from the ground! They were Upperclassmen. Shamasson grabbed Atreyu, this time by the back of his neck. He thought his spine was going to snap. The aye-aye crawled across his loggingsuit like a tree and went to bite Atreyu’s father, but the man used a thick meaty arm to swipe the creature away. “You bonded that filth! Now you must live with the Wildermen. On the ground.” Atreyu could see the tiniest flicker of pain cross Shamasson’s eyes. His father closed his eyes tight as he said, “You are no son of mine.”

“No one can survive down there! The wraiths. Shamasson please!” Atreyu’s mother cried. 

Atreyu was out of breath. He’d never really moved his real body this much. He, like almost all Upperclassmen, spent almost all of their time in the Dreamscape. Their real muscles were only exercised via mechanical hookups, which thankfully Atreyu was able to buy himself. He didn’t want to spend his life in the Dreamscape. Which, judging by his situation, it didn’t appear as if he was going to have to much longer. 

Atreyu was thrown, hard, into the elevator. The suspended box shifted as Shamasson boarded. “We can call a geneticist. There has to be one that can cure this affliction. Shamasson, that’s our son!” Atreyu’s mother begged. Shamasson Hart simply slapped Mishella in the face. It snapped, reverberating in the tiny metal box. She stood in the corner silent, haunched over. Tears pouring from her eyes, staring at Atreyu. She was silently saying her goodbyes. She was not going to overpower Shamasson. There was real fear in her eyes.

Shamasson turned and pinned Atreyu to the wall and pressed the ground level button. Atreyu had never been to the ground level, though he’d dreamt of it. Thanks to his soulbond with the aye-aye, he was able to see her memories of the ground level. 

Closed inside the small space, the aye-aye, whom Atreyu instinctively knew was called Tax, began racing around the space, attempting to gouge out Shamasson’s eyes. Being locked in the small space made the lemur crazy. Even Atreyu’s bond to the creature, begging her not to hurt his father, was not enough to stop Tax. Shamasson caught the creature with a brick-sized fist. The aye-aye squealed and landed limply on the floor. Atreyu gasped in pain. He could feel what Tax felt once the pain was transferred through their bond. Shamasson’s attention momentarily diverted, Atreyu bent down and clutched the aye-aye in his arms. He meant to protect her. 

The elevator came to a stop at the ground floor. Shamasson pinned Atreyu at the wall again, this time by his throat. Atreyu could barely breathe. “Anything out there?”

“Shamasson…?” Atreyu’s mother was not eager to go out there. 

“Mishella, is there anything out there!?”

Atreyu was gasping for breath, but there was no use in struggling. He watched his mother slowly peek out the elevator. The doorway opened into the street. There was concrete on the ground in black, and it glittered in the sun from all of the other stones mixed in. Atreyu had never seen something real that was so beautiful. He didn’t know something so pretty could exist in Truth. He yearned for the explosion of color that he could see through the doorway. 

There was a building on the opposite side of the concrete pathway. This building was nothing like Atreyu’s. Where Atreyu’s building was all silver on the outside and white on the inside. The building across the path was made from bright red bricks. Tiny green plants exploded from cracks in the wall. Color oozed off of everything. Whoever told him that color was bleak in Truth was a liar. 

“There — there’s nothing there.” Mishella said. 

Shamasson wasted no time. He tossed Atreyu out into the street. He landed on the pavement, ripping a hole in the knee of his loggingsuit. The palms of his hands scraped bloody. “Nooooooooo!” Mishella wailed. Shamasson grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back into the elevator. Before the elevator door closed, Atreyu was impelled to breathe in. So he did. 

He always thought it most strange when he felt “controlled” by Tax via their link. He assumed he could do the same to her, though he hadn’t figured out how yet. But he appeased the creature and breathed in — with intent. He was suddenly aware of all the plant life around him. There were plants sitting on Underclass windowsills, there were weeds pressing through cracks in the pavement. Each plant that he breathed from, seemed to pause, motionless in time, waiting for him to do whatever it was that he was going to do with their power. Somehow, he knew that he was borrowing power from them. 

Tax encouraged him through their link. The aether he’d absorbed roiled in him like the churning of a windstorm. He had never done anything like this before. Was this the “superstition” of Wildermen that Uppers always talked about? His eyes were glowing white — and white-feathered wings sprout from his shoulder blades. He felt nothing but power.

Tax lent Atreyu an impression of the elevator door. Atreyu didn’t fully understand what she meant. She lent him a vision of someone exhaling. So Atreyu exhaled. His cheeks quickly expanded and a blast of spherical energy exploded from his throat and bust into the elevator door. He looked, wide-eyed, at the metal elevator door that was curled in on itself from the force. 

His eyes returned to normal. His wings dissipated into a cloud of feathers that quickly deteriorated into aether. 

Atreyu fell to his knees, weak, and sat there for a moment. The sky was blue and he didn’t know that the sun could be so bright in Truth. He could feel the bulge of a swollen black eye forming. He’d never received a black eye in Truth, though he’d felt the pain before. In the Dreamscape he would be able to pay for a repair to his avatar. Here, in Truth, he’d need to heal the old-fashioned way. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had to heal anything. 

His hands were flat against the ground, his knees digging into the concrete of the street where he lay. He practically had his cheek touching blacktop, when he realized that he was on the ground level. He’d made it! And then the creeping fear of wyrms and Wilderman forced him to his feet.

The ground was not a safe place. He needed to get off the street. Around him the skyscrapers of Upperclass and Underclass apartments rose into the clouds. <The sun is so bright!> The winding walkways and train tracks were a mess of chaos. Atreyu could never imagine getting anywhere by using the trams that shuttled Underclassmen around. In Dreamscape there were thousands of ways to get around, but fast travel was best — teleporting to places he’d been. Here, the poor Underclassmen had to walk or take the slow moving trams with hundreds of other people all stuffed into small spaces — touching. Most of them were nursemaids or factory workers that kept the Dreamscape running and Upperclassmen alive. 

Atreyu went to another close building and tried to gain entry, but his fingerprint didn’t hail the elevator. He tried another building with the same result. He was a sitting duck out here in the open. He noticed an ATM hanging like a nose on the side of a building. It looked just like an ATM in Dream. He walked up to the machine and placed his finger on the touchpad — and it too, denied him entry. His father had already updated the accesses. He didn’t have access to his family’s “likes”. He wasn’t even sure if likes could be used at currency in Truth.

Tears were welling in his eyes as he started to feel very alone. Tax attempted to send consoling encouragement through their bond, but Atreyu snapped the connection closed. He’d learned that he could do that, invite her in or lock her out. It mostly just took concentration. But when he did this, keeping her out — she felt so far, disconnected. And it caused him to feel even lonelier. 

Just then he heard the rumble of a car. He’d never heard a real car before. But he knew that if someone had a personal car — they had currency. The man was very pudgy with no visible neck and jowls that hung around his adam’s apple. With the window rolled down, the man tried to lean his face towards the opening, “You okay son?”

The Mirror Guard (Chapter 3) [rough draft]

 Three: One Day in the Stark

THE STARK SEEMED TWENTY DEGREES COLDER THAN THE CITY. The snow was deep, which made traveling slow and taxing. The gusts came in waves, but when they came they were frigid. The Stark was nothing but snow and ice. Nothing grew out here except for a few short trees that had adapted to the harsh environment. Depending on the drifts, the trees were there, and then they were gone. The Stark has many nicknames — the most intimidating is the “murder snow”.

At first they tracked their direction by keeping the walls and glass towers of Crystalis behind them. Then, the snowfall came so thick that nothing but whiteness was visible. Eke tried to use some tracking tricks that the boys used to tell each other, but it turned out they were mostly tips told in children’s stories and didn’t actually work. So — for a while they just walked, hoping they were following the right direction and a straight line. 

King, Mother Shimmyshanks’ artificial exoskeleton, seemed pompous in his explanations of the directions they needed to go to get to the bunker — but Eva couldn’t help but think that despite the exoskeleton being a newer model, that it didn’t seem like all of instruments were working properly. They took many breaks — mostly so King could “gather his bearings”. Eva thought for sure that a mdl:2000 would have faster processing speeds. Mother Shimmyshanks blamed it all on the rolling snowstorms.  

“Are you going to be okay out here with such an outdated exoskeleton?” Mother Shimmyshanks asked Eva. 

“Benjamin does fine,” Eva growled. She prayed silently that Benjamin didn’t say anything off color.  

“Eva I have to pee.” Jono said. 

“Ah, Jono, you need to keep your respirator in when the snow is like this.”

“I’m sorry, but I have to pee.”

“I’ll take him.” Eke stepped in and took Jono’s hand. “Let’s go over here little guy. Looks like there’s some trees.”

“I want the big one!” Jono pointed. 

“Okay, you show me which and I’ll pee on another one.”

<Boys,> Eva thought. 

“It’s a shame you didn’t have more going for you, you are really a pretty girl. I could see some potential there.” Mother Shimmyshanks continued her and Eva’s uncomfortable conversation. The old woman’s red eyes judged Eva up and down, slowly. “A la Jaguar eh?” She asked. 

“Yes,” Eva said proudly. 

“A family with a lot of history in Crystalis. Though, I think your ancestors were a little delusional in thinking they were the children of Rainiar the Goddess. It’s a shame they left you no fortune behind…”

“I do just fine!” Eva snapped. 

  “Oh I know,” Mother Shimmyshanks swallowed a chuckle. “Going from motel to motel is no life for a woman. People must think you’re some sort of harlot.”

Eva kept an eye on her brother. They were a few yards away, foggy from the blowing snow. Eke was close by, both posed as men do while pissing. 

“I’ll never understand,” Mother Shimmyshanks said quietly. Eva knew that the statement was meant to appear as if Mother Shimmyshanks was speaking to herself — but it was meant for Eva to hear. It was meant for Eva to react. 

“I won’t ever understand what he sees in me either.”

Mother Shimmyshanks appeared taken aback. Her eyes widened in fear. Her red irises seemed to blaze. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Your son loves me. He’s loved me since the second grade. And you hate it because you think I am beneath you.”

Mother Shimmyshanks cocked her head, taking it all in. Her horns were grown on either side of her head straight up, curling at the very tips, making her head look impossibly heavy when she cocked it to the side like that. “You’re not wrong.” She turned to face Eva for the first time. Her hair looked like spun rubies. “You don’t have feelings for him?”

“Never really have.”

“Thank the Goddess.” Mother Shimmyshanks sighed. 

The boys returned and Eva felt like it hadn’t been soon enough. Not even Benjamin was willing to save her from Mrs. Shimmyshanks’ scathing words…

Once Mother Shimmyshanks had felt satisfied, they continued deeper into the Stark. Deeper into the cold and starvation. Deeper in the murder snow. “The sun is starting to go down. We should probably prepare a camp.” Eva suggested. 

“Where are we going to sleep!?” Mother Shimmyshanks cried. 

Eva looked around obviously, “Here.”

“We can’t sleep here!” 

“Mom, we are days away from the bunker. There’s no way we can just walk the whole way.”

“Well I’m not sleeping on the ground.” Mother Shimmyshanks even crossed her arms in protest. 

“Suit yourself.” Eva said as she knelt over her survival pack and began yanking out the canvas tent that she’d had stuffed in there. 

“You expect me — Rupalapur Shimmyshanks — to sleep in a tent!?”

“Mother,” Eke pleaded. 

“Mother is right! I am a Mother of the Council! I will not sleep on this ground!” Mother Shimmyshanks began stomping in her heeled artificial exoskeleton deeper into the stark. 

The Stark was snow, endless snow. No one knew how far the Stark stretched. No one has ever made it back from an expedition. When she was young, Eva’s parents always brought her out into the Stark while they were studying some albatross or group of norwotters. Eva knew how to survive out here, better then most. Definitely better than any Crystalissian. “You better get her,” Eva said to Eke. “She’s not going to make it an hour out there by herself. I think that we haven’t been stalked by a predator because we are together.” And more to herself, Eva said, “Or perhaps it’s your mother’s yappy voice.”

The only people that lived out here were the Cavamen. This was Cavamen land, as Crystalis was theirs. Eva’s parents had befriended a tribe once. She wasn’t sure how much communication they’d kept over the years. She wondered where they were now. The Cavamen live in caves and could sneak up on almost anything out here, despite their dark skin and hair against all this white. They have mastered the Stark. Eva was most fearful of running into Cavamen, than any wolf or snow cat. 

“Eva?”

“I’m sorry,” Eva shook her head. She had been daydreaming while tying off the ropes that anchored the posts down. 

“I can’t believe that we are all going to sleep in there together.” Mother Shimmyshanks complained. 

“It is 90% safer to sleep inside a tent together than out in the open,” Benjamin informed.

Mother Shimmyshanks looked confused towards Eva. “Does your exoskeleton always talk out of turn?”

“It’s his best quality,” Eva smiled. <Especially if it pisses you off.> Eva thought.  

“To shards with you and your artificial!” Mother Shimmyshanks exclaimed. Benjamin snapped quiet. Eva couldn’t help but snicker. 

The tent was up and it was going to be close sleeping for all of them. The tent looked like it was good for two people. They would have to stuff three of them in at a time. At least the collected body heat would help to keep them alive.

Miraculously, Eke had a fire started. Eva had seen him strike the lighter he’d had in his pocket.  Eva watched as Eke struck the lighter when his mother wasn’t looking. There were only a few reasons that someone would have a lighter — and Eva was certain that Eke was just trying to be prepared.

“I’ll take first watch.” Eva announced. They’d moved as much snow as they could from around the fire so that they could sit on the ground. Mother Shimmyshanks wasn’t too keen on sitting on the ground, but there was nothing within sight to make a better seat from, so after realizing her feet ached after walking in heels all day, the witch finally swallowed her pride and sat on the ground with the rest of them. 

Eva, with Jono’s help, cooked canned goods over the fire. Eke ate like Jono, in big gulps as if they hadn’t eaten in days and weren’t sure where the next meal was coming from — which wasn’t far from the truth. Eva laughed at them, while Mother Shimmyshanks scoffed in disappointment. “Just because we are in the wild, doesn’t mean you need to act like animals. How do you plan to attract a woman to marry if you act like that?” She asked Jono. The boy’s face fell and he began chewing gloomily. “You should start acting right, now. Give yourself a better chance. You don’t get to pick a wife. You will need to attract a wife like every other man.”

“Someone will love him just fine. Besides, he’s too young to worry about such things.” Eva snapped. “Aren’t you tired yet, old woman?”

“Eva.” Eke gasped. Jono laughed. 

Mother Shimmyshanks huffed, clumsily climbing onto her heeled feet, “I think I will lay down. At least I can get some sleep before you barbarians join.” She glared at Eva, “Don’t ever forget who your Mothers are!”

Mother Shimmyshanks slipped her bulk through the small opening. King, her artificial, stood as still as stone on the outside of the tent, like a sentry. He powered off so his eyes lost their luster. There was a lot of shuffling around while Mother Shimmyshanks attempted to get some comfort in the tent, before finally, there was quiet, except for the crackle of the fire and the boys’ eating. 

“You eat how you want.” Eva reassured her little brother. 

Eventually, even the boys crawled into the tent. Eva checked on her brother a few minutes after she heard quiet. Their artificial exoskeletons all standing next to each other like inhuman spectres. They felt like humanoid trees. Eke had his arm wrapped around Eva’s brother. There was space between Eke — and his mother.

The Mirror Guard (Chapter 2) [rough draft]

 Two

AFTER THIER PARENTS DIED, EVA TOOK CARE OF HER BROTHER AS HIS SOLE GUARDIAN. No one cared about a couple of scruffy kids that lived in the Coal District. Buildings here didn’t have the crystalline luster of the most other parts of Crystalis. Here, the buildings were crafted from cheap crystal parts and metal. From the top of the wall, the Coal District looked like a blight.

Eva’s parents were adrenaline junkies — and biologists. They sought out into the Stark to identify and study the habits of the creatures that lived there. Crystalissians had no use for anything on the other side of the Stark. The Stark was too dangerous. Many thought Eva’s parents were eccentric — and crazy. To some degree, Eva believed that they were. 

Her parents published a few books on Stark wildlife and on how to survive on the other side of the wall. Her mother was most proud of her memoir about helping to locate and blueprint a safety bunker for the Mothers’ Council. Her father’s book about meeting various Cavamen tribes was actually banned by the Council. Eva always felt that that was pretty badass. 

However, despite such pseudo-famous parents, when they died the Mothers’ Council seemed happy that they didn’t have to hear these two pro-Stark eccentrics talk about what wonders existed on the other side of the wall. Their children were basically forgotten. 

Eva and her brother lived in an extended stay motel in the Coal District. The motel was erected by metal beams coated with cheap crystal tiles. A woman clad in a mini-skirt and a thick tawny starka came tearing out of the room Eva had been rushing by. Most people in the Coal District were too poor to obtain an artificial exoskeleton. Eva could see the fishnet top as it peeked through where the woman’s starka fell open. The two collided. 

“What the fuck!” The woman snapped. She didn’t even have her heels all the way on. Her hair was a tangled mess and her lipstick had been smeared. Eva immediately bent down to help the woman up. “I don’t need your help!” The woman scolded. 

“I’m sorry,” Eva said. 

“Ness, hypothermia will begin to settle in her legs, in approximately three minutes.” Benjamin warned of the woman’s exposed legs. 

“Just ignore him. I’m sorry.” Eva said. The sky was thundering with the each attack the snow wyrms laid upon the wall. 

“You should evacuate the city,” Benjamin continued. “There are news reports that the wall has been breeched. In approximately seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds they are going to sound the evacuation alarms.”

“Benjamin!” Eva said. “She doesn’t care. We need to get Jono.” It literally sounded like the sky was breaking!

“Is he for real?” The sex worker asked. She got herself to her feet, zippering the last zip on her left heel. 

“Too real, I’m afraid.” Eva said. 

A man appeared in the doorway. He hadn’t finished tying his breeches yet. His body was still semi-excited from whatever the woman had been doing to him. Eva did her best not to look. “What the shards is going on?” He asked, rubbing his bare stomach. “Hey, is that an exoskeleton!? I know a place that will pay a pretty crystal for that model.” 

“No,” Eva said and started down the balcony towards the room she shared with her brother. 

“Get back in the room. I’ve already paid and you didn’t finish.” The man hissed at the sex worker. 

Eva brushed passed the scene, towards room 208. The woman clip-clopped towards the stairs. The man still seemed half-dazed. Eva didn’t know all of the specifics of what went on between johns and sex workers, but she knew that it could be anything from sex to fetishes to drugs. What she did know, just from living in the Coal District, was that nothing was ever simple and “vanilla”.

“I am nearly 99.9999999999% sure that woman was a prostitute.” Benjamin said. 

The motel room looked exactly how you would imagine it to look with a twenty-something female living there with a teenage boy. Eva pressed her keycard into the receiver and swiped it out, the light turning green. Eva ripped the door open. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Various game consoles were hooked up to the TV — CDs and cartridges with and without their cases piled every flat surface.  

Eva burst through the door. It smelled stale. “Jono!” …Nothing. “Get the survival bags,” she said to Benjamin. As soon as they’d entered the warmer environment of the motel room, Benjamin had detached. He looked like a white sleek exoskeleton of plastic that was able to move about at his own accord. “Kentucky wake.” Eva called to her little brother’s personal artificial exoskeleton. Another mdl:1985, but Kentucky didn’t need any upgrades. 

Kentucky was standing in rest mode in a shadowed corner of the room. At his wake word he sprung to life. “How can I help, Ness?” 

“Help Benjamin collect the survival bags.”

“Will do, Ness.” Kentucky said. When she spoke to Kentucky she really felt like she was communicating with programming. 

“Jono!” She called again. Their parents were survivalists. They had always taught them to have bags full of basic survival gear for just-in-case moments. Jono was on the far side of the couch, heaving, his swoopy hair fell over his eyes. He was clutching tightly to a wolf stuffed animal, his favorite. The animal was blue and shaped like a tundra wolf. He was obviously stressed, scared. “Jono.” Eva moved towards him, to cuddle him, to let him know that he was alright. But her movement was too quick. Jono moved like a cornered animal.

“Jono, it’s okay. It’s me.”

“The...The mon—monsters.” He pointed out the window. The emergency sirens had begun blaring. A chill ran down Eva’s spine when she realized that the sirens screaming weren’t the signals for a wall attack. They were the sirens that meant the wall had been breeched. <Benjamin was right.> The wall had never been breeched before!

“It’s okay. I’m here now. We need to get out of here.”

“We can’t go out there!” Jono cried. He leapt from the couch and hid behind the table, wolf animal in hand. 

“Ness, I got the bags.” Benjamin announced. Kentucky pulled up behind him, eyes illuminated. 

Just then the crumbling, rolling crashing that could only be from part of the wall falling, sounded. Jono whimpered. Benjamin immediately cradled Jono in his arms. “We need to go.” Eva said. “We are not safe here. Remember what mom and dad used to always tell us?” Eva handed Jono his survival bag. 

There was a moment of intensity as Jono looked into his sister’s eyes, judging her, coming back to the surface of his fear, mastering his fear. Jono dropped his wolf stuffed animal and reached out and hugged his sister, grabbing his bag. “It’s going to be okay,” Eva said — though she wasn’t so sure herself. She’d never heard the siren that was screaming, outside of a drill. “Put on your exoskeleton,” she said as Benjamin seemed to split his body in half so that he could knit around her. Kentucky did the same for Jono. Eva grabbed her brother’s stuffed wolf off the floor and her technikalblade that was leaning up against the wall. She grabbed Jono’s arm and lead him out the door, technikalblade swinging over her shoulder in its usual spot. 

They were used to leaving. No place was permanent. Eva didn’t make enough for an apartment, so they surfed from extended stay motels to shelters — to even sometimes the streets. Eva was hoping that all of this practice fighting the cold would give them a sliver of a chance out in the Stark. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew that they were going into the Stark…And Eva wasn’t as afraid of the other side of the wall as she should be. 

The balcony was chaos as people were grabbing what belongings they could and began running down towards the stairs. Eva pulled Jono along towards the stairs. The gentleman, the “john”, from earlier had a starka on of his own, rushing towards the stairs also. He pushed passed Eva and Jono on his way. “Watch it!” Eva snapped. She held tight to Jono’s hand, squeezing it every so often to make sure he was still with her. He would squeeze back his reply. The john didn’t even look back as he took the stairs down, two at a time. 

They reached the top of the stairs when Jono screamed, “Eva!” He was pointing at something. Eva didn’t see what he was looking at. Something had kicked up a good cloud of snow powder. There was a crunch, like two gods exchanging fists. The building across the street was being made into rubble by a snow wyrm! 

Eva had never seen a snow wyrm really. Sure, she’d seen them in books and stuff, in school, but she’d never actually seen one in the flesh. The wall protected them from the wyrms. The creature reared up, sitting on the upper-half of its body. It was about as girthy as one of the crystal spires that made up almost all of Crystalis’ cityscape. The creature was covered in snow-white fur that revealed black crystalline scales in-between fur patches. Its mouth was beak-like and opened to revealed a circular mouth full of rows upon rows of teeth. It shriek-roared, unlike any sound Eva had ever heard. Then, it motored its mouth parts. Its teeth began spinning, each row sawing in the opposite direction from the row either before or behind it. The sound was horrifying! It pierced Eva’s ears — and she knew that she would never forget that sound for as long as she lived. 

Eva was frozen in place. The snow wyrm wrapped its lower-half around the foundations of the building and constricted. People screamed. Crystalissians were throwing themselves from windows and balconies — hoping that they would land the fall. The wyrm simply dug its open mouth into the crystalline tower and Eva stared as the snow wyrm’s mouth parts simply ground the structure to dust.

“Eva!” Jono cried again, “What do we do!?” Eva snapped from her petrification. She could swear the snow wyrm was looking right at her. She could hear the scritch-scratch of the creature’s rough stomach scales as it slide over the snow, crystal, and metal that made up the street below. 

“You have approximately a 6% chance of surviving a…”

“Benjamin! Shut up!” Eva snapped. 

Eva shoved Jono aside and stood between him and the wyrm’s mouth. She unslung her technikalblade and brandished it before the fifty-foot behemoth! The snow wyrm had made short work with the building across the street. There was nothing between them and it. Eva was delusional to believe that she could use the feeble metal blade against such a beast — but it was all that she had. She wasn’t going down without a fight. 

“Ness, your chances of surviving…”

Eva stayed on the balls of her feet. She ignored Benjamin. Jono was too afraid and dug his hand into Eva’s momentarily free one. The sword was almost too heavy for her to handle with one grip, but she had to make it work. She attempted to hold the blade over her head in a moving hyperstance. Hyperstance was a stance for quick jabs or slices and recovers or dodges. It was the only stance that she felt would be effective against the snow wyrm. She needed to stay alive. She just needed the wyrm to think that there was other, easier prey, than her and her brother. 

“Eva!” A voice from below. Familiar, but Eva couldn’t place it. Not now. Her mind was focused on getting her brother to safety. 

The enormous snow wyrm was pulling its length from around the building. Its head was armored and garnished with tusks and teeth that spun like saws. It shriek-roared again. The very vibration lead a jagged trail up Eva’s arms, and down her spine. “Jono! Go!” She nearly lifted her brother and threw him. Eva followed right behind him as he clumsily landed on the landing below. He’d screamed.

…And then he’d screamed again when the platform gave way beneath them!

Eva fell — and expected the end. Everything left her hands. …But she landed, her eyes gripped closed. “Got you.” Eva looked up at Benjamin’s face. “There was a 10% chance that I wouldn’t catch you without breaking something.” Benjamin had released his grip on Eva’s flesh, fast enough to reform beneath her and take the brunt of her fall. After the shock was absorbed, Benjamin quickly assumed his protective guise around Eva’s form to protect her from the cold. 

“Jono!?” Eva blurted. 

“Got’em.” Eva found Eke with Jono clutched in his arms. Eke was getting to his feet. The impact had knocked him on his ass. Mother Shimmyshanks was standing behind her son. Fear in her eyes. She’d been crying. 

Eke Shimmyshanks was a typical Crystalissian young man. His hair was cropped short and was pink to match his eyes. His skin was fair to pale, like alabaster. Despite his social status, Eke was well muscled from constant working out. He’s a pretty well renowned puck player. Being a puck player was about the only thing the rich boys did to get their hands dirty. The horns that sprouted from the sides of his head were nearly crystal-transparent and thick and curved, the way some of the mountain sheep’s horns were. They wrapped around his ears, leaving the points staring forward, just on the sides of his eyes.

“Let’s get out of here,” Eva suggested. Eke helped her to her feet. 

The snow wyrm was not picky in who or what it ate. With her brother’s hand back in hers, Eva and the rest of the gang ran down the street. Her brother and Mother Shimmyshanks screamed when the wyrm snapped a few running people that were next to them, up into its toothy jaws. 

Eva took that moment to look up. The snow wyrm cried in delight. Its many eyes looking everywhere, though Eva felt they were all attuned directly on her. “Get out of the way!” Eva yanked her brother between two closely built buildings. The snow wyrm struck! Eva covered her brother’s body with her own. The wyrm snapped its jaws. Eva could hear some of the buildings on either side of them give. The crunch was the sound of metal and thick glass shattering. 

The beast screamed, but this time it sounded different. Eva peeked. Eke had covered her and Jono as much as he could with his body and arms. Mother Shimmyshanks was protected under her artificial’s metalloid shields that appeared. Eva was envious of Mother Shimmyshanks’ exoskeleton. Eva felt cool wetness on her face. Eke’s body was literally on top of hers. She moved his arm so that she could see a Mirror Guardian zipping away from the lunging wyrm’s razor mouth. They were saved! Yellow wyrm blood oozed upon Eke’s arm. Eva felt claustrophobic. She began to push Eke off of her. He blushed. “Sorry.”

“Just get up.” The Mirror Guard was luring the wyrm away from them. They all slowly untangled themselves from each other. Mother Shimmyshanks’ artificial pulled in the protective shields that it had the ability to produce from Goddess knew where.

“Ness, we have a 29% chance…”

“Benjamin, just shut! Up! Quiet mode, or sleep, or whatever.” Eva was tugging Jono along. Mother Shimmyshanks incessantly wiped off what wyrm blood had landed on the pristine coating of her artificial exoskeleton’s flesh, and then followed behind them. Her exoskeleton’s bulk caused her to move too slow. It made Eva anxious. There was no way that they were going to get out of the city safely going at Mother Shimmyshanks’ pace. <And the witch is wearing heels!> Eva thought. 

They were all covered in yellow wyrm blood. Eva saw the flash of a figure zip across the sky. The beams of reflected light could be seen up and down the street. There were about four of them. Another zipped past the screaming, writhing snow wyrm. Another line of yellow blood appeared on the beast’s furry hide. The Mirror Guardian turned her mirrorblade flat so that the wyrm caught his reflection. There was light and power. Eva could feel the trickle of it crawl up her arms, causing the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The snow wyrm screamed again. There was something in the power of reflection that Ono never schooled Eva on. But she was seeing it in action, even though she didn’t understand what was truly happening. 

“Eva!  Get out!” Speaking of Ono. He was standing on what was left of some crystalline stairway that lead to the sky. The upper floors had been demolished. He was covered with yellow blood. “Go!” He appeared to be made of ivory. He was holding a weak-looking sword that looked like the spiral horn of a norwotter. The blade only appeared weak in the presence of the mirrorblades that the other Guardians held as they zipped through the sky upon their pathways of ice. They skated by in streaks of white light, revealing a new yellow cut that the wyrm bled from. This was Ono’s power. Eva had never really seen him covered in it. Over top of his horn-like armor was a baby blue norwotter starka.  

“Reports are coming through that the wall has been compromised in at least five places,” Benjamin explained. “We have less than a 3% survival rate if we stay within the wall.”

“Where will we go?” Eke asked.

“The bunker.” Eva and Mother Shimmyshanks said at the same time. 

“That’s real?” Eke asked. 

“How do you know of the bunker!?” Mother Shimmyshanks sneered. 

“I don’t have any record of this bunker.” Benjamin scoffed. “What about you Kentucky?” Of course Kentucky didn’t “wake” because properly functioning artificials couldn’t communicate with each other without a human using their wake word. 

“Well I guess you don’t know everything,” Eva said. She ignored the Mother’s question. As rude as it was, Eva never liked Eke’s mother. And, in a moment like this, Eva was some subservient citizen and Mrs. Shimmyshanks wasn’t a “Mother” of the Council that held power over her. They were both Crystalissians just trying to survive. 

Mother Shimmyshanks looked stressed behind her old tired eyes. “Just get us out of the city,” she said to Eva. “Get us safely through the Stark and I will get you streetrats in. My exoskeleton knows the way.” Eva gritted her teeth to prevent herself from saying something snide. She simply nodded at the Mother. 

Eva noticed that that chaos behind them had seemed to quiet. She looked back to find a giant bleeding wyrm body blocking the roadway. <That reflection technique,> Eva thought. The Mirror Guard and Ono, were gone. They had other snow wyrms that had breeched the wall to deal with.

Even though everything seemed quiet directly behind them, the world was ending everywhere else. Eva could see, miles off, parts of the wall falling in large chunks, down upon the beautiful pink and lavender crystal towers that made up businesses, homes, and apartments. A large wyrm body was writhing through the opening it had bore into the wall — the wall that had protected Crystalis for thousands of years. 

The Mothers Council always said that the wall around Crystalis could never be breeched. Mother Shimmyshanks had some explaining to do.

The Mirror Guard (Chapter 1) [rough draft]

The Mirror Guard

One

THE QUAD WAS PACKED! Eva had never seen it so full of people! In the center stood the tall proud statue of Rainiar la Jaguar, Goddess. The mile-high wall of ice and crystal that wrapped around the city of Crystalis could be seen almost on all sides, except where tall crystalline skyscrapers blocked the view. Rainiar built that wall. The wall was the first protection Crystalis had from what was on the other side. Aside from planning out the crystal towers that made up many of the buildings and structures within the walls — Rainiar also formed the Mirror Guard. Which was Crystalis’ second defense against the things that lived on the other side of the wall.  

“The chances of them actually showing is about 65%, Ness — and dropping.”

“Thank you, Benjamin.” Eva snapped. “Always happy to report such good news.”

“Highness, I don’t report either good or bad news. I simply report facts.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Eva rolled her eyes as if to get the artificial exoskeleton to shut up. She knew it wouldn’t stop him. Benjamin’s wake word protocol had been broken since the day Eva found him in the scrapyard. She was able to repair almost all of his other functions, she even upgraded some, but she couldn’t figure out the wake word protocol. Which allowed Benjamin to blurt out whatever he was thinking or interject his calculations into any of Eva’s conversations. It was quite embarrassing in most social situations, though Eva was pretty used to it by now. Benjamin acted as a great ice-breaker. 

Eva dipped through a cluster of on-lookers. Her ridiculously over-sized sword that was strapped to her back, making it hard for her to weave through the crowd like she’d wanted to. Benjamin added a couple of inches of volume around her, which also made it hard to press through a crowd without brushing up against someone else’s artificial exoskeleton. Without the exoskeletons to regulate their body temperatures, everyone in the quad would have frozen to death. It made movement awkward too. People weren’t as nimble in their artificial exoskeletons — and the thick gloves stole almost all of their dexterity. 

There was an anxiousness that bled through the gathered crowd. Eva stopped to get a better look. There was a stage set up before Rainiar’s statue. Eva couldn’t see the entire stage, but it didn’t look like the Mirror Guard had arrived yet. She was happy that she hadn’t missed them. No one wanted to be a part of the Guard more than Eva! The giant replica sword strapped to her back was proof of that. She’d spent days crafting the sword out of parts in the junkyard to mimic what a mirrorblade looked like. 

“Whew! Ness, this crowd is absolutely unsafe. There are not enough exits — nor are they big enough if there were to be an attack. The chances of an attack are…”

“Benjamin, I didn’t use a wake word.” Eva snapped. She was hoping that his internal intelligence would eventually catch on to the concept of wake words and eventually rewrite his “learned” programming to include them. She was often let down. Benjamin mdl:1985U was an old model exoskeleton. To most people’s standards he was ancient and obsolete. But he was all that a poor homeless girl like Eva could afford. And honestly, Eva couldn’t imagine her life without him. 

Benjamin was an off white color, where most modern exoskeletons were pure white, or silver, or gold. His model didn’t come with a helmet or built in eye protection, so Eva kept a pair of goggles in one of Benjamin’s pockets just in case. As was typical of artificials, Benjamin did have a cloak that retracted into his neck. Eva had the cloak activated now. It was a fur and leather cloak that flapped behind her in a cape-like fashion when the wind was blowing. But the best part was the hood that wrapped around her head to keep her ears and most of her face warm. 

“Benjamin, there’s nothing to worry about.” In all of the history of Crystalis, nothing had ever breeched the wall that the Mirror Guard didn’t want to. 

“But the exits… And with some of the Guard here in the Quad, it’s leaving parts of the wall unprotected!”

“Benjamin,” Eva hissed, “The wall has never been breeched since Ness Rainiar la Jaguar was alive. Relax!”

“…According to my calculations there is a…”

“I don’t care about your calculations.” Eva said as she dove deeper into the crowd. She was trying to get as close to the stage as she could. The Guardians hadn’t appeared on stage yet, so Eva still had more time to sneak her way closer. 

She drew nearer to the statue of Rainiar la Jaguar. The Goddess’ hair was cut short and she had no visible horns. Eva always thought it was weird that Rainiar didn’t have horns like the rest of the Crystalissians — and she didn’t seem as tall and willowy as they were. Many had written it off that Rainiar was a god and gods didn’t look human. They were something more. But Eva always remembered being taught that the Crystalissians were made in the image of Goddess. So why wouldn’t they appear similar? Plus, Eva’s surname was la Jaguar, just like Rainiar Herself. Eva believed that she was one of Rainiar’s descendants — and she used this fact to her advantage every chance she could. 

But what excited Eva more than anything about the Goddess’ statue, was the giant mirrorblade that Rainiar held. No mirrorblade had ever taken the same shape in all of history. The shape a mirrorblade takes is reflected upon who creates it. When Eva was pounding out the metal to make her technikalblade that was still strapped to her back, she fashioned it after Rainiar’s mirrorblade. Eva wanted a mirrorblade of her own so bad. She was much too old to be chosen for the Guard, but there was always that inkling of hope in some part of her heart. After all, she was Eva la Jaguar, a blood descendant of Goddess herself. 

Peeking just over the shoulder of Rainiar’s statue was the domed roof of the Mothers’ Pavillion where Crystalis’ leaders met. A representative from each district of the city. Each a matriarch of powerful families. At one time, Eva’s own la Jaguar family, would have been a part of the Council — but her family line had fallen out of favor at some point. 

From the corner of her eye Eva could see a disturbance in the crowd. A flash of a man wearing the baby blue starka, moving towards the stage. <The Mirror Guard is here!> Eva thought. There were five men, each of them wearing blue starkas, which were coats of norwotter fur. Each of them were much shorter than the Crystalissians and had darker skin. They were all Cavamen, a people that lives beyond the wall out in the Stark, out in the killing cold. 

These men were one-half of a Mirror Guardian team. They were always in pairs. One person was the wielder of the blade — and these men were the blade. Something about their Cavamen physiology allowed them to control the growth of their bones and nails into the shape of the giant mirrorblades that Eva admired. 

They were all shirtless underneath their starkas which made Eva shiver. No Crystalissian would survive for very long in the cold without an artificial exoskeleton. Another wonder of genetics and evolution allowed the blades to survive nearly naked in the killing cold. They each wore black leather shorts and black boots to match. Eva had seen blades walking around barefoot in the snow without care. She shuttered at the thought. 

The blades formed in a line and stood perfectly still, as if they were waiting for a command. Eva looked at each of the men. She was hoping to see Ono, though he wouldn’t have been happy to see her. It was strictly forbidden for blades to fraternize with Crystalissians without their matron present. Matrons were the Guardians in the pair that wielded the blades in their sword forms. The matrons were always Crystalissian, always women, and always in charge of the pair. But Ono didn’t have a matron. They’d met when they were both younger and had formed a close friendship that they’ve kept secret for years. When they were younger, Eva always pretended to be Ono’s matron when they were playing. 

Eva reached stairs that led to the makeshift stage just as the matrons appeared. The air of power that leaked from just their posture was enough to make Eva awe-struck. She couldn’t take her eyes off of them. They were perfect in pink artificial exoskeletons. Only the matrons were allowed pink exoskeletons. Eva discovered that when she’d tried to dye Benjamin. Their hair was in various Crystalissian shades of pink, blue, and lavender, but they all wore their hair long and straight. Their crystalline horns were always thick and large. Some fashioned their horns like coronas — but all of them were adorned with hanging ornaments and jewelry. They each looked like little princesses — and for all intents and purposes — they were. The only station one could hold that was respected more than a Guardian matron, was to be a Mother on the Council itself. 

The crowd began to cheer. Eva anchored herself next to a posh woman dressed in one of the most expensive artificials that Eva had ever seen. Eva figured it had to be a mdl:2000! Eva always wanted to get under the motherboard of a mdl:2000! The woman caught Eva staring, maybe even with some drool hanging on the corner of her mouth, and gave Eva a snobby glare and scoffed. The woman maneuvered herself within the limited space away from Eva, as if touching her would cause the woman’s artificial to malfunction.

Eva let it go. She wasn’t here to tinker with artificials that she’d never in a million years have the privilege of even breathing on. She was here to watch the Mirror Guard’s demonstration. Each matron stood next to her blade, one of the norwotter-clad men. It was a strange process: Becoming a Guardian. First of all, it seemed that only Cavamen boys could be blades. Over the hundreds of years that the walled city of Crystalis has existed, it has become tradition for friendly Cavamen tribes to offer their orphaned teenage boys to the Guard. How a Crystalissian woman became a matron was a heavily guarded secret that one only found out once it was decided that she would be going through the process. The Mothers’ Council voted which toddler girls would be put into the Guard. 

Then the men began shapeshifting into their blade-forms. The crowd lost it! Everyone was cheering and jumping and pressed to get closer and closer to the stage. Eva stood on her tippy-toes to get a good view, while trying to barricade her space as the crowd pushed in around her in excitement. The blades’ skin went from brown to alabaster, like bone. They shrunk, but thinned out and seemed to refine into blade shapes. It was similar to the way a lump of metal sort of melts into the sword shape when heated over a stencil. Before each blade toppled over, their matrons grabbed their hilts and put their power into the sword. A wash of crystalline water enveloped each blade like a glaze. 

Eva had seen drawings and paintings of hundreds of mirroblades. Shards, she’s read everything she could find about Rainiar and her mirrorblade. But nothing matched seeing them there right before her. Their hilts were made from fibers that almost looked like wood. Their blades were made from a swirl of bone and keratin and ice in a way that made the flats of their blades reflective. Each matron’s blade was shaped different, though they were all predominantly longer than the wielding matron was tall. 

Being this close to so many mirrorblades, Eva could swear that she could feel the energy vibrating around her. She bathed in it, closing her eyes for a moment. Those blades were the most respected and revered symbols in Crystalis, other than the Goddess herself, of course. 

Once all of the mirrorblades were all formed, the Guardians raised their swords, a simple gesture, that was followed by a thunderous cheer. This time the crowd was louder than when the Guardians initially walked on stage. Eva felt herself hooting and clapping along.

Eva wanted nothing more out of life than to be a Mirror Guardian herself — like Rainiar la Jaguar. Like the group of matrons standing before her. 

Benjamin broke Eva’s reverie and said, “Oh look! Ono’s on stage.”

Eva tried not to draw Ono’s attention. He had arrived late, and judging by all of the matrons’ faces, they’d all noticed. Ono looked so lonely and feeble without a matron of his own. However, as a blade in training, Ono practiced and followed all of the traditions of a full-blown Guardian. Which meant, he stepped right into synchronization in the kata that the other Mirror Guardians had already begun. Though he was not in blade-form and didn’t have a blade to hold, he matched each of the steps that the matrons were taking. 

Most of the kata was in lurestance, a stance used to attract your enemy closer. It was more a trick move that took some finesse to land, but it was pretty to see. Definitely not a stance you wanted to use against giant snow wyrms. Ono fumbled a little through the fancy footwork. Eva pretended not to notice. 

“Don’t say anything stupid.” Eva grumbled. 

“Stupid?” Benjamin asked. “Ness, I am full of proven facts. Stupid would imply that what I’d say is unintelligent. Nothing can be unintelligent if it is indeed, fact.”

“Ugh. Just stop talking.” Eva said. 

“I will enter power saving mode.” Benjamin closed his eyes. 

“Finally!” 

Ono taught Eva everything she knew about the Mirror Guard that she probably wasn’t supposed to know. Ono had broken many of the fundamental social rules that are placed on blades by hanging out with Eva regularly. Ono caught Eva’s eye and he stuttered in his next move. Eva cowered back. Ono wouldn’t have been too happy for Eva to be here — and this close. He was very afraid of the matrons catching on to them. Eva being there made him nervous.  Matrons, by practice, were very attuned to blade emotions and reactions — even blades that they were not soulbound to. Eva ducked back into the throng. She didn’t want to freak Ono out in front of the other matrons. 

“Why are we leaving, Ness!?” Benjamin wondered. The cheering and hooting thundered after the Guardians completed their kata. Eva slipped through the crowd, often having to squeeze sideways or reposition her technikalblade on her back.

“Ono wouldn’t want us here,” she said gloomily.  

Everyone was moving towards the stage. Eva was forcing her way, away. Nearing the end of the mass, Eva heard the loudest crash that she’d ever heard. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked towards the stage and the Mirror Guardians doing their kata. Even though that was where she looked first she knew instinctively that that wasn’t where the crash had come from. She hesitantly looked towards the wall. 

Hundreds of feet in the air the wall of crystal and ice stood as guard against the dangers of the Stark. People began pointing and screaming. There, just above the highest point of the wall — was a figure. Something was moving, bashing itself against the solid ice! The Mirror Guardians quit their kata and jumped into the thick crowd, forcing their way to various access points in the wall. One of the Guardians was particularly powerful with manipulating ice and made a pathway that she was able to skate upon, angled straight towards the closest broken point.

Eva could see Guardians already on the wall. They looked like moth larvae for how far away they were. Panic began to seep through the crowd. Suddenly the alarms started to blare and holler, warning everyone to take shelter. There had never been a breech, but for safety, every so often the wyrms took a beating out on the wall and the Crystalissians would be sheltered for a day or two. 

And then — an equally as thunderous bang sounded from another point in the wall. This one came from the opposite side. Eva looked where people were screaming and pointing. Another snow wyrm’s head peeked over the wall, looking hungrily down at all the delicious prey. People were running around her frantic. Eva could only think of her brother. He was alone back at their motel — and she knew he would not hunker down without her. 

A third roaring crash sounded from a different part in the wall. The snow wyrms, though often very solitary, except for mating, seemed to be working together. Eva began running for home. For a moment — she wished Benjamin would give an annoying report of what was happening.