The Adventures of Rin and Aya

Rin and Aya were led into the middle of the city where a lone tower-like building stood, hovering above all the rest. It was made out of a white marble material and at the very top of the tower was an unusual clear dome. Chase walked through the only door that led into the building and Raf and Sin led the two girls in after him; they came to stand in a circular room with a narrow, spiral staircase on the right side. On the left was a large wood desk with a secretary sitting in it.

The woman looked up from the paperwork she was doing and pulled her reading glasses off. She had a thin frame and her curly orange hair was pulled up into a bun. “Amaranta has been expecting you. You can head on up,” She said gesturing towards the spiral staircase. With a nod the three men took Rin and Aya up into the staircase.

It felt like they had been walking for ages until they came to another door at the top of the stairs; it was a dark, slate blue and engraved in it was a picture of a bird and a snake. Chase lightly knocked on the door. “Come in,” Said a muffled voice. Without hesitation Chase opened the door and walked into the room with the others following after him.

Rin and Aya let their eyes wander around the room and they were completely entranced. The first thing they noticed was the clear dome-like roof that allowed you to look up at the bright blue sky, the fluffy white clouds, and the birds soaring among them. Their attention was instantly torn away from the dome as they stepped into the room, and to their surprise they hadn’t walked onto the hard marble floor that they expected to be there, but instead they stepped onto something much softer. When they looked down at their feet they found that they were walking on grass.

Just to their right was a small pond of water in the shape of a perfect circle and tiny, yellow fish swam happily underneath the water’s surface. On the other side of the room stood a group of short, wide trees but their trunks were formed into shelves and a large number of different items were resting upon them. Next to the trees sat an intricate, marble desk and on the side opposite the trees there was a marble stand that stood roughly at hip height, almost resembling a bird bath and it was made out of the same ivory colored marble as the desk. On top of it however, instead of the bowl of a bird bath, there was an orb roughly the size of a human head. It was clear and inside there were colors: green, pink, light blue, purple, and gold swirling about in sparks and streams of color.

A woman sitting at the desk watched them file into the room with a strong gaze that never faltered. Slowly she stood up and walked out from behind the desk, her long sky blue dress dragging on the ground after her. Around her shoulders and waist were multiple sashes in a royal blue, and the gold patterns and splashes on them resembled snakes and birds. “So you’ve brought them at last,” She said. Her voice was far more stronger and louder than her appearance had suggested it would sound like. There was a tenor of authority and strength in her voice and it had caught both Aya and Rin slightly off guard.

“We found them out in the forest. They ran when we approached them so we assumed they were spies.” Aya’s anger flared up and she turned towards the blonde man while roughly tugging her hands, which were still tied behind her back, away from Raf.

“Approached us? You shot arrows and threw knives at us!” Amaranta held up her hand to silence the angered girl.

“Calm yourself,” She said in a commanding voice. “Now tell me, do you come from Lumineras or Nocturia?”

“What? No!” Aya yelled, still angered by the previous comment and the whole situation all together. “We come from Northlake.” Amaranta’s face became stern and her eyebrows knitted together in thought.

“Your from Earth?” Aya froze and stared at her with wide eyes, not believing the words and questions that were coming out of this woman’s mouth. She was surely crazy.

“Yes Earth. Where else would we be from? Jupiter?!” Chase, Sin, and Raf looked at the girls with surprised eyes.

“Should we release them?” Chase asked.

“This one would probably be better off having her hands and feet bound,” Amaranta said as she looked at Aya. “But yes, cut them loose.” Chase pulled out one of his throwing knives from his jacket and quickly cut the ropes around the two girls’ wrists before stepping back quickly.

“Where are we?” Asked Rin as she rubbed her wrists where the rope has caused faint red lines. Amaranta turned her head in Rin’s direction and looked her over, taking a few extra seconds to stare at her strange socks, before answering.

“You are in The Middle Town. And I might as well tell you this too: Your not on Earth anymore.”

“What? Your crazy,” Spat Aya.

“Am I? If I am the crazy one then why is it that you have seen a man with wings? Surely you don’t have those kind of things where you come from. Wouldn’t that make YOU crazy?” Aya was quickly overwhelmed by all of the quick questions this woman asked and not only that, but how could she have possibly known that she had seen one of the men with wings?

“Wings? What are you talking about? None of them had wings,” Rin said thoroughly confused.

“Sin,” Amaranta nodded in his direction and he knew instantly what to do. Rin and Aya could see his shoulder blades and back muscles moving and shifting, and only a few seconds later a pair of large, jet black wings had erupted from his back. It almost appeared as if it was magic for there was no ripping and tearing of skin or clothes. Rin gasped and stared at them with large, sparkly eyes.

“They’re so pretty!” Raf, who was standing next to her, put a hand over his mouth to hide his snickering and Sin shot a glare in his direction. ‘Pretty’ was not exactly the word that he would have wanted his wings described as.

“Do you believe me now?” Biting the inside of her cheek, Aya stared at the winged man for a few seconds longer before turning her eyes on the dark haired woman.

“Say we’re not on Earth, if that’s the case then where are we?”

Amaranta smiled victoriously. “This land doesn’t have a formal name like your planet.”

“That helps,” Aya said sarcastically. “So how did we get here? Even more importantly, why are we here?”

“I am not sure on either of those questions. I am sure though, that if you give me a few days I would be able to find some answers.”

“A few days?! No, we have to get back to Earth otherwise our families are going to flip!” The mysterious woman turned and walked back to her marble desk.

“I am quiet positive that you will be fine for four days here is the equivalence of two days on Earth. Now, until I have my answers, you will be staying with these three and their other companions. If you should have any further questions they are close with someone who will be able to answer them. You may go now,” Amaranta said, dismissing them almost rudely. She hadn’t meant for it to sound that way, but she had a lot of work to do and only a matter of days to do it; she needed all the possible time she could get.

Rin and Aya were led out of Amaranta’s office, down the stairs, and out of the tower completely before following the three men as they headed off to their house. They passed hundreds of houses and shops including those for clothing, food, furniture and a lot more. Everything seemed so normal. There were all different kinds of people walking around, just going about their day in such a normal fashion that it reminded the girls of how it was back home. There were differences however. For the most part the men’s attire consisted of the usual leather boots, plain pants, loose fitting shirt, and the occasional leather jacket while they noticed that most of the woman, if not all, wore dresses that were fairly modest.

“There’s home,” Raf said as he pointed to a larger house positioned between another smaller house to it’s left and a bakery to it’s right. It was a light brown color and it wasn’t very extravagant but it had a nice cozy feel to it.

All of a sudden from inside the house a loud screeching noise sounded off and a commotion soon followed after it. The small group stopped in their tracks as they heard what sounded like pots and pans falling to the ground and then the sharp sound of glass breaking as it hit a hard wood floor.

“Oh no,” Chase said as his body tensed.

“Oh no? What’s ‘Oh no’?!” Aya asked now suddenly frightened.

“You might want to brace yourselves.” Rin and Aya looked at Raf with wide eyes after he spoke and then looked at the house wearily. Both of the girls felt like they should be running far, far away but they never got the chance for the door of the house suddenly flew open and they saw what awaited their arrival.