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Alueta

"Follow me," said the woman to the two waiting guards.

Without hesitation, Cloud was grabbed by the arms. Cloud thought that this was her best chance to flee, but the sharp tip of a dagger pressed to her side made her reconsider.

Locked in a guards' grip, she found herself in a small court surrounded by large walls. It was late morning and everything seemed bright after the many days in darkness. She looked up and noticed with awe that the clouds above her head looked closer than in Leivrat.

The woman boarded a carriage large enough to fit four. Cloud was thrown inside as soon as the woman was seated. A guard joined them and Cloud felt a dagger being pressed to her neck. The carriage began moving and Cloud wondered what made the wheels roll. There was no animal to pull the carriage, like in Leivrat.

From where Cloud sat, she could only see the blue sky. From the noises that reached Cloud she concluded that the streets of Aleuta were busy with activity at this time of the day.

"Where are you taking me?" dared Cloud to ask, drilling the woman with her stare.

"Gag her!" Cloud heard the woman commanded in return, without giving her a glace.

A soft ball appeared in front of Cloud's face and before she could say anything, it expanded and covered her entire mouth area. She tried to peel it off, but it was just like trying to peel off your own skin.

What trick is that? Cloud pondered. It did not feel unpleasant, tough. She tapped on it with her fingers. It felt like a soft tissue. She thought of her friends at home. If they got their hands on something like this, there would have been no end to the fun they could have had with it. She would try and take a few of those with her when she leaves.

Aleuta has never been a place Cloud was interested in. She had seen a lot of the island and could not get enough of hearing about the Outsiders and their lands. Aleuta on the other hand, was a place so far out of reach for anyone below the mountain, that she choose not to think much about it.

Yet, here she was. In Aleuta. In a carriage that moved without anyone acting upon it. With a tissue ball that transformed into gags. Suddenly, she felt curious. She tried to glance outside the window and see if she could catch more than just the blue sky. The guard would have none of that. He pressed the tip of the dagger closer until it hurt and she gave up.

For the rest of the trip she had to console herself with giving the woman the angriest looks she could master.

At last the carriage stopped and Cloud was pushed outside and found herself standing in front of the biggest house she had ever seen. It reminded her of the old houses in Leivrat that had long turned into ruins. One big difference was that the house was made out of stone in his entirety, whereas in Leivrat, every house had a tree build into it. The façade of the house was covered with colourful flowers. The branches of the plant grew along the columns, the walls and the balconies.

No flowers ever grew in Leivrat.

Two guards appeared at her side and they dragged her after the woman who strode purposefully ahead. An unfamiliar Flizer girl ran before her showing the way.

Inside the house, Cloud caught sight of carpets on the floor and paintings on the walls. The chambers they passed were spacious and impeccably clean. Somewhere she heard music being played, such as she had never heard before.

They walked up a beautiful staircase and then stopped in front of a door. The Flizer girl knocked and after a few moments, the door swung open.

Cloud immediately stiffened at the sight of two men. One of them was the Minister who had come to take Aerus away. She did not like the way he looked her up and down with a bored expression. She raised one brow and looked at him defiantly, and thought she had caught a slight hint of a smile before he turned his attention to the woman.

The other man, short and plumb, hurried to greet her first.

"Most Reverend! As always, it is a pleasure to see you." He smiled at her broadly as if nothing could please him more. Cloud noticed the redness of the man's cheeks and the sweat running down his temples, despite it being a chilly morning. She sensed that both the Minister and the woman everyone called "Most Reverend" made the man very nervous.

"Spare me you flattery. I can't care less for it," cut the woman. A hurt look appeared on the man's face.

"High Priestess," greeted the Minister with a slight bow of his head.

Cloud looked at the woman again as if seeing her for the first time. She couldn't be the High Priestess? Suddenly Cloud understood why everyone paid the woman so much respect and she allowed herself to be brusque. For Veilys in Aleuta and Leivrat alike, the High Priestess was the sole representative of the Creators. They spoke to the High Priestess and she translated their messages.

That made her more powerful even than the Queen!

Why would someone of the High Priestess's statute pay any attention to her? Cloud wondered.

"I guess I have you to thank that I got involved in this nasty business?" the High Priestess said visibly displeased. The Minister didn't even flinch at her obvious hostility towards him.

"It was the Queen's will...," he replied.

The Queen's will? The Minister. The High Priestess. The Queen.

Cloud watched the High Priestess and the Minister cross eyes and she could not shake off the feeling that an exchange took place between them that neither Cloud nor the short man were part of.

The short man was not a friend of silence and was the first to break it.

"Is that the girl?" he asked seemingly no one and approached Cloud.

Cloud looked at him with hostility.

"And you say she can fight?" asked the man looking at the Minister.

Cloud quickly glanced around the room. Beautiful pieces of furniture were placed around it. Low fire burned in the corner. Cloud's attention was caught by a large window. She remembered the plants growing along the façade.

While she contemplated the plan, both men continued discussing her as if she wasn't there.

"Two of my guards can attest to it," said the Minister.

The short man turned to look at her again and raised a brow unconvinced.

"She is quite short and with that hair... why she looks just like a Flizer. Gar gar!" the man laughed.

His hand reached out for the girl and his fleshy fingers dug into her upper arm. This was as much as Cloud was willing to take. She dropped her old cloths and slammed her first into the man's fat abdomen and was out the window in a blink of an eye.

Somewhere behind her, she heard the fat man squeak.

It took her only a moment to realize that the window faced the main gate. Same gate as the one she had been brought in. Two guards stood with their backs turned toward the house, looking bored.

With haste, she climbed down the façade holding firmly onto the roots of the plants. She heard shouts from above and ignored them. Her brain was already thinking of the many different ways she could knock the guards out. But the moment of surprise passed as she was running across the court towards them. They turned to face her after hearing the shouts.

One of them didn't manage to pull out his fighting sticks, before she attacked him. He fell to his knees, shrieking and covering his face. She knocked him out cold and grabbed his stick. The other guard was now closing in on her, still slightly confused, but determined. He attacked first aiming for her head. She ducked and kicked the man as hard as she could in the gut. The guard immediately folded himself in two and she sprinted toward the gate which now stood wide open.

She almost smiled at how easy it had been and for a moment she dared to hope.

Yet, as she reached the gate, she bumped full speed into two boys. They were about her age and one of them was blond and the other dark haired. They were both emerged in a conversation and were playfully swinging around with their own fighting sticks. They were as surprised to see her and she was, and all three ended up rolling on the ground.

First to jump to her feet again and still slightly dizzy, running was all Cloud could think of. Yet the dark haired boy grabbed her by the ankle and she fell to the ground again. The blond boy in the meantime managed to get up. She kicked him first with her leg and then let the stick she still held in her hand strike his face. The impact threw him backwards.

Done with one, she swung at the other boy. The dark haired boy fared better at defending the blows and to her surprise was now attacking her. He held his stick firmly and was fast. She had to redouble her efforts to stand her ground. The blond boy appeared again to her right and only an unexpected elbow hit made him crumble to the ground again. This distraction cost her a painful hit on her right side, but she was too desperate to end the fight and flee to notice.

The dark haired boy was now pushing her further and further inside the gate.

"Who are you?" he asked her between the blows.

"Don't talk. Fight, shit-face!" she challenged him.

"What did you call me??!" his voice cracked like a child's.

He was not accustomed to being made light of, it was plain to her as daylight. Pride and arrogance was his weakness.

From all the street fights with the boys in her neighbourhood, Cloud knew that the one to keep anger at bay, wins. A few well-placed insults often achieved more than blows. And her time was running out. The others would be upon her any moment now.

"Shit-face. And a weakling! Getting your butt kicked by someone smaller than you!" She shouted.

Just as she expected, anger flashed in the boy's eyes.

"Guard your tongue!" he screamed high-pitched with indignation. He came up snarling and his movement grew clumsier the more angry force he applied.

And this was all she needed.

She attacked again which put him on the defense and he didn't even notice the blow coming for his leg. This brought him down to his knees. She was about to hit him in the face and knock him out, when the stick was roughly pulled out of her hands. Someone held her up by the back of her dress and she found herself dangling in the air. In the next instant, she was thrown on the ground as if she did not weight a thing, landing hard on her bottom.

The fight was over.

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