Borealis Fourteen - Nonsense, I'm Losing My Mind.

     Waves crashed onto the crushed diamond sand of the snow bleached beach, and snow flakes disintegrated with an ambiguous indifference that almost passed for normal weather. Erstwhile, the grass near the edge of the shore shown brightly with an effervescence of pearl and pleated globules, now gone dull, roundly unpleated, and purpley creme. Common perception defied itself, and Aurora sighed at the deep blue dome of weirdly blue sky above, glittered, though it was, with rubied bricks so far off as far could probably see.
     Oh, each step brought with it a silent cacophony ridiculous to the ears of those of whom no one used to hear. Aurora certainly didn't. She could not refrain, as though she was wont to do so oftenly so, from forcing her eyes to perceive the sky, how it encased her and bribed her soul into ignorant, puffy, and sandy solace. What was freedom but caged death in an open field, or, in this case, a closed beach?
     "What do you want from me?" Aurora asked, crying and laughing. "My body hurts. It bleeds internal, and I can't talk properly. Please, go say something! No one can hear me!"
     Five waves arched up and swirled at the beach. The water formed a tent tightly coned around Aurora's brain, and fire seeped out of its peaked mouth, the cone, not the brain. Although, Aurora's brain did burn as it ticked, clocking and quieting away at the bruises that surreality left at it. The girl felt drunk like a fog filled with shadows and pops, echoes and wants.
     Today was the day that the Lord had made. Quintessential, though it was, to imperfection that the day may exist. Aurora wanted gone. Pummels had pummeled her beach into submission, and water felt like falling in a desert, the winding so windy in the cold arches of city.
     "Girl hopes!" Aurora whisperdly yelled. "Girled hopes! Away, hold me! Blonde of hair hurt me! Protecting me? Hurt me!"
     The beach felt as though to be flying through the air, though nothing was different once the cone had come and gone. Waves crashed as they did before, and each color enhanced the calming ruby blue sky above. The grasses returned to its glows of jagged or flat globules. The world was calming down, and the beach was beginning to show the sky, the normal one. Sand became concrete, and bricks became buildings that stretched down from the heavens.
     A blonde girl bent over Aurora, face over face. "Good morning, my doll," she said. "At least, that's what my mother used to say."

Borealis Thirteen - I Got the Fuzzies

     Ember's chin was the first thing Aurora saw when she woke up. And, from what Aurora could tell, everything was slightly green and also very dark at the same time. It didn't make very much sense to her. Why was she waking up, again? It was starting to feel like the only thing she could do anymore was fall asleep and wake up.
     This time, consciousness brought with it an odd sensation that Aurora had never felt before, and it grew even more peculiar as the seconds passed. Aurora thought it was pain at first, but it didn't quite feel like pain. It almost tickled a little and made her body feel like mush. She wondered what would happen if she moved. She eventually tried, and when she did, her body shocked and tightened like a whip that had just been cracked. The tickling stopped, and a very high, shrill whisper then crawled from Aurora's lungs. Her body flinched involuntarily as well. She wanted to get her companion's attention, but no words wanted to come from her lips, and Ember remained oblivious to what was happening next to her.
     The fat man with the green eyes took a step forward and said, "Aurora!"
     "Aurora?" Ember said, confused. The girls had neglected to ever introduce themselves to one another. "Oh! Aurora!" She realized that the strange word was probably the girl's name. "Stay away from her. I know what you people do to each other out here!" Ember, aiming to guard her companion, slid over to what she thought was an empty spot in front of Aurora. However, it was actually the spot where Aurora's side was located.
     The hurried bump was not good for Aurora. In fact, it was incredibly excruciating. Her previous whisper of hurt left her, and an ear raking screech took its place, echoing up and down the city's walls.
     Ember jumped to her feet, startled now more than ever, screaming, "What?! I don't-- Aurora?!" She couldn't figure out how a little bump had garnered such a response from Aurora when entire buildings had elicited nothing from the girl.
     Suddenly, the fat man rushed over to the girls. The sight was threatening, to be sure, especially with the eerie green light the man carried with him, and had Ember been in her right mind after the screech, she might have stopped him, but it was better that she hadn't.
     "We need to get away from here. It's not safe," he said, his eyes focusing on Aurora, who was now frozen mid squirm, eyelids and teeth clenched tight. "The morning sun won't be waking up the denizens of Borealis today. They're already awake now, despite the gas." The man pulled up his sleeves and then reached into one of the pockets of his trench coat, retrieving from it a small sphere. "What I'm about to do will look very odd, but rest assured, Ember. I'm here to help Aurora."
     Ember, dumbfounded and full of panic, said, "Uh," again, wishing very much that her vocabulary and quick wit would stop abandoning her.
     The man turned his head toward Ember. "You're very unlike yourself today. You need more sleep or else this place is going to kill you." Then, he turned back to Aurora, knelt down, and squeezed the sphere over Aurora's head. "This will only take a second. As soon as it's done, and you'll know when it is, pick her up and follow me."
     "Okay," Ember said, brows furrowed.
     "Ready?" he said and dropped the sphere onto Aurora's forehead.
     The impact of the sphere produced no sound or any indication of an impact, really, and in a second, just as the man had said, the sphere had done its job. Ember didn't even see what happened since it had happened so quickly. One second, Aurora looked no different than she had before. The next, she was was covered in an ultra thin, transparent substance that encased her entire body. She no longer displayed signs of agony, either. Peace had overtaken her, and she was asleep again.
     Almost forgetting herself, Ember snapped to and grabbed up Aurora as the man had said. She was prepared to start running or jumping, but she noticed that the fat man with the green eyes wasn't moving like he was supposed to.
     The man grunted. "On second thought, just hold onto my shoulder. We don't want to risk harming her any further." And without waiting for Ember to do so on her own, the man plonked the girl's hand onto his shoulder.
     Had anyone been creeping nearby, they would have heard a snap. The green lit balcony switched back to darkness. A dark blue could be seen far above. The sun would soon rise above the horizon and illuminate the sky. The man and the girls had disappeared.

Borealis Twelve - Blinded by Fire

     "What do you want?" Ember asked the green eyes.
     The green eyes grew brighter in response, but the owner of the eyes said nothing. Green light, meanwhile, filled the balcony, cutting through the trace amounts of yellow smog that lingered in the dark morning air. More and more light flooded from the two eyes as Ember sat, making it easier for her to see who stood before her.
     A large, round belly covered in a tattered trench coat was the first notable feature the growing light revealed. Then came broad shoulders adorned with large, black feathers that stuck into the air. Last came a pair of extra long arms, most likely extended by the trench coat's length, and a pair of rather short legs that were dressed in baggy corduroy. The face, however, remained a mystery as the green eyes were now so bright that they masked any features hidden behind them.
     Ember shielded her eyes with the back of her hand. She couldn't take anymore of the light's intensity. "Well," she said. "What do you want to do besides that?"
     The lights immediately dimmed to a more bearable level. Ember brought down her hand and could see that the eyes were attached to a large gas mask. The figure continued to remain silent.
     Unamused, Ember sighed, "Is that all you can do? Turn your lights on and off and scare people?"
     The figure shifted its weight and coughed a very muffled cough.
     "Great."
     Then, what sounded like a chuckle from the inside of a full trash can escaped the figure. "Ember," it said in an equally canned, though obviously masculine voice.
     Completely baffled, Ember said the only thing she was capable of saying at that moment, "Uh." All other words left her brain. So, she sat there, staring at the fat man with the green eyes who knew her name. She didn't even notice that Aurora was beginning to wake up.

Borealis Eleven - Look at Me

     Fatigue soon overcame Ember, leaving her helpless to the tugs of sleep.
     Yellow closed her eyes, and yellow opened her dreams. Swirls flew everywhere. Swirls flew everywhere, and she fell, curving and banking against artificial lines of purple and beige. Tunnels ripped open from the nothing-- and she slid away from the somethings she feared. Light blinded and darkness caressed. Colors shouted their anger while Ember lit out her fire. All was burned, yet all did not. And pillars were not friends to no one but themselves. Even so, tears ran down the cheek of the girl who emitted fantasy. No safes could fail, and no danger could when...
     Ember suddenly woke up with a headache. The yellow smog that had surrounded her before appeared to have gone away, replaced by black. She could tell it was still there, however, as it was still hard to breath, and her eyes were stinging more than they had been before she had fallen asleep. From what she could tell, the city's lights had switched off, which probably meant that sunrise was not far off, she figured. Feeling around the darkness, Ember found Aurora, fast asleep as ever.
     "That doesn't do me any good," Ember said to herself. She massaged her forehead some, hoping it would help her headache. "At least I could see a little when the lights were on."
     Ember was starting to regret ever leaving the safety of her secret room. All of this could have been avoided if she had just stayed put. She was a foreigner in this world, and she had no idea how she was ever going to escape it at this rate. And, really, her plan had been simple: Go outside. Find the girl. Find out where the girl had found the champagne. Take the girl inside and see what she could do there. It was simple. How had it gotten so complex, she wondered.
     Ember rested her head in her hands. "I should have thought this through more," she said. "I can't even see my arms."
     Nothing responded to the girl's complaints except silence. There was something wrong with that, Ember realized. As far as she could remember, the city had been filled with constant noise ever since she had first set foot outside. Now, it was so quiet that she felt like she was back inside the city's walls.
     Silence. Then a click.
     Ember looked up. In the distance, she could see two green lights. There was another click, and the lights disappeared. Before she could stand up, the green lights came back on, this time without a click. They were closer. They looked like eyes. Then, off they went again. Aurora stirred in her sleep. Ember jumped and turned toward the unexpected sound beside her.
     Silence.
     A footstep.
     Ember snapped her head in the direction of the newest sound. Again, she saw green eyes, perfect circles. This time only a few feet away from her.

Borealis Ten - Funtastic Gymnastics

     Ember's eyes watered, and she strained to see what was ahead of her. She could just barely make out Aurora's frame as it catapulted from unseen ledge to unseen ledge, and she had to hope that when she landed after a jump that it was on the same exact spot Aurora had just left behind. The polluted, yellow air further down into the city's depths was next to ridiculous, Ember thought. And, if it wasn't bothering her eyes, then it was certainly giving her lungs a fit. Ember didn't know what she was going to do if she fell down or lost track of Aurora. The girl she had only just met really had no reason whatsoever to find her if she ever lost her. Aurora was only doing Ember a favor out of sheer curiosity. Then again, sheer curiosity was also the only reason why Ember had sought out the Roof Rat in the first place. Life was funny that way, she figured.
     "Hey!" Ember called out. "Think we could slow down a bit? I can barely see you!"
     Suddenly, life wasn't very funny anymore as Ember watched Aurora smack her shoulder against a large pipe and flop awkwardly away from the destination she had been soaring to. The next thing Ember knew, she was chasing after Aurora's limp, descending body.
     "No! I'm the one who's supposed to fall," Ember screamed at Aurora. It had been tough enough following someone who knew where they were going. It was something else entirely to follow someone who didn't seem to know that they were going anywhere at all. "Dammit! Why aren't you doing anything? Jump! Do something! Grab onto a ledge!" Ember was desperate, struggling as she barely managed to follow her own advice. "You live out here for crying out loud! Don't you know how to fall properly?"
     Aurora's body was fading from sight and would soon be lost to Ember forever. Fortunately, a pipe twice the size of the one from before jumped out of the thick yellow air and caught the majority of Aurora's body. Unfortunately, the girl stopped moving for no more than a second before she slid off the pipe, falling once more.
     At least I'm closer to her now, Ember thought. But, how the hell do I know the pipe didn't kill her?
     The answer to that question didn't seem to matter much to reality. Aurora's body continued to collide with the various odds and ends that jutted out of the buildings she fell between, and each successive hit sent her twirling in one direction or another. Ember wondered if this was God's cruel way of being helpful. After what seemed like much longer than thirty seconds, Ember finally managed to close the gap between her and Aurora and grabbed a hold of Aurora's arm with one hand, thankfully, right as she latched onto a gnarled ladder with the other. The abrupt stop jolted Ember and made her feel as though she had been ripped in two. She groaned and winced and looked around for a place to set down the girl she had just rescued. Next to her, she could just make out a large balcony that looked inviting enough. So she swung Aurora's body as best she could amidst the pain and flung the girl toward the balcony. Aurora crashed onto the surface of the balcony's floor and rolled to a stop, her face down to the ground. Ember soon followed, landing with much more grace than her companion had.
     Sore and exhausted, Ember walked over to Aurora and turned her over onto her back, hoping to find an unconscious girl who was still breathing, at least somewhat. But that wasn't exactly what she found. The Roof Rat was still breathing, sure, but she was doing something much more interesting than that. She was snoring, and doing so with the most peaceful looking face Ember had ever seen.

Borealis Nine - Talking Hands

     "So, where is it that you come from?" Aurora asked Ember as they leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Nighttime had finally arrived, and the sky was filled with pollution curated neon, the same as any night.
     "Are you serious?" said Ember.
     Embarrassed, Aurora looked over at the new "friend" next to her who was sailing across the same huge gap as she was with the same fearlessness she had. Granted, Ember was trailing Aurora ever so slightly, but it was apparent that the girl was rather tired.
     Ember hadn't noticed Aurora's look. Still, she responded, Aurora thought, as though she had. "Come on. I'm from the inside. I mean, have you ever even seen anyone else like me out here before?"
     They landed on the next building, hard. So it took Aurora a moment to gather her breath. "Not exactly," she said, breathing heavily. "But you certainly move like someone who lives out here. It's just that... I've never seen someone from the inside before. So, I wasn't sure. Granted, my first instinct was--"
    "The instinct you should have gone with?" Ember said with a smirk. "Listen, I can tell you're a pretty savvy girl. Otherwise, you wouldn't have made it out here for as long as you have. Trust me. I watch you guys a lot."
     "Really?"
     "Yeah, and I'm surprised those guys hadn't killed you by the time I got to them."
     "I can certainly agree with you there."
     Aurora remembered how she had failed to escape the Riser Dogs that morning. She then remembered how a bunch of glass and a puddle of champagne had prevented her escape. Suddenly, the palm of her left hand began to throb. Aurora had somehow managed to not notice or even remember the wound up until now. Of course, she hadn't really needed her hands for anything since she and Ember had been doing little more than running and jumping ever since they had met, but she would need the use of her hands again soon, as they were closing in on the place where they needed head down into the city, to the streets below. Aurora winced. That was not going to be a pleasant process. At least she had been through worse before. So, it wasn't going to be terrible.
     "Are we there yet?" Ember said, snapping Aurora back to reality.
     "What? Are we there yet?" Aurora laughed, trying to distract herself from the pain. It wasn't working. "We only just started. However, we won't be up here much longer."
     "Going down I take it?"
     "Yes. See that tall building we're approaching?" A building ahead of them stood slightly taller than any of the other buildings the two girls had traversed so far. "Once we're over that, we're going to start going straight down, keeping between the tall building and the one in front of it."
     Ember nodded. "Sounds good to me."
     "One thing, though. You need to fall back behind me a little more once we clear that building. There won't be enough room for two people on some of the things we'll have to jump on."
     "Fun."
     No, Aurora thought, it wasn't going to be fun. Her hand was hurting more and more by the second. And as they made their way up the tall building, Aurora had to bite her lip so as not to give away that she was hurting as badly as she was. An obvious Roof Rat was a dead Roof Rat, as far as she was concerned, even at night.
     Ember, however, had a knack for noticing things that she wasn't supposed to notice. "Are you gonna be alright?" She asked. "That hand of yours is looking pretty nasty."
     "I'm fine!" Aurora said, surprisingly abrupt in her tone. "Now stay behind me."
     They had reached the top of the building they needed to climb over. Quiet for once, Ember did as she was told, and the girls soon began their descent down into the bottom of the city. As she followed Aurora, Ember wondered what she had said to upset the outsider. It took a mysterious girl to smile at unnecessary sarcasm and scowl at legitimate concern. Then again, Ember wasn't exactly accustomed to the ways of the outsiders.

Borealis Eight - Coy Crossings

     "Show me where you found that bottle of champagne," Ember said to Aurora as she lifted the girl back onto the rooftop. "You're not supposed to have that. No one's supposed to have that, but, yet, you have it. Or, rather, you had it."
     Aurora noted a slight flicker in Ember's eyes that denoted interest and glee over the curt, half angry tone the girl was using to address her. When Aurora first found the bottle of champagne the day before, she had known that it was going to draw her some unwanted attention, nothing she couldn't have handled, she'd thought, but certainly not this much attention.
     Sitting on the roof now, Aurora made herself comfortable and rested her hands in her lap. "Well," she said thoughtfully. "I suppose I could show you."
     "Good," Ember said. "Then, let's go."
     "But..." Aurora stood up. "As you suggested, I know not of who you are, nor do I know where you come from." She began to slowly walk a circle around the strange blonde girl. "You have an odd way of conducting yourself, and none of your motives are apparent to me. Do you even know why you threatened to drop me off the side of the building?"
     No response, only a stare that followed Aurora without blinking.
     Aurora stopped. "You are odd."
     "And you're a healthy looking girl that's never seen an ounce of trouble in her life." Ember smirked, breaking from her serious tone. "And you're as dumb as a rock."
     A smile worked its way onto Aurora's face. She liked this girl. She was not boring at all. What a breath of fresh air. Aurora was so used to the way the people of the four factions always dealt with her, directly and obviously. Ember liked Aurora, too. It had been quite a while since she had come across anyone who was even remotely intelligent. She just hadn't expected Aurora to sound so smart. There were no schools, let alone teachers and books, on the city's outside, after all. Flummoxed, both girls stood in amazement of one another, wondering what the other was going to say or do next.
     Meanwhile, the sun had almost completely disappeared from the sky by this point, and the city's lights were beginning to flicker on. Below, factories were growling their way into animation and the streets were gorging themselves with the pollution that would later float its way into the night sky. It wouldn't be long now before the factions rested their dirty heads on the concrete of Borealis and took their leave of the day, and the Business Types would soon begin lifting their heads from their criminally soft pillows only to drone their way into their night's day. How funny it was, then, that Ember suddenly had to stifle a yawn as Aurora simultaneously widened her eyes in response to the energy rising up inside of her.
     The irony of the situation was not lost on the girls. So, Ember cocked her head to one side and said, "Friends?"

Borealis Seven - Curiousity Hangs

     Evening crept in, as did the oranges, yellows, and purples it often carried with it, pulling away the clear blue of the daytime's sky to make room for the night's dark. Aurora dangled from the side of a tall building. A hand held her left ankle. It was the only thing that prevented her from meeting the filthy streets below. Aurora stared down at these streets. They were about as boring as her day had been, at least in her opinion. She had slept through most of the day, after all, and the parts that had been punctuated by consciousness had been far too violent and haphazard for her liking.
     Aurora looked up, bored with the view below, and saw Ember, a short, blonde headed girl who had clean, white clothes on, not to mention a clean face with a clean head of hair. Now, that was something interesting, indeed. What faction could she possibly belong to? She was short enough to be a Roof Rat, tough enough to be a Riser Dog, quiet enough to be a Sun Cat, and clever enough to be a Grounder Bird. Aurora didn't know quite what to make of the girl.
     "You're probably wondering what or who the hell I am," Ember said, glaring down at Aurora with a slight smirk. "Well, I'm obviously not going to tell you anything out here..." She glanced behind her at the fleeing Riser Dogs she had just beaten away. "Too many ears..."
     Out here? What did she mean by "out here," Aurora wondered. She couldn't think of a single "in here" that they could even go to on the rooftops of Borealis. Of course, it was entirely possible that this girl was a Business Type, which would explain her cleanliness, but there had never been a known instance of a Business Type emerging from within the city walls to explore the outside of the city ever. Then again, Aurora thought, how on earth could any of the four factions on the outside know that any sort of people existed on the inside if no one had ever seen someone from the inside before? It didn't add up.

Borealis Six - Bad Zephyrs

     Wind. Wind lashed and howled itself around Aurora's face, pulling and tugging, waking her up as it curved around her body and tattered her hair. All vision was blurred as though in a blended, mixed up, drunken stupor that was still spinning. Smells darted this way and that way and all the way up into Aurora's olfactory, reminding her that she had fallen to the Riser Dog's wrangle. She had lived... But how she had lived, she knew not! And, were it not for the speed that she traveled in the arms of the Dogs, she could have sussed out the answers she asked of calamity.
     Oh, and buildings and buildings were going up and plummeting down. The Riser Dogs bounded from roof top to roof top, never maintaining a straight line for fear that the other factions of the city would notice their rare live catch. If the Dogs thought Aurora special, then certainly she was. Certainly, she could be learned from. And, certainly, she could be toyed with. Hence, the Riser Dogs needed to deliver their catch as soon as possible. They needed to know what their leader, Sheer Wolf, might discern from this Roof Rat's exploits. They needed to know if her information could help them find a way into the buildings that caged their clan in the open air.
     Sadly, what they needed and what they wanted were two entirely different things. From Ember's perspective, the four leaping figures she saw didn't need Aurora at all. They just wanted her. Yes, it was really Ember who needed the girl, and she aimed to take her. So, down she went onto the Riser Dog pack. And, down Aurora went from the Riser Dogs' hands. A fight then ensued, and Aurora was won.

Borealis Five - Yester's Eve

     Ember pressed her face against the window and stared at the girl who was sleeping outside. She noticed that the girl had a giant champagne bottle lying next to her. "Where did she get that?" Ember wondered. The Unfortunate Ones had no access to such items. The Business Types had made sure of that fact. Every room inside Borealis' buildings was airtight. Every window was one way, allowing the Business Types to keep constant watch over the Unfortunate Ones. And every door and every gateway on the outside of the buildings opened up to nothing more than a metal wall. All of the real doors were hidden, and the Unfortunate Ones had no knowledge of this cruel truth thanks to the robots the Business Types had built to guard the false doors and gateways.
     "Maybe we can be friends," Ember said to herself as she watched Aurora sleep. "I had no idea there was anyone out there like me." She removed her face from the window, brushed her short, blonde hair behind her ears, and walked over to the door of the small, empty room she was in. "Time to get busy."
     Without a sound, Ember slipped out of the small room and shut the door. She then traced her finger along the lines of the door's frame, activating a hologram that made the door appear as though it were just another part of the wall. Once she was content that no one had seen what she had done, she made her way down the hallway and disappeared.

Borealis Four - Pillars and Folly

  
     It was the champagne bottle shattering next to her head and the spray of wasted alcohol that finally pulled Aurora away from her dreams. Above her stood four dark figures, their bodies silhouettes in front of the freshly risen sun. The figures swayed back and forth ever so slightly on the balls of their feet, their toes slanted up, pointing into the air. Aurora had a feeling that these were the Riser Dogs come to punish her for staying out in the sunlight for too long. She had never been this close to a group of them before, as she was usually very good at keeping her distance from them, but she knew all the same that she had to act very quickly, faster than she had ever acted before, if she wished to escape them. Only a few Roof Rats, to Aurora's knowledge, had managed to evade the Riser Dogs over the years, and they all said the same thing, "Do not let their toes touch the ground. If that happens, you are as good as dead."
     Fear filled every vessel, vein, and artery of Aurora's body. Her blood boiled and steamed adrenaline, and every sense shut down in order to send more power to sight. Aurora was ready to make her move. The Riser Dogs were still on the balls of their feet. The sun was high, and the champagne glistened. And the champagne... Aurora had forgotten about the champagne. She had forgotten about the bottle's destruction, about the sound it had made, about the sound that had woken her up. And so, Aurora reached out blindly, her eyes fixated on the Dog closest to her, and set her left hand down upon the surface of the roof, shifting her weight to the support of her hand as she went. It would have been a good first move, too, had the shards of glass and the puddle of champagne not rested between her hand and the roof's surface. Every shard, big and small, pushed into Aurora's palm as though fingers into the softest bread dough. Blood soon found its way out of the punctures and into the champagne and glass. Had it been up to Aurora, she would have soldiered on despite her sudden and unexpected pain, but the slickness of the champagne and blood and the cold sting of the glass and alcohol was too much. She had slipped.
     The sway of the Riser Dogs ceased, and their toes came down. They lunged. They grabbed. And they pulled. They did not, however, hit or harm. It was all very confusing. The world was a blur of dirty, tan muscles, dark green clothes, and blue sky to Aurora. Somewhere in the midst of it all, a hand emerged holding a sickly yellow, damp cloth. The cloth pressed against Aurora's mouth and nostrils, and the last thing she heard before she fell asleep once more was, "Where the hell did she find that bottle?"

Borealis Three - Neo Crow

     Silence. The deafening sound that permeates the morningscape of each and every day in Borealis. It pricks the ears of the Unfortunate Ones, whispering, "The Sun has gone up to sleep in the sky, and the Moon has gone down to work in the earth below. What say you to a day of jamboree?" And each of the four walks of the city arise from their slumber to honor the silence, noting the absence of the nighttime factories' hum by saying nothing. Orange, meanwhile, bathes everyone and everything, the Sun's light the true instigator of consciousness.
     A Grounder Bird cries out from Balderdash Alley, sharing the good news that silence needn't hold the morning captive any longer. "Pray," he says. "Pray for the jubilant jamboree!" On the next level up, the stomps of the Riser Dogs clang out and echo, ensuring that no other soul dare lie in dreams, lest they suffer the bite of a Riser Dog wrangle. And, from all corners of the city, Sun Cats sing at the shadows cast from the sunrise's ascent. Their song proclaiming the city's approaching warmth:

"O, Shadows shallow on your fallowed gallows,

travel o'er the graveled graces, sing to me your addled places.

Leave me from, the eaves they come, death to all, to all the dumb!"

     Quickly, the Roof Rats scurry to their hiding places. Their squeaks of fear drawing the routine of Borealis' dawn to a close. Pure daylight then covers the city in warmth, the warmth warned of by the Sun Cats' song. For sunlight often calls out to those who wish to cause harm. No soul is safe out from under the shadows' blanket.
     It would not be a good day for Aurora, in that case. Too much champagne had gone into her system the night before. So, she lay there, that day, asleep as the shadows retreated from her body. Had she any luck, the stomps of the approaching Riser Dogs would rouse her in time enough.

Borealis Two - Holy Dichotomy

  
     Harsh realities are not unlike ice cubes in the desert melting from the evaporate cloven rays of the uncaring sun. Such realities cause perception to lose its shape, to flood whatever surface rests beneath it, permeating the consciousness as though the consciousness were the surface below the ice cube, a surface made of sea sponge, rich with bitter salt. Welcome to the mindset of Aurora's day life, far removed from the melancholy bliss of her alcohol soaked night life in the sky. Nothing is real in the same moment that it truly is, a world of violence and heat.
     And no other mindset exists under the sun of Borealis. First light in the city awakens not only Aurora but thousands like her. Roof Rats and Riser Dogs, Sun Cats and Grounder Birds. They are the Unfortunate Ones, the people with no building to call home, no family to bond them. Once the moon rises, Borealis comes alive with joy and prosperity for the Business Types, those who built the city. For the Unfortunate Ones, the moon only brings nightmare infested sleep after a brief, evening calm. Most dream in amplifications of the horrors their day saw: attempting to survive while the rich and prosperous slept below, their gates and their walls and their robots keeping the Unfortunate Ones out of the safe all Business Types dream in. Aurora often wondered how such calm could rest its head without conviction under the frantic feet of the mania above it.
     The answer? Where conviction is absent, thought is likewise. So, it is true, then, that no other mindset exists under the sun of Borealis. The Business Types could almost be dead at their lack of thought if it were not for their potential to ignorantly verb themselves into being at night. They have no mindset, which makes their reality the unmelted ice cube. It is alone, cold, and contained. It never changes, and it never spreads itself thin enough to become something different. However, the Unfortunate Ones will become something different. As their reality melts into the sponge below, their chaos will unify and become something manageable. The salt in the sponge will preserve them and give them identity, and from pain, there will be growth.

Borealis One - Kaleidoscope Sweets

     

     Aurora looked up into the neon night sky of Borealis, an aging city of shadows and blacks, these darks the horrible nothings that encased the vibrant, yet deathly lit, electronic colored advertisements decorating the city's metal and glass clothing. Stars abounded the heavens, and every drop of the rainbow was represented in their ancient star shine. Although breathtaking to behold, the beauty of the sight was little more than a grand lie spawned from the ceaseless pollution that sweated up from the streets and factories below. Aurora breathed it all in with a sigh. This wretched city of Borealis was her home. It was her comfort and the place she loved.

     In her hands Aurora held a large bottle of the sweetest champagne a Roof Rat like herself could come by on a night like that night. Which is to say, it was a night unspecial to any other. It was normal, and, thus, all she had managed to obtain was an average bottle of champagne containing only the minimum required amount of sweet a person ever really needs in a drink. But to Aurora, the near potable, alcoholic substance she grasped was unique, as was the night before her. It had been an arduous day, and of course it was the difficult things that Aurora often found boring. So, how pleasant an idea it was to sit on the edge of the second tallest building in the city and gaze up upon the celestial, studded, neon crown painted above Borealis' most absurd building. After a swig from her bounty, Aurora felt the hug of peace embrace her. All was right in her world.

     Soon, the warmth of slumber and the chaos of dreams covered Aurora's eyes and lulled her consciousness into the next day, yet another rough day that would make the mundane of her night feel like the grandest treasure God had to offer.