Borealis Twenty Four - Dancer

     Bodies congealed. Then bodies revealed, and rainbows fantastic in abundance-- Bliss walked, bobbed eternal, but reality tripped, glowering infernal, robust with flattened, finite attitudes. On top, a music blared ins and outs-- its ways and wants from the speakers adjusted by the hands of the uncaring and the frivolous and quaint. Elsewhere, people slept far further down, downed until they waked, and harder workers worked harder down still with no future rewards in sight, just tedious delirium and sadness.
     Meanwhile, the hot sun had long since set itself once again, its glowing creeping deep below the dusty horizoned windowsill of the lone Borealis, a city looked awkwardly out from but not deservedly in, until now. And there, from a small screen in a dimly lit room, there displayed before the girls-- a monotonous dance of the aforementioned. Men at computers, scientists at imagining, and people, the real Business Types, the ones of whom lacked all business, strutted and bopping to a miserable beat whacked-pulsating with apathy and an adulterated love for the monotonous. Incessance.
     Aurora leaned forward, closer to the screen. "What are they doing?" she said.
     Ember coughed. "Dancing." Cleared her throat. "Looks dumb, huh?"
     Aurora scrunched her face. "A little." And she watched a little while longer.
     Everyone was touching and bumping into each other. And... everyone looked intoxicated, at least on some stretched out paramount level of obfuscation that lacked importance, perhaps something manufactured to replicate a sharp, loathsome pheromone traditionaly released deep within the depths of desperation.
     "Ember?"
     "Yeah?"
     "Is this part of 'Mirage' as well?"
     The girl scratched her head. "Probably," she answered. "Anything that can disorient is fair game within that thing, uh..." She thought for a moment. "Whatever it is..."
     Ember found it difficult to formulate her thoughts properly. The dance moves were sucking them in, too. The heat waves and the emotions contained within the moving pictures the girls watched... The substances involved... they moved them too, distracting them, but the girls felt something else, something different. They felt pity. They had both experienced the taste of the truths in their lives, and the girls had both had inklings of the greatnesses tickled into their big hearts and full brains, their soft souls and darker thoughts. It was the same warmth the girls had experienced atop the discovery of new things, whether through their two plates of cold eggs or some articulated, stale carbon cups of space age turquoise juice.
     Aurora felt gassy. The juice hadn't set very well with her. "Ember?"
     "Hm?"
     "Have you ever, um..." she trailed off, distracted again. "Have you ever asked Garnet about 'Mirage' before?"
     Fed up, Ember shut off the blurry, colored video screen they had both been looming over for far too long. "Not exactly," she yawned. "But I did hear it from him once."
     Curious, Aurora spurted out, "Oh yeah?"
     "Yeah, and get this. He's not fat or an outsider either. He's blonde and skinny."
     Aurora threw-up a splash of bluey space age goo. Her drink from before. "What?!"

Borealis Twenty Three - Fretting Fullers, Lies & Lions

     "You are inside Borealis, Howl," a man said through an invisible loud speaker. "Killer." He chuckled.
     It was just another white room that lacked all depth and definition after the sudden flurry of images had dissipated. Silent tears trickled down Howl's cheeks. His brain was in pieces, and his heart had beat itself into submission. The boy tried to speak again but could only produce squeaks.
     Another chuckle through the loud speaker. "I'm surprised you don't recognize my voice," the man said. His voice was smug. "No matter, though. You're a smart boy. You'll figure it out before too long."
     Howl blinked, severing a stream of tear drops from their source.
     "You're physical condition is astounding. So much vitality for a boy your age. Do you know how many bone fractures you've suffered in the past three years? Twenty-nine. They've all healed rather well. So... you are lucky in that regard." The man paused. "However, the index of your muscle mass and the rate of its growth, or fluctuation, indicate that you may experience some amount of height irregularity, i.e. you're growth will be stunted. So, get used to your current stature."
     The boy held his breath. He was trying very hard to locate the source of the man's voice. It was difficult, given the acoustics of the room, however large it was.
     "Not that it will be a problem. Your height is perfect for the conditions you've been forced to live in." Howl could almost hear a smile curving the meaning of the man's words. "You know, I was the one who selected you to become a Riser Dog, both you and your father."
     Had Howl not already been holding his breath, he would have stopped breathing just then. The information he was being fed made little sense to him. What did the man mean? Everyone in Howl's pack could say that they had been present at Howl's birth, that Howl's father had been the alpha of their pack for nearly twenty years.
     "I can see the look on your face. Incredulous. Now, don't go believing everything you remember. The human brain is very insufficient in terms of recording witnessed history. There are so many inaccuracies over time. Your mind reconstructs or removes people from your memories whenever it wants. You have no control. Their clothes change. Their actions. Their motivations. People say one thing. You thought they meant another. What's true is the present. It cannot lie. It's fresh the second you experience it. The second after, unfortunately, is of little to no use. It's become past. Yet we cling to it... For, what else do we have?" The man was talking in circles to confuse the boy. "So, listen to me. I am not here to lie to you. I am here to enlighten you, Howl... Killer." More chuckles.
     The room went dark again in order to subject Howl to more crazy images, but Howl had located the source of the man's voice while the man had been talking. And, when the lights had gone out, Howl had seen, for a split second before the images had blocked his field of vision, a man standing behind a high-up window, inside of a small room, leaning over a microphone, his back arched and his arms braced against whatever it was that was supporting the microphone.
     Images of men and women in long, white coats creating balls and blocks of oranges, reds, and yellows contorted around Howl's body as he thought about what he had just seen. The boy raised a hand to see if he could touch one of the images circling around him. His fingers cut right through, and he felt nothing. The images, however, flushed red and changed over to flashes of violence and death the instant his fingers made contact. It was disturbing, but Howl had seen worse.
     Unsure of what else to do, the boy took a deep breath and shrugged. "They don't call me 'Killer' for nothing," he said to himself.
     The next thing he knew, he was running, the images were behind him, and before long, he could make out the features on the man's face.
     The man laughed. "Good. Very good," he said.

Borealis Twenty Two - Crumpled Heat

     Red light. Blood walls. The color. Howl was scared. The screeching, the flashing. Pulsating, highly audible and visible pain. It wouldn't stop. Everything had been white. Then. The hatch closed behind him. Above him. He had come from the ceiling. The desert. Pain. No sky. Pain. No wind. Stale air. Ears hurting. Howl clutched his ears. He never wanted to let them go. His head began to pound. He closed his eyes tighter and tighter and began to grimace. What was happening?
     Though full of flashing red light, the room lacked definition, save the ladder leading back up to the closed hatch. To the desert. To serenity. Nature. And concrete. Howl wanted out. He started running, tears leaking from his eyes at pain. He couldn't even hear his own feet frantically slapping against the ground. Why was there no sky? Keep running. Trip. Why was there no dust? The boy lay flat on the ground. Thought. I have to get up. Action. Crawling. Walking. Running. Defeating.
     Howl was angry. Rage was building. The more he felt, the less pain hurt. Sound was drowning out from the beat of his own heart. The flashing blurring into violent pink. Escape was becoming clearer as he lost control of his emotions. His brain overriding his senses. He no longer thought. He acted.
     He didn't see the wall. He didn't know there was a door. He wasn't expecting change. First his shoulder, then his torso and head. The door flung open into a dark hallway. Howl kept running. He didn't hear the siren becoming faint as he fled the pain room. Blue lasers shot from the wall and scanned his body as he ran down the hall. They beeped, one by one, as he passed. Ahead, green lights in a grid above an archway lit up. One by one. Howl's rage was about to break. Sweat poured from his glands and mixed into the sand all over his body. The touch of nature. He could feel it. Cooling down his body. He could comprehend parts of reality again. The pain had almost completely gone away. Only ringing remained. A headache would soon follow.
     The rage broke as soon as the boy cleared the archway. All eight lights green inside the grid. A door slid shut with a wisp and a click. Pitch black. But. Howl could see himself perfectly. Tears welled up inside his eyelids, waiting to spill. So much confusion. So much for a boy his age. Even for a boy who was said to have killed. Killer. He wasn't one in that moment. He wasn't even a Riser Dog. Just a child. A child who wanted the love of his mother. The protection of his father. The boy had neither. He had to be Howl. Killer had to be him. He needed bravery. He summoned it. But still a boy. It only did so much.
     The new room filled with images. People sleeping in beds. Mechanical arms monitoring glowing boxes lined with buttons and switches. Children being stuffed into bags. Adults dancing, looking half dead. Humans operating machinery. No one, a smile. All glazed. All working for nothing. More dancing. Men and women in handsome clothing, clean cut and smug. Handshakes. Green paper. Grounder Birds. Riser Dogs. Sun Cats. Roof Rats. Children plugged into walls. Lights turning red. Bulbs flashing green. Pens checking paper.
     Howl. "Where am I?"

Borealis Twenty One - Perpendiculars in Parallel

     Ember smiled, "Yup, I was right behind you." She walked over to Aurora's side and looked out at the city along with her friend. "If it hadn't been for that champagne bottle of yours, I probably would have never noticed you."
     "You think so?" Aurora asked, somewhat rhetorically.
     "Yeah. I mean, you're lucky it wasn't more than just me and those guys--"
     "The Riser Dogs?"
     "Yeah, who noticed you. You know," Ember turned to face Aurora, but the city girl kept her face planted against the window. "You never did tell me where you got that bottle from."
     Sounding somewhat bored with Ember's question, the city girl responded, "Garnet."
     "What?"
     "Garnet. I got it from Garnet. He gave it to me. He gives me all sorts of things."
     Aurora watched the activity going on outside on the various visible roofs and buildings, partially glad that she wouldn't have to deal with the stresses of the outside for once, partially sad that she wasn't in between those stresses roaming the city with the wind in her hair. The air inside the city felt so stale. "Hey, Ember," she said.
     Ember was lost in thought.
     "Ember?"
     "Hm? Yeah?"
     "If you didn't know what eggs were until today, how did you know what champagne was when you saw me?"
     Ember walked away from the window to the back of the room. "We actually have that here."
     "You do? Why would you have that and not eggs?"
     "Eggs don't help you feel better."
     Aurora turned away from the window. "Feel better? How does champagne make you feel better. It just makes me sleepy."
     "That's just it. It makes you feel different. It numbs you and makes you forget about life for a little while. Isn't that why you drink it?"
     Bored again, the city girl turned back to her city, and said, "I suppose so. I've never really thought about it much. I just hate dreaming."
     The girls had been so excited a few moments ago. Now they both felt so tired, like they had used up all of their emotions in one go. It seemed boredom was the only thing that they could feel with any enthusiasm after going through everything that they had been through. They were thirsty too. So that was something outside of boredom that they could feel. Garnet hadn't had anything to drink on hand when they had eaten breakfast that morning, which was somewhat ironic, considering what had led them to be in his presence, at least in a round about way.
     Ember waved her hand in front of one of the white tiles on the wall perpendicular to the room's window. The tile pixelated away and revealed a cold, cloudy cubby that was self lit and glowing with a light pulse. Ember waved away another tile, the one directly below the cubby. Hidden there were a couple silver knobs and a dozen brass buttons on a black panel. There was a screen as well, black like the panel and filled with green, electronic lettering that changed with each button press. After a few minutes, Ember decided on a button combination and turned one of the knobs. A glass door slid over the front of the cubby, and the cubby slowly filled with white, puffy smoke. The smoke swirled around as it entered, pulling closer to the center of the machine as it spun. Within seconds, it congealed together and hardened, forming two glasses. Green and blue liquids then poured from the roof of the cubby, mixing together inside the two glasses to create a vibrant sort of glowing turquoise. Once the glasses were filled, the glass door slid away, Ember reached inside and grabbed the glasses, and then walked back over to her friend's side.
     "Thirsty?" she said.
     Her friend didn't respond, but there was an odd expression on her face, one that suggested dread and confusion.
     Ember moved closer to Aurora, "Are you okay?"
     The city girl swallowed nervously, "How are we here?"
     "What do you mean? We walked here. Garnet--"
     "No, I mean how are we here if the building I was sitting on, the one right there, is the second tallest building in Borealis?"
     Ember didn't understand. "Well, shouldn't this one be the tallest, then?" she asked.
     Aurora shook her head. "No. It shouldn't. Because that one is." She pointed at a building off in the distance that towered far above everything else in the city. "I was staring at it the night you saw me, and I certainly don't remember there ever being anything behind me that night. No building. Only sky."
     "Here." Ember tapped her foot on the floor twice, and a small, waist high cylinder emerged from the floor where she had tapped. She set down the glasses on the cylinder and turned her full attention to where her friend was pointing. "Well," she said. "That building does appear to be level with this one. Maybe it's one of those buildings. If it is, I can't believe I've never noticed it before."
     Placing her index fingers about two feet away from each other, both above and below Aurora's pointing finger, Ember drew a nearly perfect circle around Borealis' tallest building. The second the circle was finished, the entire window went black, with the exception of what was inside the circle. Aurora gasped and jumped back. Ember laughed and pinched the center of the remaining piece of visible window. Just like a camera, the window began to zoom in on the building off in the distance. In less than a minute, the girls could see the side of the city's tallest building as though it were only five feet in front of them.
     Ember looked over at her friend, who was now sweating, smirked and said, "Mirage." She turned back to the window and saw in it what she expected to find. Herself and her friend staring right back at her.

Borealis Twenty - Adroit Anomalies

     The long, metal hallway was purple and cold. Aurora didn't like it. It was too small and cramped. Where was the sky? Why was it so dark?
     Ember walked along in front, quiet and cautious. "You okay?" she said, looking back, a faint echo following her words.
     "I'm fine," Aurora lied. Her new clothes were too tight.
     "Loosen up, will ya?" Ember said with a slight smirk. "The goal is not to stick out." She thought for a moment. "Not that that's really achievable given that there are no records of you ever living here. Your name isn't on file. Your face--"
     "I thought you said you watched us somehow, even though you're in here. Doesn't that mean other people watch us too, people that know my face?" Aurora said as she tugged at her white shirt and pants with some futility, hoping that they would suddenly free up and stop clinging to her so snugly.
     "Yeah... I guess." Ember turned back around. "I just mean that you're not supposed to be in here, which is sort of 'duh,' right? People can't hide stuff like that with new clothes and a hair brush."
     That was of little comfort to Aurora. "Then what do we do?"
     Ember was silent. "Um," she started. "I never really thought that far ahead. I just wanted to meet you." Ember sighed. "And, it didn't help that Garnet practically forced us through that false wall. What was he thinking anyway?" She threw her hands in the air. "Oh no! A little boy's coming to get us! Oooo!"
     The girls walked on for a few minutes, mostly listening to each other breath. Their footsteps were largely muted by their rubber soled shoes. Aurora wasn't used to shoes either. She very well might have been better off as a new born, pigeon toed duckling. Her movement and posture was almost as awkward, and she wouldn't have looked so much like someone from the desert had she actually been a duckling. Aurora frowned.
     At the end of the hall was the only light the girls could see, and it was the one responsible for all the purple in the hallway. The closer the girls got, the more white the bulb and its light seemed to become. Next to the light, on the right, was a rusted metal door. Aurora didn't like the look of it. Perhaps it led to an even smaller and darker place. She shivered. The thought of it was absolutely dreadful to her.
     Ember, unaware of her friend's fear, started talking again. "Really," she said. "I thought you would have been left shivering on the floor by now."
     "Because it's cold?"
     "No. You have to be claustrophobic on some level, I'd imagine."
     She was. She didn't know the word, however, but she was. Had it not been in her nature to mask any weakness, even around those she trusted, she probably would have just collapsed into shivers upon entering the hallway. She was beginning to have some difficulty breathing as it was... Despite the look of the door and her concerns about it where it might lead, she just wanted something to open up this hallway and give her some more space.
     At the door, the girls stopped and looked at one another. Aurora gave Ember a sheepish smile, but Ember didn't see it in Aurora's silhouette. The silly Roof Rat was standing right in front of the now purplish white light. Ember, rolling her eyes and showing yet another halfway amused smirk, put her hands on the door's wheel handle and turned. It opened with little fuss or force and with almost no squinging or screeching to accompany it.
     "Huh. Wasn't expecting that, " Ember said drollfully.
     They both walked through the door, Ember first and Aurora second. The door closed lightly behind them.
     "Huh. Wasn't expecting that either."
     Before them stretched another hallway, this time well lit, nearly too well lit for the poor outside girl who had never seen artificial light before. The hall was wide, littered with closed doors and intersections, and the end of the hallway wasn't even visible. This was a new source of stress for Aurora.
     She looked over to her friend who had by now gone forward a few steps. "What do we do now?"
     Ember shook her head. "I don't believe it. I can't believe we're just right here."
     "What?" Aurora was confused and starting get a headache from all the fluorescent lighting.
     The fiery blonde whipped around, her grin toothy, straight, and ear to ear.
     "What?" Aurora asked again, this time nervous.
     "Haha!" Ember jumped up and down. "We're on the other side of the city!" She ran up and grabbed Aurora by the shoulders. "Garnet teleported us to the other side of the city! And look!" Aurora followed the girl's finger toward the way they had come. "That door's not even a door anymore! It's a wall! It's a freaking wall!"
     There were no words. The Roof Rat simply raised her eyebrows.
     Her friend ran over a few feet down the hall and then pointed at another wall. "This is my room!"
     "It's a wall."
     "And it's my room! It's hidden! Watch!" Ember ran her finger along the wall, drawing a large rectangle.
     The wall fuzzed briefly and then revealed a simple white door, much like the others that lined the hallway. The door opened. Inside was a room with three large white walls and one giant, wall-sized window that looked out onto a rooftop, the one where Aurora had been captured and the place she had slept after getting tipsy that night. The shards of glass and even a little blood, all of it was still there, glistening in the midday sun.
     Aurora rushed inside to the window, glad to see the outside again. She pressed her face against the window, much like Ember had done before. "I can't believe it," she said. "You were right behind me the entire time!"

Borealis Nineteen - Bad Dog, No Biscuit

     A small burst of sand popped into view behind a nearby sand dune, raining and mixing granules of yellow and beige over and beyond the summit of the guilty desert bulge that covered the explosion's origin. Howl darted behind an empty platform of concrete that sheltered itself beneath a semi-transparent red tarp. He peeked over. Saw nothing. But heard the sound of shifting sand and scooping hands. Five minutes passed, and the sound stopped. Footsteps, boots digging into sand, climbing, replaced the previous sound. Howl waited. The footsteps stopped. Still no sight of the noise maker, the sand blower. Howl crept backward into an alleyway that stretched out behind him, using the shadows it cast as cover. A few seconds passed.
     Suddenly, a black figure, pitch in the desert sun, its shape bulbous and clothes dilapidated, mounted the crest of the dune and dusted itself off. It was a man, and he wore a mask. He would have been spectacular in sight for no one had Howl not been there to see him.
     "Garnet," Howl whispered, sliding deeper into the shadows. "I knew it was you, you filthy Bird."
     Garnet rubbed the lenses of his goggles for a while and then continued his march across the large dune. Toward the bottom, he finally settled down into a trot and began to make his way toward the city's first buildings. Howl glared at the masked man. What was he up to? The boy's mouth began to twitch as he glared. The Grounder Bird slowed his pace even more. Howl bit his lip. Garnet stopped. The Bird was only a few yards away from the young Dog, but the Bird was looking at a different alleyway.
     Silent and slow, a small pocket of air left the world and disappeared into Howl's lungs. It stayed there for a while. Everything was still. Garnet turned and looked right at the boy.
     "Oh! Hello, Killer," the Bird said happily. "The goggles in my mask brighten up dark places for me, you know."
     The boy exhaled violently. He wasn't used to being spotted.
     Garnet tilted his head slightly. "Goodbye for now." A roar of thunder crackled from the Bird. The space around him went black. And he, with the black, vanished.
     Half an hour passed before Howl moved again. During that time he listened for the Bird, sure that the man would reappear somewhere in the city... But he never did. No snap. No thunder. No pop. Garnet was gone. Howl cursed and made a dash for the sand dune, conscious that at any moment Garnet could reappear and thus prevent him from reaching whatever secret rest at the foot of the desert.
     Clouds drew closer as Howl ran up the face of the dune, and the desert threatened to swallow the boy whole as he slid down the other side. Sand went everywhere, strewn about in Howl's haste, erasing most of the tracks and traces Garnet had left behind. Howl didn't care. He just started digging as soon as he stopped sliding. And, after many furious scoops and much more cursing, the boy found something.
     Garnet stepped out from beneath the shadows that had hidden Howl earlier. "Silly boy," he chuckled to himself. "And you thought you weren't supposed to find that."

Borealis Eighteen - Lefts of Passage

     Howl frowned at the dunes sprawling out in front of him. There seemed no end to them, but he knew that there probably was an end, an end that he would never get to see. He had tried his best to see the end of the desert once, but even the tip of the tallest skyscraper in Borealis had not been high enough to look beyond the horizon. It frustrated him. He knew that if his eyes were unable to make the journey, then surely the rest of his body would fair far worse, and his body was already capable of so much at such a young age. Howl could leap, duck, zig and zag with the best of the Unfortunate Ones of the city, rough up anyone he came across, and track even the faintest of trails so long as the sun shone and the wind was kind. Nothing really intimidated or challenged the boy's presence in the least, save his father, but here stood the desert, mocking the boy's very existence. It more than frustrated him. It made him angry.
     Howl spat at the ground. He had intended for his saliva to serve as his direct challenge to the desert's vastness, an assertion of his superiority over the sand and the heat. But, the childishness of his gesture did little more than to exacerbate Howl's feelings of futility and insignificance in the midst of such grainy eternity.
     "I hate you," Howl said to no one.
     The wind blew up from behind him as if to hug and comfort him as though a mother might do, but he shrugged it off as though he were a son embarrassed at his mother's ignorance of her child's approaching maturity. Another breeze soon came by, this time indifferent to the boy's woes. A single strand of it caught itself upon Howl's clothes, curving all along the air pockets of his posture as it made its way up his body. The strand carried with it a note of burnt air and the smell of cooking. The boy's nose pricked and tickled at the scent, reminding him that he had more to do than lament his preadolescent humanity.
     "Eggs," Howl muttered to himself as he walked over to the building from which the scent seemed to originate. "Only you, Garnet."

Borealis Seventeen - Egg City

     Ember poked the yolk of one of her eggs, cooked sunny side up, until one of the eggs popped. The warm, organgey yellow stuff inside oozed up and bled out as soon as she removed the prong of her fork from the puncture. Plump liquid slowly covered half of the plate. It was weird, so Ember popped the second egg to fill the rest of the plate.
     Aurora, who had asked for her eggs scrambled, leaned over and lightly scolded Ember, "Don't be wasteful. Your eggs will be cold soon. Eat." She shoveled the last of her scramble into her mouth, barely chewing and mostly inhaling.
     "Okay," Ember said. She hadn't ever seen eggs before, and although she should have had the same appetite as Aurora, given that it had been well over a day since either had eaten anything, the sight of such a peculiar food was particularly off putting to her. So, she just sat there, making faces at the eggs in between pokes.
     Food was much different inside the city. Everything solid came in cubes or spheres of rich blues, deep purples, and emerald greens, and the liquids often shown in glowy reds, yellows, and oranges. Everything was flavored. Everything was sterile and delicious. No one knew where it came from, but such simple food hardly begged much inquiry or thought.
     Ember turned to Garnet, who had just walked around from behind a nearby corner-- Some scouting had been in order after breakfast, he felt-- and said, "Garnet, are you sure this food's alright? It's all yellowy and gross. And, what the hell is this white stuff around the edges and all these black dots?"
     Smiling and trying hard to stifle a laugh, Garnet responded, "Yes, Ember. It's fine." He sat down next to her and pointed at the black dots on the eggs. "That's pepper and the white bits are mostly made of water and protein." Pointing next to the goop Ember had let all over the plate, he chuckled, "And that's the best part."
     "What is it?"
     "It's the yolk. It's the part of the egg that would have eventually fed the embryo of a baby chicken, had the egg been fertilized."
     Chickens... Ember had only ever read about chickens. "Where did you find a chicken?"
     Garnet smiled and stood up. "Don't you worry about that." As he walked away, presumably to continue scouting, he added, "You need to eat. Think of the eggs as the medium-small cyan spheres you're used to having."
     Although that didn't fully satisfy Ember's curiosity and half revulsion, it did give her the courage to at least try the eggs.
     They were even better than the spheres, and the texture was something phenomenal.
     She quickly wolfed them down, stopping occasionally to chew and really think about the flavors of the eggs. Meanwhile, Aurora stood a few feet away, staring out at the vast, duned desert before them. They were on the very edge of the city.

Borealis Sixteen - Mongrel Curs

     "Filthy fucking Grounder Birds!" Master Sheer Wolf had screamed at the four morning patrol Dogs. "They think they're so damned clever! Think they run this fucking city! Well, they don't run this city! We do!"
     No patrol had ever dared return to the master empty handed before, particularly when their hands had needed to have held something so great. That was the first misstep.
     "What?! Balderdash Alley is EMPTY?!" the master had said when the next day's patrol had returned with their report. "Did you search any other streets?!"
     The leader of the morning patrol spoke up, "Yes. We searched, and all other streets surrounding Balderdash Alley were vacant as well."
     Master Sheer Wolf had said nothing in return and had only glared at the Dog.
     "Also, other patrols have reported similar findings in their territories."
     The master had been quiet at that too, pacing around the inner den, first scratching his beard, then his bald scalp as he went. Cracks of sky had shown through the old, fallen and shambled concrete walls that formed their main territory's inner and outer dens, illuminating the faces of the master's most important Dogs, the ones privileged enough to stand on either side of the master's seat in the middle of the den. On the right hand side was Ring Shepherd, overseer of all that happened within the Riser Dog's numerous dens, and Fox Digs, coordinator of the patrolmen and mastermind of the wrangle. On the left was Star Coyote, the only female permitted within the inner den of the main territory and lead caretaker of the women and children, and to her left was Howl "Killer" Wolf, the master's son.
     Awkward in the silence, the leader of the morning patrol had felt it necessary to speak again, though he had not been addressed, "What shall we do, Master? Every patrol has returned to their respective den. They, we, await further instruct--"
     The master had picked up a piece of rubble and thrown it at the impertinent Dog's face before the Dog could finish what he was saying. The rubble had connected with his forehead, sounding a painful thwak. The master had then turned to the Dogs who stood to his immediate left and right. "Can you stomach this? We stand here now, all of us, talking and watching, safe within our dens." That was the second mistake. "God knows what the Birds are up to right now. And you can bet that all those fucking Rats and those pissing, miserable Cats are trying their damnedest to secure the city's streets for their own while we wait here and leave them free to do as they please! Fuck the Birds! We need to get out there and claim what's ours!"
     No more than a minute had passed once the master had finished speaking, and the inner den was empty, save the master and his son. Ring Shepherd, Fox Digs, and even Star Coyote had all formed hunting packs to suppress any and all Sun Cat or Roof Rat uprisings in Balderdash Alley and its surrounding areas.
     "Son," the master had said. "Why haven't you joined the hunt?"
     The boy, short, even for a child at the age of eight, had looked up at his father, peering through the red, bushy hair that hung in his childish, freckled face, and said, "There was some noise this morning before daybreak. The idiots failed to mention it. I was out before any of them. I wanted to see what it was."
     "What did you find?"
     "I saw a Bird teleport with someone. I'm sure it was the girl. I've seen her interact with one of the Birds before." Howl often ventured off separate from the rest of the Riser Dogs to explore the city whenever he saw fit. At his age, it was easy for him to blend in with the other factions, particularly the Roof Rats.
     "I suppose you want to go find her, then?"
     "Yes, Father. May I?"
     The master had chuckled at his son's request. "We don't call you 'Killer' for nothing."
     Howl was now halfway across the city, hot on the trail of his prey.

Borealis Fifteen - Born to Smile

     A large, red, semi-transparent, stained tarp-sized cloth greeted Aurora's weak consciousness as she awoke. Along the cloth's edges, and even through the cloth itself, she could make out the blue and lightly clouded sky... Peace. It had been long in coming, and the cloth above rippled ever so gently at the touch of a breeze, almost as if to say that everything was going to be alright for a while.
     It was. The world was quiet but not too much so. A masked face leaned over Aurora and asked her how she was doing. For all that she felt, Aurora displayed a simple grin that spread from cheek to cheek. Her one friend, Garnet. Then, a blonde headed face leaned over as well. A new friend. That made two. It was a good day, for sure.
     "Good morning, Garnet," Aurora whispered and half mumbled through her still yet to fill, conscious lips.
     Garnet must have smiled. His mask wiggled a bit. "Well, good morning to you too, Little Mouse," he chuckled. "Don't strain yourself. Ember and I are taking good care of you." Garnet adjusted a knob and a few switches on the table bed Aurora rested on. "You should be back to full strength here in an hour or so." More smiles.
     Ember, Aurora thought. What an interesting name.
     The effect of Garnet's twiddling and adjustments kicked in just then. Sky and cloth disappeared as a glowing green took over Aurora's vision. Warmth encased her. It was good and only lasted for a minute. Then it was over. Sky and cloth came back, as did Ember's face. Garnet, however, had moved aside, probably to check on something else that needed his attention.
     Ember smirked. "What? No good morning for me? I only said it to you half an hour ago, and I've been waiting here this whole time thinking you were never gonna say it." Another smirk. "Aurora."
     Aurora couldn't remember.
     "I mean, you looked right at me for crying out loud. You'd been squirming, too. I thought you were in pain, but Garnet, here, said you were just having a nightmare. As, um..." she trailed off.
     "A reaction to the drug I had to administer, or rather," he continued, "Ember had to administer before we teleported you here."
     "Yeah," Ember giggled. "I didn't even know it was a drug."
     Aurora grinned. How fortunate am I, she thought. It had been such a long time since she had felt so happy and sure. Life had gotten so boring and tedious. Day in and day out it had been that she would wake up, sneak around the factions, the Unfortunate Ones, even her own Roof Rats, make her way down to Garnet, a Grounder Bird himself, and see what loot he had procured for her. Then, she would sneak off to one of her many hiding places to stash the loot, unless a few Sun Cats spotted her, in which case she would have to run from them for the next two hours until she lost them. The rest of the day after that was spent competing with the Rats for anything interesting that had been left behind in the wake of the Riser Dogs' morning patrol. It was tiring, and sleep, rest, and peace, sadly, always came last and never in between.
     Aurora must have been frowning while she was thinking. Ember stood over her with a concerned look on her face.
     "I'm okay," Aurora managed to say, this time with a full on smile.