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 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?"