𝑩𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑫 ➻ 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘩𝘰

¹

◇◈◇

The first impression of her new life was the scent of the rusted metal that pierced her back with chilling temperatures.

The second was the feeling of the metal levitating and taking her body with it.

She rushed to stand up but regretted it immediately as she fell back down. The metal crate kept passing lights as it hoisted her up to the unknown. Too many thoughts rushed through her head which her hands came up to hold in hopes of dialing down the throbbing. The crate passed more blue lights as she eyed the small red square getting closer and closer above.

The crate is taking me to the red square, she thought. Above her, the square grew rapidly as she noticed its color came from a faint light. Slowly she pushed herself up, carefully as to make sure she didn't get dizzy this time. She took in her surroundings slowly she wasn't in this crate alone.

Smaller boxes and barrels line the sides of the big crate along with a few animals. Bags of grain and food surrounded her but she dared not to touch them. She quickly analyzed her surroundings attempting to figure out what was on the other side of the red square. Food, animals, supplies, and her. It didn't look good for her, she decided that it would be best not to scream or yell for help.

The crate had begun to speed up as she glanced up the red square was the same size as the crate and right above her. She gasped as she fell back. The crate came to an immediate stop. Knocked off her feet, she heard the sounds of gears turning.

Play dead! She thought as she lay still on the bottom of the crate. Above her, the red lights turned off and the square opened revealing sunlight as it traveled down the walls of the crate. The beames grazed her dark hair making the ends appear hazel. She snapped her eyes shut quickly at the silhouetted figure above the opened the doors of the once-red square.

"Where is he?"

"Right there."

"Is he dead?"

There were multiple voices all sounded of boys, she continued to listen.

"How the shuck did he fall asleep in the box?"

Loud thuds rang through her ears as one jumped down into the crate.

"It's a girl," The boy gasped as murmurs began to rise upon the others. "Shut up guys." Lightly he pushed her shoulder shaking her awake.

She opened her eyes slowly, pretending she was waking up. Gazing down at her was a tall boy. His skin was dark, hair buzzed, but his eyes were soft not as hard as she anticipated.

"Hey there Greenie," The Boy started as another one spoke.

"We can call girls greenie?"

"I mean maybe we can call her a green-aye

The soft-eyed boy shot him a glare, "Shut it and help her out." He hoisted himself out of the crate as he and a few others reached out gently to help her. "There you go watch your step." He warned as he took her hand helping her up.

As she stood on grass she glanced around at the group of boys surrounding her. There were only about twelve. She glanced around as he cleared his throat. Turning back to him he offered her a smile holding out his hand to shake, "I'm Alby."

Smiling softly as well she slowly offered her hand in his. Within a second she tugged his hand as hard as she could throwing him on the ground as the others stepped back while a few helped Alby up. As they were distracted she took this opportunity to run. She didn't know where she was going but she knew she had to get out of there. Soon after she had rushed off a few boys came running after her only encouraging her to get away from them.

"Why are you running?" One shouted

"Why are you chasing?" She shot back.

Only a few feet in front of her was a wall with vines. She could climb onto the vine and up the wall and be gone. She quickly jumped up the vine starting to crawl as her foot slipped. With all her strength she pulled herself up only to be pulled down by someone.

The boy hoisted her over his shoulders as she flailed in his arms. "Let me go!" She yelled hitting his back. "Put me down!"

"Did you really think you were going to climb that wall?" The boy asked his arm tightening around her as she carried her away from the walls.

"Well, I was going to try before I was so rudely interrupted." She sneered at him.

"Look back up at it and tell me how you think you were going to make up it?" He laughed at her. Craning her neck she realized he was right. The walls appeared to have stretched to the sky but that wasn't all. The vines stopped before the top. Her breathing went from heavy to steady as she took in her surroundings. "Calm yet princess?"

"Yeah," She breathes out, "Can you set me down now?"

"Depends," The smirk audible in his voice annoyed her, "Will you run?"

"No, I just want to talk." She said with a bored tone but she was telling the truth

"Okay," He pulled her back as her feet hit the ground. He allowed her to look around the glade for a few moments, taking in the small buildings and larger ones in progress. "Not too shabby huh?"

"What is this place?" She asked finally looking up at the Asian boy.

He put up his hands making a small triangular frame, pushing them away from each other as he spoke "Welcome to the Glade."