New World

Chapter Nine

Savi woke up in a dark room. There was very little light except some that got in through cracks in the roof. She yawned and stretched, and thankfully found that her arms and legs weren't tied. She remembered Mai Song sedating her before she'd blacked out completely. She found no leftover pain and heaved a sigh of relief. It would be even harder to form an escape plan with pain in her body.

She tried transmitting outwards and barely stifled her scream as a headache hit her. It was then that she realized that she was tied, just not together. Her leg was chained to the ground by a translucent milky white chain. The ground was soft grass, but there were also hard pebbles scattered randomly around. Savi managed to stand up without tripping on the chain and looked around.

It appeared that she might be inside one of the Song's numerous houses. She walked as far as the chain would let her and climbed the wall. It had perfectly good hand and footholds, but the chain was too short to get her up to the cracks. She looked around for Mai but didn't see anyone. Should I try transmitting again? she wondered. Probably not. She didn't want to be hit by the headache. Well, she supposed she could work on freeing herself from the chain.

She backflipped off the wall, her landing less smooth than she would've liked, but at least she hadn't crashed. She fingered the chain and it was quite a weak thing. She snapped it easily, wondering why Mai had bound her with such a fragile and brittle material.

She managed to get rid of the chain entirely, but couldn't find a door, so she climbed up to the crack, dangling by her fingertips as she peered out the window. Good thing her coordination had always been excellent. Any amateur climbing up to the same height as her would've dropped by now. She looked outside and overlooked a traditional-styled garden with a small fishpond.

"Well, I should've known you'd get the chains off somehow," Mai said regretfully from the door, then looked around. "Savannah? Where are you?"

"Up here. Too scared to come up?" Savi teased, dangling off the wall by one hand, her other hand sliding through her hair.

"That is dangerous, child," Mai said, looking horrified.

"Like you care," Savi snorted, but she flipped back to a position with both her hands and her legs rested comfortably on the wall. She was still dangling, but there was a reason she had taken gymnastics.

"Your physical strength is incredible," Mai said, her eyes shining with wonder.

"It's not like I'm a hundred kilograms, okay. I'm like – twenty."

A slight understatement – Savi was twenty-four kilograms. Which was supposedly really light for an eleven-year-old – she didn't know. She did know that she was the same weight as Seri, and Seri was six. But her sister had always been on the chubby side.

"But it is incredible. You held up your entire body with one hand!"

"You're making me sound like some sort of goddess. I'm not the only person who can do this. Oh, and, has Uncle Tam turned up yet?" Savi asked.

Mai pursed her lips. "No. But he said he was going to bring Linh with him, and Linh has four children. It's hard for her to get away."

"I just wanna tell you, Mai – you went the wrong way with this. Uncle Tam isn't going to receptive with you. You literally kidnapped his close friends' kid just to lure him here. Speaking of which, are my parents freaking out?"

Mai shrugged. "I haven't told them, but yes, they're freaking out over your disappearance."

"Good," Savi noted.