Labyrinth: Saving the Fallen City

Chapter Four: The Land of the Forgotten

"It was a little over sixteen years ago. I was reaching my graduation day. If all went well, I was going to become the Bloma historian, announce my engagement to a woman I cared for, and celebrate so much that I wouldn't remember what had happened. That ended when I found documents I was not supposed to find" I leaned in closer to listen.

"How could there be other documents? I thought it was public knowledge."

"The history of the Bloma people is located in library, but the documents of how we became the Bloma people are located deep underneath the fifth vicinage where the prisoners are held. I was down there because the historian trusted me enough to send me to understand the real history. I went down into the cells to find the room of historical documents I thought were just placed for extra security. When I found the room, it looked like it had clearly been forgotten.

I went to find the document I needed, but nothing made sense. The first one was a letter in a language I couldn't understand. I pulled out a different document. It was a map. The Bloma community wasn't made, it was built. The map doubled as a blueprint. I was really confused. My instructor told me the information was held down in the cells for protection, but in actuality, he had hidden them there to stop the leaders from burning the old history.

I spent the next week trying to understand the documents in that room. They were mostly letters about a war between two very different types of people. There was one side of an intelligent race that established land and normalcy. The other side was an elite race. They were capable of more physically and mentally than the intelligent race. For that, the intelligent race started to wipe these beings out. They crippled the elite beings, forcing them back to their own land on the other side of the forest that divided them.

In order to protect themselves, the elite race built a divide. Their world disappeared, leaving only the forest in its place. The few elite remaining were mercilessly slaughtered, so they ran to the forest where thy had been left behind. They began to adapt in different ways. They were elite because of they way their bodies adapted when they were under distress. That's when the Bloma were made, but there was another group. One more violent and animalistic. They adapted to be like the animals that roam outside of our boundary.

The two groups broke apart when their adaptions started turning them against each other. The Bloma travelled south and the other group remained in the north. There has been little to no communication between the groups since. The only thing they had in common was their vast land. They named it The Land of the Forgotten. Our true home lies somewhere in this forest, open only to our kind, but no one has ever found it."

"What does that make me?" I asked, already so confused.

"I don't know" He replied honestly.

"After I had discovered so much of the alternate history, my ceremony had come. My instructor sat me down and told me that the Leaders found out what I was doing. He told me to run, but I didn't. There was still so much I had to learn, but there was another thing holding me back.

Your mother was training to be a guard. She was working the cells until her graduation. One day, she explored a little too deep into the cells and found the document room that I was in. She was going to arrest me, but instead I convinced her to look with me. She helped me figure out the holes in the history. We were both dangerous for our knowledge, but I kept her a secret from the historian.

On the night of the graduation, the historian found me and took me aside. He told me the Leaders were going to put in me in the cells like the other criminals. He told me there was reason criminals spent their whole lives in those cells. Most of them knew information. Information that they were not supposed to know. They put people in the cells to keep them quiet and to stop the Bloma from trying to leave our boundaries."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I ran. The leader of the Water Bloma tried to pull me aside. She tried to warn me of my knowledge. She cared for me because I cared for her daughter, but she was under oath with the other Leaders. She didn't want to hurt her daughter but would if I endangered her. I tried to get away, but she had already decided I was going to the cells. I tried to use her daughter and I's engagement as a reason not to be, but she wouldn't listen, so I ran.

I ran to your mother's house because I knew she would be in danger to. I wasn't in love with her, but I cared for her enough to saver her. I would do anything to convince her to come with me, and she did. We ran through the mountain and were running away, but something tripped us. I was seeing black, but your mother began to move away. I tried to follow her, but someone was near us. They didn't sound friendly. I moved quietly to your mother and held her close to me. I didn't notice the baby in her arms at first. When I did, I helped to calm it. We were so scared. We didn't move for the whole night. That's what gave the Leaders time to find us."

"Did I belong to the people who you heard?"

"I don't think so. They were not friendly." My heart sank.

"We were brought back to stand before the Leaders. They debated for hours on what to do about us and you. Finally, they made a deal with us. In order for both of us to remain alive and not in the cells, we were to announce our engagement because of the baby, but when they discovered you were not Bloma, they ordered us get rid of you. Your mother bargained to keep you hidden. They agreed after a long battle. We were to move into the Water Bloma hut for the Leaders to keep an eye on us.

The story was that the guards caught your mother and I running because we had had a baby before we were mated. It crushed the woman I was supposed to marry. Your bodily differences were blamed on a Water and Field Bloma getting together. They made a mockery of us and used it to push the idea that the Family's could not mix. I was forbidden to work in a trade. I had to learn how to make outfits. I was not to be trusted."

"Why did they do that?" I asked.

"They wanted to keep us quiet and the Bloma world intact" He picked a flower up and smelled it.

"Are we safe?"

"We've never been safe. We had to tell you that we found you, because of obvious differences. We've been fortunate enough to never have to deal with you telling the truth to anyone" I nodded.

"Right."

Double publish because you deserve it. You think you know everything now, but there's so much more. 

-JCross