Chapter 1 - Ailla

Chapter 1; Ailla

A girl entered the brightly lit 7501 Caim Street. She was clothed in a red hoodie, wearing a green jacket with long sleeves, yellow pants down to her ankles, and sporty shoes; a fashion nightmare. She even wore white gloves! On her face, she was wearing a surgical mask and sunglasses; looking like she was about to rob a bank. Almost none of her skin was showing. This was Ailla. Ailla was strolling down the street, taking all the sensations in. At one time she stopped to watch a few birds flying in the sky, imagining how it would be to have wings.

“7501 Caim Street”, she said. “I’m here, but where are the people?”, Ailla wondered. Then she spotted 3 shady people on the corner of the street. Fearing that she might get abducted by them, she straightened her gait to look more confident and sped up. She read in her books of girls getting abducted and then baked into bread and cake. “Need to go faster, need to go faster”, she muttered to herself while gradually increasing her speed. “Just a little bit more and the people are behind me…”

“Hey you”, Ailla heard from behind her, from the suspicious persons standing in the shadow of the street. She glanced at them while passing, one was viciously vaping on some kind of pipe looking device; the other one, leaning against a wall, had some kind of handheld device at which she occasionally cursed quietly and the third one, the scariest one, looked around like a hunter seeking prey. Ailla analyzed them while passing; one guy, two girls - in their middle to late twenties. The guy vaping, the brown-haired girl entering complex sequences of button presses into her devices and the second girl, the scary girl, standing tall with straight, shoulder-long black hair, was looking with her blue eyes, scanning the area for some kind of prey. And now this scary girl talked to Ailla which made her anxious. She didn’t want to become bread or candy. Not now, after gaining her freedom.

“You stand out like a cow in a courtroom, are you perchance Ailla”, the less scary girl said. “Please don’t say that this clown is Ailla”, the scary girl added.

“I… I am Ailla”, Ailla said in a very quiet and soft voice. “We’ve been waiting for you for 4 hours”, the scary girl said. Ailla wondered how someone this pretty can also be this scary. “Y-Yes, I’m sorry, I got lost.”

“Great”, she thought, “now I ruined my first impression with them.”

“Why are you dressed that weirdly?”, asked Siay, “If you tried to be unsuspicious, that didn’t work.”

“No… No, I was given this stuff by my teachers. Because I shouldn’t show myself in public, at least not if unsupervised…”, said Ailla, growing even quieter.

“Ok, now I’m curious”, said Cirth, “whatcha hiding, girly?”

“I… this”, she said and removed one of her gloves, exposing a hand that was covered with a spiral of red, dragon-like scales.

As soon as Siay saw this, she drew her gun and pointed it at Aillas head.

“Die!”, Siay shouted and shot.

After a loud shot, it was silent. Siay, with murder in her eyes looked straight forward. Lille stood there, frozen in shock. But Cirth stood there, firmly grabbing Siays hand and diverting her gun skywards.

∇139 showed activated on Cirths right arm, its red glow illuminating the dim street. The shock wave from the activation soared through the meticulously rowed up trees in the middle of the street. ∇139 was known to improve reflexes massively, a vest made of the remains of Tryst 139, the Soaring Blitz. A shocked Ailla stood there, in her own soiled pants, her life flashing before her eyes; tears running down her cheek, wetting her mask.

“Are you insane”, shouted Cirth at Siay, “did you lose your fucking mind?” “I could ask the same of you, didn’t you see?! It is one of them! It’s a Malva!” “There is a reason command assigned her to us, Siay. Because she is what she is… I heard rumors… but I never believed them to be true… And now you embarrassed us all. You should be ashamed of yourself!”, Cirth snapped back.

“Are you alright?”, Lille asked Ailla, “you don’t look so good… come, let’s get you out of these clothes and give you a good and warm shower.”

Ailla couldn’t speak. Of course she couldn’t speak. She thought she died, saw her own life flash before her eyes. She felt like prey, weak and vulnerable. And now one of them, one of the predators offered her a warm shower? She was afraid and deeply confused at the same time; fully prepared to meet heroes only to look down the barrel of a gun. But this girl… Ailla somehow felt she could trust her… It was some kind of emotional warmth coming from her. So she went with her.

Lille brought her to one of the many public showers in Gremy. Ailla wasn’t able to do anything, still paralyzed from fear, so Lille helped her shower and to get into some new clothes she conveniently bought on the way to the shower.

“You can stay at my place, I’ll make sure nobody hurts you”, Lille said. Ailla nodded, although showered she was of course still incapable of saying a word. She knew the world was a scary place, a place of wolves eating grandmothers and witches baking children but not like this. Never did she think she would see herself at the end of a barrel; lest in the hand of somebody whom she was told was her ally.

But still, Ailla knew there was truth in Siays words. She was a Malva, at least in theory. She knew she would never fit in.

Meanwhile, Lille wrote Cirth a message, to take Siay away, and to calm her down. She’d take care of Ailla, calling a private cab to transport the both of them to her house. Siay was not welcome.

After a while, Ailla arrived at Lille’s house. She managed to calm down a bit during the drive. “Th-Thank you…”, she stuttered. “Of course, sweetie. I have no idea what drove Siay into this madness but rest assured I will keep you safe no matter what.”

Ailla found Lille’s house amazing. It was much more than the tiny room she knew, it was a huge mansion on the side of a lake. “I have a few rooms free, just pick one.” “Can I have one with lots of light, but not too much, I need some shade too, if that’s possible?”, asked Ailla. Lille thought about it for a moment, then she spoke: “I think I have the perfect room for you. There is even a swimming pool adjacent. Do you like to swim, Ailla?” “I don’t know, I never tried it…”, answered Ailla shyly. “I can teach you”, she said, smilingly. Ailla smiled back, thinking how nice Lille was. “By the way, I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Lille, Lille Styng, a pleasure to meet you!” “I-I’m Ailla, nice to meet you too…”

Lille brought Ailla to the room she mentioned. It was a cozy room, with a huge glass door leading to a swimming pool. “I’ll leave you alone now, you can use the PC to buy any furniture you want!”, Lille said while smiling. “What’s a PC?”, asked Ailla. Lille stopped walking out of the room, turned slowly and said “Girl, you have a lot to learn”. She gave Ailla a wink and proceeded to teach Ailla the basics of using a PC.

Ailla was relieved she found at least one person that seemed to like her and followed Lilles instructions rigorously. She knew that she finally found a home, although nightmares of the previous happenings will haunt her for a long time. Together with Lille she picked some very warm and cozy furniture a online store and the two talked about decorating her room till both fell asleep.