Nothing in my experiences was anything as brutal as this. Back and forth all day I had to carry four buckets that weighed at least a ton each, filled with luminous sapphire blue water. If that wasn’t enough staying close to Fei was very difficult; she lifted them all up like they were nothing but a stack of pillows, then zoomed off like a race car. Although it pretty much was a life or death matter. Solarite guards patrolled everywhere making sure everyone constantly worked to their limits. There was one little bat-girl no more then twelve, who stumbled and some water from her buckets spilled out, only a few drops, and they lashed her legs five times each. She squealed and worked even harder, non-stop. Everyone else who carried water had to duck as she passed by to avoid colliding with her wings.

Raven worked in the mines or so I heard. During our first break for the day she swung a pick axe around like a toy while walking with the same guy from this morning. He also carried a pick axe and was covered in a thick layer of soot from head to toe. They were laughing about something as they came over and sat across from me and Fei. The guy turned to me. “So you must be Pirate. I’m Grave. Yeah it’s an unusual name but they call me that because I also work as the grave digger.” His voice had a superior tone in it like his was responsible for everybody else.

“Did you see what happened to Sunny?” Raven asked. “When the shift ended she ran to me crying. So I was just wondering.”

As I thought back to that conversation later, it dawned on me that Sunny must have been the bat girl who was punished earlier.

“Pirate hurry up!” Fei shouted at me when I slowed down.

“Oh sorry Fei, I was just thinking for a moment,” I told her, catching up to where she was.

“Think on your own time, not now,” she warned then continued on. I sighed and staggered after her again.

Our job implied that we would be able to reach any area of the mine quickly and efficiently, now we had to take water to the miners inside of the mining shafts. It’s randomized where we had to go next; sometimes a pair will have to go to the same place the whole day. Just pray that it’s close to the water area.

The mining shafts were gigantic, at least fifty feet tall. Carts with wheels twice my size rolled by on metal tracks. Empty ones went deeper into the dark depths of the tunnels, others that were filled to the brim with rocks and stones followed the track out of the tunnels rolling far away from here. Fei stuck some glowing flowers into my hair and lifted up a lantern filled with sun rocks or what people here called them. Marveling incredulously at how she could carry a lantern along with four buckets of incredibly dense water I had to remember to close my mouth. I could hardly hold up my buckets and she looked to be barely 15.

I must have been thinking out aloud because Fei looked at me and asked, “What are you mumbling about?” I waved her off that it wasn’t important. She shrugged and continued to walk down the shafts. We passed by tunnels on either side each leading to different sections of the mine. One tunnel wasn’t even a tunnel at all; in fact it was a small hallway leading to a door.

I got a long enough glance to see writing on it and received some of a translation. ‘Cont…’ I thought to myself and wondered what the rest said. “Hey Fei what was that door back there?” I asked, curious.

“Oh that door?” She tilted her head at it. “I have no idea. No one does really. For one thing, it’s just random to place a door inside a mine, plus no one can read — or at least their written language.”

I paused for a moment. I could read their language just fine, why couldn’t the others?

We came up to an area illuminated with a ton of lanterns, indicating the miners must be around here somewhere. Sharp crisp dings could be heard like little Christmas bells being stricken repeatedly and kind of rhythmically. I saw Raven’s tail swishing back and forth behind her as she hacked away at the cavern wall. One of the other miners signaled us to pour the water into a large basin by one of the carts.

Other miners stared at us, Mostly Fei but some made remarks about my handicap. Fei just rolled her eyes and continued to do her job, until one of them stuck out his leg as she passed him. She tripped and water spilled everywhere. Everyone froze and stared at the water as it soaked into the ground. Fei turned red from what I assumed was embarrassment until she turned to the guy and kicked him hard in the gut. He wheezed and slid to the floor in a crumpled heap. Fei swiftly turned, sweetly smiled at Raven, snatched my arm, yanked me over to her with a hidden strength, and helped me with my buckets of water.

Afterward we quickly scampered out of the mines Fei dragging me the whole way; I didn’t even get to see that door again to see what the rest of the sign read. We were stopped by some guards at the exit. They scanned us to make sure we weren’t stealing any ore that may hold value to them. I watched a cart pass by, my reflection in the wheels staring in awe at the size. They cleared us and we headed back to the water area. Another shrill whistle filled my ears and that signaled the end of the day.

Fei brightened up and towed me all the way home, babbling the whole way about when she first came here. I paid attention until I saw the other guy from this morning. I tuned her out as I took the moment to stare at him, swiftly looking away in attempt to avert my eyes from his when he looking my way. I glanced back to where he was at but then he was gone. I couldn’t help myself, my eyes darted through the crowd to find him, and all in vain; he had vanished.

“-re you, Pirate?” Fei asked me, catching my attention again.

“What?” I asked, confused.

Fei sighed “Get a grip Pirate, I asked you how old you are?”

I stared at her blankly for a moment or two.

“Hello? It’s a simple question Pirate. How old are you?” she asked again.

“I am twenty-two years old.” Her jaw dropped again. ‘Is everything about me like a child actually receiving coal for Christmas from Santa?’ I thought to myself, getting a bit irritated at her.

“An adult…? But you look so young! They only want kids between twelve and seventeen, why would they capture you? Raven’s seventeen and I’m fifteen. This is strange, I mean freaky strange. They never take adults because they know freedom more then children.” She reached out to touch me like I could shatter at any moment. I brushed her hand away and shrugged indifferently. I’m here now and that’s all that matters even if it was a mistake. I really doubt that they would take me home if I told them they made a mistake and I’m older than I look. To be honest I had this feeling in my throat to keep quiet about my age and that I can read their language.

When we were safely in our ‘dorm’ room, Fei began to interrogate my about my life. She was on the floor and I sat on my bed with my hands neatly folded in my lap.

“What’s it like?” she asked almost in hopeless bewilderment.

I turned to her, stressed out. I really hate talking about my life. Nothing exciting or happy about it not even sad and painful. It was just normal. I didn’t even have a melodramatic sob story to tell her.

“What’s what like?” I retorted back to her.

“Freedom!” her eyes were gleaming and glittering with excitement and fear.

I sighed, really tired

“How do I explain this?” I murmured to myself trying to form my thoughts to define freedom. “This may take awhile…” I warned exhausted. Fei only scooted closer to me. “Fei, freedom is not really something a person can explain. It’s more like something that you know once you have experienced it. If you lose your freedom then you know how much you relied on it and once it’s gone it’s hard to get it back.” My voice was grave and kind of pained at my own words.

Fei’s eyes lowered to the ground; that was not the answer she was looking for. “Oh okay.” She got up and left the room with a glum look on her face.

My gut sank as the door shut closed. This was only my first day and already I got my partner upset. Aching numbness filled my arms and legs. The strain of the day made me sore and this conversation made me weary, so once I fell back onto my bed I fell right into a dreamless sleep.

There was a rapid knock on the door, but I paid no attention to it. My bed was warm and welcoming and that’s all I needed. I heard the knocking again and leaned up then collapsed on my pillow. The stubbornness that one could portray never ceased to amaze me, even more so when Raven kicked the door open, stomped up to the bed, lifted me up, and shouted, “What did you do to make Fei cry like that! She’s driving me crazy; she hasn’t left my room in five hours. Five! I need sleep.” I couldn’t avert my eyes from hers; we were locked in a death glare. Then she released me and flopped onto the bed beside me.

Nothing was heard not even the creaking of the floor boards and the dim light made the room even more eerie and mysterious than when everyone’s awake. Sleep began to ease its way back into me and I began to waver back and forth between consciousness and being completely knocked out.

Raven curled up beside me and whispered, “Fei told me about your conversation earlier. Sorry I wasn’t there to stop her from freaking out like she did. Unfortunately she is right, the Solarites are planning something and I don’t like it. This is big, a human adult! Even if this was one big mistake they will make it turn in their favor, but there is more than what meets the eye here.” She began to drift to sleep also. “If only I knew what it was, so I could stop them…” She began to breathe lightly on my neck making me feel really uncomfortable.

Odd as it may seem I fell asleep in that condition, that is not at all comfortable. Dreams found me this time. The flannel sheets were soft and morning birds chirped outside the window as dawn erupted in the sky. There was purring beside me and I cracked my eyes open just a peek to see Whisper next to me. I gave her a few pats on the head then rose out of bed. Natural light leaked through the windows and carpets covered the floor. The walls were a teal color and everything was as it should be. “Thank the world it was all a dream!” I sighed to myself. The alarm clock read 6:30AM, about time for some breakfast. Five minutes later after sorting out clothes to find what I wanted to wear, I went to the mirror to examine myself.

The girl was shorter than me. No, I stand corrected: THEY were shorter than me. Both Raven and Fei were in the mirror’s reflection and they stared straight ahead, glaring at me. Raven gave a low snarl as some lone tears slipped down Fei’s cheek.

“You think that everything back there was a dream!” Raven snapped. Fei gripped her arm

“Leave her alone! She doesn’t know better; she only knows freedom.” She stressed the word 'freedom' and I flinched, shocked at the tone in their voices.

“What do you want?” I asked, sweating. I saw them mouth the words but my mind couldn’t process it and my legs, as if a puppet master tied strings around them, began to move by themselves, magnetically leading me to another force. I felt drawn to it like a moth to a flame, the door in the mine appeared behind me. Slowly turning around there was a pulse. My hand gently placed on the ice cold knob the pulse quickened. I jiggled the handle, it was unlocked and the door swung silently open.

My own shattered reflection gazed coolly back with a smirk. Knife raised, aimed for my eye. “Give me what is mine!” she ordered, and the glass between us shattered onto the ground. My reflection was now a girl with a patch over her left eye.

Then the words Fei and Raven said reached my ears: “...to wake up.”

“No… NO!” I screamed, waking up in the dark barren room still dimly lit with the sun crystals.

Raven drowsily glanced up at me. “What’s wrong Pirate?” she asked, yawning.

Fei had returned sometime in the night and had crawled out of her bed and into mine

“You’re pale as a lunar lily flower,” she exclaimed, comparing me to one of her ‘nightlights.’

“Nothing, it was just a bad dream go back to bed,” I told them and they nodded off to sleep again.

Sleep didn’t return to me for the rest of the night. I shivered in fear of what I would see if it did.