“No! fine, I’ll go first!” I bluterted. As much as I didn’t wanna go first, I really didn’t wanna get accidentally left behind in a dark corridor. I pulled the door open as wide as it could go and walked in. Fog came in behind me. As soon as the door closed I felt something on me.
“AH!”
“Relax, it's just me.” said Fog’s voice. “Maybe if we hold hands we won’t lose each other in the darkness.”
“Oh,” I said, relieved. So it was just his fingers in my hands. Not the legs of a giant furry spider.
As soon as the door closed shut, dim yellow lights slowly snapped on one by one in the small hallway.
I soon found the hall walls and ceilings were covered in dirt, roots hanging out of the top. I started to imagine if this place collapsed on us, but Fog's hand in mine made me feel confident. There are lights now, Mist, like you wanted. Keep going. Find Sunny.
We walked on. I heard a weird, high pitched squeak, almost a screeching noise, and I only knew what it was because I learned to speak it’s language back in first grade. Rat. I walked a bit faster. Soon we went up some stairs to another door, behind this one though, I heard loud chatter.
I pulled open the door to see a huge field that was so pretty it felt like I was in one of my daydreams. The grass was lime green, with flower patches sticking out at irregular intervals. There were children as young as five playing and doing somersaults in the grass. Seniors seemed to be either jogging or telling thrilling tales to each other, some I wish I was there to hear all of. The teens seemed to be in clusters, five or six a piece, talking and laughing about anything and everything. But there were two weird things I noticed: 1, everyone had a weapon in their hand, from battle axes to daggers to kanai's and mysterious staffs, and 2, the sky was a weird, neutral purple color, that faded into a bright yellow, and there was no sun or moon in the sky, as if they were busy elsewhere in the world.
I was ashamed to admit it, but I was intrigued. I turned to Fog, and saw he was still taking everything in.
“There are Sun and Moon people here.” He said in a volume that only I could hear.
“I didn’t even notice that!” I told him. You could tell our people apart only by what we wore. Moon country people had smart watches on their wrists and lots of silver jewelry, while Sun people had on their traditional wear for the Bright Day festival. A-shirts and slides for the boys, bell-sleeve dresses and flip-flops for the girls. Sun and Moon people weren’t even separated. They were talking to one another and getting along just fine. That was a first.
“Let’s go talk to someone.” I told Fog, and I walked up to a group of teens that looked our age. As we approached they turned to us, some smiling, some not.
“Hi!” I said friendly. “You come here often?”
“Yeah. Do you?” one girl raised an eyebrow.
“Yes.” I lied.
“No.” Fog said right after me. He gave me a look and moved up from behind me so that now he was beside me.
“I knew I’ve never seen your faces here.” the girl said.
“So, your girlfriend lied?” said a boy with a flat top and nearly black eyes.
“Girlfriend!? What do you mean!?” said Fog, baffled. I already felt embarrassed for being ratted out on my lie. Now people were assuming Fog was my boyfriend? This was too much. I was beginning to think about making a run back for the tunnel.
“Well, you guys are holding hands, so I thought-”
He didn’t even have to finish his sentence for me and Fog to drop each other's hands.
“No, we're not together. Hey, uh, what’s with everyone here having weapons?” I asked, hoping this would change the subject. It did.
“Oh, these?” The girl raised her axe. These are our signature weapons! “Mine’s is a battle axe! It came in handy while I was trying to chase a bear away from my familys’ house up in the mountains!” she said eagerly. “Oh, and by the way, my name’s Charolette.” It sounded like the familiar name Charlotte, but she pronounced it Shar-ro-lette.
“My name’s Ghrian, and I got my sickle to win a fight against a shadow snake!” said the dark-eyed boy.
“I’m Surya, and I got this dagger just yesterday!” said a girl behind them. “I wonder what it’ll come in handy for.
They all seemed so proud of their weapons.
“Why’d you get them?” I asked.
“Oh, to fight with, but also to protect The Space from people who might wanna harm us and this place.”
“Where’s ‘The Space’?” I asked the teens.
“I think we’re standing in it.” Fog said, looking around the green field, it’s weird sky, and even weirder people.”
“Exactly.” Charolette laughed.
“Can we get a weapon?” Fog asked eagerly.
“Sure.” Charolette answered. “They’re right in here.”
Charolette took us across the field into a building where inside, there was a bar. I expected to see alcohol on the menu, but I was surprised and relieved to see there was only fruit juice and smoothies on the menu.
“They don’t make alcohol beverages in The Space.” Charolette told us. “So that adults and kids can have something to drink around here.”
Across from the juice bar Charolette and her gang showed us into a room that was huge, and all over the walls, there were shelves that held all types of weapons on them. Every wall was covered in any type of weapon you could imagine. There were katars and baseball bats and spears, but I noticed something. There were only two of everything, and some less than that.
Fog looked eagerly around the room. “Soon I’ll have a battle axe just like that one.” he rubbed his hands together.
“Oh you won’t find any of those.” Surya told him. “The only two have gone to Charolette and some other lucky person.”
“How come there’s only two of everything?” I asked them.
“Because everything and everyone is unique.” answered Ghrian. That’s why Dal, the guy who makes all these weapons, only makes two of every weapon. To ensure everyone has their own unique weapon that makes them them. Don’t worry. you’ll find a weapon that speaks to you. Everyone does.”
With that, I looked around the room. There were so many things to choose from! But one thing in particular caught my eye. Well, two things caught my eyes. It was two sea green bracelets with little spikes on the outside of them. I immediately walked over to them. As I did, I’m telling you, a glowing wave washed over them as I arrived.
I gasped. “Did you see that?” I turned to Fog. He turned back to me with a sword in one hand and a bag of grenades in the other. His only answer was“Huh?”
It was clear he hadn’t seen it. I turned to the others.