I sigh, standing up from my place on the roof. Climbing down the wall, I land on the street, then promptly fall on my face. Grumbling, I get up. Guess I had gotten rusty.

I stroll around for a bit, then decide to head back to the castle. It was almost dark, and I didn't want to meet any old friends.

I slip into the outer walls just as the gates are closing. I see a person walking aimlessly through the halls, and I walk up to them.

It was Alexandria.

"Hey," I whisper.

She whirls around. "Oh. Just you."

I laugh and motion to her arm. "Need any help figuring it out?" 

I shake my head abruptly. "Yes."

She laughs again and begins to teach me what the different "settings" can do. At first I'm a little confused, but then I realize there's a pattern and I start to get the hang of it. We work on it for about an hour, and when we stop it's dark outside.  

"Thanks," I say, holding my hand up.

"No problem," she responds. "Just ask if you need anymore help."

I nod and she heads to the meeting room while I head outside one more time. I just want to see the night sky.

While I'm up on the roof, I can't help but smile to myself. This is why the called me Luna at the Academy. I always liked breaking curfew to sneak up on the roof and look at the outside world, the stars, and the moon.

But something interrupts my memories. A small beeping sound.

I turn slightly, and I can see a small red dot blinking on the roof next to the castle. Oh no. A bomb.

I leap off the roof right as it explodes, and before I can twist myself around, I land on my back. 

I hear an explosion. It sounded like it was coming from outside the castle.

I run to the outer wall and see a nearby warehouse on fire. People were running around screaming, and already officials from the castle were trying to put the fire out.

I see someone on the ground and go to get a better look. It was Alexandria. 

"I'm going out for a bit, see you later"

no answer, so I wrote a note 

Explosions: oh no.

I run out to see. And sure enough, a small fire is burning. 

This is bad. We need to move SailHaven once more.

Trillian~

I lay unconscious in the rubble of the palaces left wing. I was in there checking king out the library when the bomb had gone off. It had caught me completely off guard. But I had seen something in the shadows of the library. just before the library blew. Then everything went black.

Leptomiris~

The floating metal houses had been full of fresh meat. It had been far ahead but a few humans had dropped a ladder for a minute or two. Just long enough for us to get on. W e had prowled throug the stereos looking for a place to sleep. There had a been a house full of bound trees that had looked promising but it had burst into flames as we were looking around. We would feed soon though... very soon...

"I-I've s-seen," I stutter. I look straight at her. "I've seen what I think are visions of death. What's happening?"

An explosion rocks the building. Books go flying off of their cozy shelves, and papers are flying like kites through the room.

Chaos surrounds me, and I revel in it for a bit. The mess of books and papers reminds me of me.

Eventually I rouse myself enough to walk outside the door and see what is going on.

The palace was arranged interestingly. Instead of the library being on the ground floor, it was way up on one of the central arches. That was another interesting thing. The whole palace was made up of twisting arches and colums, with the main buildings and living quarters in the center. The library was on the eastern arch, overlooking the business district. It had two levels that led up to the main story, where my desk and living quarters were. Balconies led the way down the arch, allowing for outside reading.

It was on one of these that I stepped out onto. I saw the city layed out before me before my attention was drawn to the ground exactly below me.

A small fire had started, but was quickly spreading at the base of the arch. People were scurrying around like ants trying to put it out. For a second I was afraid that the fire would spread to the flammable treasures inside the building, but I calmed down. A spell had been cast on this library so that the knowledge within could not be destroyed. I had confidence in the spell.

Amused, I kept watching their futile attempts to put it out. The fire seemed to be magical, as it kept sprouting back up wherever they doused it.

My amusment turned to alarm, however, when I saw the fire quickly spread into an old manor. Soon the flames were pouring out of its windows, and the people were scrambling to get out. This would prove to be more dangerous than I had forseen.

I am sorry if I controlled the layout of the palace too much. This is just how I thought it would look, but you guys could totally change it. I understand that I am new to the story, and I don't have to be included. This is just kind of a side thing. 

Connie

~~~~~~~~~~  

“Shh,” Connie whispered as she landed and began briskly walking down the short corridor. 

“Why are we being this quiet? There’s no one around, Crazy.” Vol landed with a flourish of wings and hurried to catch up with her.

“For the last time, my name is not Crazy, and we have to be really careful. Remember?” She held up the piece of scribbled on notebook paper in Volucris’ face.

“Oh. Right.” They peeked around the corner of the hallway and saw a man in a white jacket hurrying down the hallway. 

“See?” Cornibus whispered sharply as they stood pressed against the wall. “We have to get this message to Aviance, and we can’t be caught.”

Suddenly, the loud noise of metal hitting metal echoed down the hallway and a moment later, the man with the white jacket hurried back the other way.

“Go!” Connie whispered, and slipped in front of Vol, carefully hastening down towards where the noise had come from. When they reached the end of the hallway, they scampered out into the open just as a figure disappeared into the darkness high above them.

"Aviance!" Connie whispered and flew up into the darkness, beckoning Vol to follow her. 

Aviance

~~~~~~~~~~ 

As she crept down the ladder, she thought she heard someone call her name. She quickly hurried to the bottom and started to run when she heard the flapping of wings. She stopped in her tracks as Connie tumbled down the ladder and shoved something into her hand - a piece of paper.

"Aviance! There are more! I met one, Shadow, and she had two friends... well, one wasn't really her friend, her name was Rieux, she works for Catastrophe..."

Aviance put her finger to Connie's lips. "You met who?"

"Her name was Shadow... she said she knew you. At least... she knew your mother."

"Yes. I know her."

Vol reached the end of the ladder and motioned at the note."Read it," he said.

Aviance uncrumpled the paper and began to read.

"Shadow,

I fear this may be my last letter to you. Do not fear for me, for no matter what, I will make sure you are protected. I have sent a similar letter to my daughter, Aviance. She is only two years older than you, and I know that you two are close. If something happens to me, promise that you will protect each other. Find her, please, and stay together. Her friends, Volucris Spiritus and Cornibus Ales, and Brynn, though she is only two, even Rieux, though I fear she may be going down the wrong path... they must all be protected. If you stay together, we may one day defeat these horrors among us, and live again as we once did.

Love,

Cantilena."

Aviance looked up slowly. "I did get this letter. But... I only read a part of it before I was... before we were..." She looked down. "Before we were taken by Catastrophe." She nearly spat out the words as though they were poison.

"You... you knew? And you didn't tell us?"

"You were only nine, it was five years ago, Connie, I didn't even know the full story." She looked apologetically at Cornibus. She turned to Vol. 

"Vol..."

"I was the same age as you, Aviance. Even a little older."

"I know, I'm sorry, I... the only one I knew about was Shadow. Brynn, she was only two at the time, and when we were taken, she, Shadow, and Rieux went with one of them, and us three went with the others. I hardly knew their names."

Footsteps echoed outside.

"Move!" Aviance whispered, and they scurried down the hall.

Aviance turned to check that they were still behind her. Suddenly she ran, smack, into someone in a white coat. A white coat with the acronym SOCS printed on the right chest pocket.