Slowly, I looked back to my tether. The hook was large and square. The ring in the center of my manacles dangled over it, but it was much too high for me to reach. Also too high for me to lower my arms all the way, yet it wasn't locked in.

So I tugged, pulled, and even tried to flip my hands so the chain would flop over the hook. Nothing worked. The men just kept walking into the night until they were out of sight. I tried to climb higher on the tree but there were no places for my feet and the trunk was too wide to get my arms around. I hadn't merely been banished from the compound. I was effectively being executed, and right when I'd finally started to hope.

That was the first time I experienced true panic. I thought I'd known it before, but I'd been wrong. My mind turned off, my body turned on, and I struggled to flee, wearing myself out in my attempts to get free from the chain. I yelled, I thrashed, and eventually I even cried, but in the end, I was trapped.

My mind immediately went back to Callah and Meri. I'd seen Callah there, but Meri was still locked away. Hopefully, Callah would be able to tell her what had happened. Maybe the pair of them would even be allowed to talk again without my influence? Then again, I would never know.

I'd been banished. For my entire life, we'd been told that meant getting kicked out of the compound, but no one had mentioned this. Being chained up for predators to devour wasn't banishment. This was an execution!

At least dying was better than living the life they'd offered. Giving in, I slid down the tree until my rump hit the dirt. I could now see the world, so I should just enjoy it. Looking up, I found the stars, their tiny lights blurred by the moisture in my eyes and obscured by the leaves in the trees. Those were all in front of me. Behind me was the compound, and the area around it was clear, as if the hunters kept it like that intentionally.

Beneath me was dirt. Real, actual dirt, not the dust that settled underground. This was the kind which grew plants. Unfortunately, I couldn't run my fingers through it. The chains weren't long enough. If I relaxed, my hands hung at my shoulder level. If I was standing, I could've reached my hips, but no lower.

And around me, everything was blue. I knew it was night because of the stories in my books, but it was brighter than I'd expected - as bright as a well-lit room inside. The moon moved across the sky, its passage marked by which tree stood before it, but it never changed shape. I'd always wondered about that. The books talked about full moons and new ones, but the one above me was almost oval-shaped.

Then something pinched my arm. I tried to slap at it, but couldn't reach. Looking down, I saw a dark thing, probably an insect. I had two options: blow at it, or get up to swat it. I went with the first, too tired to try hard. If the Dragons were just going to eat me, why should I bother to struggle?

Sometime after that, I fell asleep. The sound of voices woke me. My head jerked up and my eyes scanned the darkness, but there was nothing there. Not even the sound that had pulled me from sleep. Instead, I heard chirps and buzzes from various creatures. It seemed the Earth was not a quiet place.

Closing my eyes, I tried to doze again. I hadn't eaten dinner. My stomach was complaining, but it was easy to ignore. Besides, the lack of a meal only made me more tired. Giving in, I slumped into my chains again, almost longing for the final end to put me out of this misery.

Pale purple light woke me, and my entire body itched. My arms were covered in small welts, so I must've been a feast for the insects. Miserable, I pushed myself to my feet, feeling blood rush painfully into my fingers.

Following the chain up, I saw the hook again. The shape of it was so big. There had to be some way to get the loop off it. So, after rubbing the sleep crust from my eyes, I decided to try.

Walking forward didn't work. Flipping my hands just made the ring slide across the horizontal part. Using the chain as a brace, I did my best to pull myself higher, but I simply wasn't strong enough. Not without places to push with my feet.

So I flipped the chain again, watching how it moved. Then I flipped it harder. The ring finally rocked close to the hook, giving me the smallest hint of hope. Turning so my back was against the tree again, I tried that way.

Then I tried again, and again, and again. Slowly, the world was starting to get brighter, but I had no reason to give up. Maybe Callah was right and this was my calling? If so, then what sort of savior would I be if I lay down and waited for the Dragons to eat me?

So I tried yet again. My arms were growing tired, but I ignored it. The manacles were starting to chafe my wrists. I didn't care. The only way I had to get myself free was to work the ring off the hook, and nothing else had done it.

"I am not," I breathed, "going to give up!" And I flipped it again.

The metal slid up, hanging right at the tip. My heart hung, and I lunged forward, praying I'd be fast enough to make this work. The hook and the ring hung for a moment, and then the angle of my pull slipped the chain up that last bit.

And over.

The length of chain came tumbling down, crashing down into the dirt at my feet - and something moved in the trees.

I sucked in a breath and tried to look. My eyes scanned the shadows, but I couldn't see anything - yet I knew something had been there. Freezing in place, I waited. The last thing I wanted was to call attention to myself. Minutes ticked past, my eyes darting from shadow to shadow. Eventually, the animal grew brave and went on with what it was about, hopping out from the bushes to pick at the blades of grass under the trees.

I couldn't help but smile. It had to be a rabbit! Long ears and a bouncing gait? There was nothing else I knew of that moved like that. Although, it was much larger than I'd expected.

While I watched it graze - or did they browse? - the sun broke free of the horizon, sending brilliant colors into the sky. With a smile, I looked up, taking it all in. Pink, orange, yellow, and gold, it was all there, just like I'd read about. Floating in the air as if gravity had no effect were large clouds which reflected the colors back.

It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. The colors were so bright and vivid. The air was crisp and clear. I turned, trying to experience it all, and the chain dragged at my feet.

This was Earth. This was the world men had ruined for us, but it looked like it had recovered. My lips were spread so wide it made my cheeks hurt, but the sky was getting very bright. Squinting helped, but only so much. At least I finally got to see the leaves on the trees. They really were green. And the rest of the world was magnificent! The kind of beauty that would've fit right into my mother's stories.

Suddenly, the rabbit bolted.

FourteenAyla

Isnapped my head around, looking across the undergrowth with my lashes pushed close together. Nothing seemed to be there - at least not that I could see in the glare of the growing light - but all around me, everything had gone silent except the rustling of the leaves above. My heart beat faster, my body telling me something was wrong, but my eyes found nothing! Everything looked perfectly quiet.

The only reason I finally saw it was because the creature let itself be seen. Lifting up from the long grass before me, it stood there and waited. I sucked in a shocked breath, trying to force my eyes to focus through the brightness.

The silhouette was like a man, except for the thick tail hanging from its backside. The color of it was mostly brown, with black and green mixed in. The size of it was intimidating, but the beast simply stood. For two whole heartbeats, my body was frozen with fear. Then my brain finally caught up. Turning the opposite way, I bolted, following the direction of the rabbit.

The chain dragged behind me, snagging on the ground. Frantically, I tried to gather up the length of it without slowing. A few steps carried me under the trees up ahead, which I hoped would give me cover. Unfortunately, they also made the ground a lot less soft.

Sharp points, hard lumps, and thick objects all tried to abuse my feet. I staggered but kept running, needing to hide, to get away. The sun was up, which meant it was daytime. The creature behind me had to be one of the Devil's minions. A demon or something, I supposed, and I wanted to be as far away from it as possible.

Yet the further I made it under the trees, the thicker the plants became. Soon, branches were grabbing at my chemise and arms, doing their best to slow me down too. I tried to avoid them, desperately looking for a path or trail I could follow. The books always talked about them, yet there were none before me!

So I decided to make my own. Tucking my head and clenching my arms before my chest - with the chain cradled between them - I forced my way deeper into this strange new world. My lungs were burning. My feet were screaming in protest. Every step made me want to wince, to stop, and just to give up, but I'd made a promise to Callah.

I would survive.

One way or another, I'd find a way to live in this dangerous place, if only I could get far enough that the monster back there could never find me. Pushing my body to its limits, I ducked, darted, and dodged between the trees and bushes, only daring to glance back once.

I couldn't see the thing, but I hadn't before it stood up either. Was it still back there? Maybe what I needed was a place to hide? Desperately, I tried scanning the landscape around me, but none of this was like the pictures in my books. There weren't flowerbeds and stone paths. Instead, there were simply plants that grabbed at me, cutting into my skin, and a ground that was mutilating my feet with each panicked step.

And then something crashed into me from the side.

The air left my lungs as I slammed into the forest floor. A piece of wood - branch or root, I wasn't sure - made my back arch painfully. Pain took over my body as my bearings were sent askew, but I tried to roll. I desperately struggled to keep going. The thing that had hit me pressed harder, shoving its entire weight over me until its face was right above mine.

Orange.

My heart forgot to beat. My lungs stalled. Ice raced over my skin as I saw that color and realized it was in the eyes of the monster lying directly over me. A split second later, my lungs demanded release, so I sucked in the biggest breath I could.

A dark, clawed hand slapped over my lips. "Har tu drain dukyl turzalf? Daets e kaioti!"

Then the creature turned to look pointedly into the forest. My eyes followed even as I struggled to pant around the hand it held over my mouth. At least until movement caught my attention. There, no more than twenty feet away, a large canine stood with its eyes locked on us.

The creature was blonde with greyish marks along its body. Its hair was longer but not too long. The thing I couldn't pull my eyes away from, however, were the teeth. So many bright white teeth, and all of them were visible with the way its lips curled.

Then the beast rushed us. The monster holding me down surged up a split-second later. I didn't know what was going on, so I was torn between watching and fleeing - until I saw what had crashed into me. The man-like monster's body was dark with thin white stripes running from its head to its toes. Then there was the tail.

Blue.

The Wyvern!

Rolling onto my stomach, I pushed myself to my knees, but my feet were too abused to hold my weight again. Frantically, I tried to crawl forward, aiming away from both the battle raging behind me and the first creature I'd seen even as my eyes filled with tears.

They'd warned me. They'd said the world wasn't safe. Everywhere I turned was yet another danger, but I had to do this. I'd promised Callah something yellow! I'd sworn I would do my best to survive, so if that meant crawling on my hands and knees, then I would crawl as fast as I possibly could.