As Bird tripped, the spear part of the creature grazed his shoulder, barely flying past him, slamming into the bark of the great tree. Leonis shone the orb of light toward the shadow-like creature. After a moment, the creature dematerialised and started to violently pulsate. After a few moments, it exploded into hundreds of shadow shards, dispersing all around the floor before disappearing.
After catching his breath and realizing he was alive, Bird also noticed he could no longer hobble; he could only crawl on his hands and knees.
'How far away is this damn tree?'
Suddenly, Bird felt something yank him off the ground and into the light. Leonis had finally offered help, coming out to grab him and pull him to the safety of the great tree. Leonis and Bird sat at the bottom of the tree, panting, trying to catch their breath.
'He could have grabbed me so much sooner. What is wrong with him?'
"What the hell? Why didn't you grab me sooner?"
Leonis stared at him, a little dumbfounded.
"Grab you? I don't even know you. I am willing to help, but that doesn't mean I will babysit you. My life will always come first. Don't forget you are not in an inhabited part of The Cone anymore. You said you grew up in the slums, right? You should know best that it's you vs everything."
Bird was shook he did not expect such a blunt answer. Leonis was right; he had grown up alone and surviving in the slums.
'How could I forget such a simple principle of my life so quickly? Why did I trust this Scribed so quickly? He could be Drali for all I know. No, there is no way someone with such a useless ability would be Drali. Right?'
"Why are you helping me?"
"Because im human im not a monster. I have morals I would like to keep."
Leonis's words confused Bird; he was not a monster either, but even he would have left a small, famished kid if he had a lesser utility-centered ability. Did this make him less human than Leonis?
"Are you Drali?"
Leonis let out a chuckle and sarcastically said.
"Oh yes, I am the Drali who sees in the dark and walks around on a floor that no one cares about."
Bird felt embarrassed for asking. He had just thought the same thing; he was even a little angry at Leonis. Before Bird had the chance to redeem his idiotic question, Leonis pointed up and said.
"We need to climb its much safer, and I might be able to get a better signal towards where the nearest stairs are."
The two climbed the tree, or rather Leonis climbed and then would lift Bird to the next branch, due to his heavier legs and the fact that he was utterly exhausted. After around what felt like half an hour of being dragged up a tree, Leonis spoke.
"Here, this is where we will sleep until the sun comes out."
They could finally rest after what felt like an eternity of danger. Now sitting on a wide more flat branch of the giant tree, Bird could get a good look at Leonis. The man was not as well or good looking as he had once thought. Leonis was around 6'0ft with dirty brown and blond hair that was short and slightly slicked back. Looking at his cloths it looked as if he had been traveling for quite some time; his clothes looked like dirty rags. Bird also noticed a small knife on his weathered belt.
After a moment of awkward silence, Bird's curiosity slipped out
"What floor are we on exactly?"
"Currently, we are seven layers away from standard living layers, or layer 22. But that doesn't mean no one else lives on this floor; in fact, there are probably multiple Scribed on this floor.
"Why did we even come to this great tree then?"
"About that, I am not very appreciated by other prospects. Hell, we are the bane of the entire Triprecinct Empire."
"We? What do you mean by we?
Leonis hesitated for a moment before saying.
"I am a part of a group who are not fond of the great Triprecinct Empire."
Bird's face started to pale after hearing what Leonis had said.
'A Thrakeen! a damn revolutionary!'
"Your Thrakeen? Are you serious!"
"Calm down, you will be fine."
"HOW WILL I BE FINE IF I AM SEEN WITH YOU? I WILL BE KILLED!"
"Shhh, calm down. If you keep screaming, someone probably will end up finding us. No one is near this forest; it is known that this part of the layer is unresourceful and dangerous, so calm down. If anything, you should thank me because you should already be dead."
Bird stared at Leonis in confusion for a moment. Thrakeen were depicted as savages and lunatics driven mad by their scribed ability or a malfunction with the reaction in their blood. It was odd, Bird had always pictured the Thrakeen blood hungry and violent. Leonis was neither; he was just normal.
"You are different than how I imagined."
Leonis looked at the boy, annoyed.
"Don't believe everything the Drali put in front of you. And don't talk to me about looks. Why are you wearing that stupid armor that only covers half your legs? It would be much easier to survive without it. Why are you even wearing it?"
The look in Bird's eyes shifted; they were darker. Bird hesitated and then quietly replied.
"Torture."
You could tell Leonis was a little stunned by the response.
"Torture? What do you mean by torture?"
"A common thief's punishment called the iron boot. The slums are not a very pleasant place to live: overcrowded, food shortages, common illness, limited water, and, depending on which layer of the slums you are in, conditions that can be unlivable. It's a life that does not promise many fruits."
Bird sighed and continued.
"Do you know the festival held on the day of new?"
"Who doesn't know it, the day to remind us how we are foreign to The Cone and how long we have been here."
"Around four months ago, I was starved. I couldn't even afford cornic stew, not that it would have helped my hunger all too much. That disgusting stew was a staple of slum life, made with the thick grease squeezed from cornic fat; it was not too filling."
"Anyway, even the slums livened up on the day of new, I remember Drali giving out the small pouches filled with a tiny candle to light the festive streets. Walking through the candlelit streets, the smell of real food, food that could actually feed you, unlike the thick stew that left a lingering in your stomach and starved you to death. The kind of food I could only dream of was more than enough to fool my mind and put my stomach under a spell; I couldn't resist. It couldn't hurt to steal a single piece of food, could it?"
"Of course, I didn't know at the time, but that was the night my legs would be imprisoned, and any hope of a normal life was sealed."