Chapter 4:

     It's dark now, dinner long past as the castle lays dormant, asleep. The carpeted staircase is silent beneath my feet as I make my way downstairs, but I don't turn into the great hall, heading straight ahead to a door slightly hidden from eyesight.

     Is this a good idea...? I pause, unsure and nervous. He hasn't seen me since... I sigh, and carefully inch the door open. It groans, and I cringe from the noise. That was moderately loud. Quickly, I step down the first few steps and listen to the door as it closes by itself with a sputter and a click. It's so dark... Keeping my hand on the wall, I make my way down the 483 stairs in silence. I shouldn't do this... This is stupid- I'll get caught... Dust gets into my nose and my nostrils flare before I sneeze into my arm.

     I try to finish my descent quicker, but trip in the darkness and almost start tumbling the entire way down. It's hard to see anything at all, and my mind begins to wander as my feet fall into a steady rhythm. Will I be getting a new trainer? Will he be another ass? My hands brush along the wall, unfazed by the jagged stone bricks. Maybe I was being a bit over the top though... The sound of my feet is comforting, seeing as the only other thing I can hear is dripping water, the atmosphere around me moist the lower into the ground I get. I guess I'm quite a bit of an ass myself, now that I think about it... but he brought my mother into the argument. I begin to see a faint light as I continue spiraling downwards. That wasn't necessary.

     Stepping into the open archway, the waiting room is just as I remember it, only... smaller. I take a deep breath and move towards the storage closet, Frank not waiting for me like when I was younger. Of course he wouldn't be. When I enter, silent, I see the man bending over, collecting whatever he needs and tossing it into a basket as he quietly mumbles to himself. Not sure what else to do, I clear my throat, causing him to flinch.

     "Your Majesty, my apolo-." Frank spins around, but upon seeing me he sharply inhales, surprised. "Mitch?" I weakly smile.

     "Hi Frank."

     "Mitch, my boy!" Frank cheers, embracing me firmly as he laughs. "You were not who I was expecting to see! Not at all!" Frank continues to laugh.

     "Were you expecting my father?" I mumble, beginning to get nervous.

     "Well he's the only one to ever come down here, though he never tells me when, that bastard." Frank mutters the last few words, causing me to laugh myself. It feels so good to laugh again.

     "Yeah, he's not improved at all." I sigh, shaking my head with a smile and once again embracing Frank. "I missed you."

     "And I missed my tiny assistant, though he isn't so tiny anymore!" Frank punches me lightly in the shoulder, smirking to himself as he looks me over. "God, look at how you've grown! So tall and strong looking- and handsome too, you little devil!" I give Frank a light shove, chuckling as my face flushes lightly.

     "Shut up; now what can I do to help?"

     "Well how about you carry absolutely everything for me? These old bones aren't what they used to be!" Frank has a mischievous look in his eyes and smirks, shoving the basket into my arms. I roll my eyes.

     "Does that give me the right to call you an old man?" I ask, teasing, as Frank begins to toss in a bunch more food.

     "Hell no- but you can call me a lazy man if you please." I laugh at that. He always had a way to make me smile like everything was perfect. I blissfully sigh, content with well, everything. Soon Frank decides that enough is enough (after two baskets overstuffed with food) and leads me out into the waiting room, beginning to fiddle with his keys. "So tell me Mitch, how're things up there in the real world?"

     "What you do mean?" I ask as he begins unlocking the door, the familiar rusting mechanism sounding a pleasant crunch as the tiny gears grind against one another.

     "What I mean? Your father hasn't really kept you locked up all these years, has he?" The door swings open and the first two rows of cells greet us, a few people peering out, having heard the door, or having nothing better to do. I laugh, catching more attention.

     "You're joking, right?" I demand, letting the laughter fade as my voice gets serious. "I'm basically his prisoner." Frank gives me a wary look, glancing forwards. I glance forwards as well. Every cell is hidden due to so many people crowding around the bars of said cells to look at me. My face flushes as I suddenly recall what we're doing. "That was a poor choice of words, I'm sorry." I mumble, looking back to Frank.

     "Now why exactly do you feel like you're a prisoner?" Frank asks, beginning to hand out food. There's a girl in the first cell that's blushing furiously, looking frail and weak.

     "Well he's domestically violent." I start, frowning. "I say or do one thing that isn't prince-like and I'll suddenly find myself on the floor due to his overly powered backhand."

     "Doesn't anyone stop him?"

     "No!" I laugh humorlessly. "The guards keep me from leaving and his council members will sit there and watch without batting an eye." I sigh, turning as Frank moves to a different cell.

     "So why haven't you left?"

     "Where am I supposed to go?" I ask. "Furthermore, how am I supposed to go? There are guards everywhere. I can't step foot on the front grounds without people trailing ten feet behind me at all times." Frank doesn't respond, processing all of this information as we continue to move down the row of cells. After a heavy silence, I change the subject. "My father wants me to get married." And suddenly Frank laughs.

     "What are you, 25?"

     "23." I correct. Frank laughs even more.

     "When I was your age, the thought of marriage scared me half to death! And he expects you to marry?"

     "He wanted me to marry some girl at 15! He wanted me to fall in love with her, but she was..." I huff, shaking my head. "Completely fake is what she was. She didn't care what she had to do, so long as she was getting a crown on her head." Frank sighs.

     "Most girls want to wear a crown Mitch."

     "But that girl was willing to do anything I told her to do. She was a trained dog. I tell her quiet, she shuts up. I tell her sit, she sits." Frank just chuckles, shaking his head as he hands some of the prisoner's food. "So I told her to fuck off." Frank stops laughing, looking to me, seemingly surprised.

     "You what?" He demands. I blush, some of the prisoners staring at me now too.

     "Well, not literally..." I mumble. "But that's the way she made it sound when explaining the incident to my father. I asked her to leave me alone, told her that I wasn't interested in getting married. She had a fit about it, and made it all sound horrible to everyone she told. Father obviously wasn't very happy..." I mutter, rolling my eyes. Frank sighs.

     "Well don't go making statements like that, you'll get yourself into more trouble even if you are just being sarcastic about it."

     "Alright."

     Frank and I continue moving down the rows of prisoners, feeding everyone. At one point we ran out of food and made our way back to the storage room to get more. We've been at this for, maybe an hour? Talking about random stuff, Frank overall just curious about what I've been doing since I was last down here. So I tell him all that I can think of, but honestly I don't have much of anything going on in my life.

     I remember coming down here when I was little. I was so young, and the war with the bacca's had been going on at the time. I couldn't figure out where my mother had gone, and my father had left me alone with the council and some nanny's to care for me. I'd seen some guards moving the strange looking creatures to the hidden door up on the ground level, and once they'd all left again, I'd wandered down to see the creatures up close. That's how I met Frank, and how I became his "tiny assistant". My nanny's never knew about it, and Frank never told. He was younger then, in fact it's been almost 20 years since I last saw him. Most of my memories are foggy, though, due to the... incident with my father, after he'd found out what I was doing late at night. My mind prefers to suppress the memories, though the incident has never been foggy to me.

     Other than the incident, and Frank's character, I do remember a particular cell of bacca's. The cell contained the youngest bacca I'd ever met; in fact, the bacca was only a few days younger than me. Him and I would play games, and talk, and overall just have a good time. He couldn't remember the outside world, or his mind had simply suppressed the memories, so most of the time I'd tell him about what was out there, or what I knew was out there. I would sit in the cell with him and his family, and I never felt afraid, never worried of getting hurt because I knew they were nice and harmless.

     Then the incident happened.

     Now, I can feel my heart pounding as we approach that particular cell. No bacca's are hovering around the bars, even as Frank and I continue talking and handing out food. My gaze landing on my outfit, my face flushes. I should have dressed in something... less. These prisoners are dressed in rags.

     "Thank you for all of this help, Mitch." Frank suddenly says as there's only three cells left to give food to.

     "Oh, no, it's uh- I mean, it's fine- I want to be here." I stutter, then smile weakly. "I enjoy spending time down here." Frank smiles at me, only two cells left as I now stand in between them. I can't stop my vision from flittering over to the cell on my right, but it doesn't... well, it's not full anymore. It's almost empty, only three baccas within the cell when there should have been 17. I don't let my vision hover there for long, trying to think. Is it the wrong cell?

     "I was meaning to ask," I look to Frank and give him a smile, but he seems uneasy about the words on his lips. He takes the last of the food, going to the final cell, the cell I remember having a friend within. "Does your father know you're down here?" My smile falls, and my vision shifts to my left.

     "No." I mumble, and look back to him. Frank has a frown upon his face, the baccas in the final cell watching us curiously.

     "He still doesn't want you down here, does he?" Frank moves towards the end of the row, where a small office-lounge type area is, and I follow him.

     "Of course he doesn't want me down here. He wants me to be focused on three things: my training, my school work, and finding a wife." Frank takes the two empty baskets from me, placing them down in the corner. He doesn't respond, moving to a refrigerator and pulling out a water bottle before taking a seat. I take a seat beside him. "Frank, can I ask you something?" I mumble, trying to be quiet, as I know baccas have good hearing.

     "Of course you can!" Frank chuckles, but eyes me before getting serious. "What is it?"

     "I remember a large group of baccas, from the time I spent down here as a kid," I begin, lowering my voice to a whisper. "More specifically, there was a bacca that was my age."

     "What about that?" Frank questions.

     "Where are they?" I ask. "I remember them being down here, in the last cell. There were 17 of them. Did they get moved to a different location?" Frank pales.

     "How do you remember 17 of them?" I don't respond, confused. When Frank realizes I'm not going to verbally reply, his face gets grim. "Your father really doesn't tell you anything, does he?"

     "What did he do?" I demand, my heart beginning to pound again.

     "Mitch, you have to understand something." Frank turns slightly in his seat as I allow the worry to show on my face. "Your father rules this kingdom, yes, but this isn't the only kingdom out there as I'm sure you know. There's Notch, within the Aether's Heavens, and Hero, within the Nether's Hell. There's a kingdom of all that is dark and magical that resides within a realm known as The End, though I don't know the king's name."

     "Why are you telling me all of this?"

     "Before the bacca war, Mitch, there were other wars." Frank tells me. "Wars for the land, more specifically. Long ago in our past, The End and all of its occupants were our enemies. Our war with them lasted decades; in fact, the war with them began before your father was born. Later on, when peace was finally settling and the land finally healing, Hero suddenly turned to attack us. He was more interested in enslaving all of human and bacca kind, though he did take over and control villages and towns here and there. He would attack villages, burning them to the ground and sending his creations to gather up any humans left alive, bringing them back to his kingdom and enslaving them. Eventually, around the time you were very young, we put a stop to him as well, though your father knew that peace was surely not going to last long. Then the bacca war came with the murder of your mother." I look away, trying to process all of this. I remember the textbooks mentioning the wars, but...

     "I still don't understand." I mumble, and look back to Frank. He sighs.

     "During the war with the baccas, your father had an excess amount of prisoners that he would never put to use. The cells here and in other cities were filling fast, and peace between our world, the Nether's Hell, and The End was still hauntingly thin. Your father came up with a plan to appease Hero, and when the ruler of the End changed, the new ruler wanted a part of it as well. After a few meetings, terms were decided upon, and an agreement was made." Frank pauses, and I continue to watch him carefully. "The agreement settled upon was that both realms would cease from attacking and invading our world and kingdom, in exchange for slaves. Hero and the Dragon King were both ensured five new slaves once every period."

     "No..." I mumble, shaking my head. "You don't mean-."

     "They're gone, Mitch." Frank interrupts, and I can feel my heart break in half. "Hero has them now, the majority of the family you remember." I sit in silence, processing this information. My father is giving away innocent lives to protect his rule? I take a deep breath, and rest my head on Frank's shoulder, closing my eyes. "If it's worth anything, Hero has lost a lot of his interest in slavery. He's changed a great deal ever since the war between his brother and him ended. He's been cutting back on what he takes every period. He only takes two slaves now, rather than five. He wants to change, though the progression is rather slow." I continue to rest my head on Frank's shoulder, my eyelids feeling rather heavy.

     "Who's left?" I mumble, proceeding to yawn.

     "Well your friend is left, though he might not remember you. You were both so young and small; I'm surprised you have such a keen memory of the family."

     "Most of my memories are foggy, actually... In fact, the only thing I remember vividly is the, uh, incident." Frank sips at his water. "But I can remember the family a little more than other things. I know there were 17 of them. I can't remember their names, or the majority of their faces, but I remember them being there." I pause, beginning to play with Frank's left hand. "They're like shadows, figures that are blurry and dark, but they're there... Everything is rather blurry though. My mind wants me to forget, to suppress the memories and the incident. But down here is the only place that I've ever felt... happy, since my mom, well, you know."

     "I know." Frank gently pulls me into a hug, his body warm as I yawn again, closing my eyes. "It's getting late, Mitch. You should head upstairs and get to bed."

     "Mhn..." I hum in response, opening my eyes for a bit before letting them flutter closed again. "Okay."

     "Let's get going, then."

     --- Sky ---

     My head is throbbing, and I can't feel my body. There's a quiet murmuring, a woman's voice, but I can't make out the words she's saying. In my head, everything is dark and quiet, warm and comforting. The darkness surrounds me like flame, and urges me to sleep, to not wake up, to stay in this safe place forever. I manage to open my eyes though, knowing I can't continue sleeping. Everything is blurry, and I can make out a figure hovering in front of me. They have skin that fades from black in some areas to brown in other areas, and they have green around them. I can hear the woman's voice more clearly now as I blink, clearing my vision to see Bailey in front of me.

     "... never seen something like this." She mumbles to a dark splotch of black. I blink a bit more, making out Estol's form in the corner.

     "Well, I haven't either. Hybrids aren't usually so... vividly colorful." Estol replies, both of them watching me. I try to sit up, pain engulfing my core as I exhale, laying back down.

     "Could it just be, I don't know, a rare occasion?"

     "I doubt it. We'd have documentation of it, if it's occurred in the past."

     "Maybe there is documentation." Bailey argues, fidgeting in place as she stretches her emerald wings. "You should check with Nova. He'd know something about it." Bailey begins to approach me as Estol hums in agreement, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear as she smiles warmly at me. "How are you feeling, Sky?" Bailey squats down in front of me, and I groan just faintly. She's going to want me to talk. "You probably feel like shit, huh? You had a panic attack when the brew started working its magic; I had to knock you out so you wouldn't hurt yourself." I nod, recalling the incident. Bailey stands up straight again, walking somewhere behind me. "I'm going to start waking up the nerves back here, alright? You'll be able to feel your wings and tail after that. At the moment, they're just dead weight- which is perfectly normal!" I blink a few times. Did she just say...?

     Bailey pushes aside the blanket that's overtop of me, one I didn't even realize I had, and I suddenly feel very cold. I glance to my stomach, not only seeing bare skin but seeing my private parts. My face goes red, and Bailey starts to push her thumbs into different pressure points along my back as goosebumps race along my arms and core.

     "I had to undress you for two reasons," Bailey starts as I begin to feel bones I didn't realize I had. "One, Estol needed them to give to the tailor." I can feel her fingers dust along a bone protruding from my back, and I shiver. "Two, because if I didn't your wings and tail would have been completely messed up... or they would have grown through the cloth of your clothing, and we can't have that, now can we?" She pinches at some skin before moving her hands down to my lower back, and for a second I almost think she's going to touch my ass, but she doesn't. "And Sky, I must say..." She begins to massage some of my skin, eventually moving up towards my mid-back, waking everything up. "I've never met a hybrid with colors as vibrant as yours are." Is that a compliment? Bailey wraps her hands around something thick and long, and I glance down, but her hands aren't touching me down there... not that I'm thick and long or anything... "Alright, try sitting up now." I manage to sit up with Estol's help, the blanket falling and covering only my private bits now.

     "Is your head alright? Bailey gave you a nasty bruise; Tox won't be too happy." I hesitate, but I only have a headache, so I nod. Estol sighs, and Bailey comes back around in front of me, dragging a large full body mirror with her.

     "I'm going to let you see your wings and tail now, alright?" Bailey tells me, fingers rubbing against the obsidian casing of the mirror. I take a deep breath and nod to her. She turns the mirror around in slow agony, but my breath catches in my throat when I finally see myself.

     Oh my god.