Zemlya woke to an unexpected softness behind her back. The last few days she'd slept on the cold hard floor while she let Lua who was injured and more or less a guest take her bed.

She and Lua had talked way into the day and it was night once again. He'd told her stories of the surface. About the way wind switched directions. And the sea waves you could ride. And animals she had never heard of, that he was kind enough to imitate. She almost wanted to believe that she could touch the surface as well. But those futile longings where lost to her dreams.

"Lua?" She said.

The room was silent. He'd left. He'd ran off again. And this time he'd been caught. She hopped out of bed and darted for the door only to trip and fall onto a pillow she didn't remember leaving on the floor. A tough pillow that grunted.

Zemlya felt the pillow with a hand only to discover infinitely soft hair that curled around each of her fingers.

"What the hell?" His voice filled her ears and surprised her slightly. His breath hot on her cheek.

"Lua?"

"You know I could kill you, right?" His mock sweet tone blanketed his threat.

She laughed. "But would you?"

"Does being blind make you fearless?" He grunted.

"I don't fear you." She smiled sweetly and sat back. "Did I wake you?"

"No, you just fell on me," he grumbled.

"I'm sorry." She winced. "I thought you'd left. I didn't know you were on the floor...why are you on the floor?"

He cleared his throat. "Fell asleep like this." Then they both must've fallen asleep on the floor because Zemlya didn't remember climbing onto the bed.

"Then how did I end up on the bed?"

"Aren't you hungry? I'm hungry." His change of topic was suspect but she couldn't deny the hunger in his tone.

"I'll make breakfast."

~~~

Zemlya crunched on a bacon that was both perfectly crispy and chewy. But she might as well had been eating alone. She hesitated. "It's just bacon. I promise I didn't poison your food."

No response.

A rough finger tucked a dreadlock behind her ear. "It was getting on your bacon."

She cringed. "Thank you."

"I always repay my debts," he said, his voice low and bare. "I just don't know how I'll repay this debt."

"But I haven't yet returned you."

"You saved me. Because I know for a fact that that bull wouldn't have hesitated to leave me for dead. And if and when you do get me back to the surface I don't know how I'll repay that debt either."

The silence settled in again. Zemlya knew this encounter would be brief. And she'd one day say goodbye and be left only with the memories of the boy from the surface.

She reached out gently and hesitantly. Where his skin caved and her thumb found lips, she patted him. "Will we ever meet again?"

His jaw locked under her hand. "I don't think we could nor should we. No one should know we met. Our worlds should remain separate."

"I understand." She pulled away. "And I already told you I don't need anything from you. Being a pampered princess's charity case can't be that bad."

In the next moment the door bell cried out, jolting both of them off the floor. A robotic voice followed:

Bestie Harran and Dowda

"Its my brother. Just stay here," Zemlya said.

She calmed her racing heart and left. She shouldn't have been anxious. She'd gotten rid of all the evidence. No one would've known that she was harboring a stranger from another world. But if she'd so much as forgotten a crumb, Dowda would've sniffed it out, analyzed it and proved himself true.

"Dowda." She wore her most welcoming smile. Probably shouldn't have been so welcoming and more sarcastic. "What brings you round here?"

The door clicked shut.

"I don't have time to chat, I simply need your CCTV data." Irritation laced Dowda's voice.

"Can I ask what for?"

"Father has put me in charge of an ongoing investigation regarding a suspicious figure in the Southern Quarter last spotted in this district. Now if you'll quietly hand over the drive so I can get on my way that would be excellent."

"Alright then." She shrugged. "Harran if you please?"

"Yes My Lady," replied Harran. A quiet drill sound came to life.

"But I should say," Zemlya added, "our CCTV hasn't been maintained in a while. You should check the footage before you leave."

"Why doesn't anything in this stupid Quarter work?" He spoke the words under his breath.

Zemlya bit down a retort, but the words bubbled out of her before she could help it. "Were you not able to obtain any footage at all?"

"I don't have to answer that," he grunted.

"Well I apologize if so. All the Southern Quarter is good for is growing your potatoes and cabbages."

"You could live in any other Quarter if you wanted to. Even in the capital and the palace of all places. But you choose to live here." Dowda wasn't one to argue irrelevant things. But when he did he always cut straight to the point in the calmest way possible. "So don't pretend to be like the normal girl when you're so obviously not."

"You're right. I'm not like you and I'm certainly not like every other citizen of Dhulka. But I've lived long enough in the Southern Quarter to know that growing carrots won't pay for a constant update of everything you own."

The drilling ceased. The drive was handed over. And Dowda left without another word.

~~~

"So theres no way out from here," Lua said the words as if to convince himself of his rotten luck. As welcoming as the princess was he couldn't waste anymore time under the earth, waking to another day away from his tribe.

"Was it Dowda?" The princess asked. Lua had overheard her conversation with her brother, which raised more questions in his mind but posed no problem. Rather, he was more convinced that she was a princess, a strange one albeit.

The bull shook his head. "I can't be sure. I only bumped into him here. The tunnels must've been sealed during the day."

"What about the ones in the other quarters do you think they will remain open?"

"Perhaps, I have to check to be certain. But even if they aren't sealed, I don't see how we can covertly transport him across the quarters."

Lua scolwed at the bull only for the bull to mirror his expression.

"What about the Underbelly?"

The bull pondered this then nodded. "Then I'll take him but you aren't coming with us."

The princess pouted, which Lua found, to his surprise, adorable. "Promise me you'll get back safely, both of you."

She squeezed the bull's fist in her tiny hands. A grating feeling tingled Lua's own fingers. He owed the princess his life and even if she brushed off his offer of repayment he felt that debt weigh on him. And he'd be indebt to her till he rescued her from the clutches of death as well.

"Of course, my lady."

"One more day then?" Lua looked to the princess as he spoke.

"One more day." She nodded.

But even one day was enough to take down a whole tribe.

~~~

Makapa reached out to the bright blue sky, storm clouds gnawing at its edges. The past few days had been warmer than usual. An ominous sign of wet weather. He squeezed his fist and swallowed the curses on his tongue.

Days had past and he'd yet to find his best friend, neither alive nor dead. The more days passed the closer Makapa got to accepting that Lua might not have survived. Because if Lua had, he'd have already found his way back home. Unless he had been taken and was being held captive.

Makapa sighed.

"You worry for your friend."

The boy bristled, surprised to find Chief Shan sitting across from him. Makapa bowed hastily. "Chief, you sent word for me."

"Be at ease, I only wish to speak to you."

But Makapa couldn't be at ease. No Drait was after that battle. Unspoken otherwise whispered, the threat of war was on everyone's mind.

"You need not worry for your friend any longer."

The boy shook his head. "With all due respect Chief, I do not wish to cease my search for Lua."

"Makapa."

The chief's tone chilled the boy to his bones. Makapa swallowed, meeting the chief's eyes. He saw Lua in the chief, in his gaze and his steely countenance, in his stubbornness.

"Lua is alive," Chief Shan said.

Makapa's thoughts came to an abrupt halt. "But how?"

"We don't have much time, I'm sure you're aware. The Cadits will strike at the first drop of rain and we must be ready to defend Drait. But in the instance that Drait is lost to the Cadits, and I am lost with, I need you to hold out until Lua returns."

"I don't understand."

"A new people will arise from under the earth. The Cadits must never know they exist. These people must be protected at all cost. Lua will soon come to know this as well."

Makapa swallowed this new information with diffulty. A thousand new questions sprang to life in his mind but with too little time he silenced them all. Except one. "Why me Chief?"

"Because Lua will need someone he can never doubt. Someone who will stick by him through and through. He will need a friend." Fondness flickered in the chief's eyes. But it quickly vanished and his regard turned stoic once again. "You must survive if you are to stay by his side."

A/n: I love me a good friendship story😭 uh also I'm sorry if I'm being repetitive. Things will definitely get interesting in the next chapter.