As we walked along on the clouds, it be came clear that Mr. Sunshine walking next to me, despite his rather muscular build, was incredibly smart. He kept going on and on about how it shouldn't be possible to walk on clouds because it was made of moisture, and even if the top part of the cloud was solid ice, there updraft wouldn't be strong enough to support the ice as well as humans so we should be falling. The thought wasn't particularly pleasant. "Shut up," I muttered after about five minutes of listening to him talk. 

"Sorry," he said, smiling. "I'm told I talk too much." 

So we walked and Sunshine limped along beside me and didn't say a word. The buildings ahead of us were steadily growing bigger by the minute, and they were huge. It was clearly the main city for miles around. Homes circled around the the tall buildings. 

"This place is huge," Sunshine said. It really was. We didn't enter the city at first. Instead, we walked around the perimeter to a large building that looked like a fancy school that all of the rich kids went to down on the earth. 

The commander turned on us. "Welcome to The City of the Clouds. Since you're new, You are allowed to take a look at the city, but you have to return here to the Training Center before the sun sinks below the clouds. Tomorrow we start training, so you'll want to get all of the rest you can."

Before he was even finished, I bolted off into the streets. I had been here before. I had places to be. 

"Hey wait up," Sunshine called after me. 

I ignored him and disappeared behind a building. I took in the streets around me and smiled at the soft thud of my feet hitting the clouds. I rounded another corner and almost ran into a mother and her child. I skidded to a halt.  "Oh, sorry about that," I managed to get out before continuing my running. The woman said something about kids not being brought up correctly these days. I couldn't agree more. I was almost to my destination.  The rows of houses in this part of the city were very even and easy to navigate. 

I hadn't been here for over three years, but I remembered the streets.

I stopped in front of a restaurant. I looked up at the big wooden building. "Home," I breathed out. I opened the door and walked inside.

I couldn't stop the smile from my face. The person at the front counter was a familiar face. "Gust," I said reaching over the counter to give him a hug. He was the oldest of the Chase family. He was almost a brother to me.

"Thorne?" he asked. "Is it really you?"

I let go of him and nodded. 

"You've grown since I last saw you"

I grinned. "Well I would hope so. Three years and me not growing at all would be just depressing."

"Well then," he said, pulling me into a hug again, "go back and see the others."

I walked through the doorway in the back of the restaurant to the kitchen. The lunch rush was over so now there was only prep work to do. "It is great to see you again Mrs. Chase," I said.

Mrs. Chase turned around from what she was doing and crossed her arms. "Thorne, sweetie what are you doing here? You're going to get your self killed." 

I grimaced slightly at the statement. My brothers were taking notice of me. 

"Hey, little sis," Matthew said, picking me up in a huge hug. He was a year younger than Gust, but he stood at least a few inches taller than him.

I squirmed out of his grasp. Drew was leaning against the cabinets. He was happy, but it may not've been me that made him so. 

"Hello Drew," I said.

He didn't even look at me. 

I reached out to wrap a finger around his and he finally turned his head in my direction. 

"Hello, Drew," I said again.

My older brother mouthed "Hello" at me and I grinned. 

He was odd, and never had any friends. I didn't know what was wrong with him, but what ever it was, it was the reason his parents couldn't take care of him and pleaded with Mrs. Chase to take him off their hands. As if he was just a thing not worth their time. 

Suddenly, I assaulted from behind with a hug

"Hi Thorne! Long time, no see," Jason said.

I giggled at my brother's tactic. He had been upstairs, but he must've heard us. 

Matthew started to speak. "They will check to see if any of the initiates were previously banished. They will kill you once they find out. By any chance have you thought of a plan to keep yourself alive?"

"I plan not to be there when they want to find out," I said. 

Matt was clearly unimpressed. "You really think that will work?"

I didn't. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Leave right now," He suggested. "They can't stop you."

"Someone must be following me to make sure I don't flee."

"It would be safer to leave now, Thorne. You could get out."

I changed the subject before he started lecturing me. "Where is Spike," I asked.

Silence. Mrs. Chase didn't have to reply for me to know the answer.

"Spike is gone, dear" Mrs. Chase said finally. 

"Gone?" I said. I was holding out hope. He might have gotten away.

Matthew scoffed. "More like taken, mother, by those dirty Frostickers."

So he was either dead or in prison. I was holding out hope for the latter. "Then I have to stay," I said. "I have to train so I can rescue him."

Matt crossed his arms, not pleased with my decision. "Then you might want to stretch out your wings before you leave. It is going to be a long couple of weeks."

I declined.

Matthew grabbed me by my shoulders, looking dead serious. "If you get yourself killed," he said, "I will personally come to you and beat you up."

With that wonderful incentive to stay alive, I said final farewells, gave a hug to Gust at the front table, and left. 

The Commander had only given us about an hour, so I figured I had half of that time left. I ran back through the streets more slowly this time. I was in no rush to get back. We didn't start any training until tomorrow. The streets were clogged with people. Most of the stores closed about now. I wove around and between people. 

I didn't notice the crowed getting thicker. I kept darting through people. I didn't notice their screams and cries. I froze as I came to the edge of a wide circle formed by people. In the center, there was a post. Along with it there was a man in chains. Into the circle stepped a large man. The commander. He had a whip. My mouth formed a silent 'o'. I knew what this was. I knew who the man chained to the post was as well. I wanted to run, but I couldn't move.

The commander started to speak. "On this day Sebastian Azotado will be whipped for attempting to assault the king.  He will keep his position as it is his duty to serve the king. He has been tried and found guilty of his crime. The penance will be twenty lashes. I watched as the commander chained the man to the post and ripped off his shirt. Azotado was terrified, but he hid his fear well. I couldn't blame him. The commander drew back his arm. His arm came down as fast as lighting. A crack was  followed by a scream. The pain rolled off the man like waves in an ocean. 

The man looked at me. I stared back. 

He cocked his head at me. A silent plea.

But I couldn't help him. There was nothing I could do.

The next crack was enough to get me moving. I took a step back. I bolted away. I ran faster than ever before. I was running back to the institute. There was no escape from the screams. Even while they faded into the distance, the screams still rang in my ears. I hated pain, whether it be mine or belonging to someone else.

I ended up at the steps leading to the front door of the training center. I entered the big brick building. I had never been here before. It had to be at least five stories high. The hallways were wide and they seemed to twist and turn everywhere. I followed the sounds of angry shouts. There was really no other way to figure out where to go.

I ended up in a large room with rows of various weapons from a tiny dagger to a mace and chain. In the center of the room the brute Sunshine had said was named Trevor was yelling at a boy that could be no taller than five feet.

"You stole my knife. I watched you, you coward. So give it back to me before I beat you to a pulp," Trevor screamed.

"And if I don't have it?" The little boy asked totally calm. He was with the group of sixteens so I assumed he was sixteen as well, but he was short. Trevor towered over him like a mountain.

"But you do have it, so you better give it back," Trevor snarled.

The boys continued their immature banter. I saw most of the remainder of our little group towards the back of the room watching the boys with interest. I skirted the edge of the room, not wanting to get anywhere this fight. I ended up next to a girl with silky brown and a long scar across her forehead. 

"Hello," she said. "I'm Vivian. Are you enjoying the show?"

"No," I said. It was quite annoying, listening to them bicker.

"Well you might enjoy it more if you saw this." She revealed a small knife in her hand.

I shook my head, but I couldn't help the small smile that came to my lips. 

I searched around for Sunshine. He was sitting on the floor behind a rack of swords. 

Sunshine looked up. "Would you care to join me miss?" he asked and waved dramatically at the vacant spot in front of him. 

I rolled my eyes and sat. 

"So," Sunshine said. "What weapon do you think I should fight with?"

He asked like it like it was a question he already knew the answer to.

I shrugged. "What ever you already know how to fight with, I suppose," I said.

"And if I don't know how to fight with any of the weapons?" he asked.

"Then you learn something new."

"Of course," he said.

"Of course," I repeated. "Do you know why we are unsupervised in a room full of weapons?"

He nodded. "We are told to pick out two weapons, so we can begin training with them as soon as possible."

Hence his earlier question.

"Gather up," said a man. It was the commander.

I stood up quickly and walked over to the rest of the group. I looked back at Sunshine. He was having no such grace. He awkwardly stood and limped over to where I was standing. It wasn't a huge limp, and he didn't appear to be in any pain. I was very curious regarding his walk. Trevor and the boy were no longer fighting, but they were glaring at each other instead.

"I will show you to your temporary sleeping quarters, and I expect you to be down stairs in the morning in this room and we will begin training," the commander said.

"Are we ever going to eat anything?" Sunshine said sarcastically to me.

"Who knows." I shrugged. I was rather hungry after my run all over town.

On our way up the stairs, I couldn't help but notice a red-brown stain on the hem of the commander's sleeve.

The commander showed us to a room with ten cots lined up along each wall. A single door lead to another smaller room. It was probably a wash room. It wasn't extravagant, but it was much better than the floor of my gang's cold building that I was used to. 

"You have an hour to socialize then the lamps will be turned off. Training begins tomorrow." The commander smiled. "Sleep well." With that, he turned and left the room. The eighteen of us looked around at each other. 

"So what to we do now?" someone asked. 

Vivian, the girl from before, answered. "I guess we sleep well."

I picked a cot closest to the door. I had no idea what to expect tomorrow, but I had a feeling that we would indeed need all the rest we could get.