Chapter II - Part I

Andy found it hard to fall asleep that night. It wasn’t the story that was bothering her but rather the effect it had had on Grandpa. The way his face turned stiff and his eyes started glistening with tears. It was only for a moment but Andy had never seen him like that. Any kind of emotions were hard to come by in the city of Sencor. It was built specifically for the use of imprisonment. The law was hard but it was the law and there was no escaping from it.

The room (or cell as she called it) that had been Andy’s home all of her life wasn’t particularly big or small. They could all fit in there easily but there wasn’t room for running around or playing. Andy sat up and looked at the sleeping people around her. Next to her was her older brother Andrew who had just turned eighteen. He had a hard face and a rectangular jaw that was covered with a short dark brown beard. When Andy had inherited most of the traits of a Cirron - the blue hair, golden eyes, light skin and small growth - then Andrew had none of them. His thick chocolate-brown hair were tied up in a bun with small strands laying flat on the side. His eyes were serious most of the time but even he seemed dull during their nightly bonfires. Her mother was a feminine version of Andrew. The same hair and face, full lips that had never curved into a smile and gray eyes which only seemed to enhance the lack of emotions. Andy’s father had died when she was very young. No one talked of him, not even Grandpa. She didn’t know his name or how he looked like. Why had he died?

They shared the room with the rest of their relatives. Andy didn’t exactly know how they were related but she guessed they must have been the children and grandchildren of Grandpa’s siblings.

Andy put her head back on the ground. She missed the pillows they had had last year, before the fire which burned down half the city. Some said it had been an accident, some said that the guards hated the prisoners so much, they wanted to kill them all. Andy didn’t care why. She just missed the life before it and her sister.

When she woke, the sun had barely come out. The others were already up and quietly taking their turn at the breakfast table. Andy folded her blanket and stacked it in the small cupboard in the corner. As she moved closer to the table she could see what they were all eating - warm water with some leaves in it or, as the guards called it, soup. She took a bowl and filled it. Grandpa seemed to be in a better mood than he had been by the bonfire. He slurped his soup so that his whiskers were full of green leaves which made his face look even funnier than usual. He frowned a bit seeing Andy giggle at him but it wasn’t an angry frown. He wiped his mustache with the back of his hand and smiled.

“Breakfast is over! Get to work!” Yelled Kalbott as he slammed the door open. His sharp narrow eyes were barely visible under his thick eyebrows but Andy could still see the hate in them. It was the face she had seen every morning for fifteen years yet the coldness still frightened her. Everyone stood up from the table without a single word and took their bags with lunch and water. They wouldn’t be coming back until sunset. Andy was the last one to pass the guard. Kalbott towered over her but didn’t seem to care enough to look at any of them. They were nothing to him but criminals, people who he would rather have seen hung.

Andy took a few faster steps and reached Grandpa. The air was chilly that morning and the ground slippery with mud.