I woke up on the cold rock floor to a whistling. It was loud, but not annoying. Crawling closer to the bars, I saw the source: a tall teen with black hair filled with dust and dull grey eyes.

    I tried to call out to him, but my parched throat only gave a squeak. It was enough, though, to send the boy to cut off abruptly on a note and look around. His grey eyes met mine. He walked over to me and bent down.

"Hey, I've never seen you before. You thirsty?"

I nodded not trusting my dry throat to talk. He gave a smile that didn't have much life in it and left. I sat back and waited. Soon, footsteps crunched through the bushes and the teen came back with a bucket in one hand and a ladle in the other. He sat in front of me and set the bucket within reach. I reached through the bars and grabbed the ladle from his hand. I dipped the ladle in the bucket and pulled it back towards me. Lifting the ladle to my mouth, I drank heartily. I repeated the process multiple times until my throat stopped screaming.

Eventually I set the ladle back in the bucket. "Thank you."

He nodded. "Your welcome." He stuck out a hand. "I'm Phelix Bardillion."

"Delailia Worthington. Most people just call me Lia." I shook his hand.

He sat back, leaning on his arms. "Why are you in prison, Lia."

I winced. I'd never thought about it that way before. "I- uh, found something that AGO wanted to keep quiet. So my mom sent me to this tribe. I ran away yesterday and got in a wolf attack. They locked me in here to 'keep me out of trouble.'"

Phelix's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "AGO?"

"Ateimdale Government Offices." I had never considered someone either my age or older wouldn't know what that was. "So you grew up in this tribe?"

"Yeah. It's not all it's cut out to be." Phelix sighed, barely audible, and dropped his head an inch.

"I wasn't implying anything of the such." I said, using a line I'd learned from English. I scowled.

Phelix looked at me and laughed dully. "I wasn't blaming you at all."

We sat in silence for a moment, before I spoke. "Does this tribe have a name?"

"The Nighthawks."

I laughed. "Wasn't that the same of some ancient gun company?"

Phelix didn't crack a smile. "I don't know. Maybe. I didn't name the tribe."

I sat back, crossing my arms. I was getting annoyed at his sullen attitude. It was almost infectious. "Do you always act like that?"

"Like what?"

"Your sadness. Dullness." I mimicked his sigh from earlier overdramatically.

Phelix looked away. "The Nighthawks never allowed for much emotion."

I felt a twinge of sadness for Phelix. "That's horrible! I'm so sorry!"

At that inopportune moment, my stomach decided to gurgle like a hungry cat. Phelix glanced back at my with pity in his eyes. "You must be hungry. Want me to get you something to eat?" He was obviously trying to change the subject.

I let it slide and nodded. Phelix scrambled up and hurried off. While I waited, I took a few more drinks of water. Soon, he came back with plate. He slid it under the bars and retook his position across from me. On the plate was...

A steak.

"Meat?" I whispered and looked up.

Phelix nodded. "Are you allergic?"

Now it was my turn to look away. "I've, ah, never had any."

Phelix looked confused. "What?"

I listed my head. "It's illegal."

"In Ateimdale?" He clearly was uncomfortable using the word that was obviously new to him.

"In UE."

"UE?"

I sighed. "United Earth."

Phelix looked troubled. "Not in the tribes."

I thought about that. Why was it illegal for all of UE but not the tribes? It didn't make sense.

He pointed at the steak. "Do you need me to take it back?"

"No. I guess it's not illegal for me. Apparently I'm apart of the Nighthawks now. Whether that's good or bad." I picked up the fork and cut the steak, finding it harder than I thought it would be. Once I piece tore off, I stabbed it with the fork and shoved it in my mouth.

Charred, roasted flavor burst into my mouth and coated my tongue. It was chewier than I would've expected, and that was strangely okay with me. I swallowed and as quick as I could, whilst still savoring every bite, gobbled up the steak.

I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand and looked up to catch Phelix's amused look. "What?" I asked.

"Did you like it?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "It was delicious!"

Phelix grinned for real, and turned parallel to the bars. As I pushed the empty plate under the bars, he lay down, arms behind his head. "So, what big government secret did you discover? Illegal vault of meat?"

I snorted and turned to lean against the cave wall. "Yes, actually. How'd you know?"

"I heard someone in the village talk about it."

I gasped. "How would they know?"

"One of our former tribes members is a teacher at your old school. Your science teacher I think."

"Mr. Kuzaco?"

"Yeah. Well, him and all of your teachers got interrogated by this kid from the government building who wasn't much older than me. He was looking for you. So, Kuzaco took a sick day and ran here as fast as he could to warn us." Phelix yawned.

"What will they do with me?"

"Nothing, I imagine." He yawned again. "Probably use you as a bartering pawn for cloth or something." He glanced at me as I winced. "Our Chief acts like people are just pawns. It's how he was raised."

After a moment, I asked, "Shouldn't you be working or something?"

Phelix shrugged. "I'm technically supposed to be sleeping right now. I got lost coming back from the Redfeathers tribe last night, and I barely slept."

"Why don't you go get some sleep?"

Phelix grinned at me. "Then you'd have no one to talk to."

For the rest of the day, we talked, with Phelix occasionally
getting more food for the both of them or to fill up the water bucket.

When the sun was touching the edges of the horizon, I lay down on the hard floor of the cave. Phelix and I were just in a conversation about our families when Phelix didn't answer.

"Phelix?" I whispered. "Phelix?"

I leaned up and saw he was fast asleep. I didn't want to wake him, and I was feeling tired myself, so I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep

A.N. Yay, Phelix and Lia met!

I'm excited! My goal is to finish my first draft by May 23, but NaNoWriMo says April 6.

Also, I have two Beta readers and one new editor! Yay

Best wishes, lovelies

-Cal