In Black and White
Prologue
Erika P.O.V.

In Xentev, there are two distinct regions: the East and the West. The East is under strict control of the king, who sets rules for how people live their lives. The West is almost the exact opposite. Due to the terrain and large amounts of forested areas, the royal family rarely bothers to send even a single soldier to investigate. Because of that, however, the few people who do live in the West receive no aid whatsoever. In fact, the East and West are even separated by one of the main geographical features, the Xentev River, which runs down almost the entire island. With no bridges, crossing from one side to the other is almost impossible. My family lives in the West, as do most people who despise the idea of a monarchy.

“Erika!” my mother called from a different room in our small house. “Dinner’s ready!”

“Okay, I’ll be there in a second!” I called back. We had a relatively simple life. Our house was rather close. To the East, being along the Xentev River, but it seemed to have little effect on the outcome of how our lives played out. Day after day, we did little but eat, sleep, and work.

Sometimes I wished something would happen, just for a change of pace.

* * *

After dinner, I decided to go for a walk in the forest as I usually do. There has been word amongst the other inhabitants of West Xentev about war in the East, but I wasn’t that concerned. They haven’t bothered to interact with us before, so why start now? I know that there have been disputes before as well in the past.

“Hey, Erika! Whatcha doin’?” A familiar girl asked, dropping down from a tree branch and landing in front of me.

“What do you think, Celeste?” I responded, unfazed my friend’s antics. She was a bit of a tomboy in some regards. “There isn’t really much to do.”

“You know, you can be pretty boring sometimes,” Celeste pouted. “You need to live a little! You only live once, you know.”

“Yes, and most people in Xentev have a tendency to live over several hundred years old if they aren’t killed first. Last time I checked, we were both twelve. I don’t see the concern of having to do everything right this second.”

“Again, you really need to live a little.” Celeste stated.

The conversation continued as we tried to find something else to occupy our time.

“I know!” Celeste said suddenly. “We should try crossing the Xentev River!”

“Do you remember what happened the last time you tried that?” I asked. “You almost drowned.”

“I was younger then!”

“It was two weeks ago.”

“But I’m here now aren’t I?”

“True. But I still believe that it would be too reckless to try going to the East. The culture shock alone would probably be too much.”

Looking at the sky, I realized that it was almost dark. “Why don’t you spend the night at my house? I don’t think you’ll have time to head back to yours before dark.”

“Really? Yay!” Celeste cheered, actually jumping for joy.

“Of course; my mother shouldn’t mind and we could use the company.”

We head back after Celeste managed to calm down (to a degree) and I fell asleep almost right away (much to Celeste’s disappointment).

* * *

I awoke suddenly to loud banging on the door. I noticed Celeste was awake as well.

“Erika? Were you expecting someone?” Celeste asked quietly, but I shook my head.

“You and I both know that other than my mother and me, you’re the only person who is willing to go this close to the River.” I responded. It was true. We were more of the adventurous type. Especially Celeste.

“OPEN THE DOOR! WE HAVE COME BY ORDER OF THE KING!” a man’s voice shouted from outside before continuing to pound on the door.

The king? This must be some sort of practical joke. East Xentev has never sent anyone to the West before.

“IF YOU WISH TO REMAIN IGNORANT, THEN WE WILL BE FORCED TO BREAK DOWN THE DOOR!” the man shouted. If this is a prank, they are going way too far for it…

 “Erika, Celeste, are you two all right?” Mother asked, coming into the room.

“Yeah, but I think-“ I tried to respond before the sound of the door breaking down was heard throughout the house.

“You are now under arrest for defiance of the king’s orders!” the soldier yelled.

“My, my,” Mother sighed, “you could at least use an inside voice…” I simply do not understand how she is able to remain calm.

The soldier ignored Mother’s retort, and knocked her out with a forceful blow to the head with the blunt end of is spear.

“You two are coming with me as well…” the soldier stated, knocking Celeste and me out as well.

* * *

As I awoke, I found myself in a covered wagon. I found that odd, considering that there should be more advanced vehicles available. Oh well. I noticed Celeste next to me had also awoken.

“Celeste, are you okay?” I asked, shaking her gently by the shoulder.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied. “You know what’s going on? It sounds like a skirmish of some sort is going on.”

“Let me guess. You want to check it out.”

“Do I ever!”

“Fine…”

As we went outside, we discovered that there was more than just a skirmish. There seemed to be a silver-haired girl in the sky. I had to do a double-take to make sure my eyes weren’t fooling me. There may be magic, but none was known to allow the user to fly like that.

“Celeste, do you see what I see…” I asked blankly.

“Yes. We may be still asleep.” She responded, pinching herself. “Nope.”

I facepalmed. “I have no comment…”

Not long after, I noticed the girl falling.

“What?!” I said in shock. “Celeste, we need to go find her!”

“Sure! I like adventure!” she said, her mood changing completely.

* * *

Despite what I had said, I had no idea how to go about actually finding the girl.

“Erika, are you all right? You’ve had a peculiar face on you for some time now…” Celeste asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

“Are you sure we’re headed toward where the girl fell? And the numerous bodies of soldiers are not exactly looking appealing…”

“Of course! We have been heading straight towards the predicted landing site since we left the wagon!”

“Predicted…”

“Hey, when have my predictions been wrong?”

“Only about 99.99% of the time. Give or take less than a hundredth of a percent”

“That hurts, Erika, that hurts…”

We carried on with our usual antics until we came across a large crater in the ground.

“I have a strange feeling about this…” I said, looking down to see the silver-haired girl the bottom.

But not only that.

The girl had a pair of large, black wings attached to her back.

An angel?

The girl stood up and seemed to mutter something to herself, before collapsing.

“Celeste! We should help her!” I said.

“But she looks scary…” Celeste whined.

“Really? What happened to your ‘sense of adventure’ that you care about so much?” I retorted.

“Fine…”

As we headed down the crater, I had two main thoughts. One was wondering exactly how she could have made a crater this large in the ground. The other was the realization of exactly how young this girl seemed to be. In theory, she could be only a year or two older than Celeste and me. She was also quite beautiful, in a general sense.

“All right,” I stated once I checked the girl’s condition. “I think it would be best to try to take her to a doctor. I don’t know if it would help much, but it’s better than nothing, right?”

“Why don’t we take her to your house? It would probably cause problems if we brought a girl with wings into a populated city…”

“I suppose that’s true…”

Just as we were about to carry the girl out of the crater, a soldier appeared at the top of it.

“Surrender the angel to us! No one needs to get hurt here!” he shouted.

“I have a feeling that if we obeyed that order, more people would be hurt that if we didn’t. So I apologize, but I will have to decline,” I stated plainly.

“You little…” the soldier started before I cut him off.

“You call yourself a soldier? All you really do is do whatever the king says. Seems like a pretty boring life. No freedom to do your own thing, you know? I have a feeling that this girl here would just become a prisoner, right? All for no real reason other than because the king told you to capture her.” The soldier was silent. “Do you even know why? ‘Because she looks dangerous’, maybe? That is a statement made out of fear of the unknown. I don’t see any reason to obey a monarch who can’t keep calm in a situation that differs from the normal so slightly.”

“How dare you defy the orders of the king!” the soldier yelled.

“You and what army?” Celeste asked defiantly. After she said that, a couple dozen more soldiers appeared out of seemingly nowhere.

“Celeste, you know you’re never supposed to say things like that in this sort of situation. Nothing particularly logical is happening, so of course more soldiers would appear.

Long story short, Celeste, the girl, and I were all captured within seconds.