The murky underground was not a place you’d want to be alone; and even with company you’d never go there at night. Things lurked there at night, using the extensive underground labyrinths to get around the city. Hunters with fangs like a snake and a human body. Then there were the others- the shadow people. Human enough, but with lightning reflexes and hearts of ice. If you survived long enough to find one of the shadow people you would be accepted into their world- a world of shadows and lies. The humans who lived in the underground were not to be trusted.

Keora stood in the shadows watching the human from the world above grope around in the darkness. She could tell by looking at him that he would survive. Few enough did. She’d watched people stumble around in the maze-like passages for days before they died. Usually, they didn’t survive long enough to starve or become dehydrated. The fanged creatures the People had nicknamed leeches would find them and drain them of the lifeblood that was so important.

Keora felt the pull on her mind that had been there since she’d missed the New Moon celebration last month. The magic tried to pull her towards home, but she resisted it as she resisted all magic; with pure willpower. She did not want to go back to the Shadow Peoples’ city where she had been born and raised. She’d rather be free to roam the underground as she chose.

The boy fell and she sighed in disappointment. She had badly wanted to see him succeed. She might help him were it not for the strict laws against it. Why not break it? She asked herself silently, you’ve already broken others. Without thinking twice she walked in front of him and turned on the flash1 she kept with her for emergencies. He started then stared.

“Go straight, turn left the first chance you get, then right and you will be in the Peoples’ City. You will be relatively safe there.â€