In her dream, Isabelle was floating. Floating in darkness, a never-ending abyss of black. She tried to open her eyes, but couldn't tell the difference between open and closed. An invisible force pushed on her body from all around, squeezing her lungs, and she found if she tried, she couldn't breathe, water flooded up her nose and suddenly, she realized she wasn't simply floating in darkness. She was floating underwater. And drowning. Panic flooded her mind and she twisted in the black water rapidly. Suddenly, there was a yellow light, piercing through the blackness around her, covering the surface of the water that seemed miles away. That had to be up. It just had to. Frantically, she kicked her arms and legs, trying to reach that light, but it seemed to be getting further and further away. Isabelle's mind began to shut down due to lack of oxygen, and slowly, her kicking became nothing but feeble little spasms. Her vision fuzzed out, and she blinked once, twice, three times... Wait, there, in the water, a huge white shape floating towards her. She opened her eyes again and watched as the white blur transformed into the shape of a lion, a silver mane spread out around his face like a glorious halo. He opened his magnificent jaws wide, stretching towards her, and Isabelle winced, ready to be eaten alive by a creature that was surely a figment of her imagination. But instead, it dug it's teeth into her shirt and dragged her upwards, towards that yellow light.
When the two of them broke the surface, Bella breathed in as much precious air as she could, only to find that it was tainted with the smell of smoke, it's terrible, acid taste, clogging her throat, causing her to choke and cough. "Come on Bella, we have to get you to cleaner air." She heard the lion say as it tugged her towards shore. Once safely on the beach, the white lion flopped down beside her while she wretched on the sand, throwing up water. "Are you okay? You looked like you didn't even know me." The exhausted voice of the lion came, and Izzy glanced over. "Sorry Raj, I was disoriented." She turned to face the sea again, and found the answer to why she had choked on smoke. It was on fire. Flames licked the waves, and reached towards the sky as bits of wood and glass rained down on the beach. With an exhausted groan, Isabelle dragged her wet body to Rajah and curled up in his side. "Uhm.. Iz..." Rajah began, but never finished his sentence, by the time Isabelle looked up, a man had slammed his hand down over her mouth to stifle her terrified screams.
Isabelle woke with a shriek, sitting bolt upright in bed, chest heaving for air in the musty room. It took her a second to fully pull herself out of dreamland and realize that, she'd had a nightmare. "Isabelle! It's six in the God-damn morning!" The pissed-off voice of Roger Thig shouted across the room at her. "Shut your face Roger, she's had a bad dream!" Isabelle looked over at the bunk next to her own and slid her legs over the side of the bed to face her friend. "Thanks Cally." She whispered with a sigh, rubbing at the white-metal bracelet clasped tightly on her wrist. The room was dark, but Bella knew it by heart. It was a large rectangle shape, the walls, floors, and ceilings painted a stark white. On one wall, was a window that was just big enough for a small body to fit through, and along the two long walls, sat twelve bunk-beds each. Every single matress had the body of a parent-less, unwanted, child on it.
"So. What was it about this time Iz?" Asked Cally through the darkness, propping her head up on her hand. Isabelle ran her fingers through her long, bright red hair and bit her lip, trying to remember. "I don't know." She admitted with a sigh. "I think it's always the same one. About drowning." She shook her head and placed a small bare foot on Rajah's back. He was curled up on the floor, sleeping peacefully, but when she touched him, he lifted his huge head and shook out his white mane. "Something wrong Isabelle?" He asked, blinking his blue cat-eyes with a slow wisdom. Both him and Cally were now staring at her. She didn't really want to talk about her dreams. About the way she woke up screaming every night, at the edge of remembering her past. Who she is. Her eyes narrowed on the two of them.
"Hell yeah something's wrong!" She hissed, standing and tugging at the white, iron, bracelet squeezing her wrist. "I needa get out of here, but I can't get this stupid thing off!" She looked at Rajah, knowing he knew what she meant. He had a similar one around his front, right paw. It was made of iron, so they couldn't use their power, and it was a tracking device so the owners of the orphanage could track her if she tried to run away. "Maybe if you wouldn't sneak out so much, you wouldn't need one, like me." Cally raised her smooth white wrist and smirked.
"Shut up Cal." Isabelle hissed, wriggling her slender arm in the bracelet once more. "Just because you don't get caught doesn't mean you don't do it!" She sank back down on her bed and sighed, glancing at the window, and watching the sun beginning to show it's face over the distant horizon. "I can't wait to be eighteen."
Rajah watched Isabelle with pity in his eyes and flicked his tail. He'd known the girl for as long as... as well.. He could remember. Which wasn't very long. The two of them knew nothing of their past. When they sat together and thought hard, the furthest back they could remember was seven, waking up in the orphanage with absolutely no memory of who they were, where they'd been, and how they'd gotten there. All they knew was that, whatever had happened, it'd happened to both of them. Together.
He flicked his white tail in slight annoyance when the girl with the fire-red hair decided to side-step his question, but still he looked at her with a softness in his blue eyes. He knew it was hard on her, not knowing who she was with only a necklace and a little scrap of a letter to remind her. It was hard on him too. The dreams were practically torture, showing the two of them a small memory that could possibly unlock their past, only to rip it away from them when they woke. He sighed, and watched Isabelle complained about her bracelet before plopping back down on her bed. He licked the one on his own wrist before sighing just as wistfully as his companion.
"Rajah! Raaaaaaaajah!" Came a little squeal from under Cally's bed, and Rajah chuckled. "Good morning Tilly." He greeted Cally's little creature. She was a cat-like thing with enormous violet-colored eyes, but she was about the size of a squirrel, and instead of one fluffy tail, she had five, all fanned about her in a fluffy ring. She was a dark black color, blending with the night beautifully, but the tips of her tails looked as though they'd been dipped in the same violet substance of her eyes, flecks of gold splashed here and there that glinted when she blinked or wiggled her tails. Tilly truly was a fantastic little thing, even if she was tiny. "Did you dream of drowning again? I dreamed of mice. Fat mice, with sparkley whiskers." She smiled happily and sat next to him. The size difference between the two of them was shocking. She was about the size of his paw, and almost exactly like her companion Cally, talkative, gullible, and sweet.
"Yes, I dreamed of drowning, just like Izzy did." He nodded blinking his eyes, and glancing up at Isabelle. The sun was shining through the window, casting it's golden rays on her blood-red hair, and delicate face. He glanced at Cally, with her black-and-violet-tipped hair, and sighed, placing his heavy head on his paws. Tilly, prattling on in his ear about sparkley whiskers and pink skies, while he day-dreamed of a black-bearded man with a hearty laugh, and a soft-spoken woman with Izzy's red hair.