002-The Escape

"No wonder you left the cloud..." Said the cat with her tail up in the air swaying casually. She might not seem to understand comparison, but she surely knew what freedom means.

"Actually," said Nonoth, "I have my own reason for my escape besides that. Uncle S promised me the apple would help me find my real mom."

There was a small problem with that answer, but it took the creatures around her a few seconds to realize what that problem is.

"Why just your mom and not your dad? Don't you miss him as well?" A little lion pointed it out.

"Silly question, what's a dad good for?" A bird laughed. Obviously, a dad was not a major part in his life.

"Well, I got some troubling news from The Tree when I took the apple, he says that Adam IS my father, but I don't believe it! Why is he not with my mom then, if he truly is my father? Why would he..." She didn't finish that sentence and fell silent for a little while before she rose her head again with a firm tone: "I have no father."

And this time all the creatures around her fell into silent, too, not knowing what's appropriate to say at this moment.

"So... why did you have to escape? They don't allow you to leave the cloud?" The cute little lion broke the silence with a different topic.

"I'm not sure, maybe they could and they just forgot that. I have to escape because it's forbidden to take apples off The Tree. I've been planning my escape ever since Uncle S told me all about it." Nonoth totally forgot about what was upsetting her a moment ago and caught up with her story.

"And that day was the most fun I have ever had living on the cloud! So, I sneaked out of the pack in the middle of the night and went to The Tree. I was gonna pick the cutest apple but Uncle S told me that The Tree would know which one belongs to me, and it did!" Nonoth's eyes opened wider in excitement.

"When I got under The Tree everything was dark and you can barely make out the creek or the flowers, because they were all sleeping. But when I approached The Tree, one apple lit up and was shining in the middle of the night with a deep dark blue light, exactly like my hair color! Except my hair doesn't shine. I knew at that moment that it was waiting for me." Nonoth stuck her tongue out a little as she curled a shred of her deep azure hair on her finger.

"I didn't know The Tree would be angry at me for taking that apple, though. I thought it lit it up for me to take. But The Tree started shaking and roaring the second I got it off, so loud that even the flowers on the farthest end of the cloud were awoken, so the whole cloud lit up in a second and it was beautiful! Pretty sure the cloud has never seen itself in such a pretty state!" Nonoth said with pride as if she was not misbehaving there with all the sneaking out and taking forbidden fruits.

"In the clear starry sky so quickly formed a twirl of dark clouds, like someone is stirring it with a huge ice-cream spoon. But not a very appealing ice-cream considering there were sounds of thunder coming out from that deep hole in the sky."

"Luckily I have been working on my escape route, AND I hid all of their shoes. They won't go anywhere without their shoes, haha, they are THAT lazy and clean. So I only had to worry about the angels but once I got far enough from The Tree, it would take them a while to find me."

"I ran towards the edge and jumped, knowing that Uncle S would be expecting me under there and catch me, but...!" Nonoth suddenly stopped in the middle of the sentence and held there for a while, all the creatures stared at her intensely.

"...he wasn't there."

"Oh dear..." A deer fainted. She was so tall that all the creatures around her jumped up and fled to avoid being crushed by her body. Luckily there was a Wolpertinger near her and he quickly slided under her falling body and caught her before her body cut off the creek.

"Where is he?!" Someone asked.

"How could you survive falling such a long way down when you don't have wings?" A small bird tilted her antlered head and asked.

"I can't! Well, I couldn't, that is." Nonoth corrected herself and winked at the bird.

"How could he be so unreliable! You must trust him a lot to jump off such a height just for a promise!" It was a voice filled with anger and surprise.

With so many creatures burst into comments, Nonoth couldn't make them out one by one, so she made a "quiet" gesture to try to calm them down: "Guys! Don't worry! I'm alright, aren't I? It's an accident with a happy ending."

Creatures start to get calmer, and Nonoth kept on with her story: "There was an interesting accident before I jumped off the edge. I ran into a thorns field. It was too late to find another way, but I couldn't go through it either. I think the thorns were just planted there on that day because I checked the route many times and it was never there!"

"The angels were getting closer and I was getting nervous. I wasn't too afraid of the punishment, whatever that might be. What scared me was that I might never get another chance of escaping that dull and lifeless 'garden' if I get caught."

"I started to try make a way out of the thorns field with my field and soon my hands were soaked in blood. I could hear the angels coming closer and that was when my hands lit up, like this -- " Nonoth rose her left hand and snapped her fingers. A cluster of blue fire emerged from the thin air and was now jumping in her palm.

"I call it Azurite." Murmured Nonoth, staring at the jumping fire with a soft look.