Dark Meridian: Chapter 1

       Darkness. As far as she could see, it stretched to what seemed the ends of the earth. She whipped her head back and forth, twisting around and trying to find something to mark her position. It wasn't going very well. She took a step forward, and suddenly there was color beneath her, albeit a dark shade of purple. The mist flowed out from what appeared to be a crack in the ground beneath her. She gazed at it in confusion, and took back the step she had made. The mist seemed to condense now, and her eyes widened as it took form. A giant, ominous form had taken shape before her and she turned away and fled.

        She willed her feet to carry her as fast as they possibly could and then some. Once she glanced behind her, but quickly looked away because the thing chasing after her was frightening in all manners of the word. The darkness seemed to have no end when suddenly a large door stood before her. Without a second thought she pulled it open but found herself reeling backwards as she felt a giant pit of nothing before her. She looked behind her again to see the fog closing in. She knew she had to quickly make a decision or pay the price. All too fast the mist was upon her, and she found herself falling backwards into the empty void of darkness.

Willow shot up, clutching her blankets in fear. She slowly came to her senses, reminding herself it was only a dream and no, she didn't just almost die. The dream, or more so night mare, was odd. Never before had she had one so strange and vague like this. Of course she had had weird dreams before, (who hasn't?) but this one felt different. Almost like it was an omen. Shaking off her paranoia, Willow threw off her covers and headed for her door. It squeaked as she pulled it open and she made a mental note to remind Ramona that it needed to be oiled. She would often get up in the middle of the night or early in the morning, and most of the other roommates did not like being awoken that early.

Who was Ramona? Not exactly anyone important, and not really someone who Willow deeply cared for. She only saw the adult Chao as a caretaker and nothing more. When she was young apparently her father had left her hear with no reason stated. Ramona never bothered to give Willow the details, so Willow never bothered to ask much. That didn't mean she didn't wonder though.

She made her way to the wash room, grabbing a comb and quickly brushing it through her fur. Being a swimming Chao, her fur would often get matted because of its oily texture and length. As long as it helped her swim, she could make do. Willow scowled, wincing as the comb tugged at a piece of fur. She couldn't even count how many times she had broken the teeth of her past brushes. Sometimes she'd even end up losing it.

Deciding she looked fine, she made her way down the hall to the stairs. All the dorms for the orphaned Chao were located on the second and third floors. The kitchen where they all ate was on the first. The fourth floor and the basement were supposedly storage but there used to be rumors about the fourth floor hiding some secrets. Willow hoped the majority of them weren't true.

On the first floor, awaiting her was a mostly empty kitchen. Most of the orphans were still asleep, and would be for a while. Only a few had chosen to attend real school, since schooling was offered at the orphanage already (not to mention that means waking up early every morning). Willow didn't want to stay in the confines of the building; she really didn't like it here. She wanted to be out in the real world, meeting new Chao, and learning new things. To tell the truth, she was quite excited about the start of the school year.

She quickly fixed herself breakfast, then, as soon as she was done, went back to her room to check if she had everything she needed. After checking a second time, she headed out. The school was within walking distance of the orphanage building, so she didn't have to travel far.

Apparently this was the first year with a new program. The three separate races of Chao, light, neutral, and dark, were usually pretty separate. The light Chao and the dark Chao usually don't get along while the nuetrals always try to break up whatever the two others had started. Relations had been tense for thousands of years, but it wasn't until recently that new measures were starting to be implemented. Racial matters had calmed down in the last fifty years or so, so they figured now was the best time to try. This school year they chose one school to have an even mix of the three races, so that the young Chao would grow up in an equal environment. Willow wasn't sure exactly how well this would go, but it was worth a try. There were a lot of mixed families now, so she would expect there to be some sense of understanding somewhere.

She could see the school building ahead of her, and could only gaze in wonder at what she would experience. Chao of all kinds passed by her, and she found herself trying to tell type from type, which turned out to be a pretty fun game since there were so many Chao at the school. The Flying types were the easiest to tell, sporting large wings on their backs and being quite thin and light on their feet. The swimming Chao were also easy to spot, with pointed ears that hung by their face or stuck backwards along their head, and larger than normal feet. The running Chao all had small wings, and thin feet. The power Chao seemed to be the opposite, with large arms and feet, but with short little tails and wings. The normal ones were the hardest, since they could look like a lot of various things. Willow found them to be the most fun to guess.

The inside of the school was huge! Massive, long hallways that each had an upper floor, class rooms filling in each side. The walls were decorated with words of welcome and summer themes. She looked at the small note she held in her hand, which instructed her on which class room to go to get her schedule. When she looked up, her face painfully met with another's.

"Owch! Watch where you're going." The other said, rubbing their head.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." Willow said. She looked over at the stranger, noticing it was a girl. She was a dark purple color. Two bun like shapes sat on either side of the top of her head, almost like ears, and had zigzags of lighter color. A ribbon was wrapped around each. She adorned thick framed rectangle glasses, that sat in front of bright green eyes. Large bat wings were folded behind her, and could only be noticed because of the way they unfurled when the two knocked into each other. A small, spiked tail lay flat behind her. It wasn't until her eyes met the spiky orb floating above her head that she realized that she was a dark Chao. She quickly deduced from the large wings and head shape that she was a flying Chao.

"I guess it's fine. Going to get your schedule? I can show you the way, I already have mine. My name's Raki by the way." She smiled, holding out a clawed hand to Willow.

"My name's Willow, pleased to meet you Raki." She smiled in response.

"Making friends I see?" A voice called. Willow and Raki turned to see another flying Chao walking towards them. She was white in color, except for various splotches along her arms, feet, belly, and frills. Bangs hung on the sides of her face, revealing glasses and dark brown eyes. She had large golden wings as well as golden feathers on her tail. Her feet were clawed, unlike her hands. From the halo above her head she could tell she was a hero Chao.

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Willow, this is my sister, Zira, but we just call her Zi. Zi, this is Willow." Raki explained.

"Hello." Zira said, waving. Willow waved back.

"Ohhh, are you twins?" Willow asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. But we're completely different, I'll have you know." Raki smiled. Zira rolled her eyes, smiling a bit. "We were about to go get Willow's schedule. Want to join?" Raki asked.

"I guess." Zi replied. With that, the three walked off down the hall.