Annik and Nai 1

   "Uhhhhh," moaned Annik, stirring. "Where the hell am I?"
   The last thing she remembered was being in the burning theatre, and passing out from the fumes. But she was in an old, abandoned building, in a wagon with a bunch of other captured Puppets. As she sat up, she noticed some of the others were awake too, but they were still weak from inhaling smoke. Then Annik saw something interesting.
   There was a Puppet sleeping on the ground, with flaming red hair and very punkish clothes on. As     Annik got up and inched towards her, she saw that the Puppet had no collar on. But then she stepped on a finicky board and made a loud creaking noise. The Puppet's eyes snapped open, and Annik stumbled back in surprise.
   One eye was amber orange and the other blood red.

   "What the- oh crap they're awake..." said the Puppet, stretching. She lazily got up and surveyed Annik.
   "Who are you?" asked Annik suspiciously.
   "Why should you care? I'm your frickin' saviour. I just rescued from that building over there," pointed the Puppet towards the remains of the theatre. "Anyways, you a blue Puppet, right?"
   "Uh...yeah."
   "Know a building, a library to be exact? In a stupid little town called Trospher?"
    Annik bristled at the mention of the library, and the Puppet seemed to sense her unease.
   "Well?" growled the Puppet, and lifted Annik up by the front of her shirt.
   "Take care of our collars first. Then I'll talk," she responded, squirming a bit at how strong this Puppet was. And how ruthless.
   Annik could tell the Puppet was getting impatient, but she nodded her head. With a touch of her finger, she burned the whole thing right off Annik's neck.
   "OW!" she yelled, waking up all the other Puppets from their smoke-induced sleep. "You know how much that hurts for water Puppets! Ow, crap," Annik said, touching the scorch marks where the metal used to be.
   "Gentleness is for wimps. Needed to get rid of it quickly," retorted the Puppet.
   "Well... anyways... thanks for freeing me-" Annik was uneasy. How could you thank someone properly without their name?
  "Nai," cut off the Puppet.
   "Well, thank you Nai. Now I need to get to work on these other Puppets and freeing them."
   "What about telling me about-"
   Annik cut Nai off with a, "I'll tell it to you while I work," and then set her attentions on the remaining Puppets. Nai, impatient as she was, decided to help as well to make the job go faster.
Annik stretched her fingers and felt the water energy pass through her, a comforting reminder that she was safe.
   'It's good to be free again,' she thought, and she and Nai talked and worked, each silently trying to figure out what to do next.


-Kiki