Chapter One ~ From Sky to Earth

No more Gods, that was the promise...no more Gods. But they seem to have forgotten what happens when people lose their way and Fen blamed himself for that. Fen collapsed to the ground on his side; he looked down at the knife in his stomach. The Pellie wanted to touch the blade, but instead, his just rolled onto his back, then leaned his head to looked up at the ceiling. The funny thing was, Fen couldn't feel the pain anymore; in fact, he just felt numb and tired. Something had been set in motion, something terrible and Fen wished he could have stopped it, but there was nothing he could do. Not anymore at least.

"I'm sorry" the Pellie whispered hoarsely as blood slipped from his lips. He said it to no one for he was alone, but at the same time, he was speaking it to everyone. Ari, Kira, his friends, his family...his daughter, Ella; she would be turning thirteen soon...another thing he felt guilty about. Fen didn't even realize his eyes were closing till his world went dark. Someone was calling out to him, they sounded frantic, but they also too far away to make what they were saying. The world didn't need Gods, it needed guidance; but who was going to be the one now? Who was going to pick up the pieces of a world shattered so many times already? For a split moment, before Fen finally succumbed to the darkness, he could feel a soft smile across his lips as he had a final thought. There would always be someone there. It didn't matter who; there will always be someone.

~~~~

Ella had a landed on the floor with a thud; her legs tangled in her bedsheets while her body hung upside down from her bed. Her curly blond hair fanned out on the floor. The young girl blinked before squinting at the sunlight that was hitting her face as it spilled from her window. The bustling sound of town life reached her ears and with it a chime of a clock. Ella's brown eyes widened.

"Crud!!!" she yelled, struggling to twist around and to stand up only to have her sheets catch her legs, causing her to crash to the floor. "Oh, come on!" Ella shouted, finally kicking the fabric off before scrambling to her feet and dashing to her closet door. For the next few minutes, Ella's morning was nothing more than a mad dash of washing her face, tying her hair back, and so on. By the time she has reached the stairs to the lower level, she was far too concentrated on getting her shirt on that the young human girl misplaced her foot and went tumbling down the flight of steps. So in short, just an average morning for Ella.

"You are later than usual" a hoarse voice spoke, the only responses was a pained groan, "Good morning to you too, Ella." The owner of the voice was an old Alae by the name of Noah Albedo. When Ella first came to the small fishing town, she made a deal with Noah; she'll work for him if she could live upstairs. It was fair trade, and the two got along fairly well for the past two years. Ella managed to get back to her feet, fixing her shirt before rubbing her arm as she walked into the small mailroom. A cupboard filled with letters on the one side while the other side of the room had Noah; leaning over a counter. A stack of packages of every shape and size next to him. Outside the wavy glass showed the town life hurrying by. "I have five packages for you to deliver" Noah spoke, patting the brown boxes with a thin, wrinkled hand " and you better hurry because three of them need to be on the ship due to Altusi," the Alae said, handing Ella a slip of paper with the name of the vessel on it.

"By what time?" Ella asked, carefully placing the packages within a cart next to the counter. Noah looked outside, fixing the thin wire glass on his nose as he squinted a little; causing more wrinkles to line his face

"Nine, so about...ten minutes ago," Noah mused. Ella spun her head around

"Why didn't you tell me yesterday it was going to be at nine!! I wouldn't have stayed up so late," the young girl said. The Alae looked down at a few papers he was shuffling

"I did tell you," he responded. Ella opened her mouth but quickly shut it, cheeks turning red. She gripped the handle of the cart and began to push it through the door, the bell ringing as the door opened. Once she was out, Noah glanced up through his glasses, watching as Ella struggled to get past the morning crowd. The Alae chuckled a little "that girl is going to be the death of herself," Noah said, shaking his head.

The small fishing town was called Sullan Port; it was nestled on the west coast of the bay that the city was named after and only five days away from the town of Trust. Even though it was considered small, the population seemed to be growing day after day. The majority being Pellie; in fact, Ella was one out of eleven other humans that lived in Sullan. Ella was rather lucky she found Noah for many Pellie were still very bitter over both the God wars and the Human wars. Ella did her best to get in the good graces with others; however, just like her father had taught her. Be respectful, help those who can't help themselves and of course be kind to those around you. And for her part, Ella did her best to do what was right, but Ella was a loner. It was hard to make friends her age; most of the time, she just felt lost. The pain of losing her father still weighed heavy on her heart, even after two years it still cut deep. Then, of course, there was another reason why Ella didn't have any friends, and that reason made herself quite prominent in a few moments. The cart suddenly hit something as Ella weaved it along the street, the wheel bounced, and the girl lost balance as the cart tilted and fell; spilling its continents out onto the dusty road. It happened so fast the young girl had no time to react as she was suddenly shoved to the ground. She landed hard on to her hands and knees, wincing a little, as a sharp pain shot through her arms.

"Are you alright human?" a mocking voice rang out, Ella tilted her head up to see a small group of Pellie-kids surrounding her, and their leader stepped forward. Ella scowled a little at the sight of the other

"...hello Lotus" Ella mumbled softly, slowly getting to her feet to meet the Pellie-girl. Lotus had a trident rested on her shoulder, her head cocked to the side, dark blue eyes narrowing. Though her hair was raven-colored, the further you down the braid the bluer it became. Lotus was well known throughout Sullan. After all, her father was the mayor; which also meant no one batted an eye when they saw Ella pushed to the ground. "If you don't mind, I need to get past you," Ella said, trying to take and step towards her fallen cart before Lotus raised a hand and pushed her back.

"In a hurry, are we Ella?" Lotus mused, taking another step closer while Elle took a step back. The young human girl brushed a few strands of hair from her face, glaring at the other. One of the kids, a large Pellie-boy, took up one of the packages and started to shake it. Ella instantly tore her head away from Lotus and once more tried to take a step towards the cart; only this time, two other kids blocked her.

"Stop it!! That's not mine. I need to deliver it!" Ella gasped, but the boy only laughed, still shaking the package and causing whatever it was inside to thud around. "You are going to break it!! Stop!" Ella shouted. Pushing against the two other kids, but they were pushing back, and Ella was going nowhere. The girl's heels were digging into the ground before she was shoved back. The Pellie-boy chuckled darkly, raising the brown box above his head

"Oh? The way I see it, you're the only one who's going to get in trouble" he sneered before throwing the packages onto the ground. The contents within letting out a muffled sound of glass being shattered. The group of kids laughed, Lotus snickers before adding

"Ooh, tough luck human...hope that wasn't anything important, I hate to see you kicked out onto the streets, but I'm sure your parents will-" then Lotus took a pause "Oh that's right, your parents hated you so much they just left you! Well, I'm sure you will get used to the street life" she sneered. Ella felt her face began to burn, her hands slowly clenching into fists before she suddenly shouted

"Why don't you go build a bridge and jump off it!" The girl once more shoved through the two Pellie-kids, but this time she stomped on one of their feet while kneeing the other in the stomach. Once through, she didn't give time for the larger Pellie-boy to react before she punched him square in the face. The Pellie-boy stumbled backward, clutching his nose. Of course, Ella winced as she pulled her hand away, trying to shake the pain off. That short pause, however, gave Lotus enough time to take the end of her trident and swept Ella's legs out from under her with it. Ella crashed to the ground, landing on her side and knocking the wind out of her lungs. Gasping, the young human tried to lift her upper body, but Lotus put a stop to that by pressing the tip of her trident on Ella's neck.

"Don't you ever say that again," the Pellie-girl hissed, her eyes narrowing tightly before pulling her weapon away just as an officers' whistle was blown. Lotus looked over at the officer who was a few feet away before looking back her small group. "Come on; the fish aren't going to wait for us" Lotus mumbled, nodding her head to jester to the rest of the Pellie-kids to get moving, leaving Ella alone. The young human final had enough breath to slowly get to her feet just as the officer walked over to her, helping Ella to get her cart back up and refilled.

"Are you alright?" he asked, Elle didn't look at him but nodded her head before saying thanks. Then, she began to push her cart down the street once more.

~~~

By the time Ella had returned to Noah's post office, only one package was not delivered, that being the one that was thrown to the ground. Ella took a deep breath, wincing a little as she rubbed a bruised arm before peeking through the window to see Noah still at the counter. Ella turned away so that her back was resting against the bricks of the building; then Ella looked over at the cart with the single package. It was very safe to say that no one was pleased with the condition the boxes were in when Ella delivered them, but how was she going to tell Noah that one was broken. And what could she say? Lotus and her gang jumped her. There was nothing Noah could do about it. Ella picked up the package and started to walk away from the post office and towards the edge of the town. Ella didn't want Noah to get involved in her own mistake. After all, she should have protected the packages better.

Ella was going to the forest that both bordered the town and the bay's beach. It was a place she came to very often on days like these, someplace close the sea but not too close. A place that she could call her own in a way. The young human found a tree that both shaded her from warm afternoon sun but also let the light dabble the forest floor. Ella set the package down gently and then stood up, reaching under her shirt to pull up a string with three sapphire beads that she wore as a necklace. She took it off and hung it on a low branch so that the light could catch it just right, letting the ground be speckled in blue. The object wasn't meant to be a necklace; they were in fact prayer beads, use to pray to the old Pellie God Altus, it originally belonged to her father and one of the only things left of him. Ella leaned on the tree before slowly sliding down, landing on the ground with a soft thud. She pulled her knees to her chest before sighing softly.

"I'm sorry dad, I got into another fight," Ella mumbled, looking up at the beads. After a moment of silence, Ella crossed her legs and opened the box, looking down at the shattered remains of a stained glass window. Ella then picked a pice up, lifting it to the light. "Maybe I can fix it," the young human thought out loud, starting to carefully take the glass from the box and set it out onto the forest floor. She let out a thoughtful hum before adding: "You would be better at this. It is like a puzzle!" Ella sighed, allowing herself to smile as she tried to put the different glass pieces in their spots. The picture that was starting to form seemed familiar to her, but Ella just couldn't put her finger on it. Suddenly a giant shadow passed overhead, in its wake a gust of wind swept over the forest. It was so strong that the trees creaked so loudly that they threaten to break in half, the box was blown far away, and the prayer beads were tossed from their perch on the branch. Ella hunched over, almost being blow away herself, her hair - already a mess from the fight- came loose from its tie and began to whip around, covering Ella' eyesight. The wind died down once the earth suddenly began to shake violently. Ella yelped and fell to her side, curling up and covering the head. The small quake didn't last long, although, for a moment, Ella laid on her side, unsure whether to move or not. But her mind was quickly made up when a loud, low cry broke the silence of pain. Ella shifts her body up, flipping her hair back as confusion crossed her face. The human staggered to her feet, she took a step, looking down she blinked. Ella quickly snatched her necklace back from the forest floor and raced towards the loud sound, following a path of broken trees and pushed up dirt. The girl stumbled a few times but finally managed to reach a hill, climbing up, the sound was getting louder till she reached the top and saw what had caused the wind and the quake. Ella's brown eyes widen, the young human stood rooted to her spot as her body froze. The owner of the wailing of pain was a creature Ella had not seen since she was little, not since her father was still alive. It was a Cloud Maker.