Look Up at the Moon

Chapter One

“Look up at the stars. Are they not beautiful?” said a strong-toned voiced female with flowing brown hair to the male standing nearby. “There are so many out tonight. The moon as well.”
         With a slight smile, the slender, young man turned to look up into the starry sky. His jaw line was clear through the moon’s silent rays catching his almost empty eyes. The glowing orb also revealed his short, sandy brown hair and his solemn face. He wore nothing special, just some loose blue jeans with a crimson colored t-shirt. A dark blue jacket kept him warm from the passing breeze. A pair of worn down tennis shoes covered his feet.
“Rae, I want to leave from here.”
The female’s expression changed slightly to empathize with the male. Soft, green eyes slowly found their focus on the grass below. Her forest green dress rippled in the breeze as she prepared to break the silence.
“I want to leave just as bad, you know.” Rae’s face changed back into a fiery sharpness. “I have been here just as long as you, Deric! So has Noah.”
“This is different though. Something is telling me that tonight is the night.”
Deric folded his arms and then turned to face Rae. She was clutching the front of her dress and trying to keep herself from saying anything insensitive.
Rae’s dress was simple, yet elegant, considering it was handmade. The dress flowed halfway down Rae’s shins and was held up by two straps about the width of two fingers side by side. The straps were a light sage color as well as the border sewn into the top of the dress connecting the straps. A thin sage ribbon acted as a belt on her waist. Rae’s footwear was a pair of plain leather sandals that wrapped around her ankles.  Brown hair fell gently down to her shoulder blades and her eyes matched the dress down to the last pigment. Her slimness paired with her dress reminded Deric of a pixie.
“Lets just wait until Noah gets here before we decide anything, ok?” Rae asked.
A few moments of silence passed with the breeze. Time seemed motionless to the two that left an awkward and stagnate atmosphere. Had the pair not been best friends, this point in time would be where two people would walk away.
Footsteps could be heard coming from behind Rae a few feet back. Slowly, a broad shouldered male emerged from the shadows of the wall that surrounded the now trio on two sides.
“Wait on me for what?” said the male with a deep voice and with a bit of a playful tone.
Rae twisted herself around on one foot, twirling her dress in a clockwise motion. “Noah!”
Noah was just a few inches taller than both Rae and Deric, who were around the same height. His face was soft and gentle. Along with short blonde hair, he housed a set of deep blue eyes that pierced through the darkness. He wore a charcoal black shirt with sleeves that extended only part way past his elbow. Noah also had on a pair of blue jeans, but wore a pair of dark leather boots. 
“I think that tonight should be the night, but I won’t leave with out the two of you.” Deric said softly unfolding his arms. “Something is telling me that the time is right.”
Noah looked grimly at Deric and then Rae. “Last time we tried to get out, we nearly died trying to escape.” Noah sighed. “As soon as one of us gets over that wall, the guards will know.”
“They can only track us when we are transformed though. Otherwise we are just normal humans.” Deric lifted up his left pant leg revealing a silver, metal bracelet hugging close to his ankle. “Unless, we don’t have these trackers on.”
Rae looked down past the green dress at her left leg and then up to Deric who said. “I can get these things off.”
“There is one problem solved.” Noah contorted. “What about a place to go? There isn’t anywhere for miles around here that would be safe. To cover enough ground we would need to transform, which would get us caught.”
Deric stood calmly facing his two friends. A slight smile made an appearance on his solemn face and his dusty yellow eyes turned bright. He reached around to his back right pocket and revealed a small, pocket-sized terminal. “This device is what will get us out of here.”
Rae let out a small gasp as Noah’s head turned crooked.
“What is that thing?” asked Noah.
Deric dropped down to his right knee and put the terminal near his tracker. “This terminal can invert the signal produced by the bracelets making us invisible to W.E.P.T.’s radars.” He pushed a few buttons and the silvery bracelet slowly turned black against his skin. “It can even make us invisible while we are transformed.”
Rae moved her hands away from her and folded them against her body leaving a smirk on her face. “I’ll ask how you got that later. Knowing you, it could be anything.”
After Deric finished modifying his own tracker, he moved on to Rae. She sat down with her left knee still up so that she could rest her chin and watch Deric work. Noah lifted his pant leg to reveal his tracker and waited on Deric to reverse the signal for Rae.
“Since the surrounding area is forest, we should be able move at a decent pace.” Planned Noah. “The question still remains though, ‘where do we run?’ We could go north to the city?”
Shortly after Noah speaking, the tracker on Rae’s leg started turning black. Deric motioned Noah over to sit down beside Rae so that he would not have to get up. Noah let out a grunt of resistance and then sat down beside his two friends with his leg exposed. Deric started working on the tracker just as Noah sat down.
“I think the best choice for us is to escape southwest to the human village near the sea.” Deric took a breath. “The village people shouldn’t have a problem with us if the people don’t find out who we are. Also, if we can get across the sea to the western continent, then we would no longer be W.E.P.T.’s problem. They only have influence in this country.”
Noah’s tracker did not take long to reverse after having done both Rae and his own and Deric was grateful. The faster the three of them could get out of this place, the better.
W.E.P.T. controlled the central continent. Period. No crime went unpunished, even the smallest offense. A person could even be put into one of the three correctional camps just for being able to transform into a beast. The camp that the trio was currently held at did not have the need for many guards because of the trackers placed on the inmates, which did more than tell the soldiers the location of any given prisoner. They also prevented any wearer from leaving a certain radius from the camp, delivering near lethal voltage if the area was surpassed. This punishment also came into effect if a person changed form.
This was how W.E.P.T kept order, by taking away the rights of humans. W.E.P.T. stood for World Engulfing Police Team. The other two camps weren’t any different. This camp in particular was the site that held those who could change the genetic makeup of their bodies to become a beast. The camp did not hold many prisoners. Maybe around ten or fifteen were kept at the facility.
These beasts resembled something close to a fox or small wolf depending on the region. People called the humans that could change into the creatures Vexian and when transformed, the beasts were referred to as Vexen.
“Are you both ready to leave now?” asked Deric “The sooner, the better.”
Both Rae and Noah nodded in response. They wanted to leave just as badly as Deric. Leaving the prison camp would not be difficult now that the trackers were disabled.
They made almost no friends in the complex during their stay. The trio kept to themselves when allowed to mingle with the other Vexian, and therefore had no friends to help out. Also, they were not able to keep any personal belongings, so the only ties to the camp were severed when the trackers left the equation.
All three stood up nearly at the same time, looked at each other and the looked at the towering wall beside them. The wall was at the same height as the four buildings in the camp. Deric thought that is was some weird joke to make the walls a perfect square with the four buildings spaced evenly inside. It was like a giant play pin for the Vexian. Three of the buildings were large enough to fit six cells each containing toilets and showers, one for each cell. The fourth building was a cafeteria of sorts that was used for more than eating. Usually everybody was forced into the fourth building to undergo an inhumane process to try and reverse the shape shifting ability. More or less the procedure was just torture, as the ability was written in the DNA of the Vexian and unable to be changed or reversed.
The trio stayed in the building located in the southeast quadrant with two young boys around the age of eleven or twelve. None of the three knew the boy’s names. They had not even spoken a word since being put into the complex.
The wall that the group stood near was around twenty feet from their building. Due to the lack of guards inside, climbing the wall would be easy. The wall was made from solid, polished marble as tall as the buildings and about the thickness of the width of a small vehicle. It also extended below the ground so digging was made impossible. Scaling the corner would not be hard for the group once transformed, however, the real purpose of the marble was so that if someone escaped, there would be no easy way down.
Deric walked to the wall and placed his hand on the cold, smooth surface. He turned his head to gesture Noah and Rae over to his location, but to his surprise the two were already behind him.
“Let’s go.” Said Noah with an expression of determination.
The other two agreed and turned to face Noah. The group got close together and put the tips of their shoes together to form a triangle. This was the beginning of a special embrace that was done when the trio was going to set out on some difficult journey or split up from each other for a length of time.
The embrace started with forming a triangle by each of the three making a 60° angle with their feet. The toes of each person’s feet would then be put together to make an equilateral triangle. From this point the trio would wrap their arms around the two friends on either side, respectively. The trio then leans their heads forward and to the left putting the left side of the face on the right shoulder of the person on the left. This would begin the actual embrace of the three. After each has finished the embrace, the three switch to the left shoulder of the person on the right, repeating the hugging process.
When the trio finished their formal “goodbyes,” Deric moved back to the wall. It was time for them to leave the camp.
Once again, Deric turned to face his friends, but this time it was to give a short smile. “See you both soon.” He turned back to face the wall and got ready to transform.
When a Vexian changes into their creature form, the process can be a little flashy. Usually what happens with the transformation is the person is engulfed in a sort of flame relative to the color of fur that a Vexen wore. Depending on the age and maturity of a Vexian, the amount of flame produced by a transformation can be controlled. None of the three were allowed to practice their transformations much out of fear from the tracking devices. At this point in the game, being seen transform wouldn’t make anything different.
Starting from his fingertips, Deric began the process of changing into a Vexen. A black flame with sparks of yellow began creeping its way up his arm and down his back. The flame quickly worked its way over the rest of his body, covering him in a matter of seconds. Once Deric’s body was covered completely with the flame his figure started to bend forward onto all fours. The flame carved out the shape of a small wolf-like creature. Just the same way the flame began on Deric’s body, the flame left. It was as though his skin was burned away revealing the creature. Charcoal colored paws slowly appeared and landed on the ground in a feral stance as the flame dissipated. 
Once Deric completed the transformation, his companions followed suit. Rae’s flame was light brown and was decorated with sage green specks. A burgundy flame and ocean blue highlights covered Noah. The two emerged with fur identical to the flames created by each shifter, respectively. Noah, however, sported a sort of birthmark on his left eye that contained different shades of tan and red.
The trio moved as though they were one entity while scaling the smooth surface of the marble wall, reaching the top in mere seconds by using the corner.
Relief and freedom quickly turned into horror when the top of the wall was reached. What greeted the fugitives was none other than the force trying to keep any prisoners from escaping. W.E.P.T. didn’t have too many soldiers within the complex, but outside of the walls several airships maintained any outbreaks, in case a few brave souls were feeling lucky.
Much to the advantage of the three Vexen, the airships had not yet spotted the creatures on top of the wall. Deric looked at his two friends and nodded. He knew he was the fastest of the three making the responsibility of creating a diversion his alone. Rae and Noah darted down the wall and into the clearing before the mass of trees and left Deric by himself. Once the two had safely made their escape down the wall of the prison, Deric thrust his snout into the air and let loose a blood curdling howl from the very depths of his being. The airships quickly focused their attention to the black animal sitting unaccompanied and howling into the night sky.
Deric completed his howl and quickly hurried himself down the wall. Descending this wall was a bit more difficult than climbing. The chances of slipping increased dramatically and guaranteed a body full of broken bones upon landing incorrectly. These were chances worth taking to get away from this place.
Several airships let a flurry of rubber bullets at the fleeing Vexen. The bullets were fast, but the gunners were unable to keep up with the charcoal creature’s evasive movements. Rae and Noah could be seen nearing the edge of the forest with as much speed that could be mustered. The trio’s plan after escaping was to split into two groups and meet up once everything cooled down. Finding each other would not be difficult considering they were part animal and their sense of smell was heightened.
Deric watched his companions enter the forest and moments later broke past the underlying brush of the trees. This marked the three friend’s march into freedom, away from those souls that sought out to destroy.