How rude! Naerie thought, insulted. She glanced at the poor excuse for clothes that lay crumpled on the grimy rock floor beside her. She grimaced.

"I refuse to wear something so uncomfortable! I prefer to stay like this." She sat cross-legged and observed the small cell they occupied. In one corner, she saw a bloody clump of meat and her stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten in days. She couldn't bring herself to eat though, not yet. Not with that awful stench around her. To distract herself, she focused on the boys detailed wings. Marvelling their great size and range of shades. She also took notice that this boy had no scars on his toned pale body. At least, from the waist up.

"W-well it's making me uncomfortable!" The boy replied, mortified.

Again with the insults... She grumbled in her head. She glanced down at her body. She was lean and toned like a cat. Her body was also quite well-proportioned and even though she was covered in dirt, her brown skin still held a healthy glow. Surely she wasn't that awful to look at.

"Is my body really that repulsive?" She made it clear that she was offended.

The boy quickly looked over to her, but upon realizing that she was still before him his eyes widened comically and he looked away again. His neck must really hurt from all that whipping... "I-it's not that! It's just... you should wear clothes..." He trailed off awkwardly and it finally registered to Naerie that their cultures were quite different.

Grumbling with annoyance, she slipped on the itchy dress. "You can turn around now Eagon." Since she didn't know his name she settled with his race.

"Don't call me that!" He spat his wings flapped angrily, sending a strong gust of wind through the cell, blowing out the torch lighting the cell across from them. The Eagon woman in the cell sighed loudly and muttered something about half-breeds.

"Why not?" Naerie inquired, curiously.

For the first time since she joined him, he made eye contact with a fierce glare. "That's not my name. That's not who I am. I'm human."

The woman across from them snorted loudly and muttered, "Here we go again..."

The human leaped from his bench and shouted over at her, "Shut up! I don't belong here!"

Naerie overheard her whisper, "neither do I," but said nothing.

Naerie spared another look at his obvious wings, eyebrows raised skeptically but decided to humour him. "Okay human. What is your name then?"

He took a deep breath, calming himself before taking a seat on the bench and running a hand through is hair. "I'm Jungkook." He said finally. "I live on the outskirts of this town. Because I'm human." He looked pointedly in the direction of the Eagon woman as he emphasized the word 'human'.

"Greetings Jungkook. I am called Naerie." She took his hand and he jumped in surprise, staring at her in shock as she closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his hand.

"What the hell!?" He ripped his hand from her grasp and cradled it against his chest. Staring at her with great offence.

Still not quite registering the cultural differences, Naerie defended herself. "I just introduced myself... I was being polite!" She glared back at him. Uncultured swine! He still looked as though she had insulted his great ancestors.

Just as Jungkook was about to respond, the Eagon woman spoke from where she lay on her bench-bed. "You two seem pretty cheery despite the situation."

Naerie turned up her nose at the very idea. "I am not cheery! And it seems you know my name, but I didn't hear yours."

"You didn't hear it because I didn't tell you." There was a long pause and Naerie began to wonder if the woman was going to tell her. "My name is Alinona. But you'll call me Nona." There was no room for argument with her tone.

"How did you end up here Nona?" Naerie asked in an attempt to be friendly. One thing she learned as a princess was that allies were everything. So she attempted to converse in the hopes of friendship.

Naerie could hear the grimace in the silence before Nona's response. "Unfortunate circumstances."

So much for that conversation...

Naerie looked to Jungkook next. He sat, turned at an awkward angle as he poked at his wings.

"Jungkook the human!" She called to get his attention. He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her with wide eyes. "How did you get here?"

A haunted look ghosted his face before he said, "Three days ago I sprouted these wings. My mother claimed that I was an Eagon and the kings men came to get me the next day. But I'm not an Eagon..." He was clearly in denial and there was nothing that Naerie could think to say.

They fell into a short, awkward silence. Naerie was the one who broke it. "The bastard king... stole my land from me and slaughtered my people. I couldn't save my mother."

It had been months since her mother had been killed before her eyes but she had never shed tears until now. They fell uncontrollably but she didn't sob. The silence had been restored, even more uncomfortable than before.

This time, Nona spoke. "Okay, look. Since I'm feeling extra generous right now I'll tell you a little about this hell hole. So listen up."

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*So this is chapter three! The next few chapters will probably be mostly talking just to introduce the Underground and also to better get to know the characters. The action will start really soon I promise!! And please let me know what you think!

Also I should probably mention this. Naerie said that Eagons are her "supposed enemy" yet she is half Eagon. How does that work?

Well, it's totally religious, political and pretty one-sided.

So in the Eagon religion, the bringer of doom and source of all evil is a dragon named Gachua. In the Tiagon religion, the creature most respected is the Tiadraphe whose base is a dragon. The Tiagons believe that they originate from the Tiadraphe and the Eagons believe they're crazy devil worshippers basically. The Tiagons just play along.

And cool little useless facts (or are they...?) Alinona means 'silent warrior' in Eagonak (the native language of the Eagons. Eagon means 'winged warrior') Nona likes to shorten her name to Nona which just means 'warrior'

The Dimensi also are cursed humans. You don't need to know too much about these curses but they do have this side effect of being able to travel through dimensions and the ability to control or read minds.

Also, since this will be mentioned in the next chapter, Echuale is the name of the Eagon goddess of creation. (It's pronounced Eh-who-ale but the 'ch' should sound more like a cat hiss.) Echuale just means 'mother' or 'creator'.

It's the same for Gachua (Gah-who-ah) but Gachua doesn't translate, sorry guys! If you're confused, don't worry! Jungkook is too! Hahaha!