[img= http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h461/kathichan1/ariacastshot.png]

Aria stretched lazily, pushing aside her quilt cocoon to sit up and drawing aside the cheerful yellow curtains of her room in her parents’ house to blink up blearily at the sun. It was a nice day What a weird dream, with all that food coming to life and trying to eat her and… Who were with her again? Ah well, faces in dreams were always hard to recall.

Still, it was rather strange for her to have woken up so early without having to have been dragged out of bed. Maybe she’d even give Xan a shock and arrive on time for their mission today. She grinned, visualizing the look of surprise that would be on the girl’s face. Downstairs the table still had food on the table and one steaming mug of cup of coffee, no doubt belonging to her dad. But where were her parents?

She blinked, suddenly realize what had been nagging at her mind. It was quiet, and not just inside the house. No birds were singing as they were wont to do at this time of morning, her neighbour’s herd of yappy dogs were silent and no sound of people talking rose from the streets. She darted the windows and hurriedly pushed open the shutters and stared down at the empty sun lit streets. Clothes flapped on the clothesline stretching between houses and a fruit-filled cart stood abandoned in the street, yet there were no people to be seen. 

It was as if all signs of life, from the people of the city to the songbirds in the trees had disappeared. Feeling rather panicked and slightly scared, Aria turned to dash out the door, running towards the Altkey Guild. Where had everyone gone? If there was going to be anyone anywhere, they would have to be at the guild. Heart pounding, she sped up and raced up series after series of stairs, towards the top of the city where the guild was located.