An excited gasp escaped her cracked, full lips. Strained coughs followed before the young-looking Tayan gained the strength to open her purple eyes. The Milky Moon blinded her through the cracks between the bent structures. Blinking quickly, Paeosfu looked away and peered beyond her thick white curls to soak in her surroundings. Leaking tayeet pipes formed a sculpture with she and her people decorating it as immobile and weak ornaments. A few of them crushed beneath the metal lay unmoving. Others coughed and squirmed to free themselves whilst squeezing pink ooze from their twisted bodies. Exhausted from the earlier battle, they gave up with frustrated cries.

Growing acutely aware of the groaning and squeaking sounds of help, she exhaled and allowed her already thin frame to grow thinner. Paeosfu cleared her mind and isolated the pain returning along with her senses. She flattened until the pain no longer wrapped around her arms, her torso, or her toes. Her once brown body now a rich purple and planar permitted her to move. Her soul screamed of the pain that cannot escape. She had no mouth, no nerves, no nose--only eyes and a sharp perception of vibrations to aid her.

She slithered around the pipes to her destination: the Milky Moon. Her body fell around the forms, sinking before rising. It climbed and then descended as she navigated through the contorted mess. Before the battle, this was almost a completed transportation facility. The ideas were novel. Traveling from district to district was to be that flicker of fun in the otherwise mundane task of construction, mining, or depositing. Prior to the assignment of dull shifts, they had so much fun.

Many moons ago, the hum of the inbound foreign ships alerted them that the fun would end. The Second Ruler was the first to go. So suddenly she was taken from them that her cries echoing throughout the land was seen as her last attempt to remain in their minds. Then, many had claimed to witness the Third Ruler force his scepter through the Fourth. The god’s core was ejected. The distinguishing features fizzled into flames. Nasty rumors emerged about the Third. He was to be feared since he incinerated the corpse with his powers. Before the Tayans had an opportunity to recover from the realization that the gods were as mortal as they were, the First Ruler disappeared without a trace.

Peeking out of the entanglement, Paeosfu immediately threw her head back to shine the golden gem embedded in her forehead directly toward the Milky Moon. The moon was crescent-shaped with a light-green hue and large dark brown orbs resembling eyes. Tayans turned to the Milky Moon once the image of the gods was shattered. Paeosfu looked to it too and wondered if she’d be next.

The princess wavered slightly as her body expanded into three-dimensional space.  In haste, she hoisted herself from the entrapment before her flat limbs rounded and revealed the wounded, twisted mess of her legs.

Sitting upon a pipe, she heaved from recovering from the transformation and the mere task of escape. She debated whether to transform again. Her arms were relatively fine. Silvery pink blood dripped from a few cuts, yet her battered legs may make travel difficult.

I can drag myself back to headquarters, she mused, studying the destruction. Alternatively with her bike, she could cross districts briskly and send a recovery team from the kingdom back to the site.

Her legs leaked.

The viaete soiled her battered rebel uniform shorts. She knew she had to move or she would risk fading away into an empty shell like many others.

Having phased back into her abstract form, she awkwardly navigated down the pipes with her soul screeching the same cries of help as the others.

Her name was Princess Paeosfu, daughter of the Fourth Ruler of Tayavon and one of the current charges of the Third. Practically immortal, she had witnessed the same battle one too many times and wished for change. She had joined the rebel forces as the informant of the government's operations. Trust was hard to receive in the heart of the rebels, but she managed to gain a few allies and convinced them she was all for their cause.

Explaining the current predicament would prove harder than she liked. The princess, now lying on the ground outside the facility torn inside out, breathed heavily.

Her bike was nowhere in sight, and she assumed it had been buried along with the other rebels. She cursed quietly in her head. Dragging herself to base was a long journey.

Paeosfu rolled onto her back and stared up at the Milky Moon.

At least they saved all the civilians. If she were to be recovered by the Tayan rebels, she could walk back to the rebel camp and declare their main objective had been completed.

She smiled easily with the thought on her mind.

Anguished screams jerked her from the bliss.

Many rebels remained helplessly trapped on the uprooted construction project. She couldn’t possibly leave them be.

The rebel princess dug through the rubble, crawled around, and dug again for the yēoño, a staff whose powers grew in strength based on the wielder’s mental capacity. This version of the weapon warped and collapsed the pipes upon the soldiers. She had seen many discarded when the rebels fought the Fifth kingdom’s soldiers.

If she could find one, then even with her legs, she’d be of use.

Paeosfu’s small fingers scraped against a pale purple surface that was cool to the touch. With a smile growing on her bleeding mouth, she flattened her lower half to null the physical pain as she focused her energy in unearthing the yēoñogou—a yēoño with four dial orbs.  As if the device could suddenly fall apart if she lifted it too aggressively, Paeosfu wrapped her fingers around the device and allowed it to slowly roll into the palm of her dirtied hands. Grasping it with renewed determination, she dragged herself toward the pipes.