I woke up from sunlight hitting my face. My body moved itself to get away from the light, but it was as if the lamp was glued to my face. A groan left my lips and I rolled again, only to hit hard floor.

'Fuck!' The curse left me and I finally opened my eyes. I was met by white marble floor. Alarm bells went off in my head and in one quick motion I was on my feet and doing 360° scope.

I was in super shining white room all made from marble. It only had pillars every two meters, stone pedestal where I slept and a mini marble pillar as a bed stand with the black box.

I looked down and saw that I was in my sleeping gown. Atleast that stayed.

My eyes went to the pillars and only then my brain registered that I was looking straight to the sky.

Am I dead?

I slowly walked to one pillar and looked down. White clouds happily ran along bright blue sky while the sun shone from above.

But there was no land.

I felt my breathing increasing as I looked around the room one more time. It looked like a prison or something. A very bright prison.

Maybe I was dreaming?

I rose my hand to pinch myself only to let out a startled shriek. I rose my hands before me and stared at them wide eyed. Black tattoos ran across my arms in the shape of vines with thorns and roses scattered along the way. It started from my upper side of the palms and all the way to shoulders.

Okay, I'm certain that I did not have tattoos. And why roses?

I walked to the box as I remembered that it had roses on them too and picked it up. The keyhole stared back at me and I unconsciously touched the key that still hung around my neck.

Oh, please don't tell me that I threw out the key for this mysterious box.

I ripped the key from my neck and pushed it into keyhole. It was a perfect match. Turning the key I unlocked the box and slowly opened, expecting something to jump out, but I was met with two sets of black kunai and a neckles of some sort. Every set had 10 kunai that were made from black metal. They all were slender with a rose at the tip of the handle with vines and silver thorns going down to the blade. But despite the pointy thorns, it was very comfotable to hold them. As for the necklace, it was just a simple black rose on silver chain.

Okay, seriously, what's with the rose theme?

Suddenly, I heard quick footsteps coming towards the door that I only now noticed and my hands quickly shut the box. With a loud bang doors opened and two young girls power walked into the room. They both were wearing white bed sheets and had long light brown hair. One of them were carrying a box that looked quite heavy.

'Miss Era! You are finally awake. The party has already started so we better hurry up and prepare you!' The one whitout the box cheered and pulled me down onto the bed-pedestal. I sat down and my clothes were ripped off.

'Hey! What are you doing?!' I shouted, but they completely ignored me and something black was pushed down my head. I didn't have time to look down to see the cloth because the second girl pulled my hair painfully back and began doing something with them while the first one caked my face with ancient make up. My nails were painted in black with silver roses in the middle, elegant silver chain kind of ropes were snaired on my shins, but had no real sandals.

It took them only 10 or so minutes to do everything and when they were finished, they pulled me up. I finally looked down and saw a black dress made out of few lairs of very thin cloth. It was up to my knees in front and gradually went down behind me, creating a tail that fluttered to the wind. My hair was curled at the ends and fell down my back.

They looked me up and down, right and left and with a few final touches they nod in union. Then, one of them brought the black box and opened it. They awed for a few seconds and then pulled out the kunai sets. Each took one and securely tied them around my thighs.

So that's where they were supposed to go.

Finally, one of them took the necklace out and secured it on my head so that the rose was on my forehead. They looked me up and down, right and left again and with wide smiles pulled me towards the door.

'You look so beautiful, miss' First one said.

'I bet God of the Underworld will be pleased with his champion' Second one chirpped amd my eyes went wide.

No, no, no I'm not meeting him. Not after all the insults!

But before I could speak, the first one spoke again,

'Of course he will, we are the best of what we do'

'And the present was a very nice too'

'It must be made out of very rare stone'

Stone? Not the metal?

'The champion must have a powerful weapon to protect the soon-to-be Mistress of the Underworld'

'And aid the God himself in a war'

My head was spinning from all the chatting. A present? Champion? War?

Astrid, save me!