Ok, I'm in a festive mood so I've uploaded some festive scenes from my own home. How very 'Hello' magazine. The tree and the Santa speak for themselves. The fridge is wrapped in Christmas Diet Coke wrappers. If I send the picture to Coca-Cola, do you think they'll send me a lifetime's supply of coke?

On another note, I will shortly attempt to put the first chapter of my novel on. I warn you, it is of the 'fantasy slash sci-fi' genre. Also, I fear that it is second, or maybe even third rate. I am continuing with it only because I believe this may not affect whether it gets published or not.

Are we enjoying the yuletide colour scheme? So Christmas, right? Is it only me or does it kick ass? I know some of you are not of a christian persuasion but I really don't think it should stop anyone enjoying it. We can include the winter festivals of the other religions in this, if you like. I quite like carols but otherwise it's secular all the way. (Catholic school or no, Christmas should be about the birth of the baby Santa.)

Every year I look forward to it with the same insurmountable joy and childlike greed as when I was six years old. I want to dress entirely in tinsle and consume nothing but mulled wine, marzipan and brandy butter until January. Who's with me? Please comment below. COMMENT I SAY!

The novel will follow shortly. You asked for it. I will put it on below this, so you still get to see the lovely christmas photos.

Chapter One – SKY

Stepping away from the wall, Namiko brushed a dark strand behind her ear, and, with a single fluid movement, crouched, submerging herself in shadows. She listened, heedful of every noise. Each sound seemed heightened - the rustling of clothing, the gasp of her breath, insects humming among the chrysanthemums. She waited for a moment, until the pounding of the blood in her ears subsided and she could be sure there was no one else. Then, she rose and stepped forward, inhaling the strange perfumes that pervaded the foliage, encasing and surrounding her as powerfully as the wall she had just clambered over.

The sky was darkening and diffused with pink. The lights beyond the wall flickered into life, buzzing with the exertion of their reawakening. It would be full-dark soon. She must be quick. The last Hansou would leave for the main city at nine. If she missed that, no amount of flattery and pleading would save her. She would be confined to the grounds, deprived of the little freedom she had and forced to work in the scullery, scrubbing and scouring until her fingers were raw. She had spent too many days there since the last tide. She would not spend another.

Cautiously, she moved towards the plants, taking the clippers from her backpack. She began to search the plant life thoroughly and eagerly, crouching down to find yet more exotic blooms and pungent aromas. The Garden was truly as astonishing as her Guardian had said it was. Namiko had never seen so much greenery in one place. Plants and trees that had no use for nutrition were becoming so scarce now. Only the hardiest of plants thrived in the high altitude and poor soil; the owner of a single rose plant might count himself among the noble and elite. The soils that would yield such exotic blooms were far too expensive for the likes of people from the third borough, like herself. She had seen the distant, elegant ladies who fluttered in and out of the Town Senta with flowers adorning their expensive necklines. Sometimes, when she had the day off, she would catch the Hansou to the Senta Entrance and just watch them, flitting to and fro. They were the most beautiful people Namiko had ever seen.

When her father was alive, he had once taken her to Sanban Park. Even then, it had been the last surviving of the three parks which had immersed the centres of the three boroughs. The Governor would not waste his money on such frivolities these days; only his own gardens flourished invisibly behind the walls of his grounds, silent and lonely in their beauty. The park had fallen into disrepair and had finally been knocked down to build more shelters.
The day had been crisp and sun drenched. She remembered how exultant she had felt when he lifted her up into the leafy shade of a solitary oak that dominated the grassy expanse of the park. She had thought it must be the oldest tree in the world to have grown so tall. Her father had laughed when she’d said that. He told her that, long ago, when people had lived below, and the fertile lands had stretched past the horizon, trees ten times as tall had covered the earth. It had seemed impossible to her. She had told him so.

She squirmed to think how suspicious she had been. If only he were here to guide her now…things would be different. The next day he had brought home a picture from the great library, where he worked. He was not supposed to; most images from before the ascent were restricted. He had done it for her. It was a picture of something called the Amazon forest. She had gasped when she saw it. The print was incomplete- the file must have been corrupted a long time ago- but still the image captivated her. Trees as tall as thirty men, green and lush and verdant, filled the landscape. There was no sign of the bleak, interminable expanse of the sea which usually dominated any pictures of the world below, the pictures she had been shown in school.
She stooped, carefully choosing the flowers that complimented one another. She was exceptionally discriminating- she could not risk taking more than five or six blooms and there was no point in endangering herself and ending up with an inferior bouquet. She hoped that Tomi would be pleased. He would be angry at first, she knew, but he would subside, as he always did. Then, he would be awed by the exquisiteness of her gift.

He could dry them and take them with him on the long journeys down, the journey to the world underneath the city. Perhaps he would find even more exotic plants, on some long forgotten island, and bring them back to her. She was so proud- so proud and so frightened. Her brother, her kin, a Sanban, was to be a Ranger! He would be one of the few chosen to leave the protective walls of the city and go below, facing the fury of the terrible sea beneath, in search of land and fertile soil. It was a great honour and he had studied long and hard to achieve his ambition. Tomorrow he would graduate and the day after he would leave her, leave her alone in what seemed simply an enormous prison- a prison in which she had no family, no true friend and no freedom.

It was the deepest and most acute desire of her heart to go with him, to explore what was left of the majestic world her father had taught her of, but it was impossible. She was too young and the officers would take no women, even into the training programme. The dangers outside the city walls were too great to risk those whose duty it was to bear children. She was doomed - doomed to live a live of drudgery and confinement. She would never be one of those dazzling ladies in the Senta and she would never leave the city. For a moment, the bitterness of it gripped her, and the petals beneath her fingers collapsed under the weight of her grasp. She gathered herself. It would not do to let her resentment overtake her now. She had a job to do. As she reached for another flower, the petals of the one she had held fluttered to the floor like confetti.
With the utmost care, she took the small plastic bag from her backpack. It was of a firmer film than most, so that when she filled it with water and tied the top around the stems of her cherished flowers, they would be nourished and kept safe until she could get them back to the Guardian House. If she kept her backpack upright and did not jostle too much, the water would not spill. She looked around. There would be a source of water nearby. These plants needed careful nurturing.

She found the faucet further towards the house, next to a great sliding glass door which looked out onto the garden. There were smaller windows above it which were slightly ajar. No matter, the room inside was empty and she would be gone shortly. The garden was unusually warm and humid. The temperature and moisture levels must be controlled somehow but there was no outward sign. Truly, the Governor must be rich beyond imagining if he could afford such luxuries. Namiko’s Guardian could only afford the bare minimum of electricity credits and even the very rich were restricted in their electricity use.

The tap was stiff and difficult to turn. She needed to use both hands and balance her container underneath, making sure she did not spill water on the terracotta coloured tiles. If she left a trail of water, there may be suspicions about who had been in the garden. It was unlikely that anyone would be out there tonight but she couldn’t afford to risk it. When the job was done and her cargo secure, she hoisted the pack up gently, ready to make the difficult climb back over the wall.

Suddenly, the garden was awash with light. Namiko froze. From inside the main building, great crashes and anxious voices resounded around the walls and floated out into the evening air. Someone was in the room with the sliding door - more than someone, several someones, with deep, frantic voices. This could not be a regular occurrence so late in the evening. Something was happening. Something that would get Namiko into a lot more trouble than stealing few blooms could ever do, if she hung around to get caught up in it.

She must be quick. She dove underneath a small, ornate table in front of the tiles, desperate to be hidden, despairing at how stupid she had been to come here. There was a row of plants around the table. Only someone who walked directly up the small path and looked down would be able to see her, especially in the gathering darkness. She was so stupid! Tomi was her brother and she had wanted to get him the best leaving present possible, but not at this price. If she was caught, she would not be allowed to say goodbye, she knew. She might even be locked up, for weeks, months. She would miss his first leave!

As Namiko’s anguish threatened to overwhelm her, something about the voices from within the building caught her attention. She looked over to the window. She could just make out the shapes against the yellow light which streamed out of the glass. Amid the foliage that obscured part of her vision, she saw four men in the Governor’s reception room. The Governor must be the man who was sitting at the immense desk to the side of the room. Two other men were standing, stiff and formal in the uniforms of the Outer Guards. One was crouched on all fours, head bent down. Namiko glared at him. She could not see into the building very well, although the light within against the gathering darkness made it easier. But she could see that he was like no one she had ever seen before.

His hair was not dark, but fair, almost golden, as bright and exotic as one of the blooms Namiko had just picked. His skin was pale and the clothes he wore were tattered and stained but she could see that they were like nothing worn within the city. Even having auburn hair was rare enough that Namiko had only seen two people with the colouring in her life. She had never seen anyone that fair before. They were supposed to be gone forever. The war and the floods and the illnesses had overwhelmed their continents. That is what they had told her. The school Mistresses, the Land Officers, her father- she had heard the stories in a hundred ways from a hundred different people, all with the same point. Thousands of years had passed and only her people had survived. Only her people had been bright enough and clever enough to know how to survive. All others had perished.

This was the fundamental truth on which her life and every life within the city walls were based. They were the most innovative, the chosen few, the ones to whom the great protection of the city had been granted. Only the protection of the city had saved them and continued to save them from the ravages that the planet wreaked upon humankind. She must hear what was going on.

She crawled slowly from underneath the table, curiosity overthrowing her fear for a moment. Carefully, she crawled through the darkness to the wall next to the great glass door and, lifting herself up, pressed her back against the wall. Now she was as close to the barely open window as she could be, without being seen. A voice filled with authority and politely concealed menace punctured the silence of the garden.

“This really is quite unacceptable, Mr Sun. How on earth do you expect me to believe that this man was capable of getting this close to the city without intervention?” demanded the governor. “It is the one task with which you and your men are entrusted, your sole purpose within our society and even this you cannot accomplish.” His tone was severe and jarring

“Please, Sir. This man must have travelled for miles unnoticed. I would not have thought it possible for any man to possess the endurance qualities needed to reach the city…” Mr Sun’s courage seemed to fail him and his voice began to tremble. “We never thought… We concentrated our attention within the walls. The prevention of unauthorised decent or escape was the priority… We thought the priority should… that the savages could never…”.The voice trailed off. Even Namiko felt the strain and hostility in the moment of silence that followed. The Governor’s responded slowly and deliberately, as if he were talking to a child. However his words were neither calming nor reassuring. Each phrase was articulated to be crushing in its condemnation.

“Clearly you and your men cannot be trusted to think. Following orders is what you have been asked to do. Your orders are to ensure no one and nothing, the city residents, the savages below, my daughter’s pet spaniel, none of them get access beyond that wall, whichever side they might currently be facing. The review stations have not been manned properly?” He already knew the answer to that, Namiko was sure.

“Er… Well…we thought that reducing the shifts to the bare minimum would increase efficiency elsewhere. We were only-“

“You were only jeopardising the safety of the city and everyone in it, as well as the sanctity of a lineage which has advanced over generations. You were only risking the exposure of knowledge which, if proven among the masses, would result in the obliteration of a society that men far greater than yourselves have struggled to maintain for hundreds of years!” As he spoke, the governor’s voice became increasingly irate, growing in volume and intensity. The clinical composure that had seemed so terrifying, even to Namiko, who could not see his face, seemed to melt away, and something even more sinister was exposed for the briefest of moments. He regained himself, taking a long breath.

“Not only this, but he might have returned to his own people. Can you imagine what would happen if people like this barbarian got word back to their people of a magical city in the sky? This man lives in a condition of squalor you could not begin to imagine, Commander. An electric light or running water would seem to him like sorcery of the most formidable kind. Do you have any idea how our world would seem to him? And there are millions of them. We would be outnumbered ten to one if they decided to try and conquer us. Even the most advanced technologies would struggle to save us with odds like that.”

Namiko heard groaning and slurred words in a strange language. It could only be the man she had seen on all fours. “Silence the savage. Or are you too incompetent, even for that simple task?” There was a series of thuds, a muffled groan and then a moment of silence.
“Commander, you are relieved of your duty. I presume the gentleman next to you is your second in command? Good. Mr Kenai, is it? Congratulations, Mr Kenai, you have been promoted. Your first duty will be to take this man and throw him from the skylight so that his infernal and primitive brain will be dashed on the rocks below.” If the other man objected to this, Namiko could not hear.

“Sir, what about me? My livelihood…The Guard has been my whole life…I….” The voice trailed off, losing itself in despair. There was a slight pause.

“Mr Kenai, kindly see to it that your predecessor follows our barbarian friend on his little flight out of the skylights. A man of such stupidity does not deserve to pass his precious genes forward to the next generation. It will be a service to the city. This society was built on the principle of survival of the fittest, after all. Goodnight, gentlemen.”