Alice woke the next morning to the sound of birds chirping. It was a beautiful morning, and the sunlight peaked through the leaves of the trees, shining into Alice's face.
As she sat up, Alice realized that the only other person awake was Luke. He was sitting near the smoldering remains of last night's fire, silently sharpening his sword with a smooth stone.
With each swift motion of the stone scraping against the sword made a sharp ching! sound. Luke looked oddly sad as he sharpened it, and Alice thought she heard the occasional sigh.
Seeing he needed some comfort, she stepped over her sleeping friends and sat beside him.
Luke acknowledged her presence by giving her a small smile, then continued to sharpen his sword. Alice tentatively put a hand on his right shoulder. He didn't flinch or even react to her touch, but Alice knew he knew she was trying her best to comfort him.
Alice wasn't sure what was bothering him, but she knew he needed help.
Finally, Luke let out another sigh. “This was my father’s sword.”
“It’s a beautiful sword,” she said, trying to comfort him.
“He gave it to me before he left for the war,” Luke continued, “he said I could use it when I turned 12. And now I am, and we’re going on this quest.”
Alice looked into the forest around them. So much had changed in the past few days. Just 2 days ago she had lost everything she’d ever known. Her family, her country, her pride. Now she was running around with 5 other kids her age from a country that wanted nothing more than to kill them.
On the other hand, some positive things had come from this. She had new friends and was learning things her family never could teach her.
She thought of herself now as a flower. She needed to grow from the tears of her past, but she couldn’t live in darkness. She needed the light in the world to grow.
Finally, she said, “You’ll make your father proud.”
He got a faraway look in his bright blue eyes. “I’m afraid I can't.” he admitted, “After he left for the war, he died. My mother was stricken with grief so great I had to care for my 3 younger brothers. I was 9.”
“I’m sorry,” Alice said. It was interesting how you would apologize for someone’s loss, even if you had nothing to do with it. Still, it felt natural to pity him.
Luke seemed to put his usual smiley self on again for a second. “And what about you? What’s your sob story?”
Alice let out a little laugh, but it was bitter. She was sure he wouldn’t like it.
“Well,” she said, “2 days ago, my family traveled from Thuron to Bellona. We’d been coming close to the border of Hilgaria and Bellona, so we were getting excited. Suddenly, one of our wheels came off and we crashed. Our driver, Maurice, went out to fix it when he was shot down by 2 arrows.
My little sister, Marie, screamed, and my mother covered her mouth. My father got in front of us protectively, but that general, Boromir,” she spat out the name, “he... he…” she had to squeeze her eyes shut for this part, “that bastard stabbed my father. Then he sliced my older brother, Kristofer’s leg. He was bleeding out and couldn’t move. Then Boromir took me out of the carriage while I was screaming and kicking. He restrained me and made me watch as he burned the rest of my family alive.” She had to stop. It was too much to think about what had happened. But she had to tell Luke. “They burned my mother, my father, my 16-year-old brother, my 8-year-old sister, and…” she gulped, “my 2-year-old brother. And… my mother was pregnant again. They killed everyone, even my unborn sibling.”
Luke pulled her in for a hug, and said, “That’s terrible, Alice. I’m so, very sorry.” Alice cried on his shoulder, shaking all the while. He patted her back, muttering comforting words to her.
When she was done sobbing, she pulled away from the hug, and when she turned, she saw everyone else was up. They must have heard everything. Alice was embarrassed, but the others didn’t seem to notice.
“Alice,” Skylar spoke up first, “do not feel alone in this time of pain. I’m sure everyone here has lost someone. For example, my father died in a hunting accident. And my mother…” she trailed off, “Anyway, you know Luke lost his father. And everyone else has probably lost someone they love.”
“Yeah,” Peter piped up, “My parents died in a house fire. I was 6.”
“What about you, Helen?” Alice asked, interested.
“Um,” Helen looked a little uncomfortable, “I never knew my parents. I’ve been homeless for as long as I can remember.”
Now everyone looked at Richard. He must’ve known they would ask him if he lost anyone close. Richard got that defensive look on his face whenever they asked him something.
“What?” he demanded.
“Do you want to share something?” Luke asked Richard.
“No.” Richard shot back.
Alice took note though that Richard always mentioned his father. Not his mother. Alice thought this might mean something. Either Richard had lost his mother or didn’t remember her.
Alice was sure there was something this boy was hiding. And everyone was still a little on edge from the food incident the night before.
Pretty soon, they were packing up their stuff and found a nearby trail.
As they walked, Luke tried to make small talk. “So…” he started, since the silence they had been walking in was a little awkward. “What’s everyone’s favorite color?”
There was a silence before anyone answered. Alice was the one who said, “I like yellow.”
“Why?” Richard snarked, “Is it because your family is so loaded in gold?”
“No,” Alice tried to stay calm, “it’s because it’s a happy color. Like the color of the sun, or poppies, or other things. It just makes me happy.”
She didn’t know why she had said poppies. Most poppies were red, but she remembered at one point her mother had some yellow poppies, her favorite flower.
“So what about you, Richard?” Luke asked, Alice knew he was trying to stay calm with him, just like everyone else. It was pretty difficult because anything you’d say would make him angry or annoying. Maybe both.
“Green,” he stated.
Alice heard Peter, who was behind her mutter, “Of course.” Alice understood why he would not be surprised by this. In Bellona and Thuron, she knew that the paper currency was green. And, Richard was always bragging about money.
“What was that, poor boy?” Richard shot back.
“Richard, stop.” Alice looked and saw Helen had stopped in front of Richard and had her hands out in a stopping gesture. Richard and Peter were glaring at each other.
After a tense moment, Richard sighed in exasperation and said, “Fine.” as he pushed past Helen, causing her to fall on the ground.
Alice quickly walked over and helped Helen to her feet, asking if she was okay. Helen was, and they walked on.
After another minute of silence, Peter said, “My favorite color is orange.”
No one questioned why. Skylar then coughed and said she liked the color lilacs, a light purple.
Helen and Luke were the only ones left to say their favorite color. Luke contemplated for a moment, then came down to an answer. “The color of the sky. That light blue. I don’t know why, I just have good memories from the sky.”
Now everyone looked to Helen. She said she didn’t know what her favorite color was called.
“Why don’t you give some examples?” Alice asked.
“Hmm,” Helen thought, “roses, raspberries, and those flowers that float on those green circles in the water!”
Alice thought about that. “Lotus flowers?” she said slowly.
“Yeah, I guess.” Helen still didn’t sound like she knew, though.
“So do you like pink?” Peter asked.
“Yeah,” she said, then tried to test out the word, “pink...it’s just, the color seems familiar to me. Like at the back of my brain I can feel like I know why I remember that color so vividly. It's a beautiful color, although not a lot of things are pink. I don't know why I like it so much.”
They walked in a moment of silence.
Suddenly, they heard a twig crack. Everyone immediately stopped.
They looked at each other in a tense form as if to say: “Did you do that?” but no one said a word.
Luke made the first move and stepped a tiny bit. He didn’t make a sound. Alice realized now that he would walk slowly through the forest, with his foot more at an angle than straight forward.
He was a hunter.
She didn’t know how she’d come to that conclusion, but it was the way he presented himself. He was always at the ready, always had his hand resting on the sword at his side. It was also now that she realized how quiet he walked.
But Luke was such a kind soul. How could he be a hunter?
To take an animal's life even if it is to feed you. Alice couldn’t dare think of it.
Alice silently scolded herself for yelling at Richard before. Her father surely would not like that. He wouldn’t yell at her, of course, because yelling was a form of violence. But he would probably have lectured her on how religion was important to society.
Now they stood there, frozen, their hearts beating a drum beat.
Luke silently drew his sword, and Skylar pulled her bow off her back and nocked an arrow.
As more cracks and rustles came from their right.
Skylar pulled back the arrow till the string was taunt, and readied herself. Alice saw her shift her feet into a better position, and let out a soft breath.
Suddenly, a deer ran out of the bushes. It must have startled Skylar because she let the arrow shoot, but it didn’t hit the deer, it went about 20 feet down the trail.
“Are you kidding me?” Alice heard Richard exclaim, “You just lost that deer!”
“I was frightened!” Skylar shot back.
“Well, maybe you would’ve been better if you hadn’t been such a scaredy-cat! Huh, bow girl?”
Skylar gritted her teeth. “Do not call me a bowgirl.”
“Okay,” Richard put his hands up defensively, but there was a sly look on his face. As Skylar turned away, Richard added, “bow girl.”
“That’s it!” Skylar shouted and in a second, she’d put her bow back and grabbed her bo staff. She pinned Richard to a nearby tree and said bitterly, “If you call me that again, I swear I will make you regret that you were ever born.”
Richard’s face then looked shocked at how much force she had pinned him to the tree. Richard had at least a foot on her and 50 pounds. But Skylar must have caught him off guard.
“Skylar,” Helen warned, “please, let him go. We need to stick together if we are going to do this. We can’t go around trying to kill each other."
Skylar glared at Richard one last moment, then muttered, “Fine.” She took the pressure off Richard’s chest and spun her bo staff around before she walked a few feet forward, using the bo staff as a walking stick.
Alice began to follow her, but then she heard Richard mutter some type of insult towards Skylar.
Alice couldn’t hear it, but apparently, Skylar could. She charged at Richard and yelled, “Do you want an arrow shoved down your thr-”
“Skylar!” Luke cut in and grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms behind her back. “Leave it. He’s not worth your trouble.”
Richard had walked backward, truly scared now. But that was probably because Skylar was looking at him like she truly wanted to kill him. 232Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZTQfVy8vID
She struggled against Luke's grip, reminding Alice of an angry cat she had seen once back in Thuron. She'd try to pet it, but it'd always turn around and hiss at her. 232Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ztpM5iJIC
The cat used to scare Alice when she was younger, not sure why the cat wouldn't want to be pet. But eventually, the cat would let Alice lightly pet it, arching its back as she ran her hand over it.
“You listen here, rich boy,” Skylar said to Richard, “I don’t want to be with you as much as you don’t want to be with me. But if you are going to make every breathing moment miserable for us, I swear I don’t care if you’re part of the prophecy or not, you will not come near me.”
“Fine by me,” Luke muttered, and turned Skylar around to not face Richard…232Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMtiYy01fsW
