Different
By Elina Hale
It was like the ice from the winter before had settled into her, knocking out a couple of things, and messing up the storage system inside her brain, but that will be needed later. The ice turned her then pale brown hair to a dark, dark black. Jet black, blacker than the coal used to heat homes in the winter for the rich people. And when she was born, and opened her emerald green eyes, her parents knew what to name her right then and there.
Carsephine.
When she first started walking around the age of 3, she would run around, messing things up. She was quite stubborn and loud, too. Her fiery red hair bounced around as she was busy doing her job of being a nuiscence, as usual.
Delpha.
When she first started talking, she was quite descriptive and lively. She enjoyed nature, spending countless hours just staring at the same leaf during a breezy spring day. Her curly brown hair settled around her shoulders and her arms and legs were tan from those lovely days in the sun.
Vivion.
And at the young, oh so young age of 4 and a half, she learned how to darn torn clothes, sew cloth together, read books, and make clothes from scratch. She was helpful and kind, though sometimes she was quite cross with her three sisters when they messed up their brand new clothes.
And her name was Chimala.
The parents were quite pleased that their four, darling of daughters were perfectly normal for the most part, other than that they were quadruplets. Their first two daughters, twins, were killed for religious reasons. Their next child was a son, deformed at birth, who died shortly later. Their third son, born two years before the girls, was also deformed, but stillborn as well. It just seemed that bad luck rained upon the couple.
But, no one knew what horrible things would happen next, or what would become of it.
Carsephine- The Girl Who Hunts
I aimed at the deer, locking my arrow into place and pulling it back as silently and slowly as possible. Then, I released it. Its pointed tip flying through the air. It's dull feathers perfectly aligned to one another, and the straight wood, carved from the wood that the town people use. They leave a lot of leftovers around, and often misplace things such as clothes and food. The arrow sliced through the deer's heart, and it fell to the ground. I lifted it, and began skinning it, my second-hand knife peeling off the skin.
Looking at it, it had pretty nice look to it. Maybe it could become a summer tunic or a small bag for each of us. Like for berries or roots or herbs or something. I lifted it, and began removing the unnecessary parts of it, the head, organs, and bones. After that, I separated the legs and other useable parts, and bundled them up to make it easier to carry. I began scattering the remaining pieces around, so there would be this one visible hunk of delicious meat for bears and wolves to eat. Instead, smaller prey would be able to nab at some food and I would be in less danger.
I picked it up, and began heading back to our summer camp. It was bright and warm, but it was always never too hot here. The farmers had their land, the town people had theirs and we had our woods, the one place where very few people came, and then it was mostly on the one main road, where from there the trees were young and wider apart, while in reality, they were closed in and had huge bases. It was hard getting arrows, so I had pulled the one out of the deer, and we saved every one we had. It was getting harder to go by, as if the people were watching us, and they were stealing everything.
After dropping it off at our Summer Camp, I headed back out to look for something else. We had only recently gotten here, and the colder days had tired all of us out. It would be nice to find something for a treat, like a weapon or some new town-people clothes or something else. Something that would help us. Something that would make it easier living on our own.
To do that, I could go north, to the farmers, or to the south, where the town-people lived. Maybe one of them left something for me to grab silently. Creeping forward towards the edge of town, where the woman wore ridiculous skirts and these...these...funny looking hats. Nothing at all.
Then something caught my eye. A man in a black suit was looking straight at me. I paused in fear that he would point me out, and kill me. I remembered a few years back when this girl wandered back into town, groaning for food. She had survived for four days after being tossed out cruelly. Instead of food, they had beaten her to teh death, and buried the body unnamed. Ever since then, we had never dared to try to come back. We lived off the land in our own world while these people created rituals and other crazy stuff.
He winked, and I knew that these crazy people would not wink at shrubs.
He had saw me. I began running, faster and faster. I didn't care if I gave myself away, for at least I died in the woods. My home.
After I quit running and sipped some water from a stream and calmed myself down, I resumed my search for something special. Finally, I settled for some berries from a patch of berries. Walking around, I soon found one, and began picking the ripe fruit tenderly, for they weren't very sturdy. A year ago, I crushed one by touching it softly! Then, I heard a roar behind me! A bear! I could drop the berries, but then I would have to repick them, or I could take some and leave some! Oh, it was always Delpha who dealt with the bears, and I was terrified of them. that's not very helpful when you live in a forest where there is billions of them.
I froze. I was never the courageous one of the four; I was merely the hunter who supplied the food. Chimala fixed up the place, Delpha guarded it, and Vivion roamed the woods, looking for stuff to play with. She was my favorite of the bunch, and I silently hoped that she'll live.
Carsephine- Getting Too Dangerous
I froze in fear as the bear grew closer. For defense, I slowly raised my left hand, and crossed it with my right. Hopefully, I wouldn't be mutilated to the point that my own sisters couldn't reconize me. I wanted to die normally, peacefully, not like this!
Then, the bear lungered towards me, huge and furry paws weaponed with claws made to kill soft humans like me, mouth full of sharp teeth that could puncture my flesh, and bloodshot eyes, full of anger, cold, emotionless anger, the very worst kind of anger.
I quickly closed my eyes. I didn't want to see my end.
Time slowed to a crawl. The wind stopped blowing. The deadly nature around me stopped making noise, and I didnt't feel or hear the bear. It was like everything had stopped in their tracks.
I peeped one eye open, wondering if this was a trick.
The towering bear still loomed in front of me, but didn't move. There was something...different about it. The way that it looked in the sunlight, the way that its shadow was casted onto the wild grass, but most of all, how it felt when I touched it after some time. The fur didn't move under my touch. Nothing changes, even when I tried pulling some of the rough fur off. And when I first poked my finger at it, the smallest of contact sent a chill down my spine. Something was wrong about it. I slowly back awat, before running into the woods, berried still with me.
Chimala's POV
Up, down, up, down. My stolen needle expertly pierced through the also stolen cloth. I was sewing Vivion's new summer tunic. She...she was a wild girl, and always wore her things out, and summer was probably the worst season, for with the early rise of the gracious sun she flew into the woods like a dandelion to the gentle wind that rustles the treetops and sends my braid off my shoulders.
I paused, glancing up when Viivion rushed into the cave, a little bundle in hand, and panting quite a lot.
"What is it?" I asked as I placed my half-finished product aside.
"Fox...kit...barely alive...help..." She panted, hands on knees. She had gently placed the bundle on the cool cave floor.
I unwrapped it, and looking straight back at me was a little fox cub on its back. Its blueish gray eyes stared blankly back at me as it jaws open some, then closed once again.
"Where dis you find it?"
"I was out exploring...and I saw this trap with a dead vixen inside, and there were two kits running all over the place. They looked like they were around 5 weeks old. I knew that it was too early for these kits to be this old, they should be around 3 or 4 weeks old, but 5 is way too early for them. Then, they wandered back to their den, and I found another litter, but all the kits were much smaller, and they were all dead, except for this one. I belive that the mother fed more to the larger two, and starved the other three to produce two fine kits instead of five average kits."
"Is it weaned yet?" I asked as Vivion shifted around her future tunic.
"I believe. The mother simply gave more to two of the kits, but they learn at more-or-less the same rate."
"You seem to know a lot about animals, don't you?"
"I don't know...it's just something about them calls me to them. It's like...we're sisters..."
"Looks like we have an extended family." I joked. Vivion smiled weakly at me as she rubbed the fox, who happily yelped.
"What do you think I should name it?"
"I don't know." I said turning towards them. "Is it a girl or a boy?"
"Well...I want it to be a girl but-"
"It's a girl then."
"Um...how about...Fantasy!" Vivion said excitedly as she continued rubbing the oh-so-soft fur of the baby.
"I like it." I replied as I picked up my sewing. "Why don't you two go play outside?" They did so, happily, which made my heart shine like a star for a fraction of a second.
Carsephine's POV
I raced from the trees, and halted at the edeg of a clearing, struggling to catch my breath. After my freaky bear encounter, I had ran non-stop for what felt like hours, and I was lost in my own home. I knew the woods better than my grubby palms, and I couldn't reconigze the sunlit clearing.
I slowly walked from the shelter of the shady woods, and felt the sunlight seemingly burn into my shoulders. I didn't know what caused me to keep moving froward, I just...did.
In front of me, there was a little...temple-like structure. It looked like it was made out of stone, and it was around the same height as me. I headed towards it, and when I arrived there, I saw that it had a little shallow indent that was covered in soot ans ashes. I could see the fiery remains of some rotten, old food. I pulled out my berries, and looked at first the berries, then to the temple, then back to the berries, again.
I pulled out a couple of berries, feeling the ripeness in them in my hand before placing them in the center of the shallow indent.
"Lord save us all, and lord thou praise both thy weak and thy strong-willed. Prayers shall rise thou thy sky, and settle in thy heaven." I muttered under my breath, chanting from memory, the only prayer that I knew, before giving a worried glance to my right and left, and scurried back into the woods.
Chimala's POV
I held up the finished tunic to Vivion.
"How do you like it? You better not tear it the first time you wear it, 'kay?" I mindlessly said as she and Fantasy the fox kit played happily as the sun began getting closer and closer to the mountains that loomed north and west of us.
Delpha's POV
I crouched next to a couple of bushes as I stared intently at two children playing quite close to the edge of the woods. Sometimes, they were so close, that if I stretched my arms, I would touch tehir backs, as if I would ever dare to. The sight of that poor soul being excecueted slowly was burned into the back of my head, and I would never forget, even up to heaven!
I began crawling away from the children, instead slowly making my way towards the town dump, where poor people lived close by, and all the unused junk went. It smelled, but anything that came from here was throughly washed by Chimala and used with great caution. For all that we know, they might be poisoning the clothes we wear and the weapons that we used to hunt, but judging by the fact that women and girls went around wearing puffy dresses all day and men wore what seemed to be uncomfy clothes showed that the technology used here wasn't really advanced.
My eyes darted back and forth, hoping that no one was looking, or was even in the no one was spotted, my lightning quick body darted to the middle of the dump, and I resumed work, clearing out old tools, and judging whether or not they were still usable. Yesterday I had found a whole set of arrowheads, and nearby were some straight sticks, so that was a sweet little gift ready to be given to Carsephine, who looked like she could use one. Her eyes were slightly puffy, and sometimes she woke me up in the middle of the night (I was a very light sleeper) with her jerking sleep patterns.
I continued my search, hoping to find a new knife. My current one was getting slightly dull, and I was hoping that some baboon of a human would accidentallt toss one out, and it happened to be right where I was digging. While my wild hopes and dreams soared to the clouds above, voices began filling my ears.
I had to hide!
I quickly glanced around. There was nowhere for me to squeeze my body into! I would be captured like an animal and excecueted, then they would send search parties into the woods and hunt down anything in their path! I couldn't do that to Chimala and Vivion and poor Carsephine!
I knew that it was too much of a stretch to dash into the woods, so I went to the nearest pile, dug myself a little hole, and hoped that any passersby wouldn't notice the huge mound of evidence with my digging and all.
"How's the marriage, Harold?" A woman's voice asked as the people walked by. I shrunk back into my little hiding spot even further. "My sister and I hope that it's wonderful."
"It's fine, fine. We're settled into our house, we're happy, and hopefully one day we'll have children that past the Childhood Test."
"Sometimes the church can be so cruel, but don't you dare tell anybody that, I'll be killed just for muttering it under my breath! Now, let us finish our churchly duties and get back to our homes before supper is ready!" She and the man scurried off, with occasional "Oops!" and "Ouch!"
After I was quite sure that I was all alone, I slowly crawled out of my nook, and grabbing the bundle of dusty cloth, ran back into the woods. This place was getting too dangerous for my tastes!
Discovering the Unknown
Delpha's POV
I ran all the way home that night, and after describing the terrifying experience to Chimala, she reassured me, and offered to sleep next to me for the next couple of days.
But still, long after sleep had claimed the three sisters, I was still awake, listening to tehir soft breathing. Carsephine with her puffy eyes didn't toss and turn like usual, Chimala hasn't kicked me yet, and Vivion has finally settled down, snoozing the night away.
I closed my eyes, ready to drift to sleep, but I simply couldn't. I was wide awake.
Then, there was the tiniest of sounds. I slowly turned my head. There, another shuffle from my right happened, where Carsephine slept.
"I can't sleep." She said softly, not to wake the others. She sat up slowly.
"Me neither." I paused as she got out of bed.
"I want to show you something real quick. You know, to pass time by?" She exited the cave, and ventured into the woods. I quickly followed her, watching her jet black hair disappear into the moonlit forest exploding with life...and movement.
The candles flickered as a cloaked figure walked to the front of the crowded room, filled to the brim with shifting, uncomfortable people.
"We have a problem." The cloaked figure said in a deep voice that echoed across the dead silent room. "We have a problem that must be rid of."
"Yes master, sir." The crowd emotionlessly replied in monotone voices.
"Our supplies, the very same ones that may help us through the winter moons are being snatched by unidentified persons. There are reports of strange and unnatural creaturse lurking on the very edge of the woods, in reach of the children! Our very own children, the next generation, is being snatched from our very arms of gentleness and safety. In the farmer's fields, there are missing livestock disappearing overnight, and worst of all- the Plague!" The crowd gasped loudly as voices rose through the chilly air.
"The Plague?"
"The devil set upon our destruction!"
"Think of the children!"
"Truly the devil's work."
Wails were heard as babies began reacting to the fear lurking in the air. Their mothers desperatly tried to silence them, but to no avail. The leader, with his tall, skinny, yet looming and leering figure, didn't say anything as worried voices kept germinating from mankind's worst enemey-the unknown.
"Silence!" He finnaly cried, holding up his hands to the crowd. The crowd instantlly fell silent once again. "Concerned words won't solve this problem!"
"What about the Plague?" One loud, yet panicky voice cried. "Nothing that the Lord makes works once thsoe grotesque boild sprout! They're as good as in Satan's reach!" The leader, again, pondered silently, as the crowd began whispering in hushed voices.
"Kill anyone who looks like a victim. Kill the sick. Kill them all. The devil will be pleased with those...sacrifices..." He rolled the word off of his tongue. The crowd began cheering wildly. "Put up a high fence to combat those...mysterious creatures! Guard the gates with all the caution the lord can muster! Protect the livestock and the children! We will find the culprit, and we shall excecute them on the stakes!" The crowd just went on and on with hollering and hat throwing and whooping and sometimes tossed babies. The young and old alike celebrated as the cloaked leader stood onstage.
After the loud, booming cheering fell silent, the leader waved his palms around as he cried," Build a fence until it touches the sky and guard this town with all your might! Go fight for your people! Fight for your life!" HE threw his hands up into teh air as the crowd became wild as the forest that stretched for endless miles, surronding the entire town, save a couple of trading roads.
I raced after Carsephine with no care in the world, my long red hair blowing in the wind.
Suddenly, she halted and stared into the darkness, with the tall trees emitting their shadows upon her pale face.
"What is it?" I worriedly asked. she shushed me, barely moving, and softly breathing.
"Someone is here. someone is watching us." She whisepred so softly, I could barely hear her.
Then, I heard it; the rustling of leaves and twigs. we glanced at each other, scared to death.
"Twenty men to do the job isn't enough, I tell you!" A man's voice cried loudly. "I keep telling you over and over, but you never listen! Dickens! You are driving me crazy!"
"He knows what he's doing. He is wiser tham the heavenly moon and smarter than the Earth with us humans on it. There is no need to worry, just do your fair share of the work and find a loyal wife. That is all to life." The second voice was calmer, like the fair blue daytime skies.
"I feel like there is more to life than being faithful to the church, getting married and having meager oppurtunities." I motioned to Carsephine to duck into some nearby underbrush. the voices continued getting closer and closer and closer until they were right beside us.
"The priest wouldn't be too happy about what you just said. We all know that he and the governor are close friends with each other." The first voice replied as me and Carsephine kept staring at each other, partially in amazement and partially scared to death.
"Dickens! Why don't you shut up! My, my, you are probably the most annoying person the Lord has ever imagined! Dickens! Do you know how much I hate your church protecting ways?" The voices were louder than life, and were complete opposites to the softness of the woods.
"Silence!" The second man cried, apparently very, and I mean very angry with the first man. "You shall not stand any longer on this earth!" There was something about the way he said that sent a chill down my spine. Then, the very angry man must've done something painful or maybe harmful to the other man, for there was a cry of pain that soon followed.
"What's going-+ I began, but Carsephine clamed her hand over my mouth as two shadowy figures shuffled by, presumbly the two people talking. Following against all my instincts, I quickly pursuited them, soon followed by Carsephine.
"Ouch! Ouch! Quit it! Put me down now! I demand to the Lord that you PLACE ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!"
"No need to yell, dear friend." The voice calmly said, with an eiree tone to it," You shan't be on this Earth much longer." Then, the man who just spoke held something shiny in the air. I crept closer to the clearing they were in. The person being held down began screaming something, his cries piercing the air. Then, the shiny object rammed, no slashed into the man's body as blood splattered onto the grass. The stabbed man collapsed onto the ground. The murdered cackled happily.
We began back away, certainly going to run like the wind. Then, something snapped under my feet. I glanced down, a twig. I began sweating all over. I quickly glanced upwards, just as the man began lumbering over to where we were.
I, unfortunatly, had to gasp, giving away our about to be exposed hiding lurched forwards, as I stumbled backwards, knocked over Carsephine sometime in the process and tumbled over my feet. Sometimes, I was clumsy, especially at night.
"You..." he snarled viciously. "What are you two doing out past curfew." He glanced down at our clothes, and I saw the surprise in his face when he saw full-out deer skin instead of silk or cloth. "You're...you're savages! You must be eliminated!" I heard the scraping of metal as he pulled out a long, slender sword that gleamed in teh sparkling moonlight.
"Run!" Carsephine cried, louder than I've ever heard her before, her voice loud and powerful and booming. We made a mad dash away from the madman with a sword b about as tall as me, or what it seemed like. The woods rushed by me as the huge, lumbering, yet surprisingly fast footsteps kept getting closer, and closer and closer untit they were right behind my very own fast, stumbling footsteps.
Then, I had to stumble over an seemingly invisible tree root. I tumbled over and onver, rolling down to the bottom of a huge hill. Because we were in a mountainous region, there were plenty, and i mean plenty of huge, rolling hills.
Carsephine landed gracefully next to clumsy ol' me. She had the hunting instincts that I had always wanted. She could rpobably leap from tree to tree, her feet never touching the ground.
We quickly truend around as the chasing figure landed heavily onto teh forest floor, spewing up tons of dirt.
"This is where it ends." He growled something awful deep in his throat. He held up the impossibly long sword, the blade gleaming with the light of the pure moon, sitting among the stars. Just as the sword began its short journey to our throats, just as the shing, exact-o blade was mere inches away from decapitating me beyond repai, a flash of something...white...and with a tinge of blue landed on a nearby tree. The murderer stopped with his assasination and gaped at the sight of the substance, creeping its way fown from the tree it struck. It moved at a snails pace.
"Magic..." He muttered. "MAgic...you two are magic...you...you survived...IMPOSSIBLE!" He began his massacre, but was interrupted by...a hot, burning red ball around the size of my bunched up fist flew from where my left hand was, levitating in mid-air, still hanging on to a moment of utter shock. The blazing ball of glory flew and landed at the man's feet, glowing ever brighter than the moon for a split-second before dying out. When the ball-thingy had landed, the person with killer instincts just stared at us with a look, a look of hatred and puzzled and anger and confusion and disbelief that lasted for a few seconds, before he began running away, stumbling over his thick boots, like he had two left feet.
When his booming, racing footsteps had echoed away from the eart, only then did I stand up and slowly walked over to the white and with a slight tinge of blue stuff that was growing on the tree. I touched it lightly, before looking at Carsephine, who just stood frozen where she was.
"Ice." I said with utter disbelief. I touched it again, feeling the cold creep up my hand. "Ice." I repeated, not moving an inch.
Questions With No Answers
Delpha's POV
We stared at each other in silence as the truth sank in.
"Ice." I repeated. "Ice. Why is ice here, in spring?" Carsephine didn't reply, simply staring at her feet.
"We...we better get back...back home...n-now..." She stammered. I simply nodded. Just thinking about the creeping ice was giving me a headache. We began walking back home, a silence as cold as the ice behind us seperating us like a wall.
"Don't tell the others about tonight." She said suddenly, still not looking at me. I looked, confused, at her.
"Why?" I asked.
"Just...just don't tell them." I nodded again, and we continued, the silence between us growing bigger and bigger with each step.
Chimala's POV, Next Morning
As I scrubbed all the dirty clothes against the smooth river rocks near the creek, I didn't have time to talk to my sisters. Not that we really got the chance to, since Delpha scavenged for supplies and Carsephine hunted, like she was nature, not an outsider. Vivion would often leap into the forest and occasionally come back with a bag full of berries, and we would feast for a long time.
Today was different.
Today, Vivion wandered over with her fox, Fantasy trailing behind her.
"Can I help?" She asked sweetly, kneeling down beside me.
"Sure." She grabbed one of Carsephines clothes and began scrubbing it.
"Hey, Chimala." Vivion asked. I nodded.
"What?"
"I noticed something...strange in Carsephine lately."
"What is it?" I laid a shirt out to dry.
"Well...she's been bringing back less and less meat lately, and I now from experiance that there's plenty of wildlife out and about, and I can't see why she isn't coming back with anything. Do you hace a reason why this is happening?"
"Why don't you ask later on today?" I suggested. "I'll take care of Fantasy if you want."
"Okay!" She smiled, before dashing away. As I took over her work, I smiled, which was a very rare occurence. My youngest sister can always put a smile on my often wooden face.
Carsephine's POV, Later in the day
Pulling back my arrow, I aimed carefully before firing my shot. It landed in the rabbit's stomach. It squealed as it went down. I walked over, and picked it up, stuffing it into my small game bag, which I nearly always wore with me.
I glanced upwards, and judged the sun's position. It was getting lower and lower.
It was time.
I began walking towards the altar, the same altar that I found after the bear accident. Ever since, on my way back home, I usually visited the altar and dropped a couple of berries or nuts or fruit into the little indent, and the next day, they were gone. Probably taken by some wandering raccoon.
As I walked up to the altar, something from behind be yelled, or screamed, probably howled, too.
I hurriedly glanced back. Nobody.
Rustling. Padding footsteps. It could only be one person.
Vivion.
Vivion's POV
"Hey! Hey Carsephine!" I yelled. She looked startled, and I slowed down to a walking speed. "Are you okay?"
"There was just a huge cry coming from over there." She said, pointing to the thick woods.
"I heard it too, but that's not important now." She gave me a confused look. "Well, I noticed that lately, you've been coming back with less game, and I was wondering why."
She gave me a weak smile. "I guess the town people are taking more than usual." That was a possibility, but there was something to it that sounded fishy. Off by a bit. But I didn't say anything.
"Hey, have you seen my fox yet?" She shook her head. "Well, here's- wait, where's Fantasy?" I began panicking, going around in circles as I began crying out. "Oh no! Where's Fantasy?"
"Did you leave her with Chimala?" Carsephine asked. I stopped suddenly.
"Right, right! When you get back, I'll show you her, 'kay?" She nodded. "Okay, bye! See ya there!" I began running away.
Carsephine's POV
That was too close for comfort.
Delpha's POV
I was sometimes an observer.
But most days, I wasn't. Most days, I sifted out all the garbage that those town people leave in huge piles. But some days, when I needed to think and there seemed to be nothing popping up, I would observe.
Most people wouldn't notice me, even if there were huge signs pointing to where I was. I could be stealthy if I wanted to. I was safe in the realm where the sunlight went through the green leaves, and on the ground, tiny little pockets of light made it through. Sometimes, I would look up, and it would seem like magic, and it was too bad that the town people rarely went into the woods, and it was mostly men hunting or setting huge metal traps with teeth, and they never looked up, looking down and forward. Still, it was such a shame that only we got to see the beauty in the uncharted territories of nature.
But the town people could be entertaining sometimes. The women wore huge puffy dresses that puffed around them, and some parts of it dragged behind them. The men would wear strange shoes and weird hats with crazy hairstyles. They stayed very wooden-like, and bever very noisy.
In fact, most days the streets were mostly empty.
But not today.
It seemed like everybody was out. They walked, and talked in hushed voices. The children seemed to dart and dance around the adults legs and were sometimes scolded for doing this or that. Babies were held, and old people, with withered and wrinkled faces and the whitest of hair shuffled along. Some carried books, old brown books made of leather, it was never women or children, always men, with solemn faces walking with stick straight legs and no talk what-so-ever. These men wore black suits and on their often white hair, had little bows.
Then, everybody would enter these huge buildings made from colors of the rainbow, and nobody would be out for a long time. The rainbow buildings had huge towers and statues with solemn faces and weird text on huge stones and stairs and huge doors underneath stained glass also of all the colors of the rainbow. Then, they would leave.
The strange thing was, none of them entered the numerous shops, or rode horses, or did anything fun or interesting, they all went different ways, and reentered their comfy wooden homes, and most wouldn't leave for the rest of the day. Today was a special day indeed, this didn't happen all the time.
I observed this as the people went home. But then, someone caught my eye.
It was a middle-aged man with a brown leather book and a black suit on, but no wig. His face was full of various lines and wrinkles, making him look 10 years older than he actually was. He didn't walk with stick straight legs, he walked like most of the men, tall but not prim and proper. He looked strangly familiar, and that somehow disturbed me. I couldn't look away from the black-suited man.
Then, he looked at me.
He didn't scan over me, he looked at me straight in the eye.
I nearly gasped, and nearly fell off of my tree branch, barely managing to catch myself by the fingers. When I got back on top of my branch, he was gone.
He still freaked me out.
Bad Timing
Chimala's POV
Vivion came sprinting out of the woods.
"Where's Fantasy?" She worriedly asked.
I laughed. "She was waiting for you, just sitting there and staring into space." As if on cue, Fantasy leaped to Vivion's side, and pranced around her feet. "You two are like siblings."
"She's one furry sister." Vivion giggled.
Carsephine's POV, Some Time Later
I glanced up at the sky, which was arrayed with bright oranges, pinks, pale blues, and a hint of green. The clouds danced quickly across the scene, looking like light purple sheep in front of the dying sun. I should head back, ever since the first signs of blurriness, I had been cauticous about hunting in the dark just in case my vision goes from bad to worse, and I had caught plenty of game, it would make a nice meal. I was ready to eat supper and count the numberless dots of light above the cackling fire.
It was twilight when I was really close to home, with the fading, mystical hues of the setting sun scattered across the colorful heavens, which held the promise of a calm and peaceful night, one with silence, a warm one, not a cruel and harsh one.
That night never happened.
"Carsephine's back!" Somebody squealed. I jumped back, and hit my head on an overhanging branch before landing on a sharp rock, which probably cut really badly into my head. Pain slithered up my back as the person who scared me landed next to me. "Oh my god! Are you alright?" Vivion was now kneeling next to me, with a worried and concerned look on her face. She turned towards the camp. "CHIMALA!" She hollered. I winced in pain at the loudness of her voice. She faced me again, this time her voice with a soothing tone. "Don't worry, you'll be alright. I'll be right back." She began running really fast, yelling something that I couldn't make out.
I could feel the blackness around the edge of my eyes slowly creep in. The had little fingers that looked like vines or the brown ropes that the townspeople used to lift things and set traps and ring bells. These black ropes inched their way from my right to my left before they surrounded my whole field of sight. I struggled valiantly, opening my heavy eyelids to see Chimala and Vivion leaning over me, but I couldn't resist. I could no longer hear anything, and I had the taste of a disgusting thing that the townspeople reccently began using. They called it 'me-tal'.
Vivion's POV
"Chimala, come quickly!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I don't want to look at the fallen body of Carsephine, I need to concentrate, I couldn't feel guilty right now. Chimala comes racing, breathing quickly.
"I heard somebody scream, what happened?"
"No time for explanations, come on, it's an dire situation!" I pulled her on the arm, and began sprinting towards Carsephine.
Her hair was spread out beautifully, like she was peacefully sleeping. Her eyes were shut, and she barely breathed. There was a gash on her head, and blood was oozing out, staining the dirt around her head. She weakly opened her eyes before closing them shut once again.
"I don't want to know what happened right now. Can you help me carry her back to the cave?" I nod, I know this is all my fault. When we do get back, Chimala begins stripping her, first her boots, then leggings and skirt, leaving her with her undershirt and underpants on.
"It could be a awhile before she awakes, so we might as well change her into her night clothes. And, this will help me see what damage your 'prank' did to her."
"I'm sorry." I say quietly.
"This is why you don't hide in trees and scare people passing by." She scolds as she begins gathering various plants to help Carsephine's healing. "If the townspeople saw us today, what would they think?"
"If the townspeople saw us, they would kill us on the spot! They hate us for some strange reason." I cry. I begin sobbing, the big fat tears rolling down my cheeks. Chimala gives me a reassuring look that soothes me, she had more important things to worry about.
There wasn't much we could do. Since she hit her head on a tree branch, there was a huge bruise on her forehead that we added a soaked cloth to. There was also the huge gash on her head. Chimala bandaged that real quick after spitting out a green herbal mixture that was supposed to relieve the pain. If you had the right herbs, and you combined the right ones, you could cure anything mother nature could throw at you, bloody or not.
Delpha's POV
When I arrived back at the camp, a quick fire had been made, and the others were crowded around the limp and pale body of Carsephine. This had to be the worst timing ever! I had been planning on telling her about the strange man who had looked at me, since we both had a strange passion for the unfamiliar townspeople who wore big dresses and white wigs.
"We got plenty of game to use for a couple of days, and if the townspeople are gonna hunt, well, we are gonna need to scavenge tomorrow." Chimala thought aloud.
"I'll stay with her tomorrow." I suggested. If she came back under my care, we could talk about stuff we could never mention around the others.
Chimala gave me a puzzled look. "Okay, if you're fine with that. I'll begin cooking." We had a quiet supper and after the fire was extinguished and we rolled out our bedding, we lay there for an eternity, staring into the darkness. There was no speaking, or sleeping. But surely, one by one, we fell into a dreamless sleep.
"The plan will start tomorrow." The cloaked figure said emotionlessly to the audience, mostly eager looking young men, looking for a dollar or two. "The men have set the traps, and Stage 1 shall begin. How many of you want to be part of an era of peace and tranquility?" Nearly everybody raised their hands. "Good, good. If this plan succeeds, we shall be the revolution! We shall murder all those who resist! We shall no longer scrape by! We no longer have to listen to the Church, or abide to their pointless rules! A time for fatigue and fammine shall end tomorrow, and an era of prosperity and freedom shall begin!" A huge roar went off in the crowd.
"But wait?!" One man stood up, "What about the two witnesses that I told you about earlier? What shall we do with them?" The cloaked figure drummed his fingers silently, deep in his thoughts.
Finally, he replied. "We shall dispose of them. There's no need to worry about them, we all know the plan, correct?" Every man involved nodded his head. "Good, our future is looking very, very good indeed..." He cackled evily before he began coughing and hacking. "LEt's celebrate wuth some Cilohohca Reeb!" The men cheered loudly as beer bottles were handed out, lids were pulled off, and drunk men began stumbling around the room, their shadows casted by the faint, changing light of the dozens of flickering candles onto the weathered walls, which have seen plenty of revolutions, all of which failed.
Danger
Carsephine's POV
I wake up groggily back in the cave. Strange. I don't remember getting here, or eating supper, or anything else after Vivion's surprise. I don't remember changing my clothes, either. All I could conjure up was darkness. My vision was also much worse, it was deteoriating very quickly.
"So, you're awake. I reccomend you don't sit up, It'll hurt. A lot." I slowly turned my heads towards the sound, wincing in pain. Delpha sat next to me. She had a piece of cloth and a wooden bowl of water and was dipping it in until it was soaking wet. She then crawled over to me, and removed something from my bandged forehead, replacing it with the cool cloth.
"Where are the others?" I asked.
"Looking for food. Without you hunting, well, it's kinda hard to manage without you, but we're doing alright." I smiled weakly. She suddenly frowns and kneels in closer. "Don't move." She said, studying my face very closely. "Your eyes look misty today. I wonder what that means." She replaces the cloth again. "Just be careful. You should know how much Vivion was blubbering about how it was all her fault."
Vivion's POV
"Hopefully these berries will be enough for today." Chimala says as we fill up our berry bags. "At the rate we're eating them, we may have to start eating dandelions." I spot one, and pick it up.
"Have you tried them before?" She shakes her head, and I pop the yellow flower into my mouth. "Mmmm...it tastes good."
The cloaked figure was very happy. The town was full of his people, the traps had been set last night, and it was almost time for the plan to begin Phase 2. He faced the 100 young men, the best spear-throwers, hunters, trackers, and strongest men he could've found in the whole town. Each were supplied with a gun, some ammunition, 15 spears and a long dagger.
"It's time. Find them, and kill anybody that's in your way, or anybody you encounter that seems suspicious. Kill everybody you see that isn't one of us, you understand?" They silently nodded before exiting the room.
After they lfet, the cloaked blew out the candles. He was eagerly awaiting their return, along with the dead bodies.
Chimala's POV
There was nothing unusual about our trip back. I was slightly behind Vivion, for she knew the forest better than me, and we were both minding our own business when there was a huge smap, and Vivion screamed as she fell to the ground. I raced over.
She was face down on the forest floor, and there was a huge, shiny set of metal teeth clamping her right leg, where blood was gushing out.
"Are you okay?" I asked softly. She doesn't reply. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of there, just don't move.
The group of five young men stopped when they heard a loud scream coming from the scary forest.
"What was that?" One of the men asked, his knees trembling. He was younger than the others, and was absolutely terrified of everything that moved in the forest, where many legends and folk tales surrounded the darkened trees.
"Don't be an idiot!" An older man snapped at him, causing the others to cower in fear. "One of our traps worked! No animal could make a sound like that! Come on, let's end 'em!" He hissed. They began running towards the source of the piercing sound.
Chimala's POV
As I removed the shiny teeth from Vivion's leg, blood continued seeping out, and she moaned in pain. I heard bangs in the distance.
"What was that?" Vivion asked softly as I worked furiously on her leg.
"I don't know. But it sounds very, very bad to me." She nodded softly.
Delpha's POV
I heard a huge, but distant boom. I ignored it, I'd promised my sisters that I would take care of Carsephine, and that included making sure she didn't harm herself with curiosity.
"What was that?" Carsephine mumbled. I put another soaking wet cloth on her forehead to help her fever.
"I don't know. Just ignore it for now. It could just be the hunters finding food for the townspeople." But they never got this close to camp, it was like they were hunting something else down.
Vivion's POV
I grunted in pain as Chimala removed the sharp teeth from my blood red leg. I heard a boom in the distance, this time much, much closer.
"We should leave." Chimala said.
"There's no way you'll be able to escape with me, especially when I'm injured like this." I said. Chimala gave me a confused look.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Leave me here, I'll be fine."
"Where's the trap?" A young man asked.
"According to this map that Master drew for us, it should be very close to where we are." The older man said. "Come on, we have no time to lose!" They had a desire for warm, human blood, oozing from dead bodies. Every minute, a bullet could be heard being fired from the other groups. Every man wanted revenge from all the devilish traitors sent from Hell to wreck havic on humanity. "Let us go and kill those traitors!"
Chimala's POV
I furiously shook my head. "No way. We're both coming." She didn't say anythinga s she stared at the wound on her leg.
"We're running out of time to argue. Hide me really well, so that whatever caused this won't find me!"
Delpha's POV
More booms came, getting louder the closer they got.
"Hopefully Vivion and Chimala will be okay in this." Carsephine said hopefully, though we both knew that if the hunters found them, they would be harmed beyond repair.
Chimala's POV
I placed the last leaf on Vivion, who was lying as still as possible.
"Be safe, okay?" I said. She nodded a bit before I dissapeared into the forest.
Right behind me, I heard loud voices, booms, and running footsteps, which were getting closer and closer. I began running, scared of every snapping twig and rustle of the leaves. I had never felt such hopelessness and loneliness before.
Delpha's POV
"I think we better go." I said, gathering up everything we would need. "The huntsmen are getting closer, I can hear them." Carsephines nods, her face tense. "Here, I'll help you up." as she stands up, she wobbles on her feet, and begins leaning heavily on my shoulder, her misty eyes tightly shut and her feverish forehead on my neck.
With some help and time, we manage to exit the cave and enter the woods, the unknown lying right in front of us.
Chimala's POV
Something enters my shoulder as searing pain zips up my arm. "Ouch!" I cry, stumbling forward and nearly falling down. I turn my head and see a huge spear sticking out of my shoulder. I know that is I pull it out, it'll begin bleeding badly, so I leave it there, and try not to move my arm.
"We caught something!" Voices, bad voices yell. I panic, and begin running as fast as I could. The woods begin to clear out, and I'm standing in front of an unfamiliar river.
I look bacvk. 5 huntsmen exit the woods, spear guns aimed at me. I turn around and dash through the freezing cold mountain water as I heard even more huntsmen exit the woods behind me.
In front of me are woods where I have never been, and I quickly enter it, still walking at a fast pace.
Vivion's POV
I try to stay as still as possible as the huntsmen dissapear. My wounded leg is still throbbing with excruciating pain.
A pair of quiet footsteps enter my hearing. They get closer and closer as a young woman appears, dressed in a simple white and brown work dress with reddish brown hair and bright brown eyes. she stops right over me, and I'm scared that she's one of the townspeople, and that she'll kill me.
She kneels down, and brushes off some of the leaves that Chimala oh-so-carefully placed on me, not saying a word to me.
Chimala's POV
The second spear enters my shoulder, and I cry in pain, falling over. I don't get up.
I hear footsteps, quiet and light. I don't move as a light hand begins resting on my shoulder.