"We have to find him! He has the jewel!" the leader of the search team ordered, "He couldn't have gone far!"
The boy shivered and cried under the skinny willow tree. He didn't mean to kill his mother. No, that was wrong. He had every intention to but, was scared to have to face the consequences of the unholy act. Wet streaks painted his dirty face as he moved his knees clothes to his body and wrapped his arms around them. Hoping to somehow disappear as yelling was heard through the day. His heart beat quickened when he heard the crackle of broken branches behind him.
"Oh God. They'll find me and kill me!" he whispered as the wind violently swept his dirty blonde hair left to right. He shivered. His death was approaching one broken branch at a time. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly as he thought of how he even got into this situation. No, he didn't have time for that. He pressed his sweaty forehead against his wounded knees, hoping the weak bushes by the willow tree would cover his fragile body.
"Is he there Jeb?" a scratchy voice yelled.
The crackling instantly stopped.
The little boy counted slowly in his head to ten, trying to slow down his out of control heart beat. "Don't think! Just count!"
"Hmm. I was positive I have heard something around here." an elder voice said to himself. The tired eyes of the old man slowly examined the area around him. Nothing. "No, no luck here! Hey when we're done, could we b . . ." the voice grew smaller as the elder man walked away from the hidden child.
"Thank God." The child put a hand over his fast paced heart and let out a breathe of reassurance. He dropped his from the dead grip around his knees. He giggled to himself. "I can't believe they didn't see my backpack!" He slowly crawled to his patched up bag that was next to him, and unzipped it. He took out a first-aid kit and a full water bottle and put them next to his feet.
He inspected his body for injuries. First the obvious places that showed. "Knees? Scratched. Arms? Scrapped. Hands? I'll need a few band-aids.", He took out a small band-aid from his first-aid box and unwrapped the package, leaving the garbage on the ground. He grabbed the water bottle and twisted the unopened cap, wincing every now and then from the pain that came from his injured hands and set both of the items next to him. He grabbed the first-aid box and searched inside, he then found the piece of clothe he wanted and took it out. The boy set the box by his backpack and sat back down. He took the water bottle and slowly poured water onto the fabric and cleaned his body from dirt and sweat. He then proceeds to nurse himself and rested.
He covered and cleaned all that was needed to be done and swept his dirty blonde hair out of his crystal blue eyes and slowly got up from sitting. His knees wobbled a bit and locked them to prevent from falling. The little boy stretched his body from crouching for such a long time.
After he twisted left and right liking the sound of the cracking joints, the child patted his body down from excess dirt. He then bent down and picked up his over used backpack, he faced the front of the backpack in front of his body to unzip the front pocket. His little hands dug into the pocket and then pulled out the item he wanted. "Ah-ha! There you are."
The blonde child took out a shimmery blue crystal that was dangling from a black sting. He put the necklace on and smiled to himself.
"Ah. I should hide this."
He put the breath taking jewel inside his shirt and pats it for safe keeping. "OKAY! From here on out, I am a traveler!" he smiled to himself, imagining being on his own and exploring and discovering new things by himself. He took a step forward.
THUG!
His body hit the dirty ground before he could even let his food touch the floor. His beautiful blue eyes lay open and unmoving. His soft dirty blonde hair framed his pretty face and even some strands covered bits of his eyes. A blood spot was forming and spreading through his hair. He was shot in the head.
"Good God lad! You hit him!" an excited man exclaimed as he pat his friend's shoulder next to him. The two young men were crouching behind a small hill, not too far from where the boy was standing. The young shooter slowly put his gun down from the top of the hill as he stood up. He slowly walked up to the unmoving body.
"Wow! Perfect aim!" the first man said excitedly.
The shooter kneeled by the young boy and shifted back the strands of hair that covered the blue eyes. He caught sight of the black string and tugged it out of the boy's shirt. He carefully took it off the boy and held the beautiful crystal in front of his face.
"What a beauty! Bet you we can make a few thousands off that back in town." The first man said, grinning.
The shooter gave the man an approving look and smiled.
"Looks like we're eating good tonight huh?" the young shooter said, with the biggest grin on his face.