Chapter 1

A teenage girl with pink hair and wearing a pink plaid cape with a hood was walking around her town. She hated the place. She kept her hood up so that no one could see her eyes and hair. The people there always ridiculed her for being different. Amu just wanted to escape from the dreary, cold town that trapped her inside.

Everywhere was the same. Thick, gray brick buildings with very little windows was throughout the town. The roads were made of gray brick, and the rest of the ground was just compacted dirt with no grass or flower to be seen. Not that Amu noticed, she didn't even know what a flower was. The only plant she had ever known was the thick trees that towered over the thick gray brick gates from beyond. There was just one muddy stream that ran under the wall to supply the town with water. All of their food was found in one little area where only the farmers were allowed to go. Amu didn't know what animals were, nor plants. She just received the ground up wheat and the morsels of meat from a delivery man.
Everyone in the town was plain and wore just plain old gray dresses and shirts and pants. Emotionless expressions painted on their faces.

It wasn't always like that. When Amu was little, her mother, Midori used to tell her tales of how the town was once vibrant and lively, but that spirit was destroyed when a foreigner came and took over the settlement. Amu sighed, how she missed her parents. Her mother was born there in the town, Amu got her golden eyes from her. She had received her pink hair from her father side of the family who was a foreigner. Her father, Tsumugu had come to the town in search of a job. Midori and Tsumugu, when they met, instantly fell in love. But it wasn't to be. Just one month after the two married, a man came to power. This man destroyed every bright and happy thing, casting the town into grey darkness. All of the visiting foreigners were cast out. And Tsumugu, he was burned at the stake.

Amu was shunned by the people, and treated as an outcast and a freak. Her father was a foreigner, and she didn't have normal hair color, this labeled her as someone to stay away from. Every time someone looked at her, it was with cold contempt as if just looking at her left them with a bitter taste in their mouth. Amu was able to live with it for a while, as long as she had her mother. Her mother always looked at her with love and kindness. But her mother wouldn't be with her for forever. Half a year ago, her mother died when she received food poisoning. It was said to be an 'accident' but Amu knew better. She knew that the people had done that on purpose. Now Amu was left alone in the town.

Amu was walking along the walls of the town, wondering what life would be like outside of it when, "Amu Hinamori! We need you at the town center this instant!" Amu sighed and obeyed the portly woman who called. "Ok."

The town hall is about the most decorative in the town. Only one thing decorated it, in the very center, where the mayor stood, was an arrangement of bricks that were laid in the design of a hammer. A plain old simple hammer. That was it. That hammer satisfied the villagers, but Amu always wanted more.

Amu pushed her way through the thick crowd of gathering people. There stood the mayor in his gray suit, proclaiming to the crowds. "Villagers! Hear me! Our food supply has slowly been growing smaller as the amount of people increase! Therefor! I suggest that we have one villager sent off to retrieve that food! Not only that, but any child age 15 and younger shall be slaughtered." Amu was the only one in the crowd who flinched. 'Leave it to the mayor to think of a solution so barbaric. But maybe I could get sent to gather food.' Amu was excited, 'this would be an excellent chance to get outside!' She was interrupted from her thoughts when, "all children age 15 and under, step forward!' All that were did so, or were pushed. The younger ones were wailing for their parents, the older ones just let silent tears flow. That's when Amu felt a jab at her back, "that means you girlie! Go on! Step forward!" Amu turned around, and faced the man who had jabbed her, "I am not 15 or under." The man snarled, "you are too. Don't lie to me!" Amu smirked, "I'm 16 as of today, you big old bag of turnips!" Amu's eyes widened when she realized how loud she was being.

"Well, as your birthday present, why don't we send you to go get the food?" Amu looked up at the mayor, 'was he serious?' Amu straightened her back, "I'd love to." The mayor smiled, "good. Villagers, you escort them. My soldiers, carry the children to the slaughter house!" Amu's eyes widened, now even the older children were screaming and struggling. Before they had been emotionless zombies, but now that they were in the sight of death, their emotions tore free. It pained Amu to look, so she turned her head, but nothing could escape the sound of desperation that forced itself into her ears and rang even after the source was far out of hearing. Amu didn't like the kids, they treated her coldly, but that doesn't mean that she wanted them to die like this. She glared at the parents of these children as she passed through the crowd, but they seemed unfazed.

The mayor led her to the gates of the wall. He took out a plain iron key and unlocked the door. When he opened it, he shoved Amu through it. "Now don't come back until you have enough food for all of the villagers. And one warning, you better stay on the path, never step one foot off of it. If you do, I will personally kill you myself with as much punishment and torture as I can think up." Amu gulped at this, she had seen what the he had done to her father, and the mayor at the time had considered himself as being extremely merciful. Imagine what he would do when after all of these years he had become even more bloodthirsty and cruel.

In one swift movement, the mayor shut and locked the door. Closing Amu out of the world she had known for her whole life and in a new world. One which she had never imagined to even be possible. And thus started the story of the pink haired, golden eyed, pink-plaid caped girl, and her adventures in a totally new land.