I hope you all like this story it's my first and it might be a little messy chapter wise soooo play along and we'll see where it takes us.

Chapter One The Encounter

"Hey you! Why are you following us? Buzz off." A young woman says to me. She is beautiful to me, exactly how I want to look. She has dark almost black purple hair that goes to her chin and delicate features for her face but it is obvious that she is anything but delicate. She doesn't wear dresses like I am forced to even in this cold weather instead she wears black pants and a maroon tube top with a gray jacket. Behind her are two young boys about my age or so. They look like complete opposites. The one to her left has hair as white as the snow I am standing on and is dressed appropriately for the cold. He isn't looking at me he is looking at his teacher confused as to why they stopped walking. The boy to her right is looking directly at me only he doesn't realize it. He has hair that is darker than his teacher's, it almost looks blue. The oddest thing about him is that he is only wearing dark underwear no shoes, shirt, or even a jacket.

I realize I am staring but I don't care. I've been walking for hours and now have holes in my shoes and blisters that hurt worse with every step. The boy with dark hair looks at his teacher now just as confused as his counterpart as to why their teacher is talking to a barrel on the side of a deserted road.

"Have you finally lost it Ur or are you just joking around with us?" The boy with dark hair smirks at his teacher while all she does is glare at him until she turns back to the barrel I am hiding behind.

"Shut it Gray! And for God's sake put some clothes on! I didn't teach you to go streaking in the neighborhood!" The white-haired boy laughs and points at the almost naked one who is called Gray it seems.

"WHAT WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?" Gray yells noticing he isn't wearing any clothes as if for the first time. He jumps around looking for his clothes as if they magically vanished and could reappear any moment, it makes me laugh.

"Lyon, since when do you giggle like a little girl?" Gray stops dancing and looks at the white haired boy, no, Lyon. I instantly stop when I realize I laughed out loud and they heard me.

"Gray, Lyon, seriously shut-up. It wasn't Lyon laughing at you Gray it was whoever has been following us all day and is currently hiding behind that barrel." They all look at the barrel in question that is about ten feet away from them. It's apparent that I have been found but I stay perfectly still. The women sighs and get down on one knee stretching her hand in my direction. "It's okay Sweetie we won't hurt you. I don't like being followed please come out."

Her words and gestures are enough to make me almost trust her, almost. I peek my head out from behind the left side of the barrel, only my violet eyes and nose showing, my dirty-blonde curls fall over my shoulder. Seeing how none of the group advanced at me I take revealing myself one step further and allow my entire left side into view while still keeping a death grip on the rim of the barrel. The boys' mouths hang open when I step away from my hiding place I can't force myself to smile and instead look at their feet.

I think about how I must appear to them. My hair alone is enough to shame me. A ratted mess falling all the way to my waist in tangled curls exposing my ears in a sophisticated braid behind my back; my bangs stopping above my eyes in various angles giving me the allusion of having horns on the side of my head. My dress was beautiful this morning, a lovely shade of pale pink with gray lace adorning my mid-arm sleeves, hips, and ruffling at the bottom in the shape of a triangle barely an inch above the ground, I had squealed when the maids brought it to me for my birthday. Since then it has been dragged through snow, ripped in many places including an entire sleeve hanging by a thread, spattered with dirty water from a rude carriage, and now is almost entirely gray.

I refuse to look at them and am surprised when Lyon puts his white jacket over my shoulders. Jerking my head up I look into his turquoise eyes he smiles at me, "You were shaking and unlike us you don't look like an ice wizard that can stand the cold." He then walks back over to Ur and Gray.

"Gray that's why you should wear clothes so you can keep someone warm when you don't need to be," Lyon whispers to Gray. Ur stays silent as she watches the two boys but I see the corners of her mouth turn up in a smile.

"Oh yeah? Well that's not the only way to warm someone up!" Gray yells at Lyon. He comes up to me and starts to turn red for no reason he just stares at the ground and I stare at his sapphire eyes wishing they would look at me. I don't know what it is about him that is always so funny but I start to giggle.

Wordlessly Gray throws his arms around me pulling me against his bare chest making me blush and stop giggling. He is several inches taller than me, I notice that my hands are trapped around his arms so I lay them on his chest. He is warm though. I can feel my heart start to pound in my chest but I don't know why.

He starts walking backwards forcing me to walk as well. I look over his shoulder and see Ur stand up with a grin on her face while Lyon's mouth is hanging open and a blush is spreading across his face.

"By the way what's your name? I want to know who I'm hugging." I start to panic and it must show in my eyes because Ur puts a hand on both Gray's and my shoulder.

"You don't have to tell us who you are but I want to know why you have been following us, why you hid, and I want a name to address you by." I look into her eyes and can tell that she is serious but nonthreatening.

"Okay." I separate myself from Gray and instantly miss his warmth, Ur's hand stays on my shoulder. I stand up straight and put my hands behind my back before continuing. "My name is Annalise, please do not call me Anna. I admit that I was following you because I want to learn how to control my magic it has caused me and people I love harm. I ran away from where I lived because it didn't feel like a home and I followed you because I saw you all practicing a form of magic. You see in my house I wasn't allowed to use my magic and if my emotions got out of hand it would manifest by itself and I would be punished for it…" I need to say more but my throat becomes clogged with tears making me unable to speak, my body remembers those beatings. I drop my gaze to the ground ashamed.

My mind flashes back to my first accident.

That's it for now if I might continue to publish my works we'll see. Special thanks to Iloveanimex for giving me the courage I needed to do this. R&R please XD