The sun was just going down, coloring the night sky in shades of orange and red. The small cottage blending in to the trees, flowers, and plants, always seemed to be a place of peace. But tonight, it had come alive with bangs, shouts, and the sound of glass being broken as three men broke down the front door. They searched the house, knocking tables and chairs over, yelling for the old woman not to hide and to not let the child get away.
Marmer was tall, with long jet black hair with hints of silver in it, looking to be around 50; she normally had a warm smile on her face. But this evening she had such sadness in her green eyes, quietly opening the back door, placing a worn rucksack in Ariona's hand and shoving her outside, "go hide, do not listen to them."
Ariona was just barely 14 yrs old, standing no more than 5'2", with brown hair and with red highlights in it that hung past her waist. She tried to protest, "No, please come with me" tears fell down her cheeks. Trembling with so much fear she ran to the small tawny barn that was nestled in the trees and hid beside it in the shadows that were deepening. The animals that were so abundant were silent with her, not making a sound just waiting.
She saw the biggest of the three men catch Marmer by her hair and pulling her backwards to the floor of the kitchen. "Run child…run. Don't look back! Never forget what you've learned." was all her beloved Marmer kept repeating. The compulsion in her dieing command was the only thing that kept Ariona running. The explosion of the animals, insects, and the earth itself shook her. The wind had started blowing almost as if aiding in Ariona's desperate escape. While whipping her hair all around her face and her sides burning from the exertion she ran on, the yells and shouts were fading in the distance. The images of the men brutally driving a stake through Marmer's heart, and the others calling out that they would kill her too when they caught her, drove her on.
In her head long escape, Ariona had blindly left the only real home and family she could remember. Tears streaming down her face, almost passing out from exhaustion, she stumbled and fell. She got up and walked trying to remember how to hide her trail, her very presence.
Marmer had taken her out and showed her numerous times how to track and how to hide so no one could find her, how to be part of the forest itself. At the time, she thought that she would never really need to do that but now she was thankful she could remember it at all. She placed her hands on the ground feeling for any disturbance, nothing. When she moved her hands patches of little wild flowers were there.
Ariona wondered from small village to town doing whatever odd jobs she could find to get her by never staying to long. She never really allowed herself to get to know anyone. She had a hard enough time being around others, their emotions swamping her and giving her terrible headaches. Taking on jobs involving animals because she felt connected them and could get them to do basically anything she needed. She could also feel when things were not quite right, whether around people, animals, or the earth; she always figured that's what had helped her, the last two years.