I walked through the forest admiring the beautiful green moss that coated everything under the canopy of trees. Even in the shade the colors were vibrant. My home was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. Every plant had its own coloring: reds, blues, greens and purples, but my favorite ones were the red and black roses that only grew in my forest. The forest always felt enchanted; everywhere you looked there was magic. Every living thing seemed to radiate a type of power, and this was my home.
I lived in the center of this gorgeous realm, a kingdom called Thoranata. The kingdom was even more beautiful than the forest, if that was possible. The castle walls were made of white, almost marble, little rocks that shone even at night, and every room had its own unique color. There was only one room that had a gloom to it; when you entered it, the charcoal walls haunted you like a nightmare looming in your sub consciousness. That room was used for secret meetings; it's where every magical creature would discuss their treaties and plans, and at the head of this council sat a man that was as beautiful and powerful as my forest. His features hadn't aged in the four hundred years he ruled and was still very handsome. He was our king, powerful, bold, strong, and aggressive. No one dared to disobey his orders, not even his own family. Well, almost everyone in his family. My father didn't scare me. I was also the only girl out of three boys, so I kind of got away with a lot.
My two older brothers were a hundred years older than I, and they watched over me like hawks. The worst part was they were twins, so their bound was a little irritating. I hated it. They had emerald green eyes, white-blond, shoulder length hair, and their bodies were like statues, defined and beautiful. Now, we all had inhuman strength, but theirs was somewhat better than mine. Their names were Nodam and Leechi. Everyone had a hard time telling them apart, expect for me. Leechi had a small scar on his right eye that was barely noticeable, and the only reason for it bring there was because I gave it him. My other brother was my twin. We are one hundred and seventeen years old, but in my world, we were only in our teens, so we couldn't go to meetings yet. My brother, however, always found a way to listen to them. The only difference between our appearances was that he was a boy. We both had pale skin, deep blue eyes, and our hair was a bright red, almost like it was on fire. Mine was long of course but his was short. His name is Semechi and mine is Cheska, Princess Cheska. I always hated the title.
I am done talking about my beautiful home and my idiotic brothers. Back to why I am in the forest today. See, today is its fiery birthing day. They only do it once every seventy years. Just to watch the colors cascading in every direction would make your eyes hurt. The babies are the cuties creatures in all the land, and when they fly, it's like a rainbow following them, while the noises they make are chimes of every different, beautiful sound you could imagine. So here I am in my peaceful forest, while my father and brothers sit in their meeting. As I walked along I could read Semechi's thoughts. They humored me to the point of me laughing. He likes to make fun of our father – within the safety of his mind, of course. It seemed like forever to get to the birthing grounds, but the walk was peaceful, so I really couldn't complain. I found a nice rock to sit on while I waited for the magic to happen.
To keep myself occupied in the mean time, I listened the meeting through my brother's thoughts. There were a lot of creatures at this one, ranging from witches to werewolves, elves and vampires, humans and dwarfs. They all seemed to be yelling about something. My family were vampires, the only royal family left. My father conquered the other families without even breaking a sweat. It sounded like they were fighting over something very serious. I could hear the fear in my father's voice as he spoke. The person he was to trying to calm down was bawling about something he thought was unfair.
"Now, please. Everyone just settle down. You all will get a say in this matter, but for now we can't let this get out of hand," the king demanded.
Silence. I could no longer read my brother's thoughts. His mind was vacant, which I knew meant that he was trying very hard to hide something from me. After a moment of a clear mind, he finally let down his wall and let just one thought through it. He told me to hide anywhere and not to come out until he found me. I could feel the anger, fear and pain from his thoughts.
"Semechi, Semechi what happened? Tell me what's going on!" I screamed in my thoughts.
" Cheska, dammit! For once do as you're told! Please hide. I will tell you what happened when I find you."
I was in a full out sprint. I didn't even blink when there was something in the way. My mind was racing just as fast as I was running. What had happened? Why was he all of sudden concerned for my safety? Why couldn't I hear father or Leechi or Nodam? What was going on? Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the perfect place. It was well sheltered by the ferns and flowers. It was a hollowed tree trunk. I ducked inside of it, breathing hard. I tried to sense through Semechi what was going on, but he was blocking me from that. I was watching the sun, keeping track of the hours until Seme found me, but I lost count. It seemed like forever. I was starting to think that something bad had happened to him. I wouldn't be able to handle that. It would hurt too much if I lost him. Sitting on the ground, I crawled up in a tiny ball, which was every easy for me since I was tiny, trying to fight back the tears and knowing they would only make the pain worse. It seemed like a century went by when Seme reached to pull me out of my hiding place. With tears in his eyes, he just stared at me.
"Seme," I choked out. "What happened today?"
Still staring at me with glistening eyes, I could sense that he knew that my heart was going to break with what he would tell me. Finally, he spoke in a small whisper, "Father, Nodam, and Leechi were murdered at the meeting by the Rouges." The Rouges were vampires that moved around, very rarely came to the meetings, and they had always said that my father had come to power too quickly, and they hated him for it. The leader of the Rogues was a proud man that was just as beautiful as we were. His name was Lucian.
"Lucian killed father and then ordered his pack to kill our brothers. They took control of the kingdom and are looking for you and me right now. We have to leave the forest. We have to join the humans in their world," he said, yelling and pulling me away from my beautiful home. I knew at that moment nothing was ever going to be the same.
As I said my goodbyes to the one place that I loved, I couldn't help but cry. As the tear rolled down my smooth cheek, it turned to ice and shattered on the ground. Seme and I ran through the night, knowing that they were not far behind us. We didn't even stop to see where we were going; we just knew we had to get out as soon as possible. Never looking behind us, we hit the forest edge and in the first human town we found, we bought horses and new clothes. Then we continued to keep on running, feeding on whatever and whoever we found along the way.
Four days passed all too quickly. When we came to a small forest that seemed to be forgotten by the rest of the world, we finally stopped. As we entered it cautiously, we realized that this was a good place to live for the rest of time. We felt safe here, knowing that we put enough distance between us and our pursuers that we could finally relax a little. Seme put his arm around me to comfort me. He knew I was on the verge of shock. He held me close, stroking my long hair while singing songs to calm me down. In that moment he let his guard down, allowing me to read his thoughts.
As I looked at him, everything seemed to fall into place of that day. Lucian had killed our father; he killed our brothers. He wanted the throne. He felt that our father was too kind to the other creatures. He believed that we were the superior race and that all others should bow to us. My father felt we were all equal and should be treated as such. The meeting went horribly wrong when my father had banished the Rouges from the forest. That's when Lucian attacked him. Lucian wasn't a stupid man; he knew that the only way he could actually take the throne was by marrying me and killing my twin.
Seme put his head on mine and looked down as he held my hand. The words he whispered came clear in my head that he meant them. "My dear sister, as long as I live I will protect you. Nothing will ever happen to you. I love you." My eyes slowly closed, and I was asleep, dreaming of my forest.
As I woke the next morning, Seme was sitting in the highest tree to my left. I stared at him, wondering when he was coming down to help me make a house. He looked down at me, smiling, and as he jumped down, he seemed to float to the ground. He then began to help me.
"Cheska" he spoke quietly. "We will be safe here, but eventually we will have to join the human race."
I just looked at him with caring eyes, a light smile spread across my face. "Well, when that time comes, we will, but until then let's just enjoy what we have here."
As the years went by, we lived in harmony with the creatures of the forest, happily knowing that we were alive. Then, eventually the forest was cut down and replaced by shopping malls and office buildings. It seemed the world had forgotten all about us, and all the other magical creatures that used to inhabit it. Humans seemed to rule the land, and we felt it was safe enough to come out of hiding for the first time in over two centuries.
As we gazed at this new world in the safety of the dark, we couldn't believe that this was actually real. Nothing seemed right. There were no trees, rivers, or green fields of soft grass. I wanted to cry. They destroyed everything that made this world gorgeous. I turned to look at my brother, whom seemed a little more eager to step out into this world.
"Seme," I hissed. "We don't know anything about this world. You can't just expose us like this. What if Lucian was still alive and still had people looking for us? We have to take caution." I looked at him with fear on my pale face.
"Cheska , you worry too much. Besides, I am done being afraid. I want to see this new world, so let's go."
He seized my hand and pulled me along with him. As we walked to an alleyway, I started to loosen up a bit. All the lights were astonishing. I gazed up at them in amazement. Going a little farther, we came to a sign that read:
New York's Finest Pot Pies.
People were everywhere, no matter that it was well into the night. Our mouths dropped open as the smell of blood reached our noses. It had been far too long since we had tasted human blood. I heard my stomach growling and it wrenched with pain. I looked at my brother and he looked at me; we seemed to have to the same idea.
So the hunt begins, and I couldn't be more ecstatic. We decided to split up so we would have a better chance. Hunting for me was pretty much effortless; all I had to do was walk alone, and my prey would come to me. That's the advantage of being a female, I thought to myself. Seme didn't laugh at the time; he had to work harder for his meal. After about two hours of only me indulging in this buffet, we met back up. I just laughed at him. He wore an unhappy expression on his face that made me burst into laughter.
"Oh dear brother of mine, don't be upset. I saved you one." I said as I glanced over my shoulder. There, behind a pile of boxes, sat two beautiful women.
"You know me all too well, sister," he sang as he picked up the unfortunate women. I wasn't looking forward to watching this because when he fed, he reminded me of a lion ripping the corpse apart piece by piece; blood was everywhere. He had horrible eating habits. He finally finished devouring his last victim; all that was left was a ripped apart body. We then decided to get new clothes, so we would blend in with this pitiful race.
Finding the apparel was fairly easy. I changed into a pair of blue denim jeans, with black and red Etnies, and to top off the outfit I found a white low V-neck t-shirt with the logo laced across the top. It was a little tight, but it showed off my curves very well. Admiring myself in the three way mirror, I noticed my brother and he looked horrible. I decided to take it upon myself to give him a fashion tip. When I was done with him, he looked like a model on the billboards that lined every street in this city.
Taking a deep breath, we looked at each other with panic on our faces. (You need a reason why their expressions show panic, because the next line doesn't make any sense without one. Something like, this world was completely different than anything we've ever known, and I had a feeling that it might take a bit to get used to. Even so, this city had no idea what was prowling the streets now. Still staring at the unknown that was waiting for us, we step out of the store. I was thinking to myself: look out world, here we come.