I woke up and stretched. I was surrounded by absolute silence. I could tell it was early morning, yet I couldn't even hear my sister's soft breathing from across the room. I could tell that the sky was still very dark through my light drapery and not even the birds were awake yet. I carefully rolled over, not wanting to disturb the quiet. This wasn't the kind of silence where you felt lonely or scared. This was peaceful, the type where you felt loved and content.
After a while I could see the sky starting to brighten. I forced myself to sit up and regretfully throw off my warm blankets. I padded across to my sister's bed and reached forward to shake her lightly. "Mai." She rolled over and groaned softly. "Mairen, I think it's about time we got up." Mairen sighed deeply, before slowly sitting up. "Ugh, I hate waking up early." I smiled. "You always have, even back when we were young. Mom could never get you up in time for anything." I heard Mairen chuckle behind me as I splashed cold water on my face. "I remember the time that we all had to go shopping in town, but we all slept in for so long that by the time we reached the town, all the super special sales that Mom loves had ended." I turned and gave her a rye grin. "I guess our family just has an affinity with sleep." I pulled on my shoes, grabbed a Crunch bar off our small messy counter and headed out the door. I stood outside, waiting for Mairen to catch up. I stared up at the sky. The bright yellow sun made me think about my latest tome. I had always been into writing, and was constantly trying to come up with new ideas for my own stories from the things around me. I clearly remembered sitting in a guild meeting a few weeks back. The meeting had been going on for a few hours at that point and I was staring around, trying hard not to yawn every few minutes. Then my eyes landed on Shiloh's bright red hair. I gazed fixedly at it, an idea forming in my mind. I pictured a sad orphan with brilliant red hair who was always blaimed for anything bad happening around her. When people's spells went wrong, when someone burnt their griffin egg sandwhich, she was blaimed. Then one day she realised that she was an expert when it came to cooking and she went on to win several prizes for her dishes and ...
"Al? Al, are you okay?" I jumped. "Oh come on. Did you start day-dreaming again?" Mairen nudged me with her elbow. "No, I was just, thinking," I told her. I followed my sister across our block and out of it. We turned towards a grand-looking building on our left. The revolving glass doors looked shinier than ever in the early morning sunlight and me and Mairen's faces were reflected clearly in the glass as we approached. Mairen frowned at my reflection, before turning to me. "Why are you holding a Crunch bar?" I blinked and then looked down at my right hand, which was still clutching the uneaten bar I had grabbed off our counter. "Oh, this is my breakfast." I quickly crammed the whole thing in my mouth, and then grimaced. "Ugh, this bar is too crunchy. Remind me never to buy these again, Mai." Mairen and I walked up to the revolving doors and Mairen stepped through them. I was about to follow, but then I spotted something shiny out of the corner of my eye. I glanced up and my eyes landed on a silver star thay was hanging above the doorway of the building next to me. I stared at it, and thought about a girl, running from terrifying mages who knew very advanced magic, because she was a star that had somehow ended up in Alyncia. She had to somehow get back up into the sky before it was too late, but the question was how?
Suddenly I felt a big hand land on my shoulder. I jerked my gaze away from the silver star and saw a man. He was smiling at me with glowing white teeth. "Hello, are you Alazne Carive by any chance?"