The sky seemed to darken as the truth sunk in. The new happy parents held there new born daughter together, staring at the doctor with an expression of bewilderment. Nothing had prepared them for the news they had just received none of the scans or the cards said anything about it. Their new daughter was blind. The moment she had slipped into the world screaming her eyes glazed over with an icy white and an eerie silence had slipped over her mind and soal.

The baby was a girl a beautiful healthy girl with hair that was like sunlight and moonlight woven together. Her eyes before they were fogged by blindness were of a soft blue wildflower. As the doctor told the parents that their daughter was blind they were in a state of shock. Both parents found the news hard to believe everything would be changed in there life nothing was alright, and not just because there daughter was blind They had, had tests and scans and had even gone to an expensive card reader to check that everything was alright. They had all said the same, there son or daughter would be healthy and well. "You said everything was going to be alright!" the father objected. "Mr. AmaSae this could not have been predicted or avoided. I'm sorry" the doctor left the parents alone in the room. The mother was still in pain and tired from the long birth, she held her daughter tighter and sighed. "I don't care, she is still our daughter and blind or not I love her. Look John look how beautiful our daughter is" John looked upon his daughter with a soft smile and touched her cheek gently. "Aye your right, it does not matter and I do still love her with all my heart…what are we going to call this little one?" "
We shall call her AmaLy"
"Aye my love that is perfect and fitting" their daughter smiled.

Almost sixteen years later, a single tear ran down the cheek of a young girl. The wind whipped through her hair that was of impossible colour. The beauty marked upon her face was staggering and the courage that she thought she had in her, had failed her. The young girl stood at the top of a steep drop at the edge of a forest. Below her was the city of Namara in the country of Natatia. The city was a noisy one being the capital of the country. The area had been cleared of trees and in their place a great marble palace and marble noblemen houses had been built. On the edges of the city were the simple stone houses of the common folk. The one who really suffered under the harsh taxes and Laws. The girl sighed softly truly wishing in her heart she could help the ones who had to suffer under those who had power.

The magic in the world had been corrupt and all of those who had magic running through their veins had also been corrupt and obsessed with using their magic for their own gain. In time a new class had been introduced, al those will magical abilities were considered Nobles and Lords all the rest were considered peasants and vagabonds.

All the thoughts whirled about in the girls head all coming together and then crumbling apart, the unfairness of the world weighed down upon her. Again a sigh parted her lips. The girl clung to her long wooden, oak staff that she had to depend on. Her gaze fell on the city and the world she had been born into but she did not see it. And yet somehow she saw and understood more than others. "AmaLy!" a female voice called out, the girl span round steadily. "AmaLy Ive been looking for you" the woman walked near to her and stood in front of her. "Im sorry Aunt I just had to think a little" she knew her Aunts voice well and she knew the tread of her feet. "Aye I can understand why that may be so" she whispered stifling a sob. "You must understand though my pet, we have to survive to carry the memory of those we love" .

A week ago men dressed in black had appeared at AmaLy and her parents cabin. AmaLy heard the argument that blazed like a raging heat and she had heard the voices of men she did not know, the sounds of their voices like harsh ice. AmaLy had been afraid and she had hid as she had promised her parents she would if the situation would arise. The intruders had not noticed the trapdoor in her bedroom that led to a secret room behind the walls. When she could no longer hear an argument or any sounds at all she had dared to venture from her hiding place. AmaLy had tripped and fallen to the floor, she used her hands to investigate the cause and they had fallen upon the known features of her fathers face and then to her mothers. Each had a wound in their chest and as her hands had fallen upon that and the liquid stain left there she had screamed. AmaLy didn't need sight to tell her that warm liquid was blood and that her parents chest were no longer moving. "Are you alright hunny?"
"No Aunt, I feel terrible I feel guilty as though it was my fault"
"Nay it wasn't your fault never say that again"
"But maybe I could have done something only if I did not hide what if I had been able to get to a phone or helped in any other way"
"Then my pet you too would be dead, you too would join your parents in the afterlife. I know this will be hard for you, it is easier for us with sight because we will be able to look upon portraits and pictures"
"Aunt my parents are etched into my memory and though I never saw them with my eyes I still know what they look like" she whispered softly. "I am just afraid that I am going to forget and not remember"
"Oh my pet you will never ever forget" "
A week has passed and my parents are scarcely in the ground and yet I feel like there still with me"
"They are still with you and with me, they stare down from heaven to look upon us and protect us both."
"Aye Aunt, Aye" she whispered. They both walked back towards the cabin but AmaLy was not led by her Aunt she walked on her own knowing her own way around.

The sounds of the wood calmed her slightly and the smell of the trees soothed her spirit like her Aunts words could not. AmaLy had the strangest of feelings that they were being watched by a man. She could not understand how she knew but she did, she knew that they were being watched by a man. AmaLy stopped and searched that feeling she turned sharply to her right and her Aunt followed her gaze. "Aunt is someone there?" she asked
"No there is not my pet" she smiled even though AmaLy could not see it.
"Are you sure"
"Aye, there is no one there, my hunny" AmaLy nodded and dropped the subject as sharply as you would drop a stone, she and her Aunt continued to walk through the trees weaving in an out. Finally they came to the Cabin. It was moderately small in size but it was comfortable. It had took a while for AmaLy to get used to it.

AmaLy and her parents had only been living in the cabin for a month. They moved around a lot, wandering from town to town from city to city and village to village. Renting places and hiring. AmaLy had been in more schools than she had hoped for. They would settle down somewhere and she would start school. Then just as she made friends and thought her life was good. They moved again. She and he family had never stayed in one place for more than three months. AmaLy hates moving around but she never complained to her parents, they seemed to like it. Once she had asked her parents why they moved around a lot, her parents had fallen silent and said it was 'Necessity' and that was all there was to it. AmaLy didn't understand and she didn't press the matter.

Fancy mechanical machines did not work in the country because of all the magic in the air, there was just too much for science to conquer. AmaLy and her family travelled around by horse and so did everyone else in the country. AmaLy had had a black steed since the age of five but the horse died a year ago and since then she had gotten a gorgeous deep brown horse and an unusual close bond had grown between the two.

The two walked slowly up the wooden steps and entered the cabin AmaLy went first and her Aunt followed, she began counting knowing where all the furniture was without looking. AmaLy dropped down onto the couch and sighed again. "You hungry?" he Aunt asked as she crossed softly into the kitchen.
"Aye" AmaLy laughed slightly.
"Ok well 'I'll make us some food ok pet?"
"Aye but do you think I'll have time for a bath first?"
"Yes you should have time" AmaLy nodded and stood up slowly, she began counting again as she stepped away from the couch and walked casually down the corridor. She stopped after a few paces and turned to her right where she opened a door and stepped inside. Her hands flung out searching for the bath and the taps. Suddenly she found them and she turned the taps slowly and felt the hot water pour from the taps she turned the cold water a little more and then when she was satisfied she sat back on the edge of the bath with one hand dangling in the tub so she could tell when it was full.

It took a short amount of time for the bath to fill and when it was she turned off the taps. AmaLy stood up and stripped off her clothes, she leant her staff against the wall and unseen and unknown to her, it slipped and fell landing with a soft thump on her discarded clothes. AmaLy stepped into the bath and sunk into the warmth depths. The hot water swam over her body and she was grateful for it. The warmth making her relax even more. Until she heard the voices, the voices she wished but dreaded to hear.
'…AmaLy come on lets go for an Ice cream" her fathers voice filtered through the weariness and the pain in her head. "…AmaLy my little darling I love you" her mothers voice followed. "I love you AmaLy" her father repeated.
"Oh Mom, Dad I loved you both and I still do" she whispered softly to herself. The voices continued to come. "Up…Up…Up we go AmaLy. You know were you are now? Your on my shoulders the world is yours to grasp"
"Daddy put me down"
"Your fathers right, the world is a great place AmaLy and when we travel we see that"
The memory of that day pressed in her mind and tears fell from her eyes again. "AMALY!" her Aunt shouted loudly. "Dinner is ready"
"OK Im coming" she shouted back, she stood up and pulled a towel from the rack at the side of the bath and wrapped it firmly around her figure. AmaLy stretched out her hand for her staff but all she found was an empty space, she reached out further and still felt an empty space. AmaLy put her foot on the bath rim and leaned over dangerously. The inevitable happened she slipped on the wetness of the bath rim and fell headfirst from the bath. She fell to the floor with a wet SMACK! She moaned in pain and heard running feet. "AmaLy are you ok?"
"Aye Aunt" she sobbed skirting the floor with her hand looking for her staff, she found it eventually and stood up. "Do you want any help, my pet"
"I can cope!" she snapped. Her Aunt knew that AmaLy hated her blindness but had finally accepted it. She had trained hard so that she could just walk about on her own and do everyday things. AmaLy even insisted on going to normal public school, in a week. "I know Im sorry my pet" her Aunt left the room. AmaLy stayed in her towel as she walked back down to the lounge , she slumped onto the couch again and waited for her Aunt to fetch the food. "Here you are, I didn't know what you liked so I thought we could have Venison Stew is that alright?"
"Aye" she muttered and yawned. Her Aunt handed her the bowl and they both sat together in silence as they devoured the freshly prepared meal that warmed the insides. AmaLy left the bowl on the couch and she stood up, using the staff as a prop. "I'm sorry Aunt I'm tired so I'm going to go to bed, night, night" she smiled a little. "Goodnight. I'm going to stay awake a while"
"Alright" she walked back down to the corridor again and walked to the end of the hall and opened the door. She walked in softly and took four paces right where she found the chest of drawers. AmaLy pulled the first one open and felt inside for some clothes, she pulled out a pair of checked bottoms and a crop top. Slowly she pulled them on and leant her staff against her bedside table. AmaLy threw back the covers and snuggled down underneath them. Within minutes all the pain left as she fell into a soft web of weaving dreams that brought shining lights and echoes of voices.

In her dreams the voices were always soft and calm and full of warmth and love but suddenly she heard shouts of anger and violence. "where is the girl!" a man shouted "Shes not here!" her Aunt shouted again
"Step out of the way!"
"NO!" AmaLy heard her Aunt shout and then sound of fighting and scuffling, she heard someone unknown walk down the corridor towards her room. It was only then that she realised that she was awake. AmaLy clasped her staff in her hand and got out of bed slowly and silently. She stepped towards the door and stood at the side, as predicted the intruder entered into the room and then left again. Aaly moved from the door and pulled the hidden door away and stepped inside and pulled the door back into place. AmaLy did not know that as the intruder had returned his companion signalled to him about the hidden room. And silently re-entered the room and was stood outside the door, he saw AmaLy walk in and almost laughed. AmaLy leant aginst the wall and suddenly she felt it, she didn't know how but she did she sensed someone just outside the room. AmaLy placed a hand on the door blindly and took a deep breath and held her staff tighter. Just as the intruder was about to pull open the door.

AmaLy burst out bearing her staff, the man was taken by surprise and fell backwards onto the floor. Amaly ran out of the room and down her corridor. "Aunt!" she yelled "Aunt!"
"GO!" she yelled. AmaLy didn't stop to think she heard a scream and then a loud thump to the floor. AmaLy bolted and thre open the front door. She sensed that both men were following her and as soon as she entered the forest she could hear them crashing through the undergrowth and cursing as she ran. AmaLy ran blindly her staff clasped in both of her hands as she ran. Her foot snagged in some roots and she fell harshly to the ground. "Argh!" she moaned whilst scrambling to get up, she began to sprint again. 'I'm running again' she thought 'Like I ran last week' she suddenly stopped and turned, holding her staff into a guard position. "Come on then, you have the rest of my family!"
"Ha ha ha you can not fight us little girl!" tears began to fall from her eyes again freely. The hotness seeming to burn her cheeks as the flowed down her face. All she could feel was hatred so much hatred for the men in front of her. That hate began to be concentrated deep inside of her and that began to tingle it forced its way up through her body and separated into two think snakes that coiled down her arms to her hands. "Stay away!" she yelled. As she yelled that feeling, that powerful energy burst from her hands and she dropped her staff. Unknown to her a bright white light shot from her hands and the men who had chased her slumped to the floor in a faint.

Then that feeling that sense came again, she could feel the same man watching her as she did earlier. "Who are you!" she yelled turning from side to side. "What do you want!" she screamed. "If you wish to kill me then I will let you! I beg of you please kill me now. I would be in much more pain living!" she fell to the floor crying and sobbing. Footsteps could be heard crunching throught he dry leaves and thin twigs that littered the floor of the forest like a carpet. "You should not die right now" a male voice rang out through the forest full of warmth and comfort. "You know you have to fight" he muttered.
"What!" she yelled and stumbled upwards. "I have to fight what! I don't know what you are talking about!" she yelled.
"You mean your family never told you?" the man asked
"Told me what? Who are you anyway? No My Aunt!" she span and sprinted again running back to her cabin where her Aunt still remained. She stopped a festering smell filled the air and a crackle of wood burning echoed around. "No" she whispered. The cabin was burning her Aunt still inside. She stumbled and cried she ran towards the still burning cabin feelings the ferocious heat on her face "Aunt!" she screamed "Aunt!" the man had followed her and he grabbed her from behind and dragged her backwards kicking and screaming, her blonde hair falling over her face like strands of light. "No, no-one can survive that flame you must survive!" he siad loudly and strained as he was using all of his energy to hold the struggling girl in his arms.

Once more she collapsed crying and sobbing held in the arms of a stranger. "I know it hurts right now and I know I cant do anything to comfort you but I must tell you" "Tell me what! Let me go!" "No because I must tell you what your family should have done a long time ago and now you must listen"