I stopped instantly. They had to be a Mog, we were in the middle of nowhere. Slowly, I approached, and his pale skin and black hair confirmed it for me. I grabbed my dagger and lunged towards him, pinning him to the ground.
"What the hell?!" The boy yelled furiously. He tried to get up, but I was too strong. I had also noticed something. He wasn't a Mog. Sure, he was pale, but he wasn't as pale as a Mogadorian. He was about my age, and I didn't think the Mogs used kids.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" I let him up and hastily put my dagger back in my pocket. "I... um... I thought you were someone I knew."
"Jesus, you must hate them! Well, I'm clearly not that person. I'm Kyle." He held out his hand and I shook it.
"Maggie. So, what are you doing here? This is private land, you know." He bent his head, embarrassed.
"Exploring. See, I've lived here all my life and these fields used to be 'haunted' to us kids. But then you bought the land a couple of years ago, and we couldn't come up here. But you don't come out at all. You don't come to the school, and your parents don't come and buy food or anything. I was just curious." I was suspicious, but it was clear he was telling the truth.
"I'm homeschooled by my dad. My mum was murdered when I was young, and my dad doesn't like being around people because of it. If you hadn't noticed, this is a farm. We grow all our own food, and we have animals. In fact, you're standing in Lady's field right now." Kyle was confused.
"Lady?"
"Our goat." I grabbed his wrist - not his hand, that would've been way too weird - and dragged him over to Lady.
"Aw, she's adorable!" He reached out and started petting her. I was tempted to take a photo, but Conrad always looked at my photos with me after a walk. We didn't have many rules, but I was breaking the 'stay away from people' one into thousands of pieces the longer I let Kyle stay here.
"Hey, take a picture." I took my camera from around my neck, then ran over to Lady and flung my arms around her neck.
"Wow," He said when I went to him for my camera.
"What?" He showed me the picture he had just taken - me smiling with Lady... not smiling.
"I've never seen you smile before." I tilted back my head and laughed.
"That's because you haven't known me ten minutes!" Kyle laughed with me.
"I'm gonna have to go know... but could I see you again sometime?" I stopped laughing. This had been fun, liberating, but could I break Conrad's rules again, on purpose? I knew why they were there - to keep me safe from the Mogadorians, but how could one boy lead them to me?
"Yeah... remember my dad doesn't like being around people? That means we're going to have to keep this secret." He nodded enthusiastically.
"I can do that. So, same time, same place tomorrow?"
"Erm... no I'm busy, but the day after?" I couldn't miss training - not even for this sweet boy who had suddenly become my only friend.
"Yeah." He smiled and then walked over to a bike I hadn't seen before. "See you then." And he pedalled off.
Walking back to the house, I felt guilty and happy at the same time. In the living room, Conrad was still reading by the fire, and I swear, I seem to have a viewfinder instead of eyes, because I saw it as the perfect photo.
"Maggie?" He looked up after the flash had let him know I was back. "Have a nice walk?"
"Yeah, I took some great photos, I'll show you tomorrow, but I'm unbelievably tired right now." And I walked upstairs, already excited to see Kyle again.