Post by Cloudspirit on Jul 24, 2014 19:09:20 GMT -6
Hello VWW! I am currently in the process of writing a book and I am quite far actually, I just decided that I was going to post my first chapter on here to see what you think of it. Please leave any comments that you have, I welcome constructive criticism. If you enjoy my project "The Sky Children" feel free to PM me and I will gladly tell you more about it and give you more chapters, when they are finalized of course. Thanks for reading!
Chapter 1I thrashed my arms, feeling suffocated by the water, longing for the air that wasn’t far above my head. I pushed myself upward and as I reached the surface in took in the air. I was being swept downriver, I had fallen in while walking at the edge. The force of the water was strong, this river had the strongest current in the territory.
“Help!” I yelled before being forced back under the water. I couldn’t think straight, not with what was going on. My lungs screamed for air as I tried to get back to the surface. I was above the water for a second before being taken back into the depths of the river.
I was saved from the strong currents by being swept into the lake in which the river ends. I took in breaths at the surface, glad I had reached the end of the river. I smiled and pulled my hair back in relief. I started swimming to the shore, which is where I would finally be safe. I was happy when I finally felt a surface under my feet. I soon walked up onto the beach but soon collapsed onto the soft sand.
I hoped that my mother wouldn't worry about me. I knew that my father probably wouldn’t notice that I was gone, he was really busy, being the leader of the village and all. I sat up on the beach and squeezed my hair, trying to get the water out. I probably looked ridiculous, with that wet dark hair.
It had been a little hard to swim with my jeans that were cut into shorts on, the plain purple shirt that I wore didn’t cause any difficulties. I sighed as I stared up at the sky. I had been distracted in my thinking, which had caused me to fall into the river. I had a hole in my heart, my boyfriend Richard had broken up with me a few days earlier. All I had wanted was for him to love me and he left me with an intense pain in my chest.
I sighed and forced myself to my feet. I was getting easily distracted with the current events that had happened. The break up was.. Intense. I could hardly believe that the guy who loved me could have done this to me, it was just unbelievable.
I walked up the beach and entered the forest. It was so natural for me to be there, it was where I had learned everything I knew. I had asked myself a few times what else was out there, beyond the trees and river. I knew that I probably would never find out. I heard a noise a little to my right. I quickly turned, I didn’t like being frightened, I was relieved to just see Angelica. She was an outsider, someone I knew I could be around without a problem. She was never around other people, that just wasn’t who she was. Everyone said she was the strange, dark, and gloomy girl. She kind of was, she wore dark clothing, was pale, and had black hair.
“Ella.” she said. That was her greeting, just saying a persons name. She was weird.
“Hi Angelica.” I said. “How are you?”
“Fine.” She replied. “Yourself?”
“I’m fine too.” I lied. “It was nice to see you.” I began walking away before she could say anything more. A long conversation with her could be a little stressful so I wanted to get away before we started talking in depth. While Angelica kept to herself, she was quite curious when we talked so I knew that she would ask about Richard and that wasn’t a conversation that I would like to have with her, not at the time, at least.
I went through the forest, enjoying the peaceful quality of nature. There were many animals out such as squirrels, rabbits, and birds. I often gathered berries and other food that the land grew for my family to eat, it was nice to know that I could provide for the people I loved so dearly. I loved my life. I had amazing parents and the best little sister, what else could I have asked for? The only thing that was going bad in my life was what had happened between Richard and I, but I knew I couldn’t get too hung over on it.
I didn’t exactly have friends other than Angelica, but that was normal in our village. Everyone you knew was supposed to be your friend, we were all supposed to get along for the good of everyone. Not many people grew close because they talked to everybody they knew, we had a very active community, which was definately a good thing.
Richard and I had met when we were both out in the forest two years earlier, we had really hit it off. We talked and spent time together until one day we became even more than friends. We were great together, every few days we would meet up and just sit in a clearing, looking up at the stars.
We were happy until two weeks earlier when he asked me to run away with him, which I knew I didn’t want to do. He was upset that I wouldn’t go anywhere with him so he decided he was going to run away with another girl, but she convinced him to stay. They were then a couple and I was alone and Richard didn’t want to talk to me.
I knew I was right for not running away with him, I didn’t even know why he had wanted to, but there was just a part of me that missed having him there. He was my everything, I shared everything with him, we cried and laughed together, we planned our futures together, we promised to never leave each other, and I gave him my heart, so when he left part of me had gone with him.
I pushed aside some bushes and branches in front of me to reveal a plain clearing, which looked dreadful. I walked into it and decided that I was going to make that place look a lot better. I stood in the center of the clearing, putting my arms out, and began to spin. All round there were flowers forming and the trees at the edges gained color. I smiled at what I had done, being proud of my ability. I began walking again and I left the clearing behind me. Moments could never have gotten better than that.
I soon saw a house from the village up ahead, I was almost back. I only hoped that I had dried up a little so that I wouldn’t look completely ridiculous. I emerged from the trees to the beginning of our civilization. While I loved the village and the people in it, I really wanted to know what was out beyond what we knew, which was only the forest surrounding us. For all I knew, it could have been endless land and there could have been no people other than us.
I stepped onto a road of our village, which was made of stone. There were houses all along the path, with turns in the road leading to other streets. Our village was made up of mostly houses, but we had an area to eat and talk as well as a market where we could buy food and anything else we needed for in our homes, some people only liked eating at home, Angelica was like that.
I began walking down the road, as I went there were more and more people on it until they were everywhere. I was lucky, no one was looking at me in my soaked clothing. I looked around to see what everyone was up to, I saw a few little boys playing with their abilities. One was levitating, another was walking up the side of a house, and the last one was climbing up a tree, his hands sticked against the wood so he wouldn’t fall off. I loved seeing what abilities everyone used, it was so interesting.
I took a right turn, I soon was at my house and went inside. There my father and mother were sitting at a table. To the left of them was a long wooden log, used as a bench with a table next to it. On the table were some of my father’s tools. To the right was a door leading into their bedroom. Next to it was a ladder that led upstairs to Candice and I’s Room. Behind them were shelves with food on them and counters. “Ella!” My mother said worriedly. She stood to her feet and rushed over to me. “Why are you soaking wet?” She demanded.
“It’s nothing mom.” I assured her. “I was just a little distracted.” Candice wasn’t there, so she must have been off playing with other kids. I walked over to the ladder that led up to my room and climbed upstars. My bed was a few feet from the ladder, then a trunk, and then Candice’s bed. Above the trunk was a window. Against the other wall, the one facing the foot of my bed were two more trunks with our clothing. I changed into some new dry clothes. I took in a breath, falling back onto my bed, drifting off into a deep sleep.
…
I blinked open my eyes, only I wasn’t in my bed. I was chained up against a tree and up ahead Candice was sitting on the ground up against another tree, with a wolf in front of her, stiffing through her blonde hair. “Leave her alone!” I shouted and struggled in the chains that imprisoned me.
The wolf let out a growl and my sister began to cry. “Ella, help!” She cried.“I’m coming Candice.” I yelled. I stuggled, not getting out of my chains, tears began to go down my face. My sister was helpless and there was nothing I could do to help her. The wolf let out another growl before leaping at my sister.
…
I jolted awake, terrified from the horrible dream that I had just experienced. I sat up in my bed and looked out the window to see darkness, it was the middle of the night. Looking over at my sister’s bed, I noticed that she wasn’t there. I stood up, put my shoes on, and rushed over to the ladder and climbed down. I turned to see my mother at the table crying.“Mom what’s wrong?” I asked and rushed over to her. “Where’s Candice?”
“S-She went missing.” Was her reply. She stood up and pulled me into a hug. “Your father and others are out looking for her.”
“Oh my..” I gasped as she held me. “Oh my gosh.” I felt tears going down my face. “I have to go find her.” Pulling away from my mother, I rushed out the door and ran in the direction of the woods.
“Ella, come back!” My mother called after me. I ignored her call and kept running, knowing that I had to find her. After running for a while I stopped and looked around, seeing nothing but the darkness of the night, it was a little creepy.
“Candice!” I called. “Candice where are you? I walked through the forest, looking for her, not finding any signs. ‘Where could she be?’ I asked myself. “Candice!”
“Ella!” I heard a scream. “Ella help!” I looked around quickly, not seeing anything. I started running in the direction where I thought the scream had come from. I jumped over fallen logs, through bushes, and around trees until I came upon a large clearing, where I stopped. Up ahead I saw my sister, behind a girl that looked a little like me, she had the same hair, I thought I was watching myself dream for a moment, which was a little confusing. In front of them was a wolf, which frightened me to my very core. ‘Maybe I’m dreaming.’ I told myself. ‘No I can’t be.’ The girl in front of Candice stared at the wolf for many moments. Beat. Beat. Beat. Went my heart.
The wolf then turned and ran away from them, off into the wilderness. ‘Thank goodness.’ I told myself. I ran over to Candice and kneeled down, pulling her into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re safe.” I whispered to her. “Are you hurt?”
“No.” She assured me. “I’m okay, Reine saved me from the wolf.” I stood to my feet and faced this ‘Reine’. I was a little jealous that it was her saving Candice, not me, but I was also grateful for what she did. It was pretty brave of her to save someone she didn’t know from a wolf.
“Thank you.” I said. “Thank you for saving my sister.”
“You’re welcome.” Reine replied. “It was nothing.”
“I guess you’re Reine. I’m Ella.” I told her.
“I know who you are.” She said. “You’re the leader’s daughter.”
“Yeah.” I replied. “I guess you could call me that.”
“Candice!” Someone said from across the clearing. I turned to see my dad running over to us. He picked Candice up and held her. “Thank the Sky Bird that you’re safe, my precious daughter.” Other men rushed into the clearing at once.
“You found her.” One man said. “Good job, Zakoya.”
“That’s my dad.” Reine whispered to me. “His name is Jeff.”
“It wasn’t me Jeff.” My dad replied. “You can praise these two young ladies.”
“Good job girls.” Jeff praised. “Reine, you never disappoint.” He walked over and hugged his daughter, it was cute.
“You did great too.” My father said. He pulled me into a hug as well.
“Thanks.” I replied. “You should take Candice home, mom is worried sick.”
“You’re right.” He agreed. “Everyone, let’s go home.” He carried Candice away and we all followed, Reine and I in the back.
“What happened back there?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” She replied, looking confused.
“Between you and that wolf.” I said. “You had a stare and then it ran away.”
“That’s my ability.” She explained. “I can talk to animals telepathically.”
“You mean like in your mind?” I asked.
“Exaclty.” Reine told me. “What’s yours?”
“I can make flowers grow.” I replied. “It’s not too great, I wouldn’t have saved her with it.”
“You don’t know that.” Reine objected. “I mean, you could try and block attackers by making a big flower in front of you, if that’s possible.”
“Let me try.” I said. We stopped and I focused on trying to make a big flower appear. A flower that went up to about my head appeared in front of me, Reine and I were pushed onto our backs from the force. I let out a laugh and so did she.
“I guess it worked.” She said. “See, you have what it takes to defend your sister.”
“I can block attackers.” I agreed. “But I can’t fight back.”
“Just block them and run.” Reine replied. “There’s no need to fight.”
We walked through the forest in the night until we had all returned to the village. “Bye Reine.” I said. “It was nice to meet you.”
“Bye.” She replied. “It was nice to meet you too.”
Everyone that was out looking split up to go home, my father, sister, and I were all alone walking down the street. “Ella.” My dad said. “Don’t forget you have to teach that class tomorrow.”
“I haven’t forgotten.” I assured him. “Why are you having me do this again?”
“It’s important for kids to learn about the Sky Bird.” He replied. “I thought it would be good to have the teacher be somebody who just learned about our great God not too long ago. Candice is going to be in the class as well, don’t forget. She will love having you as a teacher.”
“Alright.” I said. We soon came upon our house and we went inside.
“Thank the Sky Bird she’s safe.” My mother said as she stood up from the table. She hurried over to us and kissed Candice on the top of her head. “I was so worried.” Candice was now asleep in my father’s arms.
“I’ll take her to bed.” I told my father. He handed her over to me and I carried her over to the latter, my father helping me get her up. Once up, I carried her to her bed and layed her down, putting a blanket over her. I then sat my her. “Candice.” I whispered and lightly shook her. Her eyes opened.
“Ella?” She asked. “What is it?”
“I need to know.” I said. “I need to know, why were you out in the woods so late?” Candice turned away from me in her bed.
“You wouldn’t understand.” She muttered.
“I could try to.” I pressed. “Candice, what is it?” She turned back and stared up at me.
“I was going to the mountain.” She replied.
“What mountain?” I asked.
“The mountain.” Candice whispered.
“What are you talking about?” I questioned.
“See?” She said. “You don’t understand, you probably never will.”
“Candice..” I whispered. “Just get some rest, you have to come to class tomorrow.” I stood up and walked over to me bed, climbing in. I pulled the blanket over me and closed my eyes, trying to sleep. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about what my sister was trying to tell me.
