All Shall Fade (LOTR-Wattys 2014)

All Shall Fade - Chapter 1- Story of a Girl

Chapter 1

Story of a Girl

I suppose, looking back, that I’ve gained perspective. I can see now, my life was pretty trivial. I worried about unimportant things, and minor issues had the power to turn my world upside down… But that was before my world quite literally was turned upside down. Before everything I had known became irrelevant. Before everything changed…

“Hurry up you two!” I called over my shoulder, “Anyone would think you weren’t enjoying this!” I smiled to myself as I stopped walking and turned to look at my two best friends as they struggled up the steep path after me. We’d been climbing for some time now, and it was worth it, the view from the side of the mountain was breathtaking.

“Hang on Ginger-Nut; give us a second to breathe!” The blonde female gasped, reaching my side and adjusting her baby-pink backpack as I rolled my eyes. So today’s nickname was Ginger-Nut… At least it was better than Carrot-Top or Hot-Head. I pulled back my shock of frizzy red hair into a messy ponytail as I waited for the last two members of our group to join us. One was my three-year-old Boarder Collie, Jess; the other was my mousy-haired childhood friend Toby. I glanced to the side and smiled at my other companion, Claire as the others joined us. I bent down and retrieved a sizable stick from the ground, before tossing it up the path and grinning as Jess bolted after it.

“Ready now?” I asked and they nodded reluctantly as we set off again, resuming our yearly tradition of our summer hike and camping trip in the Mourne Mountains. We must have been doing this for at least eleven years now, ever since we were fifteen in high school. We’d always managed to find time for it, even after we’d left school and had gone on to our different universities and colleges, and then onto our separate jobs. We’d always stuck together, Me, Toby and Claire. It had originally just been me and Toby since we were around eight years old, then in secondary school we’d found Claire and she’d just completed our group.

“How much longer Alice?” Toby groaned, shielding his eyes from the burning mid-July sun.

“Just over this peak and then we’ll hit the forest.” I assured him as Claire looked ahead at the mountains and woodlands that stretched around us.

“Wow,” She breathed, “It’s like something out of The Lord of the Rings, isn’t it?”

“Totally.” Toby agreed as I sighed in exasperation.

“Will you two stop going on about that? You know I haven’t read the books yet!” I shook my head as we trudged on.

“Why haven’t you?” He asked, just like he did every year.

“I have no time and you haven’t leant me them yet.” I retorted, just like I did every year.

“You could at least watch the movies.” Claire shrugged.

“But that would spoil the books for me!” I protested, “Look, I’ll read them when we get back, deal?”

“You said that last year.” Toby smirked, “And the year before, and the year before and-”

“I mean it this time.” I muttered, fiddling with the straps of my backpack as my feet followed the familiar path. I’d walked this route hundreds of times, but mostly alone. I loved the solitude of the mountains, and ever since I was a child I’d always sought high places. They just made me feel safe. It was something Toby and Claire had never particularly understood, but they were both weird in their own ways too, which was probably why we’d always been the weirdo-reject group when we were in school. I was the arty freak who tended to get stuck in trees and Toby was the gaming nerd who seemed to be constantly welded to some kind of electronic device; Claire was considered to be a bit of an overly dramatic princess. Honestly, we couldn’t care less about cliques or whatever had seemed so important to everyone else when we were in school – we were friends; that was what mattered.