Outside the autumn sun shone and there was a cool breeze that tickled my skin.
Holding Lillie’s hand, I squeezed along the narrow street. Our street was made up of small wooden houses with red brick chimneys.
We lived near the wall that divided the rich part of the city from the poor. West from the wall was the School of Magic. We were never allowed in the rich part if the city unless we had a pass from the Guards.
However, where we lived was definitely not the worst area.
We wound through a labyrinth of streets which any stranger would get lost in. I pushed pass people in a narrow street and pressed up against the wall to let a cart go past before getting to a house similar to ours.
I knocked on the door. There was no answer. I knocked again but there still was no answer.
After waiting several minutes, I picked up a small stone and threw it at the first floor window.
Immediately the window opened, startling me and a familiar face peered out.
“Oi! What’s all the racket for?” Ava shouted.
I grinned. “You should answer your door then” I replied.
Ava rolled her eyes at me.
“Are you going to open the door then or leave us out here?” I shouted.
“I’m coming” she said exasperatedly.
A couple of seconds later, the door swung open and I and Lillie stepped inside.
I scanned the room quickly and smiled as I saw Ava’s little brother George sat by the fire. He was 11, the same age as Lillie and had blonde curly hair, grey eyes and a cheeky grin that made you think he was always up to mischief.
Lillie went and sat down by him and I turned to Ava.
We had been friends for ages. Her parents used to work with mine at one of the wealthy families.
One day her father had taken the day off to do some business outside of the city.
That was the day that my parents and Ava’s mother went missing on the way home from work. From that day on, Ava looked after her family as her father was sick with grief and I looked after my sister.
Ava and I are basically inseparable now. We had to stick together to survive.
Ava’s grey eyes stared back at me and she said “shall we go then?”
“Ok. Is your dad in to look after Lillie and George?” I asked.
“Yeah. He’s just doing some cleaning upstairs and he said he’ll take Lillie and George to the Parade and meet us there.”
“Ok then. See you later then you two” I said to my little sister and George before turning to the door and walking out into the warm sunlight with Ava.
