Heroes of Light and Dark: Book 1: Evil Rises

Chapter 1 ( Shade )

She kept walking for about fifteen minutes until she came across what she was looking for, a train station that was flocked with Lumian guards. She could only tell by the big sign that read "Train Station". Tenebrass wasn't very modern, but compared to the other kingdoms and countries, neither was Lumia.

She walked up to a booth who she assumed was supposed to take her money and give her ticket and asked for a ticket,"I'd like a ticket to the capital city of Lumia, Quentil, how much will that cost?"

"That'll be three Rals (Rals were what Lumians called dragon scales, which was what they used for currency.)," replied the man in the booth, not bothering to look up from his newspaper.

She reached into her pocket to pull out three Rals that she had stolen from a guard weeks prior and handed them to the man in the booth. He took the Rals and handed Shade her ticket, still not looking up from his newspaper. She was bewildered, what in the world could he be reading that was so interesting that he wouldn't even raise his head? She shrugged it off and handed her ticket to the man standing right in front of the entrance of the train's passenger car, maybe he was just one of those people who just really liked reading.

She cautiously stepped into the passenger's car and looked around, the walls and carpet were bright red and way too many people were sitting in the brown leather seats. She shuddered and sat down in an empty seat near the front of the car, she hated being around too many people, it was always loud and crowded, but, despite how much she hated her current situation, she pumped her fist. She'd gotten the window seat and no one was sitting next to her.

She set her bag down under her legs and looked under the window to see a compartment. She slowly opened the compartment and pulled a newspaper out of it, she hoped she didn't have to pay for it. The newspaper was titled "Daily Lumian". She snorted. What it was a stupid name. She opened it and looked through the articles, two caught her eye. The first was titled "Tenebrass Massacre". She read through the first few sentences, and realized that it was meant solely to insult Tenebrassians, so she moved on from it and looked to the next: "Two Outcasts Thrown in Prison for Thievery." She started subconsciously muttering it, and realized that it was shockingly interesting!

"Fourteen year-old Boaz Kly and twelve year-old Alyssa Tran are awaiting a trial in the Outcast prison, Lasera, after stealing from a local store in the Outcast Lands. A neighbor of theirs and a witness to the crime, Taya Youne, says,'I'd always known them to be such nice people, and I never thought that they would do something like that!'
"The owner of the store, Walter Clyve, has stated that 'The younger one came up and started asking me questions about how my watermelons were grown, saying that she didn't her dog to be eating unhealthy watermelons, while the older one snuck into my supply room and started taking my stuff! Luckilly, I was quick enough to catch the vermin and call guards to come and get them before they made away with my stuff!'
"Many people are shocked, this is definitely a contrast to the nice Outcast we know and hate. Why the children tried to steal is still under investigation, but the Lumian guards will be sure that the criminals are punished."

          Shade set the newspaper down on her lap and muttered to herself,"Poor kids, they were probably just trying to survive."

She quickly brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and looked out the window, and she could see was snow, a few Lumian houses, and more snow. She huffed, there was too much snow for her liking, as soon as she could get off the train and go south, the sooner she'd get to live in a different country, one that treated Dark and Light people the same, and one that was warmer.