OKAY THIS IS THE AUTHOR SPEAKING AND NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION let's all calm down and let me tell you that I wrote this when I was seven or eight and then like four years later kinda posted it because what the heck right? And as you saw when you clicked on the fabulous little button to read this book, it has seventy something parts. So taking those things into consideration, please keep your opinions about my characters' appearances and name choices to yourself. Cause I'm not changing their names just because you're pissed that they're too obvious. Yes, they are. Now shut up.
Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting, I love all of you and you're all fabulous. (Although if you're looking for any semblance of a plot you'd have better luck just skipping to the second book)
Anyway, enjoy!
[]||[]||[]
"I dunno, she looks pretty dead to me."
I hear a voice. It's sort of muffled, like their speaking into a pillow. Where am I? What happened?
"Well she's not dead, I would know."
I'm lying on my right side, where I fell last night. Last night. A rush of memories floods my brain. Celina, the water, everything. It really happened. I moan pathetically.
"See, she was just unconscious,"
"Yeah, yeah,"
I sit up and look around. I seem to be in a thick forest. Warm sunlight filters softly through the curtain of leaves giving the ground an almost magical effect. To my right is a clearing with a small lake, sparkling beautifully. In front of me are two girls, one crouching and looking at me worriedly, and the other standing a couple feet behind with her arms crossed. They look about my age. Their clothes are dirty and worn.
"Who the heck are you guys?" I ask when I remember that I can speak.
"I'm Breeze," the girl closest to me answers, "and that," she points to the second girl, "is Terra. Nice to meet you."
Breeze has a pretty face; smooth skin, sky blue eyes, light blonde hair that curls at the ends like the wind was playing with it. A touch of the south hangs in her voice. She's smiling now, and it gives me a warm feeling inside.
Terra has light brown hair cut about shoulder height, and dark brown eyes, like rich forest soil. Her clothes are covered in dirt and twigs. She walks over and offers her hand. I take it cautiously and she pulls me up.
"Thanks," I say and shake the dew drops from my hair. "I'm Tide,"
"Are you feeling better?" Breeze asks,
"Yeah," I answer her question. Why would she care so much?
"How did you get here?" Terra asks.
"I ran away," I say tiredly.
"From where?" Terra pries harder but it doesn't seem hostile, it seems like she just doesn't get what privacy is.
"From my orphanage. Thanks for helping; I'm fine. Good bye!" I say and walk towards the lake,
"So how'd you knock yourself out? Did you walk into a tree?" Terra keeps talking, keeping pace with me.
"Sure," I don't want to pick a fight, annoying though she is, considering what happened with Celina.
"You're going all alone?" Breeze sounds worried.
"Um, yeah." I reply. Why does she care? I ask myself again, turning back to the lake.
"You could come with us! I mean it's just the two of us but if you came, it would be three. A trio!" babbles Terra.
"Yeah," says Breeze, "I mean we're orphans too, you know. We ran away a couple months ago."
I stop, and am actually considering their offer, when something slams into me from behind. It and I go tumbling down the hill and into the mud by the lake shore. I squirm away from whatever it is and scramble to my feet. I turn around to face my enemy and see that it's not Terra or Breeze, like I had thought. They're up on the top of the hill with their mouths open.
The shape in the mud is clearly a person. They get up and wipe the mud from their face and I realize that it's a boy about my age.
"What the-" My sentence is cut off short as he lunges at me again.
Instinctively, because I'd witnessed many fights in the orphanages, I duck under his grasp, then spring up and punch. My fist meets his shoulder and the boy goes sprawling back to the ground. His face is one I know well. Completely bewildered that a girl could be capable of something requiring skill.
"Hey, you asked for it." I say and I feel the power fizzing inside me like last night.
I bring my arms up over my head and bring them down forcefully. But I'm nowhere near the kid. Then my vision is out again and I hear a yelp. I get the same clarity from the Celina incident, and see that the guy has been completely soaked and the mud is washed of.
His hair is black, and unevenly cut, like someone took to it with a chainsaw. He's wearing a red tee shirt with torn jeans. His eyes are wide, and grey, like smoke from a volcano.
"So you're the water one, huh?" He says.
"The what now?" I ask, really confused. Did I seriously just attack someone, again?
But he's already gone, sprinting up the hill into the woods. I stare at the tracks in the mud until Breeze and Terra come up next to me.
"Oh my gosh! What just happened? You just sucker punched him and he went flying! Then you threw water at him! That's amazing!" Terra is raving.
"Do you know why he attacked you?" Breeze asks, clearly used to Terra's chatty-ness.
"That's what I'm going to find out." I mutter determinedly, all thoughts of joining Terra and Breeze gone, and start after the trail.
Breeze calls out to me but I don't pay attention. I race into the forest.