by Kelly Napoli
CHAPTER 1
THE UNWELCOME VISITOR
A fifteen year old girl with waist long brown hair and navy blue eyes sat in a tree. A short, white dress adorned her slight frame. The dress fit perfectly, stopping a few inches above her knees, the sleeves short, worn so frequently that it had been worn down enough so that she could move freely in it. Gold bracelets wrapped around her thin wrists, coming to a point dead center on the back of her hand, with green crystals engraved into them. These crystals had a dull glow to them, caused not by a reflection of sunlight or heat, but by her magic. These garments were the garments of her ancestors.
The girl had a thick vine wrapped around her middle. This vine had small glass bottles placed delicately between the strings of green. In the bottles were liquids of different colors; silver, gold, purple, and blue. Each had a different, powerful purpose.
The girl suddenly jumped out of the tree. She walked along the endless line of trees, humming a song that was familiar to her. She didn’t know why, though.
The girl’s name was Kiethara.
Kiethara was different, very different. A few years ago Aaron had deemed her old enough to hear her story. The spirit had told her that her mother had been killed by a dark person; therefore, it was now her duty to protect the forest. A duty so weighty that she had been born with powers that required her to train, to condition, so she would be strong enough to fight off any threats to the source of her magic and the world’s magic: the forest.
Kiethara walked on, humming and kicking a stone around. It was dusk; the sun was slowly sinking in the sky. Next to her, a bush suddenly rustled.
She paused and stared at the bush for a moment, watching warily as a great gray wolf came out, smacking its lips. It was obvious it had just eaten dinner, for its muzzle was covered in blood. Hesitant, she squatted and held her hand out. The wolf looked at her with a mild sort of interested expression before finally deciding that she would cause him no harm. It took a step forward and sniffed her hand. Slowly, she brought her hand up to its head and ran it through the smooth gray fur, a genuine smile spreading across her face. She had always been good with animals. As soon as the smile lit her face, another wolf howled in the distance. Without another glance at her, it scampered off.
“That lasted a while,” Kiethara muttered sarcastically, brushing dirt off her knees as she stood up. She sighed and continued to walk in no general direction, the scenery around her familiar and unimpressive. Her hammock was in the opposite direction, but she just wasn’t tired yet.
Lately, she had been rather bored. During the day, she trained her powers a little, went around the forest, sometimes taking a bath in a lake…however, once this was accomplished, all she had to look forward to was eating. Her dull life made her a small bit sad, for she knew it would be different if her mother was alive. They could have done so much. It would have been nice to wake up with someone there to talk to, another human and, even better, a woman to whom she could converse with. They could have played a few games together, maybe talked for hours, and her mother could have trained Kiethara herself. Not that she didn’t love the Spirit of Aaron—her father figure—but Aaron wasn’t present all the time. After she trained, he went to who knows where, leaving her quite alone in a forest that played home to no other company beside the occasional wild creature. It was almost maddening to be alone for so long.
After walking a bit more, Kiethara decided it was time to go back to her clearing. Her crystals brightened slightly as she lifted herself off the ground, hovering for a second before taking off. It was very easy to get lost in the forest, so when she had been younger, she came up with a system. Every few trees she had carved a symbol into the trunk, indicating which direction she was traveling in. It had taken her a while to make it up, but it worked fairly well. Of course, it only expanded for a few miles, but that was all she needed. Why did she need to travel any further than her hammock? She had everything she needed in the few miles she knew. What was beyond there? More trees and another lake?
Finally, she entered her clearing. Two grown trees stood in the middle of the space with a cloth hammock rocking in between them; off to the side lay a small pile. It contained the pathetic whole of her possessions: a blanket, two woven baskets, a small pile of berries, and a rusty old locket.
Her mother’s locket.
She had found it on the forest floor a long time ago. There, engraved right into the center off the golden heart, was a curved E. It had taken her less than a second to recognize the E to stand for Earthaphoria.
Kiethara bent down and picked up the locket, digging her nails into the side in attempt to open it. Of course, her attempt failed, but the result held no surprise for her. No matter what she did, the locket simply would not open. Her magic did naught to it, Aaron was no help…It seemed whatever lay inside wished to remain unknown. With a sigh she threw it back into the pile and climbed into her hammock, where the slight sway of her bed soothed her to sleep…