Within The Evergreen

Chapter 1

I always hated moving, it was such a disruption. Packing and unpacked all your most worldly possessions. It seemed that every time we were just getting settled somewhere it was time to move again. I suppose that's the price the three of us begrudgingly pay to live amongst humanity. And don't even get me started about redoing the last year of high school every six to seven years. But, there's only so long that you can stay in one place before people start to notice that you look as young as you did when you first appeared in their town. It's inevitable; I can barely pass for 20 in my eternal 18 year old body. At least I think that's how old I was when my features froze, remaining unchanging for the rest of my existence. People don't generally start to comment until me and Jacob are supposed to be hitting mid-twenties, then we know it's time to pack up and move onto the next small town.

I hung the last of my pictures to the wall and stood to survey my new room. It was simple, and unlike my last room had hardwood floors instead of carpet. I had my own small balcony surveying the vast green of the forest behind our new home. I loved being so close to nature, the kind that's wild and untamed, untouched and unharmed by man. It made me feel more in touch with my roots and filled me with a sense of peace.

I heard Jacob shouting from downstairs, "Hey Aurora!

Hurry up with the room already, I want to go explore Clover Valley!"

Clover Valley. What an utterly stupid name for a town. Anybody would think we were in Ireland living with leprechauns.

"I've just finished let me change and I'll be down in a minute!" I shouted.

"Don't take forever, I know how many boxes of clothes you own," he grumbled.

Jacob is my fake brother. Although in my eyes he IS my brother, the one I never had, a strange combination of annoying and protective. We of course look nothing alike, him all bright and golden like a summer's day and me with my dark hair and olive skin. People sometimes comment on how unalike we are, but we always have the same answer; I got my mothers looks, he got his fathers. What we fail to mention is that we don't have the same mother or father.

Throwing my wardrobe door open I exchanged my moving clothes for something more flattering, black skinny jeans and a cream silk blouse coupled with a green parker coat. When I'd finished changing I threw a quick glance towards my mirror. Same old face staring back. Same smooth olive skin, same alarmingly green eyes, same long brown wavy hair. Even after two - hundred and fifty years of staring at myself it was hard to see the faerie in me. I seemed so bland next to such eerily, hauntingly beautiful creatures. I'd only had the profound pleasure of coming across a handful of them in my lifetime, but the effect was always the same, their beauty made you wince, made you want to look away and never stop staring at them at the same time. It just wasn't natural to be that beautiful.

I ran down the stairs and joined Jacob just as he was pulling the door open.

Jacob turned to face the empty hall way, "We're going out to explore Dad, see you later on!" 

I frowned, "Do you ever not shout? You're giving me a migraine."

Jacob started walking down the garden path, careful not to step in any of the muddy puddles lining the road. "You don't get migraines stupid, you never get ill. Isn't that part of the whole half faerie package?"

I nodded despite the rhetorical question, taking a good look around to ensure no one was listening in on our conversation. Our new house sat on its own small patch of land in the very middle of a very long road. We only had four neighbours, two on each side set quite a distance away from each other. The tall pine trees shielding the Victorian home from either side gave the illusion of privacy, but I'd learnt over the years that trees weren't so good at concealing voices.