Prologue

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One of my first memories is hanging upside down in a tree watching my two sisters playing on the ground. We would spend hours in our backyard, goofing around just the three of us. I called out for them to join me on my little adventure, but Yelena was too scared to climb up the high oak and Natasha was busy trying to make sure I didn't fall out. I kept making funny faces at them whist ignoring my older sister's warnings who was now slowly growing angry with me, "You are going to fall Aleksandra! Please get down." I could see a pout grow on Lena's face as she was probably feeling left out, right before she gracefully fell backwards onto her hands on the ground, mimicking my upside down-ness. All our faces were turning red from the blood rushing to our heads, except Nat's was red from anger. I saw Yelena's arms struggling to hold her up and came up with a silly idea to tease the both of them, "Watch out Nat, Lena will fall first." Except the moment Natasha turned around, a breeze blew my upside-down hair in my face, making me lose my grip and tumble out of the tree.

I tried to soften my landing by stretching out my hands, only to cut them open on some pointy rocks below me. "I warned you, didn't I", I barely heard my sisters worried words over the sound of my own cries. She tried to shush me and held me in her arms while Yelena had rushed inside to go get mum. The two of them came running out, with a mix of fear and surprise on their faces. "I told you to watch your sisters Natasha", mum said in an angry tone. She quickly grabbed me from her arms to check for other injuries. "I'm sorry", Natasha muttered, now also on the brink of tears. "It's alright little monkey", mum turned to me in a caring tone. "Looks like you only scraped your hands a little bit, it's going to be alright." She put her arm around Natasha trying to calm her down too. "It was just a big scare", she said, trying to lift the tension from the air. "I- I told her mommy, I told her it was dangerous, but she wouldn't listen to me," said Natasha. I looked up from my hands trying to meet my sisters face through both our tears, "I'm sorry Nat, I won't ever do it again." As mum set me down, she turned to all three of us and said: "I hope you learned your lesson ladies..." None of us dared to even think of disobeying her stern look but before we even got the chance to reply, Lena was distracted with the beautiful light bugs that flew through our yard. "Look mommy, forest stars" she squealed excited, making me almost forget about the incident from earlier. "That's right baby, those little things are actually part of the Lampyridae family" she replied in a soft chuckle.

I stared in awe as they flew all around us, one landing almost on my finger but changing its mind just at the last second. "And the glow-" I looked back at mommy as she started explaining even more about these interesting creatures, "The glow that you see, comes from a chemical reaction called... bioluminescence"

Our eyes went wide at the big word our mother used and she couldn't help but laugh at our reaction, "Come on, time for dinner." She gently guided Lena towards the house and took me by my wrist, careful not to touch the scrapes on my hands.

"Bio-goomin-feasants?" I heard my older sister question out in front of me which made it hard for me to keep in my laughter. Yelena turned around with an offended look but before she could protest my mother jumped in.

"Bio-goomin-feasants. That's right" she repeated back to her daughter who now proudly smiled and continued on her way back to the house.

Natasha was still stood staring at the little illuminations that slowly retreated back into the trees. "Come on Big girl, you to!" our mom yelled out behind us towards my oldest sister.

"Now come and help get the table ready so I can wash out your sisters' wounds." She guided me to the sink and gently lifted me up on the counter to clean up my hands from any dirt. "Ouch", I flinched as the water touched my scraped palms, but moms stern face kept me from pulling them back. "You know what I always tell you monkey; pain only makes you stronger." As she saw I had definitely learned my lesson, she tried to cheer me up by announcing a special desert for today. Nat and Lena's heads shot around the corner when they heard the words 'ice cream'. Mom let me pick out which animal band aid I wanted on each of my palms, even though there wasn't really any need for them, before gently putting me back down and ushering me to go help my sisters finish setting the table.

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