The Fire Tree

Chapter 1

It was the season of autumn, the leaves of the trees and petals of flowers had started to fall down on the ground, creating a red orange-ish wonderland for Mike and I to play in, and the fire tree we planted in memory of our parents was already 2 years old.

"Celine, would you please stop reading your stupid books for a day? I have no one to play with and you're my only friend." says Mike, a 13 year old friend of mine, while he runs around the tree I'm sitting under, kicking leaves.

His real name is Michael Carter and his parents are already dead, I mean, for him they're already dead, but I don't think so. His parents were captured by the guards of Lemuria for stealing food for Mike (They're extremely poor) That little offense can send you directly to prison. Of course, Mike was still a little boy and didn't know anything. The guards let him wander around the city, alone, without protection and guidance. That's when my mother picked him up and made him our newest family member.

"My books are not stupid, Mike. You're stupid, now stop bothering me and just join me instead." I start throwing a handful of leaves into the direction he's running into

"But reading is boooring-Pffft Psssst." He spits out the leaves that got into his mouth.

"Hahahaha!" I burst into laughter

"HA-HA, very funny, Celine." he says in a sarcastic manner and starts throwing my books one by one

"Stop it, Mike." Mike may be my only friend, but sometimes I think he's trying to ruin my life. I mean, I don't do anything bad to him like steal away his toys and stuff like that, but he just throws away my books carelessly. He knows that they have a meaning behind them. Anyways, since I've already introduced Mike, I'll introduce myself now, I'm Celine Mitchell, 14, and my parents are dead too, literally, not like Mike's definition of dead. How, you ask? My dad, eaten by wolves. My mother, severe illness. Although they died early, they left me tips and lessons about life, certain rules and guidelines. Like how reading books also makes you smarter and learn far more things in life.

"Try and stop me then, Bookworm!" he started making his way into the forest, carrying my books along with him, while running away from me.

"Michael! We both know that we're not allowed to go into that part of the forest, Mum and Dad always told us that it was dangerous!" I tried screaming all my lungs out.

"What? I can't hear you, Celine! Come and catch me!" Ugh, it was pretty obvious that he heard me, This little prick.

He would leave a book or two as a trail, but after a few minutes, I lost sight of him and heard a short but loud scream.

"Oh God, something must have happened to him." I whispered under my breath.

"C-CELINE! I'M HERE BY THE CLIFF, H-HELP ME!" I heard him shout again.

I quickly ran through the forest, although I didn't know where the cliff was really at, I tried so hard to call out to Mike but he wouldn't respond. It was already getting dark, the fog was thickening and I could hear certain sounds, like the owls hooting and wolves howling.

When my dad was still alive, all he would ever do during the day was hunt (Duh, he's a hunter) That's when my Mum told me and Mike to never go into the forest during night time, because this was the time that the wolves and bears would start coming out, and this was also the reason why Dad died early.

"Finding Michael was supposed to be easy, but now that it's getting dark, I'm also getting scared. No wonder dad- Shit!" Sorry for the foul language, I learned that from the book I read, and there's also a huge wolf in front of me. Its mouth was still stained with blood, it probably ate something before it saw me.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

I ran and ran but the monster just kept chasing me, so I decided to climb a tree instead, really fast, like really fast. While I was doing that, I couldn't help but let go of the books that I picked up.

"MICHAEL, THERE'S A HUGE WOLF CHASING ME RIGHT NOW. WOULD YOU PLEASE SHOUT BACK IF YOU STILL WANT ME TO SAVE YOU!" With all that running and screaming, I felt like passing out at the moment.

"OF COURSE I DO, YOU IDIOT. YOU THINK I WANNA DIE?!" I heard a scream from far away, I rolled my eyes. Ugh, Why wasn't he answering earlier? I could've gotten away from this foul beast that probably ate my dad.