Chapter 1: Of All Things...

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2 years later
I let my arrow fly. It whizzed through the air and hit its mark. A large rabbit that was hunched over in front of a log.
I ran over and picked the rabbit up and smiled. The Eastern Woods were always alive during the beginning of winter. I picked up my bow that I had dropped to run and get the rabbit and left back towards the village. I stopped in my tracks and remembered. Argent! I remembered.
"Argent!" I called through the forest. "Argent! Where are you?!" I yelled. My echo was heard through the trees. A gust of rejuvenating air swept past me and I breathed in the crisp, clean air, letting it spread all over my body and took a moment to look around. Snow would hit soon, I thought. I brushed it aside and began searching for Argent again.
Nightfall was approaching and I still couldn't find her. I turned a corner of a tree and was met with something totally predictable. Argent sitting there curled up. I sighed and ran over to her.
"Argent. I've been screaming your name for at least two hours." I said angrily. "How did you even get out here? We didn't even walk close to this area." I asked.
Argent stood up relieved to having me found her. She shrugged, "I followed a cute bird." I palm-slapped my face and we continued back towards the village.
The sun had just set when we got back to the large, open field. The moonlight glistened off the small pond that we crossed by and Argent stopped to gather some water.
This is the place I was meant to be, I thought. The cold night air was hitting my skin, but I ignored it, this was too beautiful a night to be thinking of the cold. If anything the air just made me more wanting of going hunting again.
"So, Siyra? Have you found a boy, yet?" Argent asked raising her eyebrows, like she always does.
I rolled my eyes and groaned. "Thoren keeps following me all over the village." I said gritting my teeth, the thought of Thoren made me do it. It was like an involuntary action.
Argent's mouth opened wide. "Thoren!" She screamed. She began hopping up and down and clapping. "You mean the cutest boy in the entire village?" She asked, her eyes glowing. "If I wasn't already engaged with Juno, then I would want to be engaged with him." She said.
Juno and her had recently been engaged and they would most likely marry next month, during the snowfall.
"Don't even get me started." I said. "He's the most self-centered guy I've ever met." I said drawing my bow back and releasing an arrow at a mouse that was scurrying around. It hit its mark. I took the mouse, removed the arrow, and put it back in my game bag.
"Siyra." She stopped me and held my shoulders. "You are getting way behind in your life." She said pointing in my face. "God Agathina says in the Script of Love that all women must marry to become true to their tribe." She said. So predictable, I thought. Argent had recently been studying our religion Dandism of the Dandi tribe.
Of course I believed in the religion, it was what I was taught all my life, but Agathina was by far my least favorite God. And, Argent was right on the Script of Love as well. It was a book of prophecies and commandments that told when we must marry and have children. I found it annoying and pressing.
"Look, Argent." I said, staring her in her eyes. "None of these men at the village are worth it. They are so self-centered, I might as well marry my bow." I held up my bow and kissed it. Argent sighed and pushed me forward about two paces.
"So? When are you then?" Argent asked, folding her arms and giving me that guilty look. "Are you just not going to marry and become a true tribeswoman?" I looked at the ground.
"Well, Argent." I said. "Maybe I just don't want to be a true tribeswoman." She gasped and looked at me with strange and doubtful eyes. I laughed a bit. That look always made me jump in my stomach. She smiled, and we pushed the issue aside. Though it was important, nothing could get between us.
We had finally gotten back to the village at early night. Small torches on the sides of homes lit our way down the dirt path. I looked around and saw through a few windows and beheld families having fun and enjoying their feats. I sighed and wished for another second that I could know why my parents abandoned the battle. That thought was pushed aside quickly.
"Siyra!" Lukas ran up screaming. I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, Lukas?" I asked expecting another foolish and random worry. Suddenly I stopped. This wasn't Lukas's usual franticness. Something was truly wrong. "What? What is it Lukas?" I asked worried now.
"The Tri-Clan army! They're coming up the mountains! I was there mapping when I saw a whole lot of torches and sharp things sprouting from a massive group!" I froze.
The army was coming.

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