Spirit Dust

Chapter 1

"Death is something that is neither predictable nor foreshadowed. It comes and go as it pleases, often never announcing it's presence. It scoops those it so chooses up and whisks them away, much like a strong breeze blowing around dead and withered leaves. In its path it leaves nothing but heartache and sadness. Death seems to favor the people who have brought the most happiness to this world. It is much of a biased element. Not even the best scientist nor doctor can describe it. It strolls past the hallways and opens a door, tips its hat and snatches someone's soul, then with a sudden farewell it's nowhere to be found. Death is the unstoppable force that is not bothered by anything, or anyone. That's why it's important to truly find value in each moment and live each day like death itself could make their grand appearance at any time."

The whole class was silent as Kora closed her notebook. After a brief pause, they rose to their feet and clapped. Her English teacher beamed with pride and motioned for everyone to give her another round of applause. She smiled and took in her surroundings. She spent quite some time writing that assignment and was nervous to say it out loud. 

"Kora, where on earth did you get the inspiration for such a moving and outstanding paragraph?"

She thought to herself for a moment, looked at Whisker's collar on her wrist, and stated "A special person inspired me.", she said with a laugh.

Her teacher said nothing, as he often did. He was as mysterious as he was intuitive. English had always been Kora's favorite class, she exceeded in her grades and passed every test. Writing lengthy paragraphs on things that were very complex for most kids her age was her specialty. Her other classes were a different story; she often had trouble understanding lessons. Her grades had dropped drastically last July, yet English stayed at a miraculous 100%. 

Kora never had many friends at her school, she preferred to sit alone at a desk with her headphones on and her notebook open. And it's not that she didn't want to have friends, don't get me wrong, she just never seemed to be able to find the right people, so she continued to be by herself. Her pencil grazed the paper and darted from here and there. It made small lines and strokes almost effortlessly, ink black stories poured out of a thin, light purple pen. Kora's notebook was filled with tiny doodles of dogs in capes to giant action scenes bursting with mini comics and characters. She flipped page to page, admiring her work. Kora had light skin with small brown freckles dotted on her cheeks. She had medium length, silky black hair that was often done up in cute hairstyles. Her eyes were a deep green that looked like fields of green clovers. After thinking to herself for a moment, Kora got to work on a new drawing involving flying goats and spent the rest of her lunch break scribbling and doodling away.