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Chapter 5

Two Years Earlier...

"Once upon a time, in faraway land lived a evil king who ruled over a poor kingdom and a dark forest" I read aloud before my eyes once again averted to the grandfather clock at the other side of the room.

"Focus" my utter reminded me in her sharp, precise Australian accent. I had just started a new book after finishing one I had been reading for a few weeks

"Sorry, Its just... well we've been reading for an hour now and I despise dittoing still even for a short period of time" I replied my eyes looking back at the clock.

"Yes I suppose you have been reading for quite a while" she said turning her gaze to the clock and then back to me. A small smile formed on her face.

"You can go to the dorms, or wherever you are to go now" She said shooing me off. I ran to the laundry room as quickly as possible.

"Where have you been Claira!" my best friend asks mocking our terribly mean head maid, madam Isabel. We lived in a small room filled with girl 8-14 years old in the middle of Lady Cecilia's mansion. All of us orphans worked here to earn a little for when we leave the orphanage when we turn 14. Madam Isabel was 36 yearsold and lived in her own room downstairs. Our tutor Lily was 24 years old and taught us girls for two hours at some point every week.Lily was strict but kind. Some of the girls hated her but she was like one of my friends to me. Lina had been my best friend since I had begun working here when I was 8. Before Lina my best friend's name was Olivia. Olivia was one of the few of us who got adopted, she got adopted by Melissa Sinn. Olivia wrote every once in a while but we still were not best friends. Lina was assigned my work partner when I started working and we became friends as soon as we met. We made dinner and cleaned the living room on Sunday, cleaned the bathroom and made lunch on Monday, made lunch and did the laundry on Tuesday, breakfast and yard work on Wednesday, yard work and bedroom cleaning on Thursday, then we had Friday and Saturday off. We earned one silver coin a week, as little as that was some orphans didn't earn anything so we didn't complain. Today was Tuesday and we had already made a picnic for Lady Cicilia's lunch. We finished the laundry in about five minutes and ran down the hall to the kitchen right after. Martha, the cook gave us each a piece of bread with jam, a glass o. Milk and shooed us out of the room. We ran outside to a small garden. We entered the garden through the white painted wood gate. A stone path lead away from the gate and arced to the right about 10 feet into the garden, a the end of the stones was a two-person wood and rope swing. The ground around the path was covered in a thick patch of trees. Lina anod I came out here whenever ever we had time on our hands. Today we had 45 minutes before curfew we sat down on the swing and rocked quietly. There was a odd feeling in the air and neither of us liked it, I could tell. About five minuted after we got there Lina finally said something.
"Clair, lets go inside. We can hang out in the dorm room for the rest of the day"
"Ok that sounds good" I replied getting up from the swing. We walked out of the garden but then we started running to get inside. As we ran Lina fell into a boy about our age At first I thought is was one of Cilicia's sons.
"I'm sorry sir- wait" Lina noticed that he wasn't anyone who lived here right before I did.
"Um, hi my name is Aiden and I'm looking for someone named Claira" he said, his eyes darted around. He was dressed in muddy pants a old looking shirt, old brown book bag and muddy black boots.
"Did you say Claira?" I asked
"Yes do either of you know her" he asked.
"Yay she's my best friend" Lina said pushing me forward.
"Oh your Claira. Go get your stuff and meet me at the gate." he said as he began to turn around.
"Ya um I'm not going anywhere, at least without Lina" I said walking closer to my best friend.
"Of coarse, Lina you may come to. Just go grab your stuff. All of it we won't be coming back." Lina and I turned around and darted to the dorms there was still 30 minutes left before curfew. We grabbed our stuff packed up anything lying around and zipped up our cases. Lina ran upstairs and came down with two pairs of boys clothes.
"He looked like he needed some new ones" she explained. We dashed out to the gate. The boy was waiting there.
"I can't explain now but I will once we're out of the kingdom" he whispered. He then ran off in the direction of the kingdom gateway. We followed, as soon as we saw the gateway we dashes behind a taylor's shop. We were about fifty feet from the gate. Lina walked off towards something and came back before I could stop her.
"I'm guessing they're not gonna let you out are they"she spat. She held up a wanted poster with Aiden's picture on it.
"I will explain it later but we have to go, now" he said as he ran behind the closest building to the gateway. He pointed out a small crack in the gateway we could all get through if we were fast enough.
"Clair, Lina you guys go first they might just try to stop you but once in in the picture they'll become a firing squad." Aiden whispered. Lina dashed off first she was through the hole before I had even noticed she was gone.
"Hey" I heard one of the guards say as he began walking towards the hole. He was about 20 feet away. I darted through the hole next. 15 feet. Aiden darted through the hole and just like he predicted guns began going off as son as they spotted him. We were all through though. We his behind a dumpster as a guard from our old kingdom spoke with one from this kingdom showing him a poster of Aiden. We ran out of there as fast as possible. Soon we were inside a house and Auden was chatting with a woman who looked to be about 40. We had dinner there that night and Aiden explained the whole elementess thing. I didn't believe and first but when he started to morph into me I believed him.
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For two short years Aiden, Lina and I looked for other element possessors. With not much luck but one day Lina went off to find firewood and me and Aiden(me and them had grown to be like siblings) were playing a game. Aiden was in his dragon form. Then I saw them, two of them and my two years of searching paid off.