Celadon

Chapter 1

Her feet hit the cobbled floor rhythmically, her bare feet becoming raw from the rain that pounded upon the girl. Two loaves of bread were clutched in her pale arms, both golden brown and still warm at the core, the crust thick and crispy from the perfect recipe it had been made with.

Sen’s stomach grumbled in anticipation, her breath coming out in small pants of smoke as she fled from the angry group behind her.

Yelling and screaming filled the usually quiet Angerdd air, bolts of electricity flying through the air and lightly burning the tattered fabric of her ragged top. Sen’s sense of smell was overwhelmed with the warm, buttery scent of the freshly baked bread in her arms, her multi-tonal eyes focused on the path in front of her. She had to run, to get away from the three men that chased in the darkness.

“Thief! Thief! Get her quick!” A large, overweight man yelled. He was about 5 ft 6 inches tall, and about as wide as he could get without toppling over completely. In his red hand was a rolling pin, still dotted with bits of dough and flour, and the man waved it high above his head as he screamed to help.

But it was no use, Sen and the men that chased her knew that. She was light and quick on her feet, years of living on the streets having honed her abilities to be agile, the three overweight bakers could do nothing to stop her as she darted away with their much loved produce. Even if they did catch her, Sen knew how to defend herself. After having to keep herself and her two best friends safe for their whole 10 long years of life, how could she not steal and scavenge? It was their only chance of survival.

The yells were beginning to quieten now, Sen’s expertly trained ears able to tell that they were losing track of her. Raindrops flowed down her pale face, plastering her white fringe to her forehead with the liquid, while several drops slid down her face and into her eyes. Blinking quickly to flick off the drops that had gathered on her eyelashes, Sen looked for the familiar entrance to her home. Currently, she did not quite know how far she had ran to escape the bakers, the bakery itself was only about half a mile away from where she lived and the island was not that big itself. Sighing deeply, she allowed her legs to slow to a stop. She knew that she’d be home soon with the boys, she was too smart to get lost.

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Twin boys sat in the cold alley, both 10 years of age as they huddled against each other, craving the warmth of the other as the icy rain pounded down, soaking the alley with the water that fell. The concrete of the floor was dark with the perspiration that soaked into the material, the bricks now a darker shade of orange and red that barricaded them into the small alley.

Small hiccups and coughs came from the pair, the smaller of the two burying his face into his look alike’s chest as his shoulders shook from the sobs that wracked his thin, weak body. Bryce gently ran his pale hand up and down his brother’s back, soothing him gently and reassuring him with soft words.

“It’ll be okay, Lyle, promise. Sen will be back soon with food, we can trust that she won’t let us down. She’s never let us down before, right? Do not worry. You’ll eat soon. I promise you, Lyle. I won’t let you starve.”

Lyle nodded his head lightly, sniffing and lifting his head up to focus his watery brown gaze on his twin’s similar features. “It is just...so hard, Bry, my stomach feels like it is eating itself...” His voice whined slightly, sounding a little like a spoilt child. But Bryce couldn’t blame him at all, it had been at least 4 days since their last bite of food, and since they were still growing, it was nowhere near enough.

But the people of Angerdd did not care about them. After the death of Bryce and Lyle’s parents when they were 5 years old, the twins were sent onto the streets. The single orphanage on the island did not have enough funding to even consider taking in a pair of twins who refused to be separated, and unlike in the rest of Anwen, it was every person for themselves here.