Kindred

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Esme walked outside the small house that her aunt and uncle owned. The crunch of the gravel and the sound of people conversing were the only things to be heard. She walked around to the side of the house and into a short, white gate. The latch clicked into place once Esme had walked through. The aroma wafted up to Esme's nose, and overwhelmed her. She kneeled in her green dress, possibly getting dirt on it, and sorted through the herbs that were planted in the ground.

She pulled out a few different roots and places them in her basket. Esme started to hum a song, but stopped when she heard a snap of a branch. She froze and slowly turned around to meet an empty garden. She noticed how isolated the garden was from the main street, so she strode to the gate, desperate to be in the company of others.

Thick arms wrapped around her waist and she shrieked. Esme was too occupied with struggling to be freed, she didn't look to see who her attacker was. She elbowed him in the side and focused all her energy in pushing the man away from her. A tingling sensation made it's way through her back and into the man. He slammed into the ground a few yards away.

Esme turned her head toward her attacker as she ran away. She stopped dead in her tracks, mouth agape.

"Leif?" Esme asked aloud. All she got was a mumble as a reply. "What do you think you're doing? I nearly killed you!" She exclaimed, frustrated with his childish behavior.

"You would have to do a lot worse to kill me," he laughed and brushed his pants off as he got up off the ground. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"Gods, I can't believe you!" She was angry, and intentionally avoided his question.

"Aw, I'm sorry, Essy," Lief called her by her childhood nickname she hated.

Esme huffed and stalked away from her best friend. Lief had instantly taken Esme under his wing when she arrived. He had always been there for her. He had blonde short hair that spiked up and bright blue eyes. He had tan skin form working in the scorching sun all day in the fields. His tall frame dwarfed Esme's small one, but he could never hurt a friendly soul. Esme had a weakness for him, she could never stay mad at the giant.

Lief ran up beside Esme and lightly placed an arm across her shoulders.

"Forgive me?" Leif whispered.

"When have I not?" Esme sighed.

He chuckled and placed a kiss on her cheek. "Never."

He walked her into her house and to the kitchen where Seraphina work on the medicines. Her hands moved from on bottle to the next in a matter of seconds. Seraphina's brown hair was sprayed lightly with grey. It was pulled back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, but fly aways brushed her face. Her green eyes were caring and wise. Her once flawless skin was ruined by crows feet and laughing lines. She was a small woman, shorter that Esme, but she had a fiery temper.

"Took you long enough" Seraphina muttered.

"Sorry, Seraphina, I distracted Esme," Lief said before Esme could think up an excuse.

"Hand me the herbs, Esme."

Esme reached into the basket and gave her the different plants.

"You can go, I got this under control," Seraphina stated.

"Are you sure?" asked Esme.

"There's not a thing you can help me with, it is a one person job here on out."

Esme took the excuse and left behind Lief.

Her and Leif had just arrived at the stables, when a shriek broke the comfortable silence. They raced to the doors and saw smoke rising from a house down the street. Men were racing to put the fire out. People were looking around trying to find the culprit, but only Esme saw a beastly man stride out of the back door of the house. She recognized his dirty furs draped across his back and the paint slapped across his face. Raiders.

"I have to go," Esme whispered to Lief, afraid of what she saw was true.

"What? And miss all this excitement."

Emse smiled and raced off, following the man, but when she gotten to a dead end nothing was there. She could have sworn there was a man coming out of the house and walked this way. She saw another flash of red to her left and took off after it, not even thinking her plan through. Her slim body weaved around barrels of water and empty crates. She found herself standing in the shadows of the bakery, listening to gruff whispers. Esme peaked her head around the corner and her vision focused on the shadows of two hunched men.

"— wasn't in the first house, but there was some expensive jewelry," the one with the red cloak on shared, pulling out a greedy handful of glistening jewels.

"We aren't here to steal, we need to find his 'special star' for Jurian before he has our heads," the other one said in a thick eastern accent with a mocking tone.

"What he doesn't know won't kill him," Red Cloak said.

The eastern one groaned in frustration.

Esme strained her hearing to get more insight on the situation, but more screams filled the town's streets. She looked back at the fading shadows once more before she ran to help.

Esme watched in horror as raiders swarmed into her village, setting fire to everything insight. Her chest, heaving up and down in short breaths. She searched franticly for Saraphina, Bartholomew, and Lief. Her grey eyes reflecting her world in flames. A hand lightly touched Esme's shoulder, and startled her. Leif's worried blue eyes stared down at her. In his large hand were reins for the brown horse behind him.

"Take Rusty and get to the King. I will follow in a day when everything settles down," he yelled over the screams, knowing only King Cassius could help.

"My aunt, and Uncle-"

"I will make sure the are safe. Now go!" Lief helped her up onto the horse and smacked its butt. The horse galloped away until she hurried it along. The only thing that was on her mind was her family's safety.

Esme rode for two days straight. She could finally see how her journey was wearing down her mare and stopped to camp for the night. With her trip being such short notice, she had no bed roll or food. Her eyes searched for branches and logs in the dark. When she finally gathered enough for the night, she brought her hand to the pile of wood and let her powers take over. A small spark ignited her fire. Rusty walked over to Esme and laid down. Esme scooted closer to the horse and and rested her head on the mares' soft back. Soon, both of them were fast asleep.

Please comment if I made any mistakes or if you liked it. :)