Emeralds in October

Intro

"Mom, what's going on?" My desperate cries were met with silence as I was pushed towards the back doors of our small cottage. My mother's dark hazel eyes were puffy and I saw her bottom lip trembling. Had she been crying?

"Listen Emerald, there are bad people here. They want to hurt you. Oh baby, you need to run." She whispered to me. Her quiet voice cracked at the end of the sentence.

In all my twelve years, I've never seen my mother cry before.

"Why do they want to hurt me?" I asked quickly. My mother didn't answer. Instead, she took a long rusty knife from the kitchen and placed it in my bag.

A sharp pounding rang through the house and my mother let out a short gasp.

"They're already here." She whispered. Who was here? I heard our front door slam open and footsteps pounded against the floor. My mother gave me one last frantic push and I stumbled outside. I looked back at the woman who gave me life. Her dark auburn hair was pinned up in a tight bun to keep loose strands out of her pale face. She always wore her hair the same way. In fact, she always acted the same, too. She rarely showed emotion.

She rarely showed me love.

And that might have been the reason I turned on my heel and raced off into the woods.

I didn't look back when I heard her scream. It sent chills down my spine but I kept running. She was gone. My mother was gone... and the men who killed her were after me.

Our land was strict. No one ever entered and they stopped everyone from leaving. Some said the king was mental. His wife died giving birth to his only son and it drove him to the brink of insanity. After that, he declared war against the Magics.

I knew I was a Magic from a young age. My mother cut her hand while making dinner, but one touch from me healed it. She told me never to show anyone and I never did... until yesterday.

A man was stealing the bag from a young boy. No one else was around so I knew I had to help. When the man attacked me, I grabbed his arm tightly and concentrated. The poison started to spread through his body. He cried out as his veins grew dark green and pushed out at his skin. He died seconds later.

The little boy went straight to the military. I saved him and he tried to get me killed. People are cowards and cruel and it has led to my hate of them.

The feeling of hate is mutual.

My body went almost numb as I rushed through the trees. My mother's scream still echoed through my ears.

She was gone.

"I see her!" A loud voice cut through the air. A terror spread through my body as they got closer. I was going to die.

Suddenly, I was thrown to the ground. A rough hand covered my mouth as I tried to scream and I was pulled behind a rock.

"If you want to survive... I suggest you stay silent." A voice hissed in my ear. I stayed completely still and heard the soldiers run past.

The voice belonged to a boy. His eyes were so dark they looked almost black. They stood out against his pale white face. The thing that truly sparked my interest, though, was his hair. His pure silver hair stuck up all over his head as if he had just woke up. I had never seen hair that white before.

The boy glared at me and got to his feet.

'Follow me." He ordered. I silently followed behind him as he twisted through the winding trees. He must have known his way around the forest very well because it all seemed like a maze to me. He stopped in front of a curtain of vines and I had to stop myself from running into his back. He started to open his mouth as if he was about to say something.