The Immortal Blade Trilogy: Book #1: Fate's Destiny.

Growles and Scowles.

Mist swirled around the snow-caped peaks, while wind whipped my long golden blond hair into my face. The cold rain stings my face as it's whipped around by the powerful winds. It's only August but the blizzard seems determined on ruining the harvest. Usually, the snow starts no earlier than November.

I thought back to the fall festival only three days earlier. It was a warm fall day with the most pleasant breeze, everyone was dancing, eating pumpkin pie, having fun. I found Madeline, my friend, in the crowd. She spotted me just after I spotted her and that's when I saw it. The blinding mass of snow that was quickly making it's way towards the village of Canad. Canad is the name of the village that we live in.

"Alexandra!" She called somewhere off in the distance.

"Alex!" I heard again, but I wasn't paying attention to anything she was saying.

"Alexandra? Are you-" she suddenly stopped talking.

I quickly turned my head in her direction to see why she had stopped talking. Her face had turned as white as the blizzard that would soon cover us in it's blanket. She had no doubt just seen the terrible fate of our village.

"Are we going to die?" I heard her ask.

"No." I responded.

Are we?

I stood up straight and looked at Madeline right in her eyes. She could tell that I had become serious. She looked at me, waiting for my command. Even though my "command" was just common sense.

"Get everyone inside."

Stinging rain whipped at my face as I shook my head to clear it. I'm not climbing this stunningly cold mountain to remember what had happened three days ago! I'm climbing this mountain to hunt for my family! Claire is already underweight for only being 11. And Mavricks, being only 3, will die if I don't get him food. And daddy... I can't expect him to care for the family when he only has one leg. No, I have to care for them.

You must be wondering how I am going to hunt in weather like this. Well, somewhere up in the mountain there is a cave. There are a couple caves up in these mountains. I have found one of the few. These caves have trees growing in them. So, I guess they're more like underground forests, than caves.

I have to kill at least three animals before I can go back home, or we won't have enough to eat. I can sell one of them, and eat the other two. Maybe if I get done early, I can kill a few more so I can buy a loaf of bread for my family.

I was so caught up in my thoughts, that I didn't realize that I had strayed away from where I was supposed to be going. Suddenly, my foot slipped on the slippery snow, and my body slammed into the ground. I scolded myself for letting my mind wander and for not keeping alert when I should have been watching every shadow. As for my leg, it was caught in a thin wire snare, so I guess I didn't actually slip, I was pulled down. The wire was purposely thin, so it could cut through skin if enough weight was pulling on it.

It's my snare. I put it up a couple weeks ago, hoping some kind of animal would get caught in it.

I started trying to loosen the snare but it wouldn't budge!

What's happening? What is this? Why can't I untie my own snare? Maybe I used a different technique. 

I kept trying until my fingers turned numb. I was on a steep, icy hill, so I had to keep myself from slipping down it. I looked behind me to see my cave.

What now? Am I just going to sit here?

I reached for one of my daggers, just as I slipped. I slid until I was stopped by the thin wire snare. I cried out in pain, then covered my mouth with my hand. Someone could be near. If they saw me, they would have every right to hunt in this cave. I could feel warm, sticky blood on my ankle. I used my hands to try to pull me back up a bit, but the ground was too slipery from the ice. I grabbed a near-by tree and used that to pull me up the hill a little bit, so the wire wasn't cutting through my skin anymore. 

I breathed a sigh of relief, until that relief turned to dread. I shuddered when I heard the sharp crack of a stick being broken.

This isn't real! 

But this was real. This wasn't my cave.

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Hello everyone! Thank you so much for reading my very first chapter! I am SO sorry this chapter was short, but I'll make sure to make the other chapters longer. It would be greatly appreciated if you would vote if you liked it and be sure to leave a comment! If you have any questions, please ask and I will do my very best to answer them.

I am sorry, because I'm not a very good writer. Please tell me how I can make it better and please read on! :)

Thank you again!

-MW