The Hardest Hello, The Easiest Goodbye

0)) Prologue

The girls were born at the same day. One born giggling, the other born screaming. The two girls grew up like sisters in their village. They played together, talked together, ate together. They were inseparable.

The brunette liked playing with the redhead's hair, and the redhead liked making the brunette bracelets out of flowers and reeds. The two girls seemed nothing alike, but their eyes shared the same deep, dark, sensitive brown.

It was a bright summer day and the sun was casting its light upon the village. The girls were about five, and were playing happily in the swampy mud of the pond.

The girl's parents usually watched while they played, but today they were distracted by a letter from the closest kingdom.

This letter was sent to every family in a 200 mile radius. This letter told them to take caution as there were criminals that escaped from the dungeons and prisons. The girls didn't know what was going on and were left outside. They were still sitting in the mud, playing.

The redhead noticed that they were alone and tapped the brunette's arm excitedly. Once she caught the brunette's attention, she pointed happily at the woods, a smile on her face. As if sharing thoughts, they nodded at the same time, stood up, and lumbered into the woods.

The brunette decided that it was a good time to play tag, poked the redhead and ran down the dirt path that led deeper into the woods. The redhead giggled and chased after her; the brunette laughed as she looked back. She weaved through the trees, losing her fiery haired playmate.

The brunette's plain brown dress got stuck on a sharp branch, causing her to trip and fall to the ground. She whimpered, looking at her now bloody knees and elbows. Sniffling and wiping dirt and rocks off her dress, the brunette turned around and a figure dressed in black clothing loomed over her. There was no face, only a silver mask with a long, threatening beak. A male chuckle came from the figure, his beak shaking up and down. The brunette let out a shriek, turning and trying to run, only to fall on the same branch.

The redhead had noticed that she had lost sight of her friend, and began to weave through the undergrowth searching for her. She moved surprisingly quiet for such a rambunctious child. The fiery haired girl came up a couple meters behind the black-swathed man and her friend. The redhead began to shake with fear, a scared expression painted on her face. She shook her head quickly, trying to clear her head and grabbed a rock. The redhead threw it with all her strength and hit the man in between his wide shoulders, causing him to turn around slowly. The redhead could feel his annoyance and turned her little pink lips to a smile a bit before sticking her tongue out.

"Little skunk," The beaked man said, his voice teasing but still annoyed and scary. He began to walk away from the brunette and towards the redhead. The chocolate haired girl got her dress free with a mighty tug and climbed up a tree - it took a few tries, but somehow she had gotten up there quickly and quietly. She snapped a weak branch off of the tree near her head and waited, seeing if the man heard her. He didn't turn his gaze from the redhead. The brunette began stripping leaves from the branch and breaking it into tiny hard projectiles.

The redhead laughed giddily and treated it as a game, ducking through the man's legs as he went to grab her.

Another man emerged from the trees, his mask matching the first's, but several inches shorter. He attempted to climb the tree the brunette was perched, but his shiny black shoes only slid on the smooth bark. The brunette giggled and aimed a pointy stick at his forehead. She threw it and the stick collided with his forehead, causing a tiny dent to appear in the metal of the beak. The shorter beaked man yelped in pain, putting his hand on his head and stumbling back.