Aquila

Prologue

The snow fell in blankets across the forest, covering everything in a beautiful sheet of white. The sun making the snow look like a million small glittering mirrors everywhere on the ground, reflecting the small rays of sunlight.

       A small snowshoe hare peeks his white head out of his warm underground home and scans his eyes around the white ground, searching for any possible threat to his existence.

      When he deems it safe to leave, he hops out of the hole and brushes any snow off of his completely unblemished fur, with small spots of brown on his feet and stomach. Unbeknownst to him, atop a hill, not that far away from his position, a girl with her hunting rifle, aiming straight at him.

      She carefully loads a bullet into the chamber and silently repositions herself. The rabbit caught the light noise of the gun clicking. Before he could process the danger he was in, the large gun went off with a bang, ringing throughout the plains, warning any other prey within earshot. The first bullet was a near miss, the hit got his leg handicapping him from hopping away into the forest. The second was through his heart, quickly killing the small animal.

"How was that for a hunt?" asked the girl proudly as she looked to the man standing next to her.

"Pretty good job," he chuckled as he praised her. "Now let's get your kill and head back."

      The girl nodded in accordance and quickly stood, dropping the gun on the small hill now receding behind her. She swiftly, and carefully, trotted down the hill to her kill and grabbed the prey by its long ears. She held it up thrilled for the man to see, and he clapped for her. She happily ran back up the hill, the dead hare flailing around in her tight grasp.

"Not bad for your first kill of the season," the man praised once again, taking the small animal from her. "Let's head home, I bet your mother has dinner ready for us."

"Alright!" she chirped, grabbing her gun and wrapping the long leather strap of the gun over her shoulder and across her thin torso.

      They dawbled back down to their rather large darkened wood cottage home. The girl ran up the steep stairs to the front door, while her dad procrastinated a bit walking up the stairs, as to annoy the girl with his lollygaging.

"We're home!" the girl chirped.

"And how was your first day hunting, Melissa?" Her mom asked from the open kitchen.

"Awesome! Look here, I got a small snowshoe hare," she said and pointed to the dead rabbit tied to her father's belt. Her dad lifted the hare in his grasp to give his wife a better look.

"Well hand it here and we can use it for tomorrow's lunch," the woman spoke and took the animal from her husband.

"Speaking of which, what's for dinner, mom?" the girl asked jumping onto a small stool and resting her arms on the brown marble island.

"Nothing, until you clean the horse's stables," her father spoke and tickled her from behind.

"Not horse, Pegasus!" she laughed.

"Same thing, " her father concluded as Melissa shook her head. "You wanted the foal, you still have to clean up after it."

"Alright then," she groaned, hung up her gun on a hook, and trudged out in the snow. SHe stopped in front of the barn that house her pet, which was perfectly framed by the orange and purple sunset.

      As she enters, the small black Pegasus foal whinnies and bats its wings at the sight of her young friend. The girl smiles and pets the white line of soft fur on the winged horse's nose.

"Hey Oliver, how are you today?" she inquired at the small foal as she looked around at the slightly messy hay.

      She grabbed the pitchfork and began to half-heartedly throw out the old dirty hay to lay down some newer, cleaner hay for the young animal to sleep on. She also brushed the small foal's sleek and shiny black coat, very tangled tail, and unruffled the feathers of the delicate black wings.

"Alright all done!" she chirped and kissed the Pegasus's forehead. "Night, Oliver!" She called as she exits the building out into the cold night. The horse whinnied a goodbye as she left.

       As she walked back to her home, she stopped and admired the moon. Melissa always had a love for the night, that wasn't as silent as everyone says. The night is actually alive with noises. The Owls hooting to their own song, the frog's croaking giving you a sense of comfort, the cricket's chirps sounding like small bells in the night, and the beautiful harmony of wolves' howling like a choir singing in togetherness to produce songs from many sounds.

      As she listened to the alluring song of the night, she had an aching feeling that she was being watched. She straightaway stepped onto the porch, where she felt safer. She turned around only to be confronted with a large gust of cold winter wind and snow that obstructed her vision with snowflakes. Just through the snow and slightly melted sleet, she could just make out a black silhouette standing just ten meters or so from her location on the snowy porch.

      The profile reached its long slender hand toward her. Though the object could not reach her, Melissa's feet felt like stone, holding her in a single position unable to move even a finger. Fear pierced her heart tightly as she closed her eyes until they almost hurt from being under strain. The darkness of her eyelids claimed her vision, making her completely blind to anything that might happen. Instead of being pulled forward, towards the being like she thought, she was pulled backward, her shoulder slamming hard against the ground. She lay there for a while in fear of where she was before she heard a recognized voice.

"Are you gonna get up or lay there like an idiot?" The boy's voice spoke.

      Recognizing the voice almost immediately, she sat up opening her stiff eyes. She looked around the room and noticed she was in the kitchen of their small cottage. Mikayla's eyes rested on a familiar face, glaring at him.

"Darin! You scared me half to death you jerk!" She just about yelled at her brother and stood up.

"Dad just told me to check on ya, you were taking a while, dude," he explained. "And quiet down, unless you want to get a scolding from Mom."

"I didn't think I was taking that long to clean," She murmured quietly.

"Well you did. So long in fact Dad was afraid you'd disappeared in the snow," he seethed in annoyance. "I'm heading to bed, make sure you don't wake Dad, okay, dude?"

"OK, dude," she laughed as she mocked her sibling. Her brother huffed at her attempt at impersonating him. He moved swiftly through the kitchen exiting into his bedroom down the hall.

        Melissa stood up and dusted off her jeans grumbling to herself about how her brother 'could have avoided dropping her on the floor' and 'most likely did it on purpose'. She sauntered over to her bedroom door and tiredly opened and shut the door behind her, but she made sure not to close it loudly out of fear of waking her parents.

      She briskly changed into a pair of navy blue sweats and a white t-shirt to sleep in. Getting out of the thick clothing she had to wear for hunting is worth reliving. She turned off the lights in her room and threw herself onto her large bed, bouncing a few times before finally settling. Melissa completely buried herself in the blankets, and slowly, sleep began to claim her thoughts as the sound of the wind whistling and blowing the snow in spirals could be heard throughout the small room.

While she and her family slept, the being outside which had almost caught her grumbled outside. It took out its small leather book and marked the house on a map inside. It snickered before disappearing into the snow storm.