Prologue
Thirteen years earlier
A scream echoed out side Dakota's door, waking her from deep sleep. She sat up, confused. She perched up on her elbow blinking hard, trying to see in the pitch black room. Maybe she imagined it. She started to lie back down when a loud bang rang through the house, followed by another scream. Dakota sat straight up, heart pounding, eyes wide with fear. She didn't imagine that! She sat there holding her breath waiting for something to happen. She could hear more loud bangs and more screams and pounding feet as if people were running away from something. The bangs sounded like those wierd weapons she saw in daddy's "safe" room. The memory flashed before her eyes; he would aim the weapon at the wall and then the strange tool would spit out fire and make nasty holes in the wall. Daddy had caught her watching and told her to never come near those strange weapons that had came in diffrent shapes and sizes and were displayed on the wall. Dakota had told daddy she would obey him, but she could not take her eyes off that wall with the holes. She couldn't imagine what that thing could do to people. She had shivered and left daddy to his training. As she went up the stairs she could hear daddy shooting the weapon again, the loud bangs echoing behind her. These bangs she was hearing now, brought her back to the present. Dakota sat there, curled in her covers, crying, but not daring to make one single little sound as she listened to more bangs and sreams. Then out of no where, the smell of smoke filled the room. Something was burning. She sat there for another minute, the smoke making her cough when her door banged open. A stranger stood there, and the look on his face, (a mix of evil and crazinest) made her shrink back. He stood there for a second just looking at her with those scary dark eyes and then he smiled at her. He was pulling something out of his bag. It was a needle, little Dakota had received a needle before and she didn't like at all. The man strode over to her, she screamed and toppled off the bed and landed painfully on her hands and knees bringing tears to her eyes. She was about to scramble up when a hand grabbed her hard on her arm, yanking her painfully onto her knees. The scarey man was about to poke her arm with the needle, when a roar came from behind him. The man whipped around lifting the same wierd weapon that daddy had, but it was too late. Mommy grabbed him by the head and twisted until Dakota heard a snap. The man fell limp to the floor. Mommy walked up to little Dakota (who was curled up in a ball) and took her little chubby hand in hers. "We need to go, baby." She said gently. "Where?" Dakota said fighting back tears. "I don't know, we just need to get out of here." Dakota whimperd, "why?" "The people we have been running from have finally found us." Mommy picked Dakota up and ran as fast as she could out of the room. Smoke clogged Dakotta's lungs instantly and she gagged. Mommy was quick to get outside, but the smoke never left them. It wasn't just the house burning it was the whole forest around their house! Her once beautiful forest was now being embraced by the flame. Dakota and her family always built campfires in thier backyard and they would roast marshmallows and sometimes hotdogs. She'd enjoyed the fires in the pit. She never grew bored watching the flame. She loved the way that fires always moved diffrently and told diffrent story's. But seeing all the flames now, scared her and made her never want one of those campfires again. Mommy was running incredibly fast, trying to get out of the smoldering blaze. The heat of the flame was making Dakota's skin prickle and the smoke burning her lungs each time she inhaled a breath, making her gag and cough. Mommy was coughing too but continued to run. They were running out of time! After about three minutes of non-stop running, Mommy started to get desperate, sobbing and trying as hard as she could to find a way out, but the flames swarmed around them, threatening to swallow them whole, But then; there it was, an opening, their escape. Mommy dashed for it, cradling Dakota's face with her hand pressing her face into mommy's shoulder. The opening was the cliff that Dakota's older sister always jumped off of and would splash into the water below, and that was exactly what Mommy and Dakota did now. Mommy ran three steps, jumped...and then they were falling. Dakota screamed then held her breath at the last second as they hit the water. Water filled her nose and mouth, and as they resurfaced she coughed and gagged the water out. Dakota looked over mommy's shoulder and could see, on the cliff top, the flames, killing the rest of the forest. Tears filled Dakota's eyes. Her forest...gone! There was a howl on the other side of the lake and when Dakota looked over, she could see the biggest dog she'd ever seen in her three years of life on the shore. But, despite the dog's size, she knew there was no need to be afraid. She knew this dog, he wasn't dangerous. "Oh thank god!" Mommy said with a small smile swimming over to the dog. Yes! They were safe at last! Mommy reached the shore and they both callapsed beside the dog, both giving him a great big hug. "I'm so glad you're alright!" Mommy gasped and kissed the dark brown dog on the head. When she pulled back, a loud bang made Dakota's ears ring...and blood splattered..mommy callapsing...dead. Dakota screamed the dog snarled/whimpred. Men came out of no where surrounding them. The dog attacked...then stopped as Dakota felt a sharp pinch on her arm, making her yelp. Ice spread through her viens, The dog reeled, racing back...then several men pounced on the dog pinning it, as the dog fought back, hands grabbed Dakota, picking her up and dragging her away. Blackness was clouding her vision. She tried to fight but her mucles wouldn't respond. She reached out a hand towared the dog, desperate to get back to it. "No!" She whispered before everything went dark.
My name is Dakota Elanor Tarrako, and this is my story...
Chapter one coming soon...
