Floating Petals

Prologue

Prologue

            The door burst open and a hurried figure rushed out of it. Her brown hair covered her face but you could still see her glowing green eyes. Her black dress flapped in the wind and Rose petals trailed behind her. Shots rang out in the air and she felt bullets skim the skin on her legs and cheek. An army of men rushed out of the doors after her, guns aimed on their target. Her fingers twirled and an explosion of roses blasted them back, out of her view. Wykina welcomed her with open arms and practically erased her tracks entirely while the soldiers were left standing a few feet into the forest, wondering where the hell she went. Only one greedy general went in after her, and he was determined to get his reward for capturing the rebel that killed the nobles.

            The trees wacked her in the face constantly and her arms were not doing a very good job as a shield. The clearing came fast and she leaped into its wide open space. Too bad that open space was a twenty foot drop into a river. The last thing the general saw was a flurry of brown hair and her one arm reaching to the sky. He grunted. She was done for; that was Fizzler’s Gorge, no one survived those rapids... yet. He walked away, placing his gun back on his back as usual. His hair covered his face but his smile still showed. He knew he was going to be asked to find her and he couldn’t wait to see her mangled body at the beach.

            The girl flopped into the water and was immediately dragged under by the current. She clawed at the water until she reached the top and gasped in sweet air. The current kept pulling her along, despite her constant struggle to swim. She felt warm sand under her feet and she put the last of her strength into propelling herself in that general direction. Her skull smacked against the sand and she took one deep breath as her feet kept floating in the river. She coughed up some water mixed with a little blood; at least one of her ribs was broken.

            The footsteps came closer as the girl willed herself to get up. Her clothes were already slightly dry and so she took off once again. At the first chance she got, she swung herself from a tree branch and up into the tree. The canopy was light and she leapt over gaps in the tree branches with ease. The footsteps continued in the opposite direction, confused that her body was not on the beach. The trees thinned out soon enough so the girl swung back down from the trees and continued her escape on foot.

            She came to a small clearing and in the middle of that clearing was a flag. A torn up flag from a past battle. A signal of hope for those soldiers. But it was more than hope for this girl. It was the flag of her homeland, Israphinio; which she was the only survivor of.