Ruby Onyx

Prologue

I want to give a shoutout to my friend Claire. Though she doesn't have a wattpad she was the person who helped come up with everything in this story!

My mind wanders as I gather berries. My unnatural sunset hair catches on the branch of a large tree. Huffing impatiently, I try to untangle it. Pursing my lips in concentration, I hear an almost inaudible cry. My mind goes immediately to my sister, Emerald Tree, who I left in the safety of a sheltered clearing. Not bothering to untangle my hair now, I fumble with my knife and manage to get it out of my belt. Gripping it tightly with both hands I saw through the captured hair.

Panic clouds my vision and I can barely think straight. I sprint full speed towards the sound, tripping over branches and rocks. Stopping to catch my breath I tilt my head towards where the sound first came from. I hear it again, louder this time.
"Help me", the voice cries. This time, when I hear the voice coated with fear, overwhelming fear, I'm sure it's my sister.

I skid to a stop at the edge of the clearing, but the thing is, it's not a clearing anymore. Thick black smoke fills over half of the area. But it isn't regular smoke. Through the fog you can see fallen trees and brush. Though that isn't unusual what is, is that everything that is in the fog is slowly disintegrating, piece by piece. The most disturbing thing? In the middle of the clearing, stuck under a log, is my sister. The black fog about to cover her.

I take a step forward, my mind spinning and choosing between all my ideas. Piecing them together like a puzzle. A stick underneath my foot cracks and Emerald Tree looks at me. Pure fear swims in her eyes, pain too. Tears streak down her cheeks, making clean lines through the dirt on her face. Her short arms and chubby fingers reach out for me as she manages to pass one more thing from her lips."please help Doe"...

My heart melts and I rush to get to her. The black smoke had disintegrated a trees base and it had fallen on her. Her legs were being squeezed painfully from the extreme weight. She had passed out from the pain. Grabbing the tree, I manage to push it over into the fog that is steadily getting closer to us. It eats away at the bark and the tree slowly disintegrates . As it does, I spot an elaborate ruby pedant.

My eyes widen and my heart skips a beat. " is there someone else who actually got stuck in the fog!?", I quickly dismiss the thought from my mind. It probably belonged to a girl from the camp who dropped it gathering. I quickly grab it and stuff in my pocket. Dismissing it from thought. Just then, my sisters eyes flutter slightly. I open my mouth to tell her to get up and run, then stop. I glance at her legs. They are a mess of mangaled skin, blood, and bark.

"Ok Emerald" I whisper to her, wondering why I'm being so quiet. "I need you to wrap your arms around my neck". She gives a faint nod and raises her arms. They shake unnaturally . Suddenly her eyes widen as they focus on something behind me. She grips my arm and her mouth forms one word. "Fog".

I spin and feel a burning ache on my leg. Looking down I realize the fog is a lot closer than I thought. The burning in my leg was the fog touching it. The fog spins around my leg, soaking into me like water into a sponge. A sharp pain fills my head. My body feels like fire itself. A thousand knives are stabbing and cutting and twisting inside me. It's the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. I feel my head begin to fill and I know I'm about to pass out. Before I do, I turn back around. Yanking my leg from the fog, then gasping in extreme pain, I tell my sister one word. "Run".