Deirdre: The Four Fates (W. I. P.)

Chapter One

Running. That is a practice I've always been accustomed to. Run fast and breathe slow. Keep your head down and keep your bow close. And always stay in front.

But that changed. It changed as fast as I could run.

**

I sat behind a tree with my friend Kay. She had short, died purple hair and a tattoo behind her ear of a spade. The kind you would find on a playing card, not a shovel. I often find myself staring at her, not out of lust or affection any further than friends, but out of admiration. She is older than I am. That means she's braver and stronger, too. She is like a sister to me.

"You're staring again," She whispers in her soft, motherly voice. I stopped feeling embarrassed when she caught me staring a long time ago. Her green eyes bright with life bringing out the purple of her permanent face paint. Dots on her forehead resembling a crown and lines on her jaw showing their strength. All of us get marked when we turn fourteen.

"Sorry. Anyways when are we going? It's almost light out."

"You just wait okay? I know what I'm doing, I'm never wrong."

I laugh at this. Half because it's true and half because I'm still not sure what's going on. "Am I waiting for the new year or what? My bow is going to rust from how long it's been on the grass." I look to my left and absently stroke the metal frame of the curved weapon. There were carvings in it; I didn't put them there and I am not sure who did. I like them though.

Kay says something about how metal doesn't rust anymore and that she is hungry when a soft ray of light that comes out of nowhere lands right between my eyes. Out of instinct I jump up and grab my bow, holding it in my left hand and reaching half behind me for an arrow.

Laughter rains from behind me and Kay is rolling on the floor, loving my paranoia.

"Stop making noise you're gonna get their attention." I nod my head towards a camera we had tore down from a tree a few hours ago. It was no longer blinking red, but since we had missed it when we first sat down here I feared that the Dim had seen us.

"Deirdre. There's nothing here but a dead Recorder," She points at the camera and gives me her warm smile still recovering from laughing, "stop being so worried."

I know I'm not the most chill. But it's hard to be once you've seen the Dim storm your home and take your family from you. I don't remind her of this.

"Dee, sit down please you're making me anxious."

I find a nearby log to sit on and play with the moss on the top of it. It is amazing how things can live where other things have died. Not even realizing it is slowly taking advantage of the little life the tree has left. I lean my bow on the log next to me.

"Anyways," Kay says loud enough to get my attention, "We are waiting for daytime. Don't give me that look. I know we should move at night. But we're looking for a friend of mine who only opens shop at noon. We don't want to get there earlier or later than it opens. So we leave in, " She puts her hand to the sky and avoids the fact she has on a watch, "hmm…Ten minutes, so hold tight."

"Who's this friend of yours then?"

She ignores me and starts clicking on and off the safety for her pistol. That's okay. I sigh and take off my hood, running my hands over my head. Before we left, I had shaved my head one last time. You can't take chances when your primary weapon is a bow. Can't risk getting my hair stuck or any other potential accidents. We've been traveling so long that now it is starting to grow back in soft brown fuzz.

Next my hands find their way to my face. Reminding me of my own marks. My fingers trace the line on the bridge of my nose, the dots under my eyes, the stroke of paint going from my 'Cupid's Bow' through the middle my lips to my chin to my neck. The line disappears past my collar bone as my curious fingers remind themselves. It's been so long since I've looked in a mirror that I forgot what color I had chosen.

I search my pocket to find a small compact mirror. We keep them for emergencies. If one of us were to get lost we would shine a light onto it to signal to the other person, hopefully not alerting the Dim. But now I am using it to remember who I chose to make myself. I look at my tan skin, wide nose, and pursed lips. Blue. I picked blue. Now I don't remember why.

There's a crack behind me. Followed by a snap. Followed by a sharp hush and quick steps through fallen leaves. I knew they saw us in the Recorder. I put away the mirror and calmly pick up my bow walking silently to Kay. She recognizes my sudden quiet and looks at the sky. She signs to me, *it's time to go anyways.*

*good which way are we going? *, I ask her.

She doesn't respond but starts heading south to the desert. There's a small sand village called Teriah; I assume that is our target.

Before I follow Kay, I take a pocket knife from my belt and carve 'just missed us' into the tree we had been waiting under. I think about adding a heart to my message but the Dims were closer than I had thought, pushing past a bush into my view. Fortunately, they are looking the way opposite me which gives me time to run quietly and catch up to my purple haired lead.

**

Stepping over twigs and gliding through tall grass I ask her, *why do we need to go here?*

*This friend of mine owes me a favor. I'm calling it in now, * She pushes a branch out of her face and let's it go gently behind her.

*Money?* I ask smiling.

*No.* she laughs slightly at this. Her laugh is adorable.

*What? A place back in the tribe?* I was only half joking with this. I knew the tribe wouldn't take us back. In fear for our lives we left in secret. Leaving a big sign that we would never be back. But if her friend could get us in no problem, we could rebuild our lives. Safely.

*Still no. With the tribe thinking we've got a thing for each other, we're not allowed back there ever. Which is ridiculous* She taps the tattoo behind her ear.

I suppress laughter so the Dim are still clueless as to where we are. I glance away from her hands to the yellow and red flowers that flourish in the moisture of the forest. They are beautiful. So different in appearance but the same in grace. In this moment I wish I was a flower.

Kay stops and looks for a recorder. They are all over this place. She points to our upper left and moves right. I follow. She's always been careful and it's always paid off. We move out of the way of the spying camera. I can feel now the air getting drier. We're getting closer to Teriah.

We walk quickly. Quietly. This is why I realize now that my bow is softly clinking against my pocket knife in rhythm with my steps. I almost leave it making noise, decide against it, and readjust my weapon. In doing this I slow down; making my stride shorten. The change in pace causes me to miscalculate a step and snap a fallen branch under my foot. I stop. Kay stops. Three nearby recorders swivel our direction. Blinking red with anticipation of our next move. Kay hadn't seen them.

Her hands ball into fists, her knuckles turn white. I hear a sigh come from her of disappointment. I can't tell which of us it's directed to. She starts running. I start running. In situations like these, the silence is the most jarring thing. Our silent steps, our silent breathing, our silent hatred for the Dim. The last is admittedly less silent.

I could see her hair rise and fall. Purple cascades of stealth. She looks behind her at me to make sure I'm there, then runs onto a log that had fallen and made a bridge over a stream.

I follow, but lose my footing. Slipping off the log wasn't as bad as falling into the freezing water below. It's shallow. I get up and climb onto the bank to catch up. My legs are now tense from the cold and don't want to work, but I make them. I have to. We have to leave this forest.