Winterspell

As I am

Prelude

Black-clad figures with muffled faces skitter through a courtyard, swarming over walls like spiders and running lightly across rooftops, quick as cats, as though gravity was nonexistent.

The black silhouettes poured from room to room as they checked for their target finally they approached the main room.

An unsuspecting samurai sleeps peacefully as the shadows permanently silence his body guards. The bedroom door slides open without a sound, an up-raised blade glints in the moonlight, and...

We all know the story and how it all ends, head ninja falls in love with beautiful girl from village who in turn kills him in order to protect her family, from the feudal lord's clutches and then overcome by grief she does away with herself... typical sad story.

I tossed the paper back across the room at my open closet. I couldn't bear to read another one of the boringly predictable books. That had been the fifth one and it still had not a shred of originality. I sighed and then yawned as I realized how tired I was.

Looking out the window the purple light of dusk had faded to black and ambient starlight shone in a potentially infinite distance.

Below more of the walk way lay in shadow than in lamplight.

I shifted my gaze to the other side of the road and I held on to the curtains in, what I think up to this day was fear.

I felt my knuckles go white as my grip tightened.

Who was that?

The person staring back at me, my breath became short and ragged.

Slowly the person stepped back and slipped in to the shadows as If they were one of the same.

And just like that, the person vanished. I blinked twice and looked again... no-one.

"I must really be tired," I muttered to myself.

I glanced at the time.

3:33

"Crap!" I yelped as I realized how late it was, "if I go to sleep now I might still be able to wake in time for school!"

I dove in bed and switched off the lamp...

Soon after, I fell into a dark, empty, dreamless, abyss.

Hirahame is pronounced as hi-ra-ham-ay

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Chapter 1:

FROM THE SHADOWS...

I woke to the smell of waffles. The sweet scent lingered heavily in the room making my mouth water.

Slowly I sat up and forced myself out of bed, I was still tired but who could resist the tempting scent?

Oh... yeah if you're reading this then you're going to need a name to call me by or It'll just get extremely confusing... only there's a problem. You see there's this group of people who would like just that, to have my name and given the circumstances I can't really do that. If I did I'd probably be dead before this even gets published. So you can call me... Alice ... yeah I like that. That's the name am going to use.

You could say that my life was normal, yeah, I was the most normal girl you would've expect to find, I mean sure I've been called a tom-boy a few times....

Ok maybe a lot...

So what if I like climbing and football? And other stuff girls ... shouldn't like... ok whatever am a tom-boy sue me.