Eternal Fire

Chapter 1 - Christina

For the first time in two years I was looking forward to this day. It was first day of the fall and it wasn't raining.

Trough the window I heard noise of people, who were trying to spend their day without having to cross the path with cesar's soldiers or even worse, with any of the generals.

Every night, our town goes to sleep in fear. Every day the power of the Cesar increases, and so does danger. We are not safe here anymore.

I look over the small room, which I share with my little sister Ajsha.
"Christina, what's the time?" she asks while blinking away the sleepiness in her eyes.
I looked at her and then turned my head to the clock in our room.
"Shoot, we're going to be late for school! It's too late to eat breakfast, go and dress yourself up! Quickly!" without having to repeat myself twice, she ran into the bathroom.

I stand up and put on black shirt, which is not that black anymore, while mentaly cursing at our parents for forgetting us in the house. Again.
I quickly look at myself in the mirror, to see a girl with brown chocolate eyes and brown hair.

I ran out of the house with my bag on the shoulders, seeing Ajsha right behind me. Her chicks were red, like they were painted with the bright red paint color.

St. Patrick's school is fortunaely right around the corner. If we hurry, we can make it on time.

We started to run, and when we came to the stop, Ajsha was completly breathless. I made sure she came to her class safe, at least she won't be late. Like me.
With a great pain in my legs, I start to walk to my class, while carefully looking if any teacher on duty noticed me.
I stopped myself at the doors, turning the doorknob, and waiting a second, before finaly entering the classroom
I stepped in, feeling all the eyes on me. After quietly apologising for being late, I collapsed on a chair next to my best friend Daniel. Still feeling the strong gazez on me, Daniel pointed a finger on my pants.
In school rules says, that all girls should wear blouses and skirts. And I'm not wearing any of that.
I heard my teacher sigh, and then returning back to talk about poetry. Our teacher is obsessed with poetry, it's the only thing we do in this class and it's getting pretty annoying.
I took chalk from my schoolbag and threw it into Dan's head. He looked at me and laughed.
"What's the reason today?"
I sent him a death glare.
"Our parents forgot to wake us up. Again. Dan, you have no idea how lucky you are, to have so caring parents" I chuckle. But he doesn't. I looked at him, but he was glaring with sad eyes.
"Dan, what's wrong?" i asked, my voice filled with worry. He didn't say anything, he just shaked his head and looked to the floor.

"My parents...yesterday...fire" he starts, but i already know what he's talking about. Our eyes meet, mine filled with compassion and worry.

"You can stay in my house, we have one spare mattress"
He nodded, knowing that this wasn't a question.

He didn't have anywhere else to stay, and god knows why he came to school today.

I took his hand in mine, gently squeezing it and letting go only when we had to write something down. About poetry.

I've never liked poetry. I've never really understood it, it consists meaningless sentences and I doubt that there's someone who truly understans it.

After school I went to the east wing of the school. Nobody ever realy goes there, except Daniel and I. We go there every day after school, to fight with swords.
But after the incident that happend last night to Daniel, we have to work a lot harder. For now we know how to defend ourselves with swords and how to use throwing knives.
We stole some weapons from Daniel's father from his blacksmith at very young age, so we literaly grew up with the weapon.

I looked at Dan, already waiting for me.
"We don't have to do it today, if you don't want to" I said, but he shaked with his head.
"No, it's not a good idea. Yesterday, we were caught off guard. I want you to be ready as much as possible okay?" He said with a sad smile on his face.

"Okay then. Shall we?" I said, handing him the knife.
"We shall."
Daniel thew the knife with all his strenght, and it landed right next to the center of the target.
If he was armed yesterday, I bet he could kill the plaguens who attacked his family. Plaguens. That's what we call the soldiers, who kill innocent people in our town. They are trained in the academy with the best soldiers you could find. They are mostly boys, barely any girls.

I threw my knife, watching how it landed right next to Dan's, and I give him a bright smile.
After our little training, I decided to go home. Is there even a place Daniel could call home?
I looked at him, wanting to see some emotions in his eyes, but he just looked down ad kept talking on how to correctly control my balance.

But my thoughts were somewhere else, thinking what would the world be like without the war.