The Sleeping Prison

Prologue

She sat in her tree, far from everything. The weeping willow was her only friend in the whole world. She was only 8.
Her fair skinned forehead wrinkled in thought as she remember the other girls reactions to her. The scared and disgusted faces that she never thought girls her age could make.
She had just wanted to show them what she could do, not what she was. She was a built like a runner, she was strong too, and tall for her age. Much better at sports than all of the other girls, she acted like a boy, her father's daughter, but because of this they hated her.
Her father had wanted a son so he treated her like a son, her mother had died not long after she was born. She was a rebellious little scamp, always getting into trouble. Her and her father used to go and make a mess of neighbors yard, or release a toad in the common room of the public house, but now she was so far from him even when he was right next to her.
She had gone too far when she decided to dress like a boy and go into a all boys school to see what they learned. To see if it was different, to see if the reason women weren't as smart was because of school.
She was only curious, like any other child but unlike her and her father's pranks this one had purpose. She was right of course but look where it got her.
He had stayed home in the town of mighty homes, wile she went to the school for rebellious young girls, were she would be taught "manners". Like to see them try.
Crunch. Crunch Footsteps, she heard him before she saw him. A young boy, not much older than her was skipping along, she hoped he would miss her. He wore rags of the poor people, his face was covered in dirt and he didn't seem to mind.
His skipping slowed to a walk as if he sensed she were there. He turned toward the tree, looking directly at her, well not at her, he was too far and was clearly trying to identify her shape. But even from this distance she could still see the blue of his eyes.
She froze, closed her eyes, got very still, and willed herself to fade. I'm not here, I'm a simple breeze, I'm part of the tree.
"It's not like I can't see you," the boy yelled. She opened her eyes, he was standing on the ground right in front of her. "Your right there,"
"Well I didn't want to scare you," she yelled back. "For all you know I'm a monster," she giggled then the events of today flooded back.
"Well everyone seems to think that. Maybe I am a monster." She said it so quietly, she hoped that he hadn't heard the personal little sentence.
'Too bad' the world seemed to say as the boy said, "I don't think your a monster, there is nothing scary about you."
She looked up from her hands she had been studying to see him almost effortlessly scale the tree, as well as she could.
He scooted down the branch, sitting next to her like she was his friend, not her enemy. The only person who had done this was father.
"Why do you think your a monster? I mean your clearly not but why?" He asked looking at her, almost not seeing what she really was.
"None of the others girls like me. I'm not like them." She whispered.
He smiled, "well who said being like those girls was a good thing? I sure don't want to be like those girls."
She smiled, she looked out over the trees and plants that were all natural, in the oldest weeping willow, the only one that survived the apocalypse. It was the last forest, and also the start of a friendship, a friendship between people who were supposed to be at war. The rich of the north and the poor of the south.
In the neutral zone, the forest were the war wasn't booming. It was peace and this forest stretched all across the Americas. Hundreds of miles but never used by people other than her and outcast children and this boy.
"Let's be friends, my names Julian," The boy stated holding out his hand.
"My name is..." she though for a second, her name really wasn't her name then said "Leo." And grabbed his hand and shook it, and she smiled.
She remembered what her father said about her smile, the birthmark which looked like a lion roared when she smiled.