The Others

Chapter 1

Hi, awesome person who has stumbled upon my book! As a reward for deciding to peek at my book you get chocolate! Yay! *hands out chocolate* And for anyone out there who can't eat it - here is your favorite sweet *hands out sweets*. (Lots of friends with allergies so...yeah)

Okay before I ramble about a bunch of nonsense, rules. I'm serious here. Make sure you read and abide by them all. :)

1) Do not copy any of my ideas, characters, settings, or plot. If you see anything that is from my book that is copied, please PM me the link.

2) This is a clean book. There will be no swearing or explicit material. If you don't like clean books, stop reading now.

3) Please keep your comments clean of cuss words. If you don't, the comment will be removed.

4) Please do not advertise your works in this book. There are places for that - this is not one of them. However, if you have media you'd like to be put in, feel free to PM me and I'll be happy to add it!!

So yeah anyway I'm Lillian here on Wattpad (you can just call me Lilly I guess....I dunno ;P). Thanks for deciding to read my experimental trial at finishing a book! I've never actually finished one yet, so if y'all like it I will keep writing. Anyway (do I say 'anyway' too much?) you probably clicked the Read button to actually read the story, so here goes nothing!

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I burst out of the undergrowth, panting furiously. I have to keep running, though I have a cramp in my abdomen from the slash I acquired a few days ago. It throbs as it had the day I received it, but I have to continue.

I dash away again, ducking under low branches and fighting through long-deserted cobwebs. There is no life in this part of the forest. I reach a clearing, and bend over, gasping for breath. I think I must have escaped for now. I have to rest, if only for a moment.

Looking up, I take in my surroundings. There is a lake spread out before me, the waves lapping against my weathered boots, and the water is icy cold, though it is only June. More trees lie on the other side of the lake, and the trees are stock still, without the rustle of birds or squirrels. I can see the gray, stormy sky above me, and sorely miss the bright cobalt blue it had been yesterday. I have never been in this part of the forest before, which says something, as I have lived in them for the past 4 years.

A twig snaps behind me, and I whip around, my heart skipping a beat. I se nothing, though I am still tense. There was definitely something, there. Now it steps out of the shadow of a tree.

It is a girl. She looks like me, almost, with scraggly brown hair, bright blue eyes, and an intelligence about her. I know I must look about the same, rough as the trees surrounding us. She looks as scared as I feel, too. We simply stare at each other, taking one another in. I am the first to speak.

"Who are you?" I ask. She tilts her head, as if pondering how much to tell me. "Shella," she finally replies. "And you?"

"Aquani." I say. Shella nods, and neither of us say anything else for a while. I am still puzzling over the fact that there is someone else in the forest which I had known to be soley mine and the animals previously. She seems to think the same thing. It is funny, how alike we are already.

"Four years," she says, and I take that to mean she has been in the forest for that time. "Me too," I say. She looks surprised, and then finally starts to spill out all of the questions that we both are thinking.

"Where have you been living? How old are you? Are you even real? Why are you in the forest?" she asks all in a rush. I answer each of her questions one at a time.

"I don't want to tell you where I live, I'm 14, I am a real human, and I don't need you to know why I'm here. It's personal."

I think about why I was here and shudder, then hold back tears. This is not something I want to think about now.

She nodds, her lips tight in concentration. I look at her inquiringly, and she answers her own questions for me.

"I live a bit beyond here, I don't know how old I am, I'm real, and I've lived here the majority of my life with my older brother, Simon."

"Simon?" I ask. "He isn't from around here, is he?" Most everyone born in in these parts had a nature-related name. Simon was definitely not a nature name.

"No," Shella answers, reaching up to a branch in the tree above her and tearing off a thin but strong-looking branch. "Not around here." She promptly took a roll of string from her pocket, ripping off a piece with her teeth. She then pulled a pocket knife from her belt and made a hole in the end of the stick, and tied the string through it. Obviously she was not going to let my presence prevent her from doing what she intended to do here.

"So," she prompts, attaching a bent nail to the end of the string as a hook and sticking a worm on it. "Why were you just running like your life depended on it?" Shella sat down by the lake, waving her custom fishing pole and letting the end sink in the water. I am taken aback, surprised by her frank question. How much of my frantic sprint had she seen? She looks up at me expectantly.

"Well," I say, sitting cross-legged a little beside her and wincing slightly as I feel the slash in my side protest. I have decided I can trust her for now, though I will still be cautious. "I suppose I'll start at the beginning. It's a long story." 

"I've got time."

-/-/-

So how'd you all like it? Let me know what you think! Any feedback I get will be greatly appreciated and even if you didn't like this (I know it is not possible to please everyone), please let me know what you didn't like in a respectful way and I will do my best to fix it! I have noticed a lot of people have read the first chapter but not the second. Thanks!