Nobody can help us, they don't know what we've been through. Seen it all, experienced it all a thousand times more than any human being. No, we're not human, yes, there's more than one. What are we? That's an excellent question, we're not certain. Soon, we're hoping to find out. Once we get help, somehow, there's got to be a way. We're immaculate at almost anything we experiment upon. My name is Pieper and I'm part of an alliance made up of six, including me. We have to stay undercover, we can't encounter with humans. Our forerunner has faith in us that we have the strength to stay away from them. He believes we're called 'free runners' and nobody doubts him. However, there is one person who doesn't believe what our forerunner told us, his name is Thaddeus and he's my brother. He's elder than I, but acts of the same age on some occasions. We're not absolute about out age, but we've all learned to estimate.
Ali, Bryon, Hal, Elwood, Thaddeus and I are the alliance. Ali is the oldest, about twenty. She's got dull, yellow eyes, the color of sand. Her hair is the glow of grey, together it's as if Ali was mixed on an artists' paint pallet. Bryon is the next to oldest, around 18. His eyes are a piercing sky blue. His complexion is to fit the shade of light sandpaper. His hair isn't anything to match, it's as dark as a crow's feather. Thaddeus, about the age of 17. His complexion is dark and his eyes are the most beautiful shade of green. His hair is very brown and he says he's trying to keep it a buzz cut. Technically, him and I aren't related, but he's the nicest to me. Next, Hal. He's about 15 years old and has a temper way bigger that his size. His eyes are light lavender and his bright carrot-red hair is shoulder length. Elwood equals out to be around 14 years old. His eyes are the darkest brown and his hair is parallel. His complexion is ghostly pale which makes him stand out amongst the others. Lastly there's me. My hair expands all the way to my waist and it's a brown, but in the sun you can see streaks of purple. My eyes are said to be dark blue, but I wouldn't know, I've never looked in a mirror. I'm the youngest, estimated about twelve.
Together, all of us looked as if we belonged to a freak show. It's not that we're freaks, although Hal is soon to cross that line. It's not that we're too tall, or too short, it's just that we're...different. We're not like humans, we don't act the same and we don't seem the same. You could walk into a room filled with a hundred people, and then add us and you could pick us out because you could sense we didn't belong. We've never been around humans, but our forerunner, Javier, has and says it's best if we stay away. Javier is the oldest, about 25. He's the one who knows the most about us, what happens when we do something and what we are and aren't supposed to do. But I warn you, what happens next, Javier would have never expected it. It shocked us all, and it messed up a lot of things that you should never mess up. If you mess up, you'll never be able to undo it, no matter how hard you believe you can.
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We live in trees in the forest on the outskirts of Highwood, Montana. Yes, you're thinking 'Why trees, can't you be civilized and live in a house or an apartment or a trailer?' Yes, well think again, we can't live in them because there's people who live around those and that doesn't fit our style. So yes, trees, but they're a lot more comfier than you think. In the forest, there's six trees in a perfect circle and we each claimed one. The trees were pretty much hollowed out when we found them, we just had to dig a little bit deeper and add our own little sparkle to make it ours. Ali is a cloth maker, so she supplies us with clothes and pillows and blankets. Bryon is the cook, he can make everything out of anything and make it taste great. Hal is just kind of there, he doesn't do much except eat and sleep. But he's good to talk to when you want to just talk. Elwood is an archer, he catches the food and gives it to Bryon to cook. Once, Elwood caught a deer and gave us dinner for about a month. We don't eat a lot at one meal. Thaddeus is the compass, he knows where we are all the time. It's as if he's got a magnet in him that works as a human compass. I don't do much yet, we start to develop our gifts.
I lay awake tonight, thinking of what my gif may be. Maybe it'll be naturist, that way I could talk to animals and gather berries for food. Maybe I'll become a... I lost my train of thought at the sound of a twig crunching. We've all got excellent hearing and eyesight. I opened my eyes and peeked out of the mouth of my tree. I didn't see anything, so maybe it was just a figment of my imagination. I look to my left and saw Elwood drooling in his sleep. I smiled and continued to check on my family. I saw a foot that belonged to Hal. A weird thought popped into my head: Hal has huge feet! I shook my head and looked at the next tree. The next tree was across from mine and it belonged to Ali. She had made a little butterfly silhouette out of a giant green leaf. How she did that was beyond me, but it's her talent. Next to her tree was Bryon's. Bryon's tree seemed to be vacant, until I heard the faint snore coming from his direction. In between Bryon and I was Thaddeus' home. Poor Thaddeus, he never really got any sleep due to his protection over me. It seems like he's always watching over me, like his eyes never leave me. He loved me, everyone knew that. The kind of love was protective love, like a father. I've never had a father, not that I can remember. So Thaddeus is trying the best he can and I love him for that. I didn't realize I was looking at him while my thoughts tossed and turned. I zoned back to life, and noticed he was awake as well. He smiled his significant soft smile. I smiled back and mouthed the words "'Night, love you". He nodded as of understanding and mouthed "love you too". I curled around the inside of the tree like a dog on a pillow. I found myself at a comfortable position and looked up. The tree was hollowed out, but just enough for me to have room to move around. Finally, I drifted to sleep and had no dream. We aren't supposed to have dreams, but sometimes we get glimpses of figures, never really any dream that makes sense.
I awoke the next morning and looked out the opening of the tree to see everyone sitting in a circle. They were just talking and tearing leaves apart to pass the time.
"Well good morning lovely," Ali smiled as I came out of my sprout.
"Morning" I said putting a faint smile on my face. Bryon and Thaddeus scooted over so I could sit down. I didn't see it, but there was a little fire burning in the middle. Right then I realized that it was kind of a chilly morning. I was surprised that Hal was up, but he seemed to be drifting back to sleep.
"So, what are we doing today?" I questioned the group. I got some replies like "Dunno" or "Nothing". Hal's response was "Going back to bed". I eyed him and he looked away as if I weren't.
"I want to do something today, like go hiking or go on a trail. I 'm tired of moping around like a ghost, and I know everybody else is," I said folding my arms and looking at each of their faces.
"We all are, but where are we going to go?" Bryon asked with his lips forming a frown.
"Yea, we're all tired of being here, but we've got no choice," Hal said with a far off look in his eyes. We all sighed and looked into the fire.
