The journey

Key woke one afternoon, the dazzling rays of sun coming in through the grimy window. She groaned and opened her bright blue eyes. Once everything came into perspective she saw her dark brown hair, long and curly with blue and green streaks in it. She hastily pushed it out of the way and saw as always, her dingy little room with a small dresser, a small window, pale yellow rug, a small treasure chest and a bed. Though it was little and lacked many riches a bedroom could have, it did well enough for key. She lived alone in a small house a little ways from the city. She lived alone because she had no one, all her family had been claimed in the relentless wars that never seemed to end in the city. Only her 18 year old brother remained, but he was a soldier and she didn't even know if he was alive, she didn't know anything about him really. But she did know one thing, he had showed her this little house about a year ago and though it wasn't much no one knew it existed, and it wasn't in the city were she would be in danger. The few belongings she had were mostly clothes and weapons. Weapons you may ask? Well she had to eat somehow.

Today was like any other day in keys mind. She dressed and then washed in the small river beside her home, and was retrieving her knives to go hunt before the sun had even reached its peak in the sky.

All went well until she heard something, yes it was calling her name, or so it seemed. "Hello?" She called cautiously. She knew her mom would be scolding her to never talk to strangers, if she was there, and hadn't previously ran away with her little brother Arnold, in the middle of the night, two years ago. She felt that horrible feeling seeping through her like she always did when she thought of her long lost family, no, just don't think about it, she told herself like always, and for the moment she did. That's because that voice she had heard earlier was beckoning to her again, only this time it was closer. " key, in here quick, trust me." She didn't know her next move but found herself kneeling down and crawling into a small concealed cave. " hello?" She called again. "Hi." What somehow that voice was familiar she just couldn't put her finger on it. Instead she turned and found, was it really, yes it was, Parker her older brother the soldier. He gave a warm smile and said "I had a feeling I'd find you here!" "We'll here I am...so what is it?" The sting of rejection was returning for she had remembered two years ago at 18, where he could have chose me instead of war, but he didn't. He said it was some stupid duty, but he was my only family left, wasn't I his top priority? I mean there is a endless stream of want-to-be boys that could be soldiers, but brothers, there was only one person for the job, but it seemed he had quit before he was even hired. "Oh." He said the tone in which he said it seemed to say he had caught on too what I was thinking about, but he continued trying to make the hopeless better, like always. " key, you know I will be done in the army in just a couple years, we are already planning how to defeat the west! Please just give me two more years and I'll be all yours I promise!" "No Parker, it just doesn't work like that! I needed you, need you, and all you say is no! Well I've had enough, I'm 14 and can live perfectly fine all by myself now, no thanks to you! I just want you to leave me alone, before I get to attached! Because who knows, two years from now or sooner you could be dead. Never be done, never be ready to help me, your little sister! I'm sorry this was clearly a mistake, please just go!" " it's not like that, but fine I'm leaving already. I just stopped in to see if you were ok, because I do care about you. I would leave and come here if I could, you know I would. But I can't, they would shoot me for desertion; bye then key, be safe."

And he was gone just like that, maybe to return in two years, or maybe not.

CHAPTER 2