Crossfire

7 Part 2

Palka smiled with satisfaction as Kimdie began her story.

(Kimdie's POV)
(Flashback. Eleven years ago)

"Get back here, you no good Blue-hairs!" the man chasing yelled. I was scared. Why was mad at us for our hair? We were a from a race of people who had small, icy blue steaks in our otherwise white hair, and people found this strangeness as a reason to be mad at us. We didn't do anything.

We were just walking by his shop, looking for something to buy. Then he ran out of there with a butter knife. Sure, he could never really hurt us, but it was still scary. Mom took me and Kineou by our hands and started running.

"Guards! Those are thieves! They stole from my shop! Get them!" the man said to the people on horseback.

"But we didn't steal anything," Kineou pouted to our mother. She ignored him and kept running through the streets, taking as many corners as she could, throwing rocks the opposite ways they went. Sometimes it worked, and the growing group of guards split into two. But they would catch us.

When we had some distance from them, Mom stopped. She set us behind a pile of balls in an alley and said, "Stay here until you're sure they're gone. Then go to a different district as soon as you can. Please. I love you both so much." Then she kissed us and started running again.

We stayed there for the rest of the day and a night, then when the sun started to rise we left. At first we just went to a different town, because we didn't really know what a district was. Then we caught a ride to district four, and two years later we went to district three and Chrilst.

The chief guard found us begging at the side of a road and decided that was no place for seven year olds. So he took us in to the castle where we did small house keeping chores in turn for a place to stay and food. Eventually we both decided we wanted to become knights, so that's what we're training for now.

One of the servants gave us something that would change our hair color, and we would have to take it one every year. I stopped taking it after the third year there, but Kineou kept it up. He claimed that his white hair made him look girly, even though I didn't think so.

Two years after that, Kineou went back to our hometown in search of our mother with other guards, but they found no trace of her. There was the possibility that she skipped town, but we both knew that wasn't likely.

(3rd Person)

Kimdie finished her story with a grim expression. "So yeah. We've lived here since we were seven, but it's more like our whole lives, since we were never safe in our old home. Now we're happy."

"Do you ever wish you would've gone after your mother? Or ever thought about looking around more for her?" Palka asked quietly.

"I've thought about it, yes, but have come to the conclusion it would be a waste of time. We loved our mom, but finding her would require a lot of resources and time. And what would we do if we did find her? It's not like we could just leave in the middle of training. Maybe after our training we could look for her."

Palka could tell that the last couple of sentences were said by Kimdie to reassure herself of her decisions. Sometimes choices were hard to deal with, but Kimdie had made her's and stuck with it. That was admirable.

But sometimes choices are regrettable.

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