Into the Night

Chapter 1 (Scarlet)

The large brown buck fell to the ground, dead, into a large oval of blood.  It wasn't Scarlet's best shot, but she killed the animal before it got away.  She walked over to the animal, looking at its large brown eyes.  Her heart cringed, and she could feel strings wrapping around it, trying to squeeze as hard as they could.  Ever since she was little, she had a passion for hunting, but she also loved animals.  One tear for every animal, she thought to herself as a single tear ran down from her left eye.  

Suddenly, a twig crunched a few paces behind her.  She froze, slowly turning around to see who the unknown hunter was.  Nobody was there.  The trees seemed to surround her, trying to look for a way to kill her.  Thankfully, her hunter instincts kicked in, and she knew she needed to run.  Long legs bounded through fallen trees and ditches.  Footsteps followed quickly behind her.  Scarlet knew this was someone looking for trouble, so she had an argument with herself on if she should kill them.  

Behind her, the footsteps got closer, until someone wrapped their arms around Scarlet's waist.  She kicked hard behind her.  A low grunt sounded as her foot smashed against someone's knee.  While the predator was subdued, Scarlet crouched down, then swung the person onto the ground in front of her.  Surprisingly, whoever it was made little sound, even though it should have hurt immensely to be thrown like that.  The figure looked to be a male, somewhere around 6' tall with broad shoulders and strong arms.  He was wearing a black cloak to blend in with the night.  Scarlet leaned closer to his face and pulled the hood away from him.  A tan face with eyes that matched a greenish, blueish lake with fog met her dark skin and musty red eyes.  He looked at her in surprise; almost everyone did when they saw her for the first time.

Scarlet grabbed the collar of his jet black cloak roughly and whispered, "Why were you following me?"  He was going to lie, she could tell by his eyes, but then he stopped himself.  It was like he had decided it wasn't worth it to lie to her.

"Someone is looking for you,"  tdhe handsome soldier replied in a cool tone of voice.  It was as though he was made of ice; when Scarlet's hand briefly touched his skin, she froze.  She shoved him to the ground with a look so violent that his green eyes shifted into something more dangerous.  

Scarlet gasped as she opened her eyes.  Her grey bed sheets rumpled around her on the hard bed.  It was only a dream.  She sat up and looked around the small room.  Very few items were placed there, but the ones that did were magic, in a way.  For Scarlet's entire life she had lived in this tiny log cabin in the woods.  Ever since her mother died and her father left, she was on her own.  This was one of the reasons she was a great hunter; she had to make it alone for so long, and she had learned many lessons in these woods.  Scarlet stood up and walked over to her wooden chair where a black hunting suit was laid out.  Today was not just any ordinary day; it was Hunting Day.  All of the best hunters gathered at the kingdom to play some hunting games, drink, and make fools of themselves.

All of the sudden a small child appeared by the fireplace in front of Scarlet's room.  She had silky brown hair that looked red in the light and pale grey eyes.  Everything about her screamed, "Love me!"  She reminded Scarlet so much of her mother; they were both rebels with fiesty personalities.  

"Aniko, you know you can't use your magic for frivolous things!"  Scarlet scolded with a frown.  At the young age of 12, she was forced to play the role of a mom for her 10 year old sister.  Even though Scarlet was now 18 and Aniko 16, Scarlet still had motherly instincts around her younger sister.  

 Aniko slumped over onto the chair with a sad look.  With her left hand, she used her magic to pull a few water droplets from the glass on the counter to the air.  This was a habit she had picked up from her father; whenever he was sad, he would toss orbs of water into the air and play with them as though they were toys.  "I told Brenden we couldn't be together.  I didn't want to hurt him."  Aniko said with a sigh.  Scarlet knew how the story went: her sister would toy with a boy, they would kiss, then Aniko would break it off and tell him to leave.  She never knew why her sister did it, but she had a sneaking suspicion it was because of her parents.

"I'm sorry, Niko.  Maybe it was for the best, though?  If you had gotten too close, he wouldn't learned about the magic,"  Scarlet replied, rushing over to her sister to kiss the top of her head.  She hated that her sister couldn't get close to anyone else, but if they knew about the magic. . .

Her sister wiped the few tears that fell, then stood with her head held high.  "Scar, I know you don't want to go to the festival, but it's about time we have some fun."  

"That's crazy!"  Scarlet exclaimed.  "What if we accidently used our magic, and someone saw us?"  The center of Niko's eyes creased, but then went back to normal as she found a solution.

Aniko grabbed a black jacket and pulled a small, purple vile out of a pocket.  It shone in the light, glittering crystals everywhere.  "This,"  she started, "will subdue our powers for one day."