(Versions of) Tangled Stars

Version 2 chapter 1

Chapter 1

    Marco hated ice. Though he knew his grandmother, a kind and old fashioned woman, would have reminded him, “Hate is a strong word, dear.” He wished for her peaceful,warm and loving cottage. Instead, he woke up in the middle of a forest surrounded by ice and snow. The snow was worse, the white hideousness surrounded him everywhere he looked. The birds wouldn’t sing and the plants wouldn’t dare to grow. The snow went on forever, everywhere he looked, which gave him a sudden urge to scream. A million thoughts went through his head, Where am I? Of course, that was  the most obvious of someone in his situation. This had to be some sick joke, but he didn’t know anyone strange enough to come up with it. Of course, he had to escape, but why was he even there?

Marco started to laugh hysterically. This couldn’t be real. He told himself. He started to move his feet around to kick his boots out of the ice and snow. To his surprise, they started to break free which caused him to panic. He moved his hands through his curly black hair. A sharp pain rose to his forehead that he couldn’t tell if it was from the bitter cold or the confusion he had when he looked around more carefully. He wasn’t alone.

A tall barefooted girl turned to him with lost brown eyes. She regarded him like a sad, lost puppy. However, it wasn’t him she was pitting, but it appeared that she too was overwhelmed with the never ending land of snow and ice. He looked back, wondering what she wanted from him as he continued to kick the ice, now a gray slush, away from his boots. He started to wonder if he had run away the night before. He normally didn’t wear boots. He had gone into the forest before, but had never seen this field of forever snow, even in the winter time. And he would never dare willingly go back, not after the last time. His grandmother always warned him about going into the forest. His grandmother would be worried, a pang of guilt struck him as he realized that that day was the day his parents were coming back.

He heard a faint voice of another person, but couldn’t quite make out their words. Why couldn’t he have stayed at his grandmother’s house? He didn’t want her anymore worried than she already was for their family. He hastily kicked the remaining slush off of his shoes, and the girl nervously stepped back. He looked up, having forgotten she was there. He rolled his eyes at her and sighed, raising up his hands, “Sorry, I’m just as confused as you are.” he admitted, “You guys have any idea how we got here?”

The others looked around to see if they knew the answer. The brown eyed girl turned to all of them, “Any ideas on where we are?” she whispered, tensing her shoulders and nervously touching a blue streak in her hair. Marco technically knew the answer, but another girl spoke up.

“A forest, I didn’t think it was that hard to tell,” she said, “What we should really be focusing on here is how to get home. My name is Lucial, by the way.” A boy with hazel eyes and a young girl nodded as if sharing those same thoughts.

Marco finally perked up, his grandmother’s house was nearby, but he knew that she wouldn’t be so keen of the idea of having more people in the house, she liked it to be quiet, which led to Marco sometimes not noticing she was there. He had also only just met these four strangers. A pain in his chest argued back at him, he needed to go home and so did they. The young girl looked up at the sunset, the only color in this part of the forest, apparently. She hugged her shoulders. She must have been at most six years of age, who would harm a child? Why would a child run away?

He finally spoke up, “I know a place nearby, we can stay there for the night.” 

Lucial raised an eyebrow while the other boy hesitated, “How do we know we can trust you? We don't even know each other” he pointed out, “What if this is a trap? How do we know you're not the one kidnapping us?” Lucial nodded and reached for something behind her back, but everyone instinctively turned to the blue streaked girl. For some reason, this bothered Lucial, but Marco couldn’t understand why.