Colour Blind

Chapter One

"Maeve, hurry up! We're gonna miss the fireworks!"

"I'm running fast already, dammit!"

I mean honestly, just because Brent was the fastest in both our grades combined did not mean he could just throw it in my face all the time.

He threw back his head and laughed loudly, still keeping up a faster pace than me.

"You call that fast? You run slower than the 2nd years!" He goaded, gaining more speed.

That dick. I swear he has some nerve. Even for an older brother. Fuming at the idea that I was worse than some 1,400-year-old baby when I was 1,700 years was insulting and a jab I was not willing to take lightly.

"Wanna bet?" I sped up, gaining more and more speed until I was neck and neck with him. "You're not the only gifted one in the family Brenton!" I laughed as his face pinched with concentration. Trying to gain the most ground, trying to come out on top, to win.

My brother and I both loved to win. To say we were competitive with each other would be an understatement.

Brent slowed down, laughter and exhaustion showing on his face, and I slowed down with him,

"We'll call that one a tie, what do you say?" he looked down at me, breathing hard from running through the jungle.

"Whatever," I laughed as I got on my hands and knees before a river, catching the water with my cupped hands and drinking hungrily. "I would've won eventually."

"Well, aren't you just full of yourself? And here you are wasting time with water." He grabbed my arm and pulled, laughing. "There will be water for sale at the festival, now hurry up, we can't miss the fireworks, slow-poke."

"As you wish, Leader-Of-All." I mocked as I pushed his hand from my arm and walked ahead of him. I rolled my eyes as he walked faster to get ahead. "We're here already anyway, the Gathering is right up there." I pointed to the opening of trees filled with Our people up ahead.

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Last one to the hill is a big fat loser?"

I laughed out loud "You're on, buttface."

************

As the sun descended below the mountainsides, the people of Eldrid began the preparations for the yearly annual Fireworks. Families and couples walked hand in hand, arm in arm, laughing, talking, and smiling. It was a time for celebration, for embracing life, a time for slowing down and appreciating. It was the one time a year that we used fireworks. We healed the environment once, and it was not done easily. We now try our best to keep things natural and clean. But today is a very special day for us, and Our people's ancestors. Today marks the day of Our freedom from the Terror, a very evil ruler whose name we no longer remember, nor are we allowed to speak it aloud if it is known.

Years and years of tyranny and chaos, the streets filled with wailing from women who lost their children from starvation, and the cries of children who lost their fathers to mindless violence. Fear flowed through the land as easily as the rivers did, and only misery was known to the people of Eldrid.

Until of course, we were saved. There exist many different stories about how the Terror met his end, but the single fact remains that he is, gone, and for this reason we celebrate. We pay tribute to the ancestors who endured the tyranny, and we remind ourselves to appreciate our world as it is, healthy, cheerful, and full of peace.

I sat down on a nicely sized boulder at the bottom of the hill, straightening my rarely worn red, box-pleated skirt over my knees as I sat. I ran a hand through my wavy, bright pink hair, sliding it out of my face, as I bent over just a tad and checked my makeup in the reflection of the pond next to me.