Intoned Resonance

My life was limiting as it was. I lived under the same roof as my dad's wife and her three sons, all of whom were older than me by a few years and not related to me by blood.

They weren't awful, just annoying-constantly making me feel like an outsider, even though my own father was part of their family.

They'd defend me in front of others, probably for the sake of their mother, but would ignore me when we were alone, for reasons I couldn't understand.

To make things worse, our house was the only one isolated from the main neighborhood, near the northern forest-the largest, most deserted part of our kingdom. And I had no neighbors and struggled to make friends.

So, I spent my days playing among the trees and their hooded tops. Until one winter day, in the cold and snow, I heard a girl screaming for help.

She sounded like she was in agony, and I, foolishly, ran toward her voice, frantic and afraid, without stopping to get help.

I ended up lost in the forest I thought I had known my whole life.

-NNS.