Chapter 3

     A slight breeze lightly ruffled through the dark canopy of trees, the leaves whispering softly to each other as they caressed their brethren. Various wildlife chattered quietly with each other in the twilight that had descended on the forest, their cadence seemingly oblivious of the danger that lurked in the darkness of the foliage. The intruder's breathe lightly puffed a tiny cloud of visible air in the cold, before disappearing nearly instantly. One such oblivious critter, scrounging for some scrap of sustenance on the frozen floor, crawled right up to the still form of the human before noticing it. Freezing as it came upon the foreign leather boot, its eyes fearfully pitched upwards, following the unnatural object up. The small boot was topped in light fur much like its own before ending, a small leg appearing out of the top. Leather pants crept from the fur of the boots up a slender feminine leg, inciting fear in the tiny rabbits already pounding heart. Without a doubt, it had stumbled across a deadly human, anathema to its kind.

     The rabbit's instinctual immediate thought was to run, but fear locked the beast's muscles in its tight grasp. Its eyes trailed farther upward, as if compelled, following a small fur lined coat to the human's face. Hidden in shadows, the rabbit could see nothing of the darkened visage save for two bright green orbs peering into the small trail ahead, its focus thankfully not on the rabbit itself. The small puffs of breathe silently escaped into the air a few times before the rabbit carefully took a step backwards, hoping to not incur the attention of the person, but it's hopes were dashed immediately. It's foot landed unluckily on a frozen dead leaf, the crackle seeming to split the air like a gun shot to the rabbit's ears, and the large head of the human swung quickly towards the sound. A dark smile lit the human's face, bright white teeth flashing in the darkness, and the rabbit's heart nearly stopped as it took away at breakneck speeds, stumbling through the undergrowth as if it's life depended on it.    

     Kat huddled on the frozen ground, the forest quiet around her after the rabbit had run off. She wondered briefly if it had run to tell its friends about the dangerous human in their midst. It was fitting that even the animals hated her, why should they be any different from her schoolmates and family. She had been staring at The Gate for hours from the edge of the forest, refusing to go home and suffer the pity in her sister Maddie's eyes, or the anger in her parent's. The present was gone, her day with her sister had been ruined, and everyone would be furious with her.

     Kat shook her head sorrowfully at the thought and hugged her small arms against her body a little tighter, rubbing herself to dispel a bit of the cold. Her tiny body shivered slightly beneath the leather clothing she wore, the cold air biting at her nose painfully, frost sitting on her eyelashes like tiny diamonds. The small bush she was sitting in itself sat just off of the main trail from town, just far enough away that she could barely see the smoke rising from several chimneys in town, but not see the actual buildings themselves. She wondered, not for the first time, if her friends had forgotten about her, and her thoughts wandered once again as she recalled the reason she was sitting her to begin with. She had hidden in the foliage when Maddie and her parents had come looking for her earlier. She had seen Maddie first, running into the area with her fiance, both of them out of breathe, their eyes wild. She had almost gone out to them, to explain what had happened, until she saw her parents on the trail behind them not long after. She hadn't expected them to come out here, and the look of outright anger and rage on their faces caused her muscles to lock up not unlike the rabbit who had approached her earlier. Her childish mind couldn't take any more pain right now, and she stubbornly sat in the bushes, hoping that they wouldn't find her. Every bit of fear she had from her parents and brothers went into a wish to remain unseen, and she scrunched her eyes closed in the childish reasoning that if she couldn't see them, then they couldn't see her.

      As she sat there, her skin started tingling, but she attributed it to the cold seeping in from the cracks in her gloves and leggings. The scrapes on her knees and cut in her hand had scabbed over by now, but the cut on her hand still felt incredibly hot for some reason. When she had taken off the glove to check it, the skin around the cut looked yellowish, but Kat didn't know what it meant, so she had shrugged and put her glove back on, figuring she could wash it later. Perhaps she had gotten some berry juice on her hand and not realized it. The tingling spread over her whole body, and she looked down worriedly, wondering if ants had crawled on her while she hid in the bushes. Nothing would be more embarassing than hiding from her sister and parents, only to be found covered in ants. Her brothers would never let her forget that. What she saw surprised her, and she almost yelped before she clapped her uninjured hand over her mouth.

     Tugging her glove off, her skin looked like the shrubs around her. Her clothes were already stained with dirt from crawling into the bush, and snow had accumulated on top of her as she had sat there. Feeling her face, she could feel that it was different somehow as well, and she wished she had a mirror to look at it in. Looking back up, she froze as her mother walked right by the bush she was hiding in, her gaze sweeping right over where Kat was sitting, and then continuing on. Kat had no idea what had caused this sudden change, but she knew that some of the others in the village could do strange things as well, so while she was surprised, she wasn't scared of it. Eventually, her parents gave up looking for her and called out sharply to Maddie, beckoning back towards the village. Kat almost lost her resolve as she saw her sister's forlorn face, her body slumping into her fiance's large arms beside her. Kat had never seen her sister look so vulnerable before, but her childish stubborness and fear of her parents kept her sitting where she was, even as sobs racked her sisters body. Maddie's fiance tried to guide her down the path back towards the village, and she succumbed for a minute before angrily tearing out of his grasp, rage on her face as she stared at her parents backs. A large tree on the side of the path apparently offended her, as she drew back and hit it squarely in the center with her fist with a yell. Kat winced as she imagined the pain from striking a rough tree larger around than the fattest man in the valley.

     Kat was unprepared when the tree practically exploded backwards into the forest, the area around where Maddie had punched turning into kindling, the large piece of scrap wood falling ponderously into the forest, crashing loudly into the ground. Kat stared wide eyed at the destruction, but Maddie's fiance seemed unfazed, whispering into Maddie's ear and rubbing her back. Whatever he said seemed to cause her to settle down, and she fell limply into his arms once more. Reaching down, he picked her up gently, cradling her against his chest, her arm flung over his shoulder and her head resting on his shoulder. Kat could just barely see her face as they rounded the bend, and even though she couldn't hear her, she could have sworn she could see her lips move in the moonlight, but she wasn't sure.

I'm sorry...