Prolouge

Prologue

            “What, now your crying?”

            A little girl, no old than 5, sat in the middle of a circle of boys roughly her age, as waterfalls of tears streamed down her face.

            “Come on, Brad, let’s just leave her. You know these woods give me the creeps.”

            “Alright, you big baby,” said the eldest boy, “just give me another minute or two.” The boy went up to the little girl and squatted down to her level. “Okay, Bella, we’re done goofing around. Here’s your doll back,” the boy pulled out a ripped and beaten stuffed dog from behind his back and showed it to the little girl, “now stop your crying.”

            The little girl looked up, hiccupping from crying, and reached for the dog. But just before she could grab it, the boy pulled it away roughly and tossed it to across to another boy. The little girl stood up and desperately tried to get the dog back from the taller boys.

            “Please give him back,” she said shyly, “my mommy gave him to me. Please!” The boy who had the stuffed dog danced out of her reach and threw it to another boy.

            “Well then ask your mommy to go get you a new doggie,” said a freckle-faced red head as he caught the poor stuffed dog. “Oh that’s right, you don’t have a mommy anymore.”

            The little girl ran desperately to reach her stuffed friend only to trip and fall. She raised her head, her face mixed with dirt and tears, as she listened to the taunts and laughter of the boys.

            “Ah, man she’s pathetic. No wonder she has no parents,” said Brad as he threw the dog at a near by tree. The boys howled with laughter at the girls weakness. Their laughter was soon silenced by a rustling in the bushes.

            “Did you guys hear that?” said a pudgy looking boy.

            “It must have been a squirrel or something,” said Brad as he attempted to put on a brave face for his followers.

            The bushes rustled again, this time with more force. The boys scrambled over each other trying to run out of the forest, screaming all the way, leaving the poor little girl behind.

            The girl coward in the dirt, too afraid to move or even look up. Then she heard a voice say “I can’t believe the gall of those boys. Picking on a poor, helpless little girl. It’s so cowardly.”

            The girl picked her head up and looked toward the alien voice and saw a beautiful silver haired man emerge from the brush. Behind him was a slightly shorter blue haired man.

            “You really shouldn’t have done that, Aiden,” said the blue haired man, “The humans are going to think that there are ghosts in this forest for real.”

            “And what was I going to do, Mika, leave the poor girl?” the silver haired man said as he leaned against a tree, “And besides, they can’t see us, so who cares if they think we were ghosts? It will give us more peace anyway.”

            “Ummm,” whispered the little girl, “Thank you.”

            Both the men looked over and noticed that the girl was looking at them. 

            “Uh Aiden, there’s no way that she’s talking to us, right? I mean, it’s impossible for her to see us, right?” said the blue haired man as he looked frightfully at Aiden.

            “Of course I can see you,” said the little girl, as she stood up and went to go pick up her dog, “You’re standing right there.”

            “Aiden, the human is talking to us! This is impossible! Unheard of even!” the blue-haired man said in a panic, clutching his friend's shirt.

            The little girl picked up her dog, brushed off some of the dirt and hugged it tightly and said, “I just wanted to say thank you for scaring away those boys. You don’t have to yell.”

            The silver haired man walked quietly over to the little girl and knelt down in front of her. The little girl jumped back in surprise at his quick and quiet steps.

            “You’ll have to pardon him. Can you really see us?” he asked with a questionable stare.

            “Of course I can silly,” the girl said as she smiled, “You have really pretty, long silver hair and he has short blue hair that covers one eye and you both are wearing really weird clothes.”

            “Well then I think it would only be right if we introduced ourselves then. My name is Aiden Rey and this is my friend Mika Dermount. And what is your name young princess?”

            The girl smiled grew as she said “My name is Isabella Kay Krause, but you guys can call me Bella.”

            “So Bella is your name, is it? A pretty name for a pretty young girl,” said Aiden as he showed a small smile.

            “Aiden! You can’t be communicating with it! The laws clearly state-”

            “I know what the laws say Mika. I’m surprised actually to hear that you know them. And she’s not an ‘it’.”

            Bella went up to Aiden and tugged on his tunic, drawing his attention away from Mika.

            “What is it, sweet one?”

            “Are there laws that say you can’t talk to me?” Bella hugged her dog shyly and looked at the ground.

            “Not allowed to talk to you! Your not even supposed to see us!” Mika complained as he paced back and forth between two trees.

            “Mika, she’s just a child. There’s no reason to be cruel.” Aiden said as he went over to calm his friend down. Mika stopped pacing as Aiden placed a hand on his shoulder. Aiden motioned back to the little girl snuggled into her dog. “Does she really look dangerous?”

            Looking back at the little girl, Mika felt her pain. He felt that she was lonely and was sad that he and Aiden might leave. With a sigh, he walked silently over to the girl and knelt down in front of her.

            “So, where are your parents, Bella? A little girl like you shouldn’t be in the woods by herself,” the blue-haired man said, trying to offer a comforting smile.

            “They died a while ago. I’m staying with my aunt and uncle up the path.” Bella peeked out from behind her dog and looked at Mika.

            “Up the path? As in they live in the woods?” Mika asked curiously.

            “Yeah, we live in a clearing at the top of the hill. It’s really pretty.” Bella smiled, but still held tightly on to her stuffed dog.

            “So, who’s this?” Mika asked gesturing to the dog in her arms.

            Bella looked down at the beaten up dog and said enthusiastically, “His name is Thunder! He’s my best friend.” She held the dog up to Mika with a big smile on her face.

            Mika raised his hand slowly and patted the dog on his head. “Nice to meet you, Thunder.”

            Bella giggled and said “He likes you.”

            Aiden came up from behind the two and said to Bella, “Would you like us to escort you home?”

            At this question, Bella’s features lightened up with happiness. “Can you?” she asked with excitement.

            “Of course. We have time. Lead the way,” Mika said while standing up and brushing himself off. Bella ran farther into the woods, Aiden and Mika following closely behind.

            “Well that was unusually nice of you, Mika.” Aiden commented with a smirk.

            “She’s not such a bad kid. I mean a little quiet sometimes, but over all, she’s kind of cute. And I guess you’re right. What harm could staying with her a little while be?”

            “Are you really suggesting staying with her?” Aiden stopped in his shock. The laws say that humans couldn’t see them and Guardinians should respect that and never interfere with their lives. In continuing to see Bella, they would be breaking one of the biggest laws of their world.

            “Yeah I am. Come on, Aiden. The kid is lonely. I could feel it. The poor kid doesn’t have any friends. Let’s stay for a while. And I’ve never been much for rules. You know that.” Mika turned to his friend with a cocky smile. He knew Aiden couldn’t resist a poor girl in trouble. Even if that poor girl was only 5 years old.

            “Alright," Aiden sighed in defeat. "We’ll stay. But no one can find out. If they do, it could mean the death of all three of us.”

            “Come on you guys! We’re almost there!” Bella shouted from up ahead.

            “Don’t worry, Aiden. We won’t stay long. She’ll forget about us and move on. How long will that take?”

Author's Note

Please be honest! I greatly appreciate all constructive criticism from grammar to story flow!