Chapter 1

The sky sparkled of glittery stars that shimmered brightly. The crickets chirped silently in the darkness of the quiet forest. Well it wasn’t really quiet. Animals rustled through bushes, owls hooted as they swooped through the skies, and little forest nymphs galloped through the trees giggling happily. But within this deep twilight tranquility laid a burr of wrongdoing.

            Two shadows glided along the moonlit trail of the forest. Creeping so silent that not even the insects scurrying across the floor could hear them. Swift as the morning jays, the two figures leaped over a log through a bright patch of moonlight. It revealed them to be human females, slim features and ready for a fight.      

            The singing of the forest’s inhabitants could be heard in the distance, but this did nothing to shake the women’s focus on the task at hand. They slowed as they approached a stone barrier. Lights could be seen in the distance, the lights of the tiny forest tribe. This did not concern the two one bit. Both snuck through the stone archway and peeked around. It seemed like a typical grove clearing in the forest. The treetops had broken so the moonlight flooded into the clearing. Wildflowers of red, gold, and lavender littered the ground at the women’s feet. In the center lay what they were after, a pedestal of stone, and on top a glowing green emerald. Its brilliant green glow seemed to radiate throughout the whole forest.

            One woman stepped forward only to be stopped by her comrade.

            “No, Selena, don’t underestimate the forest dwellers,” she hissed.

            The one called Selena narrowed her eyes as if to argue, but said nothing and stepped back next to the other woman. The two stood there for a moment to ponder what they could do. Scaling the trees could not be an option and sneaking up would seem too easy. Selena thought for a moment and looked at her companion and sighed.

            “Helena, what can we do besides just walking up?” she asked.

            Helena held up her hand to silence Selena and paced around the clearing surveying the pedestal. As inquisitive as she was, even she could not figure out how to reach the emerald. She sighed and crouched down feeling the ground and tried to concentrate. Here there were no sounds. The crickets took a pause to their nightly song, even the singing that Helena and Selena heard all the way here could not be heard. It was as if all of nature was entranced by the glowing jewel. Helena thought long and hard about what she could do. Then it came her.

            Without even consulting Selena, Helena crept through the flowers. They rose over her ankles so it was hard to see where she was stepping. One wrong step and the mission would be all for nothing. Slowly but surely she approached the bright green gem. Helena could feel its power now. She knew without a doubt, this is what she and Selena were sent to retrieve. She touched the gem and it shot a green ring of light around the clearing. The wildflowers bent at their stems and wilted into nothing right before Helena’s eyes. She turned to see Selena on the ground shaking her head. Helena still stood with her finger on the gem. Suddenly noises of the forest began to fill the grove. This didn’t scare Helena as much, but she soon heard the singing become loud and angry. She snatched the gem and rushed over to Selena.

            “Get up, we need to get out of here now,” she hissed.

            Selena nodded and got up quickly. The two without a second look at the clearing took off into the dark forest.

 

~*~

 

            An arrow flew through the branches in the bright sunlight. It pierced its target, a doe, right in the heart. It fell to the ground instantly to its deathbed. The archer smiled at her kill. She pulled down her camouflage hood of her hoodie and shook her curly blonde locks. She walked over to the dead deer and carefully pulled her arrow out, cleaned it off and put it back in her quiver. She sighed and looked at the doe.

            “Well big girl, there’s no way I’m dragging you back to camp,” she said.

            The girl took out a small wooden horn and blew it. This was a way to signal the other hunters so they knew she’d made a kill and a big one at that. She sat there leaned against a tree. Her name was Katrina Parks, a typical sixteen year old from the Tribe of Friggins. Well technically she isn’t supposed to be in the forest. But with Trina training to be hunter and her assessment being today has given her special privilege.

            In the customs of the tribe, women at and above the age of eighteen were only allowed in forest. Men weren’t unless escorted by a woman. Why, because of the Irresistible, a race of forest nymphs that lead men to them with their seducing songs to kill them. Trina personally found their songs annoying and desperate. Couldn’t the stupid nymphs get their own men and stay away from humans?

            Finally a horn to signal that someone had heard Trina bellowed in the distance.

            Took long enough, Trina thought with a snort. She still leaned against the tree knowing now it wouldn’t be too long before someone found her.

            In about ten minutes two girls, about in their twenties found Trina and her doe. Their eyes widened in surprise.

            “You shot that?” one asked.

            Trina nodded.

            Both looked at each other and smiled. “Well I know someone who just passed their assessment,” said the other.

            Trina shrugged. She didn’t personally care. She thought the whole staying out of the forest rule was stupid. It wasn’t like little girls would run into the Irresistible and get themselves killed. She helped the two women carry, well more like drag the deer back to the tribe campground. Trina never understood why it was called a campground either; it wasn’t like everyone lived a primitive life in tent. They all had housing. It probably wasn’t exactly the most fabulous. Not like the ones in the villages far outside the forest, but home was home.

            Trina and the others carried the deer to what looked like an outdoor shop in the center of the camp where other girls that were Trina’s age were standing holding kills like fat rabbits and squirrels. One girl nearly dropped her plump quail when she saw the deer. The others had pretty much the same reaction as well. But that quickly changed. They approached Trina after she had gotten the deer on a cart and slapped her on the back with congratulations and signs of approval. She again didn’t really care.

            The hunting mistress and also the mentor of all the hunters to-be came out of the indoor part of the shop with a clipboard and pen writing down scores. Most people just called her Mistress, but her real name was Pansy Pumplebottom, so Trina didn’t blame her for the formal nickname. Besides that Mistress was an older woman, about in her mid-fifties. She had dark brown hair that lay flat on her back with wisps of grays. Trina wasn’t very fond of Mistress. She always expected so much out of her. It wasn’t like Trina was any more special than the other girls. She began grading and checking off the other girls’ kills. She gave many ‘good jobs’ and ‘congratulations’ to most. Then she approached Trina, she looked up, but not at the cart, but at Trina’s hands.

            “Where is your catch?” Mistress asked.

            Trina pointed to the cart where the doe laid. The Mistress went over and inspected it thoroughly. That wasn’t exactly what Trina was expecting. She was expecting more of a surprised reaction, like she had gotten from just about everyone else. The Mistress finished and handed Trina her report. Trina’s jaw dropped. She got a thirty-eight out of one hundred! One hundred would be a perfect score. She looked up at Mistress with confusion, but she had already walked off to another girl. Trina approached Mistress.

            “Um Mistress, I think there’s a mistake. You gave me a thirty-eight,” she said. Sure, Trina didn’t care about a lot of things, but there was no way she deserved a grade like this. It was barely passing the assessment.

            Mistress didn’t even look at Trina. “Oh Miss Parks, Mistress never makes mistakes. You got the grade I felt you deserved,” she said scribbling another grade for a girl on her clipboard.

The girl had scraped up getting a scrawny little squirrel.  Trina looked at the clipboard and it read a fifty out of one hundred. Now Trina just felt offended. What was Mistress getting at grading her so poorly? Mistress handed the report to the girl and continued on. Trina continued to follow.

“But Mistress you don’t understand. I shot a doe. Like a deer. That could feed a family of six,” Trina said.

Mistress ignored Trina and handed the last girl her report and turned to walk back to the shop in which she had come out of. Trina followed yet again.

“Mistress I just don’t understand! Why did I get a thirty-eight?!” Trina shouted. Now she was angry. First off, the other girls had the crappiest kills Trina had ever seen. She’d shot down a full sized deer. Even with the extra help, she had trouble carrying it back and now Mistress was just straight ignoring her.

Trina expected Mistress to just keep walking, but the woman stopped and turned to her. She had a sympathetic look on her face.

“Listen Trina, I gave you the grade you got to keep you working. You passed the assessment,” she said.

“Barely,” Trina grumbled.

“Either way, I know you are a great hunter, you have great potential, but you don’t give up, no matter how horrible the score. Now the other girls they need to be reminded they are doing good to keep it up. Do you understand?”

“No, not really.”

“You’ll understand one day. You’re meant to be a great hunter, I know it Trina. Have a good day.”

With that Mistress turned and entered the shop leaving Trina with the other girls who were bragging about their scores. She kicked the dirt angrily. Why did everyone expect so much out of her?! She grumbled to herself and grabbed the handles of the cart and dragged it over to the marketplace. She quickly sold the doe for quite a bit of money. Ten gold medallions. That really isn’t a lot outside the forest, but for the forest dwelling it was a pretty decent amount of money.

Trina looked inside the pouch to make sure all the money was there. Not paying attention she ran smack into someone. She fell to the ground; all her medallions fell out of the bag.

“Hey watch where you’re going!” she shouted.

The dust settled and she saw a rather tall, blonde boy with his shirt off. Trina rolled her eyes at the sight of him.

“Do you know who I am?!” he shouted.

Trina very well knew who she’d run into and yelled at. He was Daniel Friggins, the prince of the tribe. The term “prince” used loosely. He was just the son of the chief. It wasn’t like he was in charge of anything. His father was the one who did most of the work around the tribe. Daniel just pranced around acting like he was this great leader and the best thing to ever hit the tribe. Every girl loved him, well except Trina of course.

“Oh I see you’re just entranced by my gorgeous face,” he commented.

Trina rolled her eyes and started looking for her medallions. She ignored the prince’s other comments about Trina’s silence. Most of his comments were about how she was madly in love with him to the point where she couldn’t even make eye contact or speak to him. Trina grumbled. She’d only found six of the medallions.

She stood up and shoved the prince out of the way and marched down the street. It was his fault she’d lost four of them. He shouted for her to come back. Trina wouldn’t have turned around if it weren’t for the horn sounding right after Prince Daniel’s plead. Trina turned to see the chief himself standing with his footmen. She watched from afar as he announced that the hunters’ hunting assessments went well. He also announced the highest score, (a seventy-two) scored by Sadie Grant. She was the one with the plump quail. Trina rolled her eyes. She turned to leave, but then heard an announcement that sparked her interest.

“As you all have probably noticed, spring is a little late,” Chief Friggins said.

Trina crept closer and peeked over the shoulder of a man and a woman at the chief. He was standing there in his typical bear skin sash and cargo shorts. He was very casual for a chief, but that was beside the point. His stupid shirtless son was standing next to him looking rather bored.

“Yeah! It all of a sudden got cold!” one tribe member shouted.

“That’s weird wasn’t it warm just the other day!” another added.

Trina thought about this for a moment. She never really paid attention to the climate. Usually when the snow melted it would get warm, which it did, but the others were right. It did get cold all of a sudden. The forest never did that.

“Yes, yes we are aware of this. I don’t want any alarm though. I’m sure the Ancient Witch of Nature knows what she’s doing,” Friggins said.

The Ancient Witch of Nature was, obviously ancient. She’s been the guardian of the forest since the creation of the world. She had a lot of influence over the climate and well-being of the forest, but the thing that really kept the forest alive was the Emerald of Law. But there was no way someone could take that.

“What if this is our demise? Maybe the witch died!” someone shouted.

“Don’t be stupid! The witch is immortal!”

“What about the emerald?!”

“Silence!” shouted the chief. “I will look into this matter, but in the mean time everyone needs to stay calm and go along with your usual day. That is all, good day my people.”

With that the crowd dispersed as the chief left. Trina stood there. Could something have possibly happened to the witch or the emerald?

Impossible, she corrected herself. Trina turned around and started home. Everything was fine. It had to be the doing of the witch. Someone angered her and she’s just taking it out on everyone. She does that sometimes. Trina tried not to think about it, but this whole situation gave her an uneasy feeling.

The path ahead broke into a fork. Trina took the left side and followed the dirt path to a tiny cottage. It had a cute little wooden fence in the front yard. Trina opened the gate and started walking up the front door when she noticed the flowers in the front garden. They were wilted. How could that be? They had just sprouted. Trina got a shiver down her spine. This was bad. She turned away from the flowers and entered the house with an even worse feeling than before.

Author's Note

So I re-uploaded this because I noticed a couple of really bad grammar mistakes that had to be fixed. Anyway enjoy :)