Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 

I was sitting under a tree, with my back leaning against the tree trunk. This was my most favorite place, an isolated plain located outskirts Rancour Village. I was enjoying my private time, with books on my hand. I loved reading so much; I always read books for my pastime.

 

I was just an ordinary seventeen-year-old girl. I had bronze hair which fell down up to my shoulder; I usually just let it loose. I was 5”5 tall, not too tall yet not too short. I had pale skin, but not a beautiful pale skin; it was more like the color of sick people’s skin. I had a pair of hazel eyes, and that’s what I loved most about me. There’s nothing special about me, I was just an ordinary girl.

 

Ah there was something special in me of course; I was constantly being bullied by everyone. Every single person in Rancour hated me, thanks to my dearest step-sister, Rachelyn Crystallind. In order to defend myself, I had to learn some self-defense, and I was proud to say that I was pretty skilled with daggers. Thanks to that certain someone for teaching me, my dearest childhood friend, Luke Reinbore.

 

I didn’t really know why Rachelyn hated me, though I had several suspicions. I assumed it was because of my Archeic. In our world – the world of Arc, there’s several gifted people. This gifted power was called ‘Archeic’. Not all people was gifted, it was pretty rare for someone to have Archeic. Usually, people with Archeic would be recruited for military purpose. But that didn’t happen to us, since the whereabouts of Rancour Village was pretty much hidden.

 

People with Archeic who didn’t want to join the military fled here, this village was like a hidden village. That’s why there were many people with Archeic here. Though not that many anymore, there’s only three people left with Archeic here; me, Rachelyn, and Luke. Rachelyn’s Archeic allowed her to summon ivies. Her Archeic was not that powerful, compared to mine. I thought that’s why she hated me. But I didn’t consider my Archeic powerful; it was Luke who assumed that way. I figured he said that because he preferred me to Rachelyn; not because I was more powerful than her.

 

“Hey,” someone tapped my shoulder from behind. I turned around to see the person who called me. A man with spiky brown hair and emerald eyes stood behind me. He was wearing blue button up shirt and black trousers. He had a sword fastened on the belt around his waist. He was 5”9 tall and muscular built.

 

“Luke?” It was Luke Reinbore, my childhood friend I mentioned about earlier, as well as my only friend. Luke was a year older than me; he’s at the same age as Rachelyn. He’s truly the best friend ever, he used to defend me from those bullies, and he taught me how to defend myself. He was my only friend, and the only one whom I showed the real me to.

 

Rachelyn had provoked all the people in the village to hate me, by starting rumors and gossips about me. She had turned into a beautiful young woman, I had to admit that. Her beautiful silky blonde hair reached her waist, and it matched her porcelain skin perfectly. She had a heart-shaped face. Her clear azure eyes were adorable, and she got such a perfect body. As much as I wanted to kill her, I had to admit her beauty. The boys were head over heels in love with her, except Luke. Luke never showed even a slight interest towards her, and that angered her. Luke remained loyal to me, always by my side, being a good friend to me.

 

Rachelyn had tried many ways to get him away from me. Unfortunately, our bond was much stronger, and I was proud to say that. Luke was the only one who understood me best, he knew me the very best. He was the one who cheered me up, who made me laugh. Although he could be pretty annoying sometimes. Despite all that, he was perfect. I knew he was pretty popular among the ladies also. He was smart, but could be childish sometimes, and a bit hot-headed.

 

Well, since there were only three people with Archeic left in Rancour Village, we were pretty much treated as special people. Except me, that is. Rancour Village was formed about a hundred years ago, and our whereabouts still remained unknown to the outside world. If it was known, then we would definitely be dragged out of this village and joined the army.

 

Rancour Village was located on Windia, the continent of Wind. Arc consisted of five big continents; Windia, Firenze, Earls, Undine and lastly, Lumina. Each continent represented an element and was ruled by a King. It was pretty much amazing how we managed to slip from the kingdoms’ eyes for such a long time. There’s also a reason why we chose to live on Windia, their power was the weakest one, and it gave us more chance to hide ourselves. In exchange to this seclusion, we didn’t know about what was going on in the world. That didn’t really matter for me though.

 

“Why are you here alone?” Luke sat beside me and rested his head against the tree trunk.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. “Oh, please, isn’t it obvious, Luke? This is the 157.768 time you asked me that question.”

 

He laughed. “Ah well, and you always replied with the same answer. And you kept count of it? Whoa, Lyrene, that’s amazing!” He grinned.

 

“Oh yes, I keep count of it every single day since I had nothing better to do,” I said sarcastically.

 

“Ah, the sarcasm is back. Aren’t you afraid of the monsters? Kids are not allowed to exit the village, you know,” He smiled mischievously as he placed his hand on my shoulder.

 

“Are you that dumb, Luke? Obviously, I’m not a kid. I’m just a year younger than you. And you know I’m always fully prepared, I would be more than happy to chop you into pieces right away,” I said coldly.

 

“Ouch, that hurts,” he said, putting his right hand on his chest, his left hand was still wrapped around my shoulder.

 

“Serves you right,” I murmured. He pouted and looked slightly annoyed. I sighed. “I know, I know. My dearest prince here is willing to help me when I’m in trouble, right?” I said sarcastically. Luke could be an a*s sometimes, and I had to say things like that to keep him from being angry or annoyed, though I wondered why he was stupid enough not to catch my sarcasm every time I said things like that. I didn’t have the heart to anger him; he had done so much to me. He grinned and leaned to kiss my cheek; I immediately avoided it by jumping sideward and stood up immediately.

 

“Luke Reinbore! Do you want me to kill you right here?!” I flared at him. This was the worst thing about Luke, and I totally hated him when he tried to do something funny to me. I tell you, he’s not my boyfriend, so I got totally irritated when he tried to do that. Such an a*s.

 

He pouted. “Don’t be so mean, Lyrene. At times like this, I totally wished that my Archeic works against you. Unfortunately it didn’t,” he sighed.

 

Luke’s Archeic was totally convenient. It was the ability to control someone’s mind. He could affect people’s decision, and make people did what he wanted. It didn’t affect people with strong mind, though, but if he built up his Archeic, I’m sure that won’t be such a hard thing for him.

 

And unfortunately for him, my Archeic was very convenient to me; it was the ability to reflect other Archeic. And guess what that meant? He couldn’t use his Archeic against me, nor could Rachelyn. And he got completely irritated by that fact sometimes. My Archeic was not that strong, I was not able to apply the same effect to other people, I was only able to reflect the attacks directed at me. Maybe I could, if I tried to learn it, unfortunately, I was not interested at all. Why would I want to protect other people? I could barely protect myself, yet I needed to worry about other people? No way.

 

That was one of the many reasons that made Rachelyn hated me. There were many other reasons also, though it would make a very long list if I decided to pronounce each of them. Rachelyn couldn’t hurt me, that’s why she got annoyed at me. And on top of that, Luke always kept an eye for me. That annoyed her more. She liked Luke, very much.

 

“Don’t complain, Luke. I’m going back, it’s going to rain soon,” I told him, looking at the dark sky.

 

He grimaced, “I don’t want to. Just stay here,” he said.

 

I sighed. There goes his childish behavior. “Get up immediately or I’ll leave you here. I am going back now, with or without you,” I threatened him. He caught the seriousness in my tone and got up. He put his hand around my waist. Now this is getting more irritating, I thought. Why couldn’t he ever leave me alone, untouched? I stopped for a brief second and glared at him.

“Hands off, Luke.”

 

He withdrew his hand and showed me a smile, trying to charm me, perhaps? That wouldn’t work on me. I ignored him and walked faster. I wasn’t a dense person, and I knew he had some special feeling towards me, not as a friend. I didn’t want to give him hope; I wasn’t interested with those romantic things. It was useless. But somehow, I didn’t have the heart to tell him straight away, he was like a family to me.

 

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The walk back to Rancour was only about fifteen minutes or so. When we entered the village, the villagers looked at me with hate, or perhaps disgust. They looked at Luke with much admiration, and I knew how they hated it for Luke to be near me. I could care less. I kept my poker face on; I never showed any emotion in front of other people.

 

Luke walked me towards my house, the biggest one in the whole village. I opened the front door. Bad luck, Rachelyn was chatting with her friends inside the house, and she saw Luke.

Rachelyn glided towards Luke when she saw him. Then with a sugary voice which sickened me so much, she said, “Ah, Luke, fancy seeing you here. You’re as handsome as ever.” Then her hand trailed up to touch his cheek. Rachelyn would try to seduce him every time she had the chance to do so.

 

I just watched them with amusement. Luke looked at Rachelyn with disgust, and Rachelyn was trying her best to seduce him. Well, I didn’t really care. “I’m going upstairs. Have fun, Luke,” I tried to hide my smile when I saw him casting a pleading look towards me. It was his fault for going to my house, I didn’t invite him here. That’s the consequence he had to endure.

“Umm, I need to go home. Sorry, Rachelyn, I have other matter to attend to,” Luke started to walk hurriedly towards the front door. Before he exited my house, he casted me a you’ll-pay-for-this look. I snickered upon seeing that look.

 

“You’re totally annoying, you know. Why don’t you just leave this house forever?” Rachelyn said as she flipped her hair and sat down to chat with her friends again. She didn’t look at me when she said those words, but I knew she was talking about me.

 

“I would love to, but I’m not allowed to. Unfortunately for you, Rachelyn,” I smirked as I went up the stairs. I could hear her scream of annoyance from upstairs. I loved to annoy her very much. It was payback to what she had done towards me.

 

I would really love to leave this house, to leave this village. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to. I was an adopted child. Sometimes I even wondered why they adopted me when they hated me this much. My father didn’t hate me though; he was the only one in this family that acted nice to me. Though that didn’t apply when Rachelyn or my mother was around.

 

I went inside my bedroom and slammed the door. I smiled, remembering Rachelyn’s pissed off scream. Usually she would try to attack me with her Archeic, but it seemed she was becoming smarter. Good for her. Every time she tried to attack me, she would end up being tied by the ivies she summoned. That was totally an amusing sight, and also very embarrassing for her.

 

I looked outside the window, the rain poured down heavily. The usually bustling road was deserted. The kids who used to play there were taking shelters inside their respective houses. Usually they would play happily there in the field. How I wished I was like them. I was always alone, thanks to my Archeic and Rachelyn. Even though this village used to be an Archeic Village, it was no more like that. Like I said, the numbers of people with Archeic decreased dramatically. Because of that, most people became afraid of us, people with Archeic. Luke used to be alone also, but girls started to crowd him because of his good looks. It was only me who got isolated in the end.

 

I heaved a heavy sight, trying to control my emotions. It was better off to have no emotion at all, like a doll with no heart. How pathetic I was, living a life without meaning. I tried to suppress my feelings at time, but it was hard to do that with Luke around. He always made the situation more cheerful.

 

I glanced around through the window, looking at the rain. Huh? What’s that? There’s someone at the sidewalk. What was that person doing standing in such a heavy rain? I didn’t know it was a he or a she. The person was too far away for me to see clearly. That person started to walk nearer to my house. I noticed that it was a he, and his eyes were glued to my house.

 

I never saw this man before. He was wearing dark cloak, I couldn’t see his face clearly. He took off his hood slowly, revealing his jet black hair. He had a beautiful pale skin, and quite tall, about 6” tall. He still had his eyes on my house. I eyed him curiously, wondering who he was.

 

Then I noticed something. It wasn’t my house that he was looking at. It was me. His eyes were directed towards me. I couldn’t see his expression clearly, but I felt terrified by his gaze. His eyes smoldered into mine. I immediately covered the window with the curtains. It was freaky, totally freaky.

 

No, Lyrene, you should be brave. I wasn’t a coward; I needed to make sure who that man was. Slowly, I began to open the curtain, only to find him gone. I started to panic and search around the road. The road was deserted again, not even a single soul was there. Where did that man go? Who was him? Could he be someone from the kingdoms? Was our whereabouts become known?

 

I pondered for a minute, whether to tell my parents or not. My father was the mayor of this village. But they wouldn’t believe me when Rachelyn was around, she would definitely say I was hallucinating. Nobody believed me. Except Luke. Yes, Luke, that’s right. I’d better tell him. Luke would believe me; he would know what to do. I shook my head in disgust. I always depended on him. Truly unbelievable. I took my cloak from my wardrobe and rushed outside, to Luke’s house.

Reviews

[Rebecca Rogers]

There are a lot of grammar issues, BUT you mentioned you knew about this on your profile. It's nothing a rough draft edit won't fix :)

Pushing those grammar errors out of the way, I thought this was great!! The prose is nice and you use a lot of details. I'll be sure to keep reading!