Chapter One

    I remember what it was like to be seven years old, and looking up at the sky. In the clear blue abyss, I would feel happy, warm and safe. Looking back on it, and how I smiled I knew magic existed.

    I also remember the day my grandfather arrived. He was a stern old man, as thin as a pole and a face frozen in a deep scowl. He was dressed black that day, and he brought the rain with him. Thinking back on it now I find that perhaps it was appropriate; after all that was the day my parents died.

    The old man didn't show an ounce of compassion, and took me in hand that day. I was forced to watch as they lowered my parents into the earth. I did watch as the wet mucky ground swallowed them up, and the old man dared me to cry. I fell to the ground in the mud that day, dirtied the dress my mother had made for me that past holiday. The old man told me then, that I was to stay as far away from magic as I could. Magic was unholy, and evil and would put me in the ground. That is what he told me that day...it still haunts me.

    My grandfather took me away that day. We traveled without a word for three nights until we reached a small village. The village was tiny and poor, but withstanding. My grandfather took me to a middle aged couple named Nina and Hongo. Nina was robust, and didn't believe in child's play. Hongo, was a spindly little twig of a man. He wanted to get rich quick in life with little work to show for it. It was unknown to me as to how my grandfather had found these two, but they seemed in good standing with one another. Without further introductions, my grandfather left me there with them. I, a ten year old orphan girl, found myself in a world I was unfamiliar and even so...I grew up.

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    "Azura, don't ya' think ya' should be heading back home? Tis' be dark soon. Don't want the wolves to get ya'." Kido said as he laid his hunting knife on the rock to the left of me. I ignored him as I stared at my clasped hands. The fluttering beneath my fingertips was like a tiny heart beat that I wished to hold close to my heart and keep it there. Parting my palms a bit I could see the fluttering green wings of the Luna moth I held between my hands. Shutting my palms carefully not to squash the tiny creature I looked up and stared into the woods. Kido stomped his foot lightly and against the earth before spitting off into the trees.

    "Azura, are ya' listening to me at all?" he sighed before laying his hand on my shoulder. I stood at the contact and turned away from him, climbing up the rock I had previously occupied.

    "Azura..." He began again as I looked at him, my hands clasped firmly ahead of me as I stood up tall on the boulder at my feet.

    "Shh, listen." I whispered to him, the smiled evident in my voice as I raised my hands above my head. I closed my eyes for a moment, allowing myself a moment more to feel and hear the fluttering wings within my hands before letting go. A swift movement of fingers unlacing and releasing; the green moth was free. Its dusty wings beating quickly against the air and up and away. I smiled watching it fly away before turning to look back at Kido. He had thrown his hunting gear over his shoulder and was now staring intently up at me.

    "Now may we go home? I have squirrels to take to my mother ya' know." He tutted, offering me his hand. I rolled my eyes before hopping from my perch on the rock. I breathed in the air, letting the damp woodsy smell coat my lungs.

    "Cant I stay here?" I murmured looking off to the side at him. Kido was my first and only friend in the village. He was a tiny thing when I had arrived. All legs and arms, topped with wiry hair the color of straw. He had reminded me of a scarecrow. Now at the age of 20 he had long since grown into his frame and put on a decent amount of muscle from the many hunts he had done in the past years. He was one of the villages best hunters, and often was put in charge of watching me when I went into the woods. I was told the woods were filled with vicious animals, and evil magic. Kido rolled his eyes and put his hand on my shoulder again pulling me toward the village.

    " I don't think so, Nina would skin me if I let ya' out here after dark. Not to mention what Cobaltin would do to me." he said lowly. I frowned allowing myself to be pushed along the path toward home. I sighed to myself, looking back over my shoulder into the woods. Looking back ahead, I paused. Kido stopped as well to look down at me.

    "Its not like they really care if I come home you know. All they care about is the money my grandfather pays them to babysit me." I shrugged, looking down at my dingy shoes. I heard Kido sigh behind me as he reached around to pull me to look at him.

    " I know its hard to live with those two sometimes. Nina and Hongo aren't the most ideal guardians one could ask for but they took care of ya'. Give them some credit." he said sternly, grasping my chin in his hand forcing me to look up at him. I looked away, unable to meet my friends eyes. He didn't really understand. No one in the village did, but that was OK. I didn't need them to understand.

    "lets go home..." I said quietly turning back toward home and starting off in the direction. I could hear Kido's careful footsteps as he walked behind me. All the many years of training had made him move careful in a manner that wouldn't alarm wild animals and I found it quite off putting. So unlike the gangly thing I once knew.

    Upon reaching my cottage, Kido pulled me to the side. Startled I looked up at him as he pulled me into and embrace.

    "Kido?" I managed to squeak as he pulled away for a moment only to smother my words with his lips. I gasped, my hands floundering on his chest to push him away only to fail against the years of hammered muscle. When he released me he had a goofy grin on his face as he looked down at me with his mud colored eyes.

    " I should have probably done that when we were in the woods but I couldn't find the courage...So was that OK?" He said softly, his arms still around my waist as I shifted back to signal I wanted to be released.

    "What was it for?" I asked, unsure of what I should do. Slap him? Congratulate him? All in all I felt rather flustered and trapped. He removed one hand from my side and ran it through his straw-like hair, his face as red as if I had slapped him.

    "We have been friends for seven years, Azura. I think ya'r the prettiest girl around here. Always have. I'd make a good husband for ya', honest I would. I could take ya' away from Nina and Hongo." I stopped him there as I held a hand up and pulled away from him. He released me easily enough as I turned my back on him, my hands finding my face. My skin was hot and heated beneath my hands, and my stomach reeled. Had he really just proposed to me? Out of no where like that?

    "Azura? Is there something wrong? Or is it you don't think I'm good for ya'?" He asked, his deep voice almost pained as I turned back to him. His hands were in knots as he had done when we were kids and the teacher asked him to speak in front of the class.

    "Kido...You are and always have been my best friend. I love you, honest I do." he looked away from me, and I felt my stomach fall to my feet.

    "But not in the way to marry me." He finished for me, and I fell silent. The only sound between us was the crickets singing their ballad in the night air. I nodded to him and I instantly felt horrible for it.

    " I could have set ya' free. My offer still stands if ya changer yer mind." He said quietly, in an almost childish voice as he turned his back on me to walk to his home. Staring at his back I felt tears sting at my eyes.

    "I don't want my freedom handed to me in the form of marriage, Kido. You should have known I wouldn't have wanted that. I want to earn my own freedom." I whispered after him. He paused long enough to hear me and and silently begin walking once again.

    "Ill see ya' tomorrow Azura." He said numbly as he disappeared from my sight. Pressing my palm against my cheek I walked up the walk way to my home. The lights were still on and I knew I was in trouble.

    Surely enough, upon opening the door I was met with Nina. She grabbed my shoulder in her large pudgy hands and pulled me inside, slamming the door behind her. Pulling me around to her red sweaty face she glared at me with her beady eyes.

    "Where have you been? Its after dark! If your Grandfather got word of this he'd be ringing my neck for it you ungrateful thing." She spat, the tiny spray of saliva hitting my face as I cringed away. Struggling in her grasp I managed to wriggle my way free.

    "I was out with Kido...I'm sorry, I lost track of time. It wont happen again." I said softly bowing my head to her. Grabbing my shirt she twisted me down to look back at her.

    "You better not. Its bad enough my husband and I have to bust our backs to feed you, clothe you, and keep a roof over your head when you've done nothing but be a thorn in my side since the day you got here." She growled before releasing me with a shove. I stumbled back, tripping on my skirt hem and falling back. I heard a soft clack against the wood on the floor as I looked to spot what it was and froze. The fairy stone my father had given me when I was a little girl had slid out of my breast pocket. I hadn't parted with the stone since it was given to me and now that beady eyed woman was picking it up with her dirty hands.

    "A FAIRY STONE?! YOU BROUGHT MAGIC INTO MY HOUSE?!" She snarled at me, her hands thrashing about in a fashion that made her look like a dancing pig. The stone was in her hand and I darted for it, I towered over her by about a foot as I reached for the stone, she pushed me away.

    "Give it back! Its was my fathers!" I yelled in desperation, my hands clambering for the stone in her hands.She pushed me back again with her pudgy fingers.

    "Hongo! Hongo, come quick!" She squealed as sound could be heard from upstairs. The sound of boots on the stairs alerted me to the fact that Hongo was home tonight rather than out drinking.  

    "Nina! What on earth is with all this yellin'?" He groaned when his eyes locked one the stone in her hands. His eyes then darted to me as he closed the distance between us with his long toothpick legs and snatched me away from Nina by my short hair. I cried out as I was pulled away, one hand tugging on Hongo's hands to release me as the other reached out for Nina.

    "Let me go! That stone was my father's, Yo have no right to touch it!" I screamed at them. Nina's piggy face smirked at me, waving the stone in front of me, just out of arms length.

    " You mean this fairy stone? It was your fathers you say? The same father who dawdled with magic and got himself killed for it?" She crooned clasping the stone firmly in her hands.

    "You brought magic into this house?!" Yelled Hongo in my ear, tugging on my hair as I cried out again. "Did you?!" He yelled. His long birdlike nose dripping sweat into his graying dark mustache. He wreaked of spoiled milk and beer as I struggled to get away from him.

    "Its mine..." I managed to say as the words froze in my throat and tears welled up into my eyes. Nina began to laugh to herself, her hand resting on the stomach of her ready to bust dress.

    "I will teach you to defy us girly." She cackled as she walked toward the fireplace. I struggled against Hongo's grasp on my hair, my hands lashing out at him. I pounded my fists against any part of him I could reach until her cried out in pain and released me. I threw myself at Nina but it was too late. She dropped the stone into the fire pit. It glowed red until it couldn't withstand anymore and blew up in a small puff of shards.

    "No!" I wailed, plunging my hands into the flames to no avail as my skin was burned and I reeled away from the fire. Nina and Hongo had recovered and pulled me from the floor and threw me into my room. I threw myself against the door and cried. That stone was the last thing I owned that had been touched by my parents and now it was gone, and I wished that I too, was gone.