Beginning of chapter 1

This is the "sloppy copy" of the first chapter. (unedited)

Kira gazed up at the night sky like she always did. Her long brown hair blew gently in the cool breeze and the hair on her arms stood on end as the cold air moved over her smooth tan skin. With the light of the moon glimmering in her hazel eyes she began to rub her arms as she let out a shiver. Despite the cold, she loved looking up at the lights. To her they were majestic and mysterious. She loved the way they floated silently across the heavens. From an early age they seemed to call to her, like she belonged among them. She couldn’t explain it but it was something she had always felt. She was alone in this sentiment as no one else in her village seemed to care about them. They rarely worried about anything besides food or danger or displeasing the spirits.  What a silly thing to worry about, she thought. Nothing in her 17 years of life had convinced her that these so called spirits existed. Yet the village believed they controlled the rain and the harvest, and the hunting parties. They believed that everything was determined by the favor of these spirits. They even claimed that long ago, these spirits had come from high above and had created her people in their image. Some thought the lights in the night sky were the spirits, watching over them from high above. But tonight these spirits seemed to gleam less brightly than normal, for Kira couldn’t help but worry about her father.

Kira’s father was the village elder, and he had fallen ill. Taken with a mysterious illness, she had spent the majority of the last week at his bedside. As she stared up at the heavens, she wished her mother was there to help. She could use the comfort and reassurance that everything would be okay, but this was not possible. Her mother had died some years before. Kira missed her now, more than ever.  Life had been hard for her after her mother’s death. She had been forced to grow up so much faster than she would have otherwise, and it showed on her face. She was not weathered, but she looked older than her 17 years. 

Breathing in the cool autumn air, Kira remembered back to her mother’s death. She had died during a saber cat attack on a night similar to this one. The vile beast had found its’ way into the village at night and had slaughter 3 of their people, including her mother. They determined later that it must have gotten in by jumping the exterior wall where no one was looking. It had wandered silently from hut to hut, killing the first two in their sleep, until it was spotted by one of the nightly patrols. Calling for help he and a few others had been able to lure the cat into the center of the village. They had surrounded it right in front of her own home, and it was there that they were able to finally slay it, but not before it had mortally wounded her mother and injured 4 others.  

Pushing the painful images from her mind, she tried not to cry. Her thoughts went back to her father.

He had been ill for almost 4 days now. His forehead was hot to the touch and as he had progressively gotten worse, his ability to communicate had left him. He could still speak occasionally, but his words were nonsense to Kira. Having any sort of conversation with him only confused and frightened her. The village shaman believed that the spirits were punishing her father, because he had let the last hunting party go without heading their warnings. The party had been caught in a terrible storm and were unable to find any game. One of the others had come back delirious and sick like her father was now. After visiting with the sick hunter, her father had become ill the next day. He had fainted during the nightly storytelling and had to be carried to his bed. When he had finally come around several hours later, he spoke three words to Kira. Three words that continued to haunt Kira four nights later. “They are coming.”

 

Who was coming?  She thought to herself. Who had he been speaking of? Was there another village coming to attack? She knew that couldn’t be. Out of fear they had sent out scouting parties to check for invaders. There were no invaders… no one was coming. The other villagers who had heard the words, believed it was just her father’s delirium from the fever and had decided to ignore them, but she couldn’t. When he spoke the words to her, he had pulled her close and had looked her dead in the eye with that same worried look she knew so well. He had not been delirious the way he was now. He knew what he was saying and knew that she needed to hear the words, but what did they mean? There was a sinking feeling in Kira’s stomach as her little sister walked up to her.

Kaya looked very little like her sister Kira. With long sandy blonde hair and green eyes she was a tall and lanky girl. Standing almost as tall as Kira, Kaya also seemed older than she was. She was only 11, but she was much more mature for her age than Kira had been. She thought it was probably the harder living conditions that had made her sister that way. When Kira was a girl life was relatively easy. It wasn’t until Kaya’s second year that the droughts had begun, and the food had become less plentiful. They were forced to go without more times than she cared to recall. Their mother had died that next year, and sadly Kaya could not really remember her. Kira thought that this was both a blessing and a tragedy. Their mother had been so kind and loving, that it made her sad that Kaya couldn’t have more time with her. At the same time, she was blessed their mother’s death stung less for her. Kaya didn’t really recall the events of that night, not the way Kira did. The young girl did not remember the terror that was followed so closely by the immense sorrow. Kira was grateful for this; Kaya’s life had been hard enough without that pain added.

“Why do you stare up at them sister?” whispered Kaya as she stepped up to her sister. “Do they ever do anything different?”

Looking down at her, Kira smiled lovingly, “I stare at them because I believe I am supposed to.” She didn’t really know what that meant, but it was what she had always thought to herself. Pausing for a moment she realized she had never uttered that to anyone before. It must have been father’s illness affecting her.

“How do you know?” Kaya seemed confused.

“I don’t know, I just… know. It’s always been something I’ve felt. Just like I’ve always felt that you were supposed to be my sister.” With the sinking feeling in her stomach diminishing, Kira gently punched Kaya in the arm.

“Ow!!” It didn’t really hurt, but Kaya pretended it did anyways. “What do you mean? Like the spirits decided it?”

      Kira took a moment to consider this. Shrugging she said, “Maybe… all I know is there is something really important about those lights up there, and I think I'm supposed to find out what it is.” This time Kira pinched her sister and then began to run back to their hut. Kaya giggled and chased after her"

Author's Note

Any help is appreciated. There will be some heavy editing of this section before publishing the book, but let me know if you like it or not. Also, forgive the exposition dumps, I was still pretty rusty when I was writing this part. Thanks!

p.s. the spacing is a bit wierd here, i'll fix it later when I have more time.

Reviews

[R.T. Edwins]

I should add that this is only PART of the first chapter. there is more to it than this.