Chapter 1

"Alaura and Ehreyna Terashayde" the priests called out to my twin and me. She was holding onto my hand, nervous. I could feel her nails digging into my flesh. I nudged her and she snapped out of her thoughts. I started to walk towards the Giant-Fire first because Alaura was shaky. I could see her knees trembling and her eyes were closed shut; as if she were praying to the gods to protect her or something.

I half-dragged, half pulled her to the pit in the middle of the temple. The flames smelled like spices; Cinnamon dominated the scent while I could also slightly smell cardamom. It reminded me of the time my entire family and I went to an Indian buffet. I smiled at the memory of how I stuffed my face with biryani while taking small bites of the sweets to even out the tastes. Alaura on the other hand was very polite and took tiny bites at equal intervals. Perfect little Alaura. Everyone at school seemed to worship her. Okay... I admit it, I was a little jealous of her. I had every reason to be. She got everything she asked for without even trying, while I, should've had to plead to get something I want.

I just don't like the idea of getting things without working hard for them. Luckily, Alaura wasn't bratty, she was thankful for what she had. I would've started to hate her if she was a snob.

They sent us into a wonky circle made out of oil. Once we were inside, the head priest began enchanting in an ancient language that pained my ears and wanted me to scream. I looked over to my sister and flinched at what I was seeing. The girl was curled up into a ball and was chanting something like 'please stop'. The ringing in my ears stopped and I was relieved. But it didn't last long, I couldn't feel my arms and legs anymore! I fell onto my knees and I tried to stand up. It wasn't the best choice, I started to get the sensation of being stabbed again and again at the same spot.

Before I had the chance to start having a mental breakdown- they stopped and the head priest whispered out to the sidekick-priest guys to go bring the blessed knives out.

If the guy is ordering for the knives to come out... UH-OH! "If you have time to be worried... you can start now!" I whisper-yelled at her ear furiously scratching my ears in the process. "They're asking for the knives! They wanna kill us!"

Alaura's voice trembled. "How are you so sure?"

"I- never mind," I sighed. "But we gotta go, or we're dead."

"But you still haven't answered my question!" She protested. Never in my life have I ever felt the need to deck someone in the face. "Answer me, Rey."

Rey was the nickname Alaura gave me. I prefer Ehreyna better though, Rey is embarrassing.

"Al," I began, hoping she would understand. Al is what I called her when I wanted to sound serious. Right now, sounds like the perfect time to talk nicknames... right? "Shut up and listen for once. We need to leave. NOW."

When the priest turned towards the statue, I tried to put out the flames and run. Didn't work. I also tried jumping over the flames, the same result. The priest started praying to the gods because he was going to get the blood of 'children' on is his hands. Now, here, I'm not a kid, I'm almost sixteen. Proof I'm a teenager. Get your facts straight, you stupid saints.

The sidekick-priest guys arrived with the 'Holy knives.' I didn't understand why they called the knifes holy- they had no holes in them. Then the thought hit me, they meant 'holy' like in 'blessed by the gods.'

Now's not the time to worry about English; the bigger problem was we were going to be murdered... in front of everyone. If there were people who could get away murdering someone with zero charges, it was the priests... lucky them? I'm not sure.

The priests were coming closer to us and we were panicking inside. I would love to add what I was thinking at the time but that's a waste of both yours and my time.

All I remembered was praying a lot that moment and then everything after that is blurry.

I think I saw Alaura playing with a pile... no, wait, that's not right.... whatever of water, I gave up on naming how much water she had. All I remember was that the flames started to cool down and Alaura pulling me away from the temple.

Everything returned to me once I was almost half a mile away from that hell-hole. I noticed silhouettes of small people and I knew I had to do something. I wasn't going to point them out to Alaura, I didn't want to worry her.

"Alaura," I said, brushing her hand on my arm. I stopped for a few seconds to catch my breath and tugged on her shirt. "I'm fine now."

Alaura nodded and we started to run towards the wood again, not daring to stop even when my lungs felt like they wanted to pop off and my limbs threatening to be set on fire. I didn't understand how I became paralyzed in the temple...and I still don't.

We reached the edge of the wood and quickly climbed to a huge tree at the center of the wood. She was holding my arm as some form of support. I looked around to see whether the people stopped chasing us, luckily, they did.

"We have to stay here for the night, stay here, don't move anywhere," I ordered her. We were high up in the tree, hidden in the branches, I felt this was a safe place. "I'll go find nuts and berries. Don't get involved in petty shenanigans."

"What shenanigans?" she asked as if she were innocent.

"Don't play innocent." I frowned. "I know exact- you know what? Never mind, just stay on the god-damned tree."

I slowly got down and walked into the wood. Going to the marketplace is a death wish, we'd be shot on the spot for running away from a holy place. I kept walking, the trees gradually clearing and space was even... like an orchard of trees. I (finally) found a tree with oranges and I plucked a few. I took an extra orange and peeled the skin off. Taking a bite, I admired the now setting sun.

I brushed the dirt off my palms and walked towards the big tree. It was getting dark now and I couldn't see. The trees were getting denser. I felt a sharp pain in my leg and being the curious person that I was, I looked down. I saw a huge gash which was the size of a quarter of my arm. I looked away to the trees surrounding me and saw a... very sharp twig (or a huge thorn) covered with blood.

I ripped a piece of my jacket off and tried tying it to my leg, but either the piece was too short or my wound was too long, it didn't fit. So, I stuffed the jacket piece into my jacket pocket (Very genius... I know). I started to limp over to the tree, no matter how far I went, I couldn't see the tree anywhere. Was I blind? Seemed likely... like, a lot. I looked back and saw drops of my blood led to where I was. I wanted to hide the evidence but I was too tired for that, I should've passed out but I didn't. I limped till I found the tree and I carefully climbed it, trying to avoid the bark hitting my leg. I reached the branch which we first climbed; after about ten minutes. I saw Alaura having a nap so I dropped the oranges on her lap and watched as she shot up and processing what happened.

"Hey." I sniggered. She glared at me with what she calls 'hateful' eyes. "I found oranges, on your lap. I've had mine. There would last you two days or something depending on how many you eat."

I crossed my legs without remembering the fact that I had a gash on my leg. 'Shit' I winced.

Alaura seemed to notice what was wrong. She pulled out my leg and flinched at the amount of blood there was. I guess even I didn't notice it first; it was dark as hell.

"Does it hurt?" she asked me. I didn't reply because I was losing my sanity in such a small space- we only had space to sit and do nothing else. "Rey. Tell me, does it hurt?"

"No! It doesn't!" I whine, sarcasm everywhere in my voice. "I could run a marathon! You know, I feel like playing hopscotch right now."

She didn't seem too happy at the way I answered. You can't blame me though, that's how most of you'd answer in this situation.

"Of course, it hurts," I added, rolling my eyes. "Genius."

She ignored me and pulled my leg onto her lap and peeled the piece of jacket I had in my pocket out of my pocket. She ripped a piece of her jacket as well and cleaned up with blood around with the remaining water in her bottle and tied it up with both of our jackets.

"Thanks" I smiled at her.

"No problem!" She smiled back.

She ate her oranges and she set up a blanket which I assumed she made, it was made of coconut tree leaves- woven together with her bare hands. I wasn't good at crafting as much as she was. I'd always been more of a problem-solver.

I pulled my blanket-thing up to my chin and smiled.

'Maybe my life in hiding wouldn't be so bad.'

Oh, how wrong I was...