Fifteen ✔

8

     All the Westerners, with the exception of the two teens who had stayed behind with the man, whose name I couldn't remember; despite having people scream it repeatedly.

     "I'm Ivris," my green eyed friend said to the man with the unforgettable bright blue eyes, "This is Konida."

     His eyes widened when he laid his eyes on me, "Daughter of Capri?" He asked sharply before taking Ivris to the side, "You have Capri's daughter with you? She could be a spy. And if she's not surely Capri will personally come and see to it that she is found. If they find out she's here.. It would be catastrophic.."

     "I'm not a spy. And Capri's a little.. She's a little too much of something to come find me. You shouldn't be too worried," I piped in, hearing every one of his words since he hadn't stepped that too far away.

     "Why shouldn't I be worried?" He said as he stepped near me.

     "Jace doesn't care about me. He'll do anything to convince Capri to leave me be. I ran away right after he had thrown me to the ground. But the floor fell through before he could hurt me," I told him, taking a daring step in his direction, "Jace only kept me around so he wouldn't upset his precious Capri."

     "Why do you call them by their names? Rather than mom and dad?" The girl my age chirped in, looking at me with wide brown eyes full of shock that I would hold so much disrespect for family.

     "Jace isn't my dad, more of a step-dad. But why would I even think about calling a monster a step-dad? And as for Capri?" I looked into her eyes, I found myself unable to tell her how much I despised Capri, "It's custom for kids to call their birthparents by their first name in the Southerners."

     The man gave me an odd look, one that said he knew I was lying, but he quickly shrugged it off.

     I turned back to him, "Let's try this again," I put my hand out, "I'm Konida."

     "Sno," he said calmly, ignoring my hand, and brushed past me.

     "I'm Nadia. This is my twin, Shepherd," the teenage girl said to me, "At least that's what he goes by."

     I looked over to the boy who looked similar to her. They both had dark skin, dark brown eyes and black hair. His was long enough that it fell over his eyes, while hers was braided over her shoulder.

     "I like your hair, Nadia," I smiled at her.

     She walked towards me and touched my hair, "I'd love to do yours, if you allowed me, of course."

     Ivris walked up and put an arm around my shoulder, "Yeah. On a boring old normal day at the Northerners, we could all do each others hair."

     Nadia gave Ivris an odd look before taking one step back from me, "Sorry, didn't mean to step on anyones toes. How long has it been?"

     I assumed she meant how long had we known each other so I calmly answered, "Oh a couple of da-."

     Ivris hit me with her elbow, and looked at me with quizzical eyes.

     "Hey now, chill out, Ivris. No judgement being passed around here, my friend. We're all a little different. It's okay that you're not straight."

     My eyes widened as I realised what she had meant, "No, no, you're misunderstanding. We're not together. We're just friends."

     "That's what they all say," she threw a wink and smiled, "Can we go inside, it's a little weird standing around corpses, don't you think?"

     "I have to go find everyone else and make sure they're okay."

     "What do we do then?"

     "Why don't you and your brother head inside, I'm sure you can find your way. Koni, come with me."

     "But I'm tired and covered in mud," I lightly complained, meaning it as a joke.

     "Konida, let's go."

     "O-Okay," I mumbled before slowly following after her as she turned towards a path in the woods.

+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+

     A short while later, I still followed Ivris's frame before she came to a stop and turned to look at me. I, not expecting her to stop so suddenly, ran right into her, falling into her.

     "Sorry," she said quietly with her hands on my sides. She slowly tailed her fingers up my side before they stopped at my shoulders. She moved her hands once more down to my upper arm where she stood me upright, making me release my hold on her.

     I looked into her eyes, meadows of grass looked over my body. Her hair, rays of sandy sunlight fell around her face, framing it in a wild yet pretty way. Her posture was calm and composed.

     "I'm sorry for earlier," she said quietly, moving her eyes from my frame to a tree stump nearby.

     "Why?"

     "We should have been more careful. Took more caution. Looked out the Westerners more efficiently."

     "It was early, there was nothing that could have been done."

     "But there was. Everyone was just so excited by, well, you. And they all forgot their duties. It just so happended to be now that they attacked."

     "Ivris, it's okay."

     She turned her face up to mine quickly, rage filling her eyes, it was an emotion that didn't look right on her, "God damn it, Konida! It's not okay!"

     "Why not?"

     "You could have died! The miss-."

     "Are you worried about my life because of this mission or because of our friendship?"

     "No, Koni, t-that's not what I me-."

     "Save it. Just tell me exactly what you're thinking. Tell me that you only want to protect me so that your precious little mission can see the light of day," I wanted to yell but I kept my voice down in fear of any attackers in the forest.

     She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "You're being overdramatic. Go back to the main building. Or go find your fucking dad for all I care," she turned away and continued on the path.

     "So it was only for the mission," I said only loud enough for her to hear. She stopped in her tracks for a split second before she broke into a run.

     I stood in shock for just long enough to see her disappear into a green forest. I turned around and began sprinting in my own direction until I caught sight of the carnage that had wrecked havoc outside not too long ago.