Raised wild

Chapter 1

The warm sun had been hidden behind a curtain of clouds as the afternoon rolled by and by the evening, the rain had started pouring on our little village - Vourn. Rare were the times the weather granted us that wish, but today was one of those lucky days.

''Kaelie, get a move on!''

I jumped and looked around until I spotted my brother already soaking wet, a wide grin splattered on his face. Quite tall and bulky, we had nothing in common unless our stupidity. He was a blond with deep blue eyes just like my father, freckles constantly spread here and about on his face because of the glaring sun. Although now he was giving me the goofiest laugh he could muster, people wouldn't approach him unnecessarily on the streets. Dad and I liked to say his frigid exterior was from mom, that splendid little woman with a hell of a character.

I, on the other hand, was brown-haired and although I had blue in my eyes, there were as well sparkles of green in them. People crossing us both on the street would never guess we were siblings. I had inherited my mother's height and had a petite frame, the opposite of the men in my family.

But no one ever pointed out those differences since they'd known me since birth; it was a small village and we could spot miles away whoever was a foreigner. Vourn wasn't anything spectacular, on the contrary, it was the bare minimum. Rainy days were so rare around here that people had festivities during those times, and collected the most water they could with as many bowls as they possessed since the water was a delicacy. The temperature was so high all the time, it was a common thing to see a fire rise into the sky as the home of yet another person vanished to ashes. One thing though that Vourn was rich for – except for the mine most men worked in – would be the people. No matter who you were, there would always be a place in someone's home if ever you were the unlucky one to lose yours.

''Seth, what are you doing?'' I yelled at him over the pounding rain but it was too late. The idiot had already sped up towards a young lad and in his momentum, had tried to stop from colliding with the poor kid who was just walking and minding his own business. The rain had unfortunately mixed up with the sand and created slippy mud, which caused Seth to slide instead of halting and hit the little guy. A loud impact noise made people stop and stare at the two boys now on the ground, submerged by brown goo.

''What the-'' the kid started to say until a shriek cut him off.

''Freddy! Are you alright? My poor baby!''

I hurried – carefully – towards Seth and helped him up to his feet, apologizing a billion times to Mrs. Bertlay. She simply tugged on Freddy's hand, giving us nasty looks.

Shooting a deathly glare at my brother, I dragged him away from the scene. As we crossed the sloppy road to our house, I felt something warm and thick hit the back of my head before sliding down the back of my worn-out shirt. I squinted my eyes and slowly turned back towards him, an evil grin playing on my lips. ''Oh, it's on you little br-'' Brown goo went flying at my head and I ducked just in time, scooping up a handful of mud in the meantime and throwing it at him.

He kept missing as I kept hitting the target since he was way bigger and slower. At some point, he got tired of losing, dropped all the mud he had, and lunged at me, successfully making me fall backward.

''Get off, that's not fair!'' I cried out indignant. He just laughed hysterically, sitting on both my arms and dug into the mud next to my head. He took his precious time as he moved his hands filled with mud over my face while I just shouted profanities. My faith was coming to an end, wriggling was no use under this whale weight, and just as a drop of mud slipped from his fingers-

SLAM!

His body was projected away from me and the mud fell half on me, half on the ground. Confused, I sat up only to see another huge form over my brother who was now lying face flat in the muddy ground. I recognized the guy as Dale, my brother's best friend. With his black hair tousled in every way possible and his dirty stained clothes from the mine, he was unmistakable. He moved like a trained guard, pressing my brother's head once more into the mud before jumping away from him rapidly.