Gift- Book 1

Chapter 1

All around the forest leaves rustled in the wind, and bits of spring pollen floated around and stuck in the dewy grass. The midmorning air was crisp from the pine trees, and swallows flitted around the rushing mountain creek. The water in it, cool, and the small pebbles on the bed, polished smooth. Spring in the forests was pleasant, and the normally warm days in the valleys were almost cold in the shade of pine needles.

It is indeed the perfect day to hunt for deer and catch the now very active rabbits and mice in snares set under bushes. The berries in said bushes are plump and ripe at this time of year as well. Nothing could suggest this place like the one that kills multiple every year in the winter. A full blizzard could start in mere seconds, trapping travelers and hunters under feet of snow. It's a miracle that animals aren't yet extinct here.

Leiea remembers her years of those winters well. The village was impacted badly as well, and those travelers lucky enough to survive outside are sheltered for the season. Last year it was especially bad, and Leiea's little family had to care for 4 travelers sickened by the cold. Never has the village's food supply been so low, so fast.

During the wonderful spring, people come from all around to bask in the sun for days at a time. Leiea does so too but prefers the forest instead of the rolling hills separating towns. The life in it is reassuring. The sharp pines have a better smell than half-burnt grass.

Fleya flinches awake on Leiea's lap and her hazel eyes peer to the blue sky. Fleya's first time going into the forest this year was worrying for their Mother because the winter was so horrible. It took many trips to it periodically to make her understand that it's perfectly safe after the cold months. The only reason Leiea was ever allowed to go was because she supported her family heavily through hard times; much of the village trusted her deeply. This granted her much more freedom than her younger sister. Other children at school were always envious of it.

"Good morning," Leiea smiles and wipes a fallen hair from her eyes. Fleya grins sleepily back and sits up, yawning. Her cleaned work dress and leggings from yesterday morning are grass-stained now and her bright blond hair's ratty on the back from rolling around on Leiea's legs. She runs her fingers through her pale red hair.

Although the forest is much safer now than it was, she was still secretly on high alert. There have always been tales of fictitious creatures in these forests. They have been told to children around big campfires to scare them away from it. Usually, these tales were about creatures that only emerged during the wintertime. Giant bears with horns and long tails that killed people brave enough to escape the village. Ones like these were made for entertainment, but others were much more believable. Ones about small candy-colored foxes that pollinate like butterflies, and gold-speckled deer with antlers the size of people. These cheerful ones were always spring and summertime creatures.

Of course, Leiea has seen normal animals here; she hunts them for a living. Some things, although, have been unexplained, however minor the detail. Once, she saw a raven with feathers that shone the entire rainbow in the light. There sometimes plants like this as well. Flowers the shape of bells that rung happily in the wind. Patches of moss that smelled like roses. It's also likely that some more harsh creatures appear in the winter and fall, but no common folk would know truly.

Leiea's just one of the few people that know of these happenings. It's figured that the storytellers and other hunters do too. Fleya has always loved those stories. She's only an eleven-year-old, and shouldn't know that they might just be a reality.

Out of the corner of her vision, Fleya starts picking berries from a bush nearby and eats them by the handful. Leiea takes some from the pile set on the grass and eats them similarly, throwing a few out over the small creek. She has always done this, setting out some of her food to attract friendly birds or squirrels. People in the village typically disapproved of this, since it's wasteful and could lure out wild dogs. No one seemed to understand the simple pleasure in watching birds eat a few feet in front of you, their attention unwavering.