Chapter One
Alice and the Cherry Tree
Thunder- Boys Like Girls
Alice Valarie and Kiwi Adams have been best friends since they were in Kindergarten. Now they are grown up, thirteen to be exact, and they have made it through thick and thin together. Both of them are orphans, and have no siblings. They use to wander through the woods alone, just the two of them, until they found out their abilities. Alice has the power to run faster than a jet plane at full speed. Even though she can’t run for a long amount of time, she can still use her powers to get away from something that could harm her. Kiwi has something called Apporation. She can make anything that she can lift appear in her hand or arms. She is the reason why the two young girls haven’t starved or frozen to death.
Even though they could survive, they felt weak. They heard the stories of what lived in the forest, and as twelve year old girls would be, they were scared- even with the company of their daemons, Alice a tabby cat named Violet and Kiwi a bearded collie Braden. One day they even though they were being attacked. However, it turns out that the attackers were people just like them. Their names are Zamora and Lamarcus, or Lamar for short. Zamora’s daemon is a chinchilla named Kathryn that rides on her shoulder, and Lamar’s daemon is a snow leopard named Declan that walks by his side. They are cousins, so Lamar’s power of seeing fifteen seconds into the future works better on her than it would if they weren’t related. He see’s blurs of the future with most people, but he can see everything very clearly when it involves her. Zamora’s power is to control fire. She’s not a mean person, but she has a fiery personality when you get to know her.
Alice and Kiwi are friends with Zamora almost immediately after they meet, but they have trouble warming up to Lamar. He’s the first boy they’ve met with powers, and he’s three years older than them, so they’re a little scared of him. Zamora is now fourteen and has known Lamar for a very long time, so she trusts him. It took Zamora almost a month to convince the girls to trust Lamar like she does. The four of them have been traveling together for the past year and a half, and they haven’t gotten into any major trouble so far.
“We should find a place to start a fire soon,” Zamora says to Lamar. “If we wait too long, it’ll be dark and we won’t be able to see where we’re going.”
Lamar shrugged and said, “Ladies?” looking at Kiwi and Alice. They both nodded in agreement, and followed Lamar into a cave. “Everybody get comfortable,” he “We may be here for awhile if this rain doesn’t clear up.”
Kiwi raised her eyebrows and asked, “What rain?” Just as she said that, thunder boomed, lightning struck, and rain started pouring down. She rolled her eyes and through gritted teeth said, “I hate it when you do that.” Lamar just smiled and threw his backpack on the floor of the cave, the three girls doing the same.
Zamora started a fire with ease, and got out her sleeping bag, laying it next to the warm flames. Kathryn hopped off her shoulder, and joined sleeping Violet. Declan sniffed Lamar’s backpack, then walked over to Violet and Kathryn and fell asleep.
“Are we safe in here?” Alice asked Lamar with scared and innocent eyes.
Lamar chuckled looking behind him at his Snow Leopard and answered, “With Declan here, I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Alice looked behind her, and then smiled as she turned back to Lamar.
He always knew what to say to the girls to calm them down, even though you wouldn’t guess he’d be the type of person to be good with that kind of stuff. When you first meet him, he’s rude and will always pick a fight. He’s very blunt and doesn’t care if he insults people, but if you’re close to him and on his good side, he’ll be nice and lay off with being so open with his opinion unless you ask for it. On the outside, well, don’t even get me started. He’s completely different from Zamora. He has black shaggy hair, with deep brown eyes, and clear skin. He’s almost six feet tall and has very broad shoulders. However, Zamora has wavy red hair that reaches her waist, bright green eyes, and a bridge of freckles across her nose. She’s barely over five foot, and she’s very thin- Lamar can wrap his pinky and thumb around her upper arm.
If you looked at the group, you’d notice that all of them are very different from each other. Alice is a few inches taller than Zamora, and has a runners body- made for her power. She has big blue eyes with long eyelashes, long almost golden hair, and an oval face. Kiwi is only a little shorter than Lamar, and is noticeably taller than Alice. She has long dark brown hair, deep hazel eyes and dark skin.
“Hey Kiwi?” Alice whispered.
“Yeah?” Kiwi whispered back.
“When do you think we’ll find our way back home?”
Kiwi sighed in despair. “Alice, I don’t think we have a home anymore.” She turned her head towards her best friend, and continued with the painful truth. “If we both randomly woke up here, we were obviously supposed to be here. Besides, we haven’t been able to go more than a few feet into the forest without running back out. If home is on the other side, there’s no way of through there- even with Lamar. I’m sorry Alice.”
Alice nodded saying she understood, and then said, “Do you think Zamora and Lamar have a home to go to?”
“Yes,” Lamar said sitting up. “We both do.” He looked at his sleeping cousin who’s snoring lightly. He then looked back at the girls, the shadow’s from the fire dancing on their faces. “But there’s no reason for us to go back. Both of our parents hate us. They know about our powers, and they don’t want anything like us near them. That’s why the two of us ran away. That’s why we’re not going back.” He lay back down and turned away from the girls.
Kiwi looked at him with sympathy and said, “I’m sorry Lama-“
“Just forget it,” he interrupted. “Forget it, and go to sleep.”
Kiwi and Alice both nodded and looked at each other. Kiwi fell asleep in an instant, while Alice stayed wide awake. Her eyes burned, but she couldn’t’ close them. She felt around next to her until she found Braden. She stroked his soft fur, and felt his breathing. Any other night, this would have soothed her and she would be in dream land in no time. But tonight was different. She could feel it. They’re in a cave, it’s a full moon, and it’s raining cats and dogs. She doesn’t know why she feels so unsafe, until she hears them. In perfect time with each other, a wolf and bear howling in the night. She’s heard them every full moon ever since her and Kiwi woke up here that night. She’s always thought of running towards the sound to find them, but never got the courage- until now.
She slowly got up out of bed, and walked to the opening of the cave. She walked towards her backpack, got out her rain jacket and boots, and put them on.
She looked at Braden and said, “Stay here. If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, wake up Lamar and lead him to me.” She was about to turn to leave, when she turned back to Braden and said in a very stern voice, “Do not leave the cave alone. If something happens to you, I couldn’t live with myself. Now promise me. Promise that you’ll wake up Lamar before searching for me.” He looked at her sadly with his puppy dog eyes, but nodded a promise. She smiled a thank you and turned towards the rain.
Walking to the opening of the cave, she could hear the wolf and bear still growling at the moon. She waited quietly, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from, and was close to giving up hope. Suddenly, lightning struck in the distance and she could see four figures. It was only a glance, but she knew it was the bear and wolf. The only question was what else was with them?
“Is it too dangerous to go out there, Braden?” She asked her loyal bearded collie. He pleaded with her to stay, but she was about to leave anyway, until the sound of the wild animals stopped. And it didn’t come back.
