He finally found her on the cliff overlooking the sea, their favorite spot to play. Though it was perilously windy, he ran to the top, ignoring the way the wind tore at his clothes and hair.
She was curled into a tiny ball, her knees up against her chest, arms wrapped around her legs. Her dark, raven colored hair flapped loosely around her, bending and flying to the will of the wind. She was crying.
“Skyla,” he panted, tired from the climb up and from fighting the wind.
She didn’t look up, her face was buried in her folded legs, and he could see her shivering, either from the force of the wind, or her tears.
“Skyla, you shouldn’t be up here by yourself,” he said, standing over her.
“Leave me alone Ryder.” Her small voice was so soft; it was nearly carried off by the wind.
“Come on Sky.” He plunked himself down next to her, refusing to leave. “It can’t be all that bad,” he said, trying to comfort his friend.
She was silent for a minute before raising her head slowly, her small face streaked with tears. “I’m scared Ryder, I don’t want them to take me.”
“You’ll be fine Skyla. They just want to teach you.” Ryder said, confidant, though he knew nothing about the witches in their mountain.
Skyla sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “But what if I never see my family again? What if I don’t come back like Roxanne?”
“You’ll come back Sky, because you're the best out of all of them. Roxanne is too dumb to learn so she needs to stay longer,” he said, still confidant in the little knowledge he had of the coven. He said the words with the familiar tone of a child who thinks they know all they need to know about their world.
Skyla looked up at her friend, whose hair was sticking up at all ends, whose face was as red as his wine colored hair from the climb and the cold, whose eyes were still bright and shining, and who climbed up the cliff to find her and comfort her. “Thank you Ryder,” she whispered.
“Besides,” he was continuing on, “when you come back, you can…make it snow for me or conjure up a feast or give Bast a tail,” he said excitedly, naming things only a ten year old child would dream of. “And I can…” he paused, thinking of what he could do if only he was a little bit taller and a little bit older. “I can quarry the biggest piece of marble you’ve ever seen, and kill an entire buck for you when you get back.” His chest puffed with innocent pride.
Skyla smiled, finding it hard to imagine Ryder ever growing up to be able to work in the quarry or fell a buck.
Ryder grinned in return, glad that he was able to cheer her up. “Come on Sky, I promise I’ll quarry the biggest, most beautiful piece of marble and give you the antlers of the biggest buck I can find if you come back to make it snow and make a feast and put a tail on my brother.”
Still smiling, Skyla nodded, “I promise.”
Ryder grinned even bigger and held out his hand. Skyla took it, stood up, shook it twice, then let go and together they spat in between their feet, fulfilling an age-old promise tradition used by all the children of the village.
“I promise,” Skyla repeated.
Together then, both children raced each other down the hill to their village, the wind considerably less harsh and cold then when they had been alone.
Another beginning to another story that I will probably never finish...
:) Kathryn
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