Young Writers Society

Nocking her arrow and pulling back her bow string, Eri set her gaze down the shaft of the polished black arrow and aligned the sky blue tip with her target. The bow quivered for a split second, the bright blue tail feathers quivering with, and then she released the string, sending the arrow soaring through the air. A long rope trailed behind. With a soft thud, the arrow reached its target, a tall pine tree with the bottom half of the branches stripped off, along with most of the bark to reveal the smooth grey wood underneath.

Eri, hidden in the shadows of the brush a moment before, sprinted across a small clearing toward the pine, slipping her bow into the quiver on her back. Using her running start, she propelled herself a good ways up the tree and started climbing on her rope. She soon reached the first branches and climbed into the tree, the branches barely shifting under her weight. She unlodged the arrow above her head and coiled up the rope. She also stuck that into her quiver with the other arrows. Eri took a quick check of her surroundings. She knew exactly where she was at once. She bounded through the trees, climbing a little with each branch. I hope I don't get caught, Eri thought. The she quickly dissmissed that thought with the comfort that she had only gotten caught on her first expedition, and that was out of carelessness, which Eri had now taken precautions against anything she could think of.

In no time at all, she reached her destination; a silver weeping willow, its blue-green leaves dragging on the mossy ground. Eri settled herself in a nearby oak tree to wait.

After a few short minutes, Eri heard voices nearby. The voices grew nearer, and then two small figures appeared around the side of the willow. They were cat people. It was a girl and a boy, appearing to be a couple, and they looked to be in their late teens. The boy was a tabby with according ears, tail, paws and a light covering of striped fur on his arms. He was dressed in a gray shirt and black jeans, contrasting his bright orange tabby color. The girl wore a short dark blue dress with embroidered stars, and she had gray ears and tail with whiskers and furry cat legs. They wandered through the glade, holding hands and talking lovingly with each other. Eri felt a small twinge of jeleousy deep in her heart, but she quickly pushed that away. She made sure she was positioned so she could see them, but they couldn't see her, and then she tuned in on their conversation.

"Look, you know I love you and will do anything for you, but-" The boy was cut off abruptly by an eyeroll and a sigh from the girl.

"If there's a 'but' then it's not anything." The cat girl pushed the boy playfully but firmly.

"Fine. Almost anything. But let me finish," the boy snapped, not unkindly. "As I was saying, I love you, but I'm not going to build us a house next to the river in that meadow. It's too close to the border with them."

"Alright. I guess I don't really want our children running around too close. It's still a prime spot though." the girl said with a thoughtful note in her words.

Eri felt a wave of anger surge inside her for the briefest moment, and then it subsided just as fast when she remembered how even her own outcasted people had rejected her.

The couple had climbed onto a sagging branch in the willow and were leaning on each other and talking lovingly about their future. Eri wanted to get closer but she didn't know how strong their hearing was. Come on, she reminded herself. These two don't have anything I need to know; I should get going before the sun gets too high and casts my shadow onto the ground. But she couldn't get herself to leave; not just yet.

After watching the two cat people for a while, Eri slowly shifted her weight to get other foot so she could get up. Almost before she could react, a deep red-purple apple dislodged itself under her foot. She caught it with magic, surrounding the apple with a shimmering sky blue glow. Her left palm also glowed with the blue magic. The only problem was that she had leaned forward a bit when she caught the apple, causing the branch she was crouching on to rustle its leaves. She cursed silently.

Before she could do anything, both cat people swung their heads around at the rustle, ears perked and eyes taking in every detail. They both noticed the floating apple at once, even though it touched the ground and stoped glowing an instant after they turned around. The girl glanced upward sharply and spotted Eri. She tapped the boy on his shoulder and pointed towards Eri. Eri didn't flinch. Maybe they will dismiss me as a trick of the light, Eri hoped.

"Come down and show yourself!" The girl shouted up towards Eri. Eri still didn't move.

"Maybe it was nothing." The boy whispered after a while.

"No. I know what I saw," she insisted. "Come down this instant!"

Eri hesitated for a moment more, and then when nobody moved, she let out a noiseless sigh and jumped down from her perch. Both of the cat peoples' eyes widened as Eri landed. She towered a good (2 feet) over their heads. For half a second, Eri thought she saw fear flash in their eyes, but then she blinked and it was gone.

"What do you want with us?" The boy's tail twitched, betraying his unease that didn't show in his voice.

"Nothing."

"Obviously not," the girl snorted. "Don't lie to us, Mixed."

Eri flinched, her hand starting towards her quiver, but she stoped and returned to her former position. The movement was so fast that the cat people didn't appear to notice.

Eri wanted to says so many things, insulting and anger filled things, but instead she simply said, "I did not lie."

The girl looked at Eri suspiciously. She opened her mouth to say something, but the boy butted in.

"Like we would believe you either way. But why are you here? On our territory?"

"The forest isn't divided into territories, anyone can live wherever they please, according to the laws of the land."

All she received was an angry grunt. He fumed for a moment, then said, "You still didn't answer the original question. Why are you here?"

"Can I not climb in the trees if I want?"

"Not if you're spying on us!"

"I wasn't spying."

"You were too. You weren't just passing by, if that's what you mean."

The girl's ear twitched, and she looked like she had just thought of something. "Didn't King Cosmo decree that Mixed must stay away from the citizens of the kingdom?"

Eri visibly flinched this time, but replied in a voice as calm as ever, "King Cosmo disappeared thirteen years ago. And did not receive the blessing of the Phoenix either."

"But he still became king, which means his word is law."

"Not without being properly crowned by the Phoenix. And am I not a citizen, being born in the forest and having my parents as citizens?"

"Not when your parents are a fairy and a cat person, you disgrace," the boy spat, abandoning all efforts to be courteous, even in the smallest amount. Eri didn't flinch this time, but she knew the cat boy could tell he was hitting a nerve.

"I cannot control who my parents were," Eri said.

"That does not mean it doesn't matter!" The girl glared at Eri, tail twitching. "I mean just look at you. You're nowhere near being a cat person, with all your too long scraggly limbs; and what a tragic fairy you would make with no wings, and cat ears and a tail to boot! See, you simply fit nowhere. Just leave the forest and die. You shouldn't even exist in the first place. You're too different from the rest of us, which means you are simply nothing."

The cat girl's words hit like hammer blows, bloodying and bruising an already existing wound. Now it was Eri's tail that twitched. 

"You will one day regret this," Eri promised, deadly quiet. She never made oaths lightly, and this was no exception. 

Eri backed into the shadows of the trees, glaring at the cat people. She noticed the dragging limbs of the willow were moving about without wind, and the girl's hands were glowing a yellow-green. The boy had silver glowing in his palms, and Eri did not wish to wait at see what his magic was, or how powerful either of theirs were. 

She reached a tree hidden deep within the shadows, and after uttering one final oath at the two, she darted up the tree and leaped through the branches. She could hear them jeering at her, but she didn't break stride. On and on she ran, only wishing to get away. Away from the cat people, away from her parentage, away from this world that hated her. And she ran. Away.