CHAPTER 1 This chapter contains purposefully set building fire and stranded/stolen children; please read at your own risk. Please note that the prologue is very relevant to the story and you should read that first, located as "First" in notes and credits. Lev smelled smoke, looked back and saw a mushy, cloudy blob of pure black far behind. He tightened his grip around his sister as he kept running away, toward Sasha who was just ahead of him. “S-Sasha, where’s Mother?” “I don’t know. We’ll find her, I promise.” The warm morning light slowly turned to the cool darkness of the bamboo forest as the fronds thickened, almost blocking all light now. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he heard a little sound almost like a distorted, high-pitched giggle, and a faint blue glow shined just ahead. “What’s that?” He said, slowing down. The sound repeated once more, and both Sasha and Lev stopped abruptly. Suddenly, the glow started to whiz around in a careless manner, pausing in front of them before shooting off. Lev caught a glimpse of the little thing. It was like a little perfectly spherical blue fireball, writhing and licking around a tiny, darker core with a face. The face seemed surprised and scared when it saw them. “Hello?” Lev shouted through the dark greenery, “We won’t hurt you! We’re just children, and we need help!” The blue thing (For the sake of length, we’ll just call it a Gleam) paused, now just a few spindly beams of bright blue through all the towering bamboo. It was hard to judge, but Lev estimated it to me a few yards away. It hesitated for a moment before moving so fast toward them that it almost seemed to teleport, leaving a blue trail zigzagging through the bamboo stalks behind it. Lev jumped back, the anxious face of the Gleam at eye level now just a few feet away. “Uh-mm... have you seen a woman... about this tall... looks kind of like me?” The Gleemling’s blue gaze changed from fear to confusion. / It understood me before, right? / It made another noise, a short burst of that little giggling sound, although it didn’t look like it was laughing this time. It was looking at Anastasia and back up at me with a worried expression.. / Is it trying to communicate? / Lev stood, unsure whether to move forward or back away, when suddenly the Gleemling hurled itself toward Anastasia, disappearing inside her. Lev’s heart skipped a beat as the blue thing disappeared into his baby sister’s body, but a second later her eyes fluttered open, the infant taking in a breath after her long slumber. “A-Anastasia?” Sasha stepped closer, eyes wide. Anastasia had been healed by the blue thing and had no evidence of ever being in the fire, but the Gleam didn’t come out. “It’s... still in her.” Sasha said. ... That night, it had rained, and either by some miracle or pure luck the fire had gone out, and after studying the scene (Both Lev and Sasha had gone to a detective school) they found that this fire was in fact arson. Who did it, however, remained a mystery. But they could take action; by running away as far as they could from the area. Both Lev and Sasha had great reluctance to leave, due to the people that had been there, but to protect themselves and the infant that depended on them they had to. Lev sat cross-legged, poking at his food. For once, he actually missed the bread-and-chicken meals he always got. Anastasia sat in a little makeshift seat, playfully shaking her covered cup of boiled spring water “Hey, Sasha,” he said, with no answer. “Sasha?” Still no answer... Something wasn’t right. He looked up, and Sasha wasn’t there. He wouldn’t leave without saying, not out here in the wilderness.
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