Two years had passed since I killed my father. After my mother had recovered, I had vowed to become stronger. Everyday I trained my body and went to the soldiers base to learn hand to hand combat. Surprisingly I was quite good at it. I could beat all kids my age, though they didn’t have the determination I had. I was currently learning the bow, though I gave up learning the sword after finding I had no talent for it. My mother, after recovering from her injuries seemed to be ten times more vibrant. The villagers, no longer having to worry about my abusive father, approached us with warm hearts and friendly eyes. I made a bunch of friends, including a baby falcon who had broken his wings which I spent months healing and named ‘Storm’

Life was going great.

I aimed my bow at the target 20 feet away. I pulled the string back, my young muscles straining with the effort. I concentrated and held my breath, then let the arrow fly free from my hand. It landed close to the bullseye with a resounding *Thunk!*

“Yea!”

“Nice shot!”

“Good going Sagen!’

My three best friends George, James and Taylor shouted.

“Thanks guys!” I replied, happy that they were cheering me on. Storm, who was on my shoulder screeched in appreciation.

“Gaah! Not in my ear storm!” I shouted. Storm was a beautiful bird. Pure white skin that would blend in with the snow with bright blue eyes giving him a majestic feel when he became older. But right now he was an annoying brat!

“Hey, you guys wanna have some fun?” James, the most courageous of us asked. James was tall for an eight year old. He had the physique of a warrior and one of the only people who could match me in hand to hand combat. His wish was to become the greatest paladin this world has ever seen. He had a giant talent for magic, or so our village elder says.

“What kind of fun?” George. the most cautious of us asked. George had short hair, cut in military style buzz. He was more than a little overweight. His green eyes and black hair made a nice contrast however. He wished to become the greatest merchant ever and live a lazy life. His father was the owner of the land we lived and other areas, so he was pretty rich already. Still, he wanted more.

“Well, I found this amazing ravine with black tree leaves!!” he said excitedly. “It’s twenty minutes north of here, through the woods. Come on, lets do it!!”

“No way no way!” George and Taylor shouted simultaneously. Taylor was a beauty. She had long black hair with the most beautiful golden eyes this world has ever seen. She would definitely grow to be someone important. She had a massive magic capacity, and the elders themselves were teaching her magic personally.

“How dangerous is the path?” I asked, curious.

“You cannot be considering this!?” Taylor shouted

“Come on Sagen, please don’t do this” George said

“Yes!! There is no danger at all! The path is a little hard to follow but other than that i’ve been there multiple times and nothing has ever happened to me.” He clearly wished to show us this ravine

“I dunno” I said “It looks like it’s about to rain…”

“Tomorrow then” James said quickly

“Alright. Tomorrow. Meet here at 3:00”

“I won’t show up!” Taylor said. But I knew it was a lie. Taylor was the one who kept us all out of trouble. George tried to say he wouldn’t either, but his voice squeaked during the middle of it, making us roar with laughter.

We played tag and wrestled for the rest of the day, while Taylor sat and practiced her magic.

It was midnight when I returned to the house. The shabby house we used to live in had been completely remodeled, though it was still pretty shabby. Two bathrooms with two bedrooms and a living room it was a serious upgrade from our old house. Mom still made low pay doing odd jobs, but we managed somehow. I went to my mothers room to check on how she was doing. She was passed out with the blankets thrown off her. I grabbed them from the ground and placed them on her, kissing her forehead and saying ‘I love you’ as I did so.

I was happy. Life was great and only seemed to be getting better for me. I would never would have guessed that that frail visage would crash down.

As expected, everyone had gathered at the spot we agreed upon.

“Hey Taylor, what are you doing here?” I said smiling, lightly teasing her

“Well if I wasn’t here you all would be in trouble without me” she replied haughtily. George was scared, understandably so. None of us save James have gone out this far.

We began to walk north, away from the village. During the trip I asked

“So James, how did you end up finding this?”

“Well, I was tracking an animal and didn’t realize how far I had gone. I cornered it right by ravine. I was going to kill it but right in front of me a black leaf fell down. I happened to look in front of me and I saw that black leaves were everywhere! They were really sharp and pretty hard.” He said

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“So how’d you get back?” Taylor asked

“Simple. I made arrow markings on the tree every 10 feet.” He replied

About another ten minutes of walking we saw the first black leave. Taylor ran up to it and said

“It’s beautiful!” And it was. It had silver lines going through it. Suddenly Taylor exclaimed

“This has magic in it!”

“What!?” George, James and I exclaimed.

“It’s only a small amount but it’s really strong! We… We could sell this!!” She suddenly said. Magic leaves… I could tell ideas were forming in George’s head. Suddenly he pulled out his large backpack and began to pull out food.

“Everyone, empty your packs. We will eat this food then fill our bags with leaves. James, you said there were a lot of leaves correct?” When George is in his “Money Mode” he becomes a natural leader.

“More than my weight!” He said excitedly. If this worked, I could… no we all could change our lives forever!

After eating a hastily made meal we began to run towards the ravine James in front and me in the back.

Beautiful. Thats the only word I could use to describe the scene around us.There were giant trees filled with black leaves with silver lining that glittered amazingly in the sunlight. The leaves were extremely hard, so when they struck together they made a beautiful ringing sound. There was a small clearing from the ravine and the trees. I peered down the ravine to see that even tree’s were somehow growing in the ravine. Though, they weren’t black. It truly was beautiful sight.

We destroyed that almost instantly.

The leaves to go were the one on the ground. I collected maybe half a pack of them since they weren’t that full. Next, we carefully climbed up tree’s and grabbed leaves by the bases. I had learned the painful way how sharp those leaves were. By the end of the day I had a multitude of cuts and soon to be scars. Luckily, all our bags are full. Well, they were until George pulled out another lunch bag. Seriously, I thought that bag was full of leaves?

“Dig in!” He said. There was an assortment of foods that I had never even seen before but smelled delicious. I inhaled the scent, my mouth watering as I did so.

After we finished eating we began to fill the other two bags that george had hidden from us. It took us a full four hours to fill every bag we had. By then it was starting to get dark out.

“Time for us to go” I said

“Yeah.This forest is a little scary at night” James responded

George and I were standing at the ravine, wondering how deep it was. I happened to glance back to see ten sets of eyes staring at us.

“George, Taylor here now!” I shouted at them. They didn’t hesitate, sensing something was wrong.

“What are you so--!!” James began but shut up after the first wolf stepped out of the woods. Taylor and George scrambled behind us as the rest of the wolves came out. They were an assortment of colors. Autumn red, forest green, ocean blue, Moonlight silver and finally Void black. I could tell the black one was their leader by the way they parted for him. He barked at us, seemingly giving a command. Instantly two of the wolves charged towards us. Taylor screamed and I pulled out my knife. I grabbed George and roughly shoved him to the side. He would only get in the way.

The wolf jumped at me, it’s powerful body leaping through the air. Out of reflex I threw my arm up, feeling powerful jaws snap on it. I was scared stiff with fear but somehow managed to stab my knife in its chest. Unfortunately I was so scared that my blow didn’t go deep enough, causing the wolf to bite even harder and it began to shake its head. I felt like my arm was going to get yanked out of it’s socket. I made a desperate grab for the knife, somehow grabbing it with my left hand. The wolf was trying to pull me closer to it’s friends. I Grabbed my knife and using the pommel smashed the side of the wolf’s head until it dropped dead from being bludgeoned.

I saw taylor struggling with his wolf. I planned on helping him but suddenly the other two wolves charged at me. I was glad that I was left handed. I made a lucky throw to the autumn wolf on the left, piercing it’s eye dropping it dead in an instant. Unfortunately I was left open for the blue wolf. I pounced and I thought I was dead but suddenly James tackled it, spearing it in midair. I quickly grabbed my knife while he was wrestling with it.

“James!” I shouted and tossed him the knife. It landed beside him and with a quick grab he smashed the blade into the wolf’s ear, straight into its brain. I smiled

“We did it!” But then I remembered. There were five wolves, not four.

“ SAGEN!!” Taylor screamed, but it was in vain. I barely managed to bring my right arm up before It smashed into me, sending me plummeting into the ravine.