• The sun glowed down on two little children that ran, giggling, through the tall, green medow grass. The smallest one, a girl around the age of six, ran squealing, plowing through the grass that went to her knees, her short blond hair blowing in the breeze. A long game of tag continued on as she ran from the other child: a little boy who turned seven two days ago.

    "Tag! You're it!" he laughed, finally catching up to her.

    "No fair! I'm too tired!" she cried, throwing her hands up in the air. She sat, gasping for air, on the soft grass.

    "Oh come on! It's your turn!" he said, sitting beside her, picking some blades of grass.

    She looked at him, her pulse still racing from their long game of tag. "Please! Can we just rest for a little bit?" she pleaded, picking a multi-colored flower and stroking its velvety petals. The sun was getting warmer and the breeze had grown still.

    "Alright, if you want," he agreed, leaning back and looking at the thin, white clouds.

    "Thanks!" she said, dropping the flower and throwing her arms around him in a bear hug.

    He blushed, "Sure..." He went back to picking at the grass.

    That night the boy left to go to his father's home, and that was the last time she saw him for the next thirteen years.

    Ari shot up in bed, tears rolling down her cheeks. She missed the boy from her dreams more than she would've thought possible. She couldn't remember his name, but she remembered his smile and voice.

    "Ari, would you come help me?" called her mother.

    "One minute! Let me get ready for the day!" she yelled back to her mother. Quickly Ari slipped into her pale green dress and combed through her waist length, dirty blond hair. She quickly pulled on a pair of black sandles and rushed through her oak bedroom door to the kitchen where her mother was waiting for her.

    "Hey, I need you to run outside to the garden and fetch me some red lettuce," her mother told her, esperately trying to keep something in a large pot from boiling over.

    "Okay." Ari walked through the kitchen door and outside to the side of the house to the tiny garden she and her younger brother took care of. She carefully knelt and uprooted the last large red lettuce head and brushed the dirt off of it. Sadly, she stood and peered at the remaining vegtables, remembering once more her dream. She walked quickly back into the house to avoid the hot sun. The sun burned hot like this almost all year round, except for the two months of extreme cold during the winter.

    "Thanks sweetie. Edward! Come start on you chores!" her mother smiled as Ari handed her the lettuce.

    Edward, now sixteen, slunk into the room. "Mom, why do I have chores if Ari doesn't?" He glared at his older sister.

    Ari smirked at him, "Because, Eddy," she laughed, he hated it when she called him by that nickname, "I'm leaving today, and you aren't." Ari planned on joining the kings army, her shape shifting power would be useful in the fight against the evil. "Mother, it's time for me to start off to my camp."

    "You're all packed?" her mother asked, trying unsucsessfully to hide her worry and concern for her daughter.

    "Yes, mom. I really should get going," she said, picking up a small leather pack with her extra things inside.