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Chapter 1: The Everlasting Burden

Page 1

Michi Reynolds lay in her bed quietly listening to the slow and calm creaks on the floor. Whispers came from outside her door. Then, suddenly the whisper faded away as though the person had dissapeared. But the door from the other room opened and slammed abruptly. She stayed aware, standing straight up in her small cottage bed. Expecting another boom or clash, she looked around the room. But the entire cottage seemed to have just pushed away all the people. Misoro Mika, Michi's aunt yawned and peeked inside Michi's room. Michi quickly dove under the covers and faked a sloppy snore. Misoro barely fell for it. She frowned, and walked over to Michi. She tickled her back. Michi giggled. Her heart pounded. Misoro took off the blankets revealing a matress, a fluffy pillow but no Michi. Surprised, Misoro scanned the room with her beady brown eyes for 10 minutes but could not find Michi anywhere. By that time, Misoro Mika was very irritated and she stormed out of the room, her blonde hair swaying wildly.

Michi laughed, and peeked from underneath her bed. While Misoro was tickling her, she used the pillows inside her pillow to replace her while she crawled from the large blankets and underneath the bed. Michi was a straight A student in school so she had very good strategy skills. But this wasn't normally easy. Misoro never fell for Michi's sly tricks very much. Michi slowly and quietly tip-toed into the hall and cracked open the door just enough to let her slide through. She promised to herself she would return to the little cottage before breakfast. Then, she dissapeared into the forest to once again pluck berries from an ancient berry bush.

As she ventured deeper into the forest she became more and more nervous. She had come to Berryballe Forest many many times before but always felt a cold mist rise. As she walked quietly on the trail she pulled out her cellphone and texted Nonnely, her good friend from 8th grade. But then she froze in her tracks and dropped the cellphone just as quickly as she had stopped. The phone beeped loudly but she was so frightened that she couldn't hear it properly. The bush in front of her (which was the berry bush) was moving side to side the opposite direction of where the wind was blowing. In a panic, she quickly snatched her cellphone from the ground and darted past the bush. She was surprised to see the berry bush looking so brown. It was dying surely. But many say long ago the berry bush created it's own magical barrier to protect it from any harm. Even though Michi didn't fully believe in the barrier, what could possibly harm the Ancient Berry Bush? "Where are you!? Show yourself!!" shouted Michi backing away from the bush trying to hide the fright in her eyes. She turned pale white and was shaking badly. There was a grumble then a deep growl. She gasped, and plucked eight berries before she was suddenly thrown
powerfully, slamming into a tree. She wanted to scream and run, but her arms and legs were feeling like pieces of straw. Her legs were numb and sore and it was very painful to move them. Then, through the fog that was somehow disconnecting her brain cells, she was able to make out a blurry figure of a monster no bigger than the bush itself, but much stronger. She knew her arms and legs were definitely broken because of the everlasting pain that soared through her. Then, without notice everything was black. She fainted.