1 Why They Smiled

"Hey! You blumbering fuck rat better give that back!"

Kiara giggled. "Why? What're you gonna do? Hit me with your tail?" She teased, causing the light brown boy next to her to snort.

"Nah, but I will make you confess your crush in front of the whole school..." Marla signed again, smiling slyly.

Kiara's smile faded. She sniffed and handed the pin back. "Buzz-kill."

"No. Buzz-cut." Marla replied as she pinned the lesbian flag back to her jacket, the pink colours matching her hair - the object of her previous lame joke.

The brown boy groaned. "How many times do I have to tell you, that isn't funny." He very rightly said - not that he's ever wrong. He also signed it for Kiara's benefit.

"Well, I don't care. I'm gonna keep saying it anyway." Marla sat down.

A raven landed on Kiara's shoulder. It flapped its wings and opened its break, but no sound came out. Kiara gasped. "Flora did what?" It flapped again. Kiara glared at Marla - not that there was really any real anger behind it. "You need to get your cat under control. She tried to eat Amira again!"

Marla sighed and signed, "I can't control her. She's my familiar not my pet. How many years will it take you to get this?"

"Apparently a few more." The brown boy said. "You'd think the dumbass would have learned by now."

"Oh, shut it, Elliot." Marla snapped, defending Kiara and causing the girl that had stayed silent so far to look up from her textbook and frown.

"Wait, what did he say?" Kiara asked.

"Why do you even like your pin so much?" Elliot grumbled. "It's not as if you can actually see the right colours." Which he was correct about, again.

Marla didn't like that he was technically correct, and insisted it wasn't about the colours - of which she saw orange and white instead of orange and pink due to her colourblindness. "It's what it symbolises! And it shows i'm fucking proud of it."

"Guys, please, I don't know what you're saying!" Kiara said, her words overlapping with Elliot's as he talked over her.

"Hey, look, I wasn't the one who stole it - or the one that accused your familiar of-"

"She didn't accuse my familiar of anything! I imagine she's quite right!"

At this point, the silent girl had started signing along with it to calm Kiara.

"Why are you angry with me?!"

"Because you were mean to Kiara!"

"I was just being honest!"

"Oh, thank you, Marla." Kiara said at the same time.

"Yeah, well you'd think someone who could read people's fucking thoughts would know what was considered mean! But then again, I suppose someone who did it without permission wouldn't know the boundarie-"

"You know I don't do that anymore!"

The silent girl stood up, her strangely golden eyes gleaming with annoyance. "Could you two be quiet? You know how hard it is for me to read."

The pair fell silent and sat down on opposite sides of the table.

At that point, a Vietnamese woman walked in. She hugged the silent girl from behind. "Hi kids."

"Hey, mom."

"Hello, Mrs. Win."

Nguyễn Helena released her daughter from the hug and told her that she's going to the village to get the supplies.

Marla smiled. "Unlucky, Miss."

"Yes, well, both of your parents had their names taken out of the hat as your mother did it last time, and your father's got a class to teach."

The silent girl spoke up. "You'll be quick?"

Helena kissed the top of the girl's head. "Of course, Timira."

And with that, Helena's last words to be said to her daughter until the end of the book were spoken, and she left the arguing group of friends.

She made her way through the cave system, passing bedrooms, classrooms, and soulless empty rooms.

She grabbed her bag, said goodbye to Elena, and finally left the mountain. The fake wall shimmered as she passed through, solidifying behind her. She touched her dog tag.

The walk out of the mountain range and through the forest was long (as you would expect), and by the time Helena had reached the small village that had been tucked away in Alaska, she was exhausted.

Before we continue, I think it important that you know the basics of how Karsan magic works. It feeds on emotions. The stronger the emotion, the more powerful the magic. However, after using it, the Karsan user is drained - physically, emotionally, and mentally - which has resulted in many an amateur user to collapse and faint (a few have even gone into comas). Due to this, every experienced or well taught Karsan (which Helena was) knows to never use your powers when tired or when you're gonna need the energy. This is why Helena didn't simply see into the future (one of her abilities) to ensure her safety before leaving. And is therefore why, our story begins.

Helena was exhausted. She hadn't been chosen to do this trip in years. She had always joked that lady luck was on her side. Because of this, she was out of practise. She took longer than she should have. She'd taken more breaks and slept more hours. It was almost night when she finally reached the village. It should have been morning.

Helena was glad when she saw the few wooden roofs peeking over the tops of the trees. As she collected the mass of food, water, and other general supplies for the other Karsans, she thought to herself that she might stay the next night here as it was quickly drawing upon her.

So, it was with great pleasure and a false sense of security (no one had been killed by the Hunters in this area for years) that she headed over to a villager's home and asked the owner if she could stay the night.

Now, the villagers had stories about the Karsans. And, although they ordered and provided their supplies, they knew it to be bad luck to keep one around for too long. So the villager said no. This saved his life.

Miffed, Helena tried a few other doors, and, after having it politely slammed in her face numerous times, decided her only option was to camp in the woods - as she had done when coming here. So she set up her tent in a small clearing. This was her first big mistake.

Her second was starting the fire to cook her food. The smoke rose through the trees, and although it was now night, the smoke could clearly be seen for miles around due to the brightness of the moon.

Her third, was falling asleep before she even ate. Her body curled around itself, staying warm in front of the fire. The exhaustion had caught up to her.

This was how the Hunters found her. This is why they smiled.

A few days later, back in the cave system (better known as Siége), the other Karsans were getting worried. They'd figured out that Helena would probably take longer than usual due to her lack of endurance, but had thought she'd be back by yesterday. Of course she wasn't.

Among the most worried were Elena and Dalisay.

Elena was Helena's best friend, and was pretty much the unnamed leader of the Siége. She made all of the big decisions. Having the adults take turns to do the supply run by picking names out of a hat was not one of her ideas. But she hadn't changed it as the chosen Karsans hadn't encountered any danger from it for decades.

Dalisay - more commonly called Timira - was Helena's daughter. You remember? The silent girl. Dalisay adored her mother, and was obviously very worried for her. To make things worse, Dalisay's father had died almost five years ago in order to safely guide some other Karsans to the Siége. Helena was the only true family she had.

They couldn't just send another Karsan out to check if Helena was okay though. They had to wait.

Elena chose to deal with her worry by being extra hard on her son, Elliot, further ruining their already rocky relationship.

Dalisay dealt with it by talking it out with her best friend: the person she'd known all of her 16 years of life, and the only person she fully trusted.

As more days went by, most of the group at Siége had accepted what had occurred. "It happens". This did not mean they had nothing to worry about though.

"We have to send someone out to find her - or at least the supplies!"

"Georgia's right." Zack Grasto, Georgia's husband and Marla's father, said. "It'll be more dangerous to start hunting for food."

Serena piped up, her voice sounding hoarse from old age. "We should wait longer. They might still be there."

"We don't even know if it was The Hunters!" Georgia Grasto said.

Coberry scoffed. "Of course it was them! Why else does a Karsan go missing?"

The group of adults started taking sides, the more 'experienced' siding with Coberry and Serena. Elena was torn. She knew that Serena and Coberry were right. It had to have been Hunters. They had to wait longer before sending someone to find Helena.... Or at least retrieve the supplies for the month.

But she also knew that if they waited too long, if it hadn't been them, they would eventually get Helena before she could.

But… as much as she loved Helena… Elena couldn't risk another life.

They would wait.

The news of waiting was not welcomed by Dalisay (not that she would have ever made that widely known).

She sat in her room. You'd've expected the bedrooms to be cold and damp (they were in a system of caves, which ran throughout frozen mountains in Alaska). But they were actually rather warm. Old tapestries and blankets hung from the ceilings of most rooms, covering the ancient carvings of history on the walls. Woolen rugs covered most floors, names of fallen Karsans written on them in golden string. A fireplace sat in every room, and the Karsans constantly wore coats, warm trousers, and snow boots. And by now, most of them had gotten used to the cold anyway.

She sat in her room, a fiery red fox curling itself around her neck. Tears ran down her cheeks, puffing her eyes. The poor girl had seen what had happened to her mother.

Dalisay had the same powers as her mother. The powers of time. Helena and Dalisay were Time Elementals, they could see into the past, present, and future. Whilst Helena was particularly gifted in seeing future events, Dalisay struggled with anything except the past.

After hearing that they were to wait longer before going out to find her mother, Dalisay had decided to try to see for herself what had happened - something that everyone else seemed to have forgotten she could do.

Her golden eyes had turned white. Her mind had left her body. It found her mother, curled around a fire. Dalisay watched as time passed, and the fire shrunk. She watched as screams from the nearby village grew in alarm and disgust. She watched as these strange deer-like humanoid creatures stepped out from the shadows of the forest, strode over to her mother, and ripped the dog tag stating her name, date of birth, and species from her neck. Then she watched them smile.

This had been too much for Dalisay. Distraught (and now tired), she had ripped her mind from the past, her eyes had turned back to their usual unusual gold, and heavy tears had started raining on her face.

She stayed like this for hours. Whenever she managed to stop, it wouldn't take long for her to start again. Even I (who has learned to never feel sorry for a character, as I'll get attached, and then the author inevitably kills them off) felt slightly bad for her - although I knew worse was coming.

But, all the same… The light in Dalisay's room went black.

Night came and went. Dalisay was mostly left to herself. Her best friend, Elliot, was the only one she allowed in her room. He was therefore, the one that made sure she ate - something she did little of in public anyway.

Elena stuck with her decision to wait longer, the other adults begrudgingly agreeing.

The rest of the Karsans (there were slightly over 25 in total) were left to go about their daily lives, although everyone was much more subdued.

When Dalisay finally made a public appearance. Nobody said anything. Marla and Kiara tried to act as they normally would, teasing each other and making jokes. But it was hard for them to do this when neither Dalisay nor Elliot joined in. Dalisay spent most of the time with her eyes closed and her head resting on Elliot's shoulder as he hugged her. This sight of depression made Kiara particularly uncomfortable.

Kiara was the newest to the group of friends, having only arrived at Siége 4 years ago. Her entrance was a distressing one. Kiara's mother had lived at Siége since she was a child, but had decided that she couldn't live in fear, and left at 18.

She fell in love with a Siense (a seeing human) and had Kiara. After the subsequent birth of Kiara's younger brother, The Hunters started to catch on.

After the death of her son, Kiara's mother sent her familiar to Siége, asking for help and guidance to safely get there. It had been Dalisay's father that left to help.

But when he arrived at the stated meeting location, he'd found only Kiara, a young 12 year old. Kiara had refused to tell him what had happened. He took Kiara to Siége. But during the climb up to the mountain entrance, Kiara had almost fallen. Dalisay's father stopped her, resulting in him falling and crashing onto a spike of icy rock.

Although Dalisay never spoke of the incident, Kiara knew she held a slight grudge against her for coming to Siége. And now that another of her parents had died, Kiara felt as if it would be better if she didn't try to talk to her.

While everyone was at the mandatory classes, taught by the adults with sufficient knowledge on the subject, Dalisay sat alone in an empty room - one meant to be a bedroom, but, like many others, had no current owner.

Just as she was about to start crying again, the door to the room opened, and one of the people she hated most walked through.

Marcus Flint strutted into the room. Dalisay stood up and started walking out. "Wooooah," he grabbed her arm, "I'm not here to make fun of you this time."

The young adult crossed his arms. "Look, no one's talkin' to you because you're 'fragile' or somethin'." He shrugged. "Everyone's scared they're gonna upset you or whatever."

Dalisay tried to slow her breathing. Now would be the absolute worst time to start crying. It didn't help that none of her encounters with the werewolf went particularly well.

"But, as we both know, I don't fucking care about your little feelings." He continued. She wasn't really concentrating on his words though, more focused on not having a breakdown in front of the bully.

"But I do care about your powers." This got Dalisay's attention. "And now that you have motive…"

The werewolf straightened his back. "I was wonderin' if you'd like to join a, erm, group."

"Group?" She managed to get out, her voice still wavering on the word slightly.

"Yeah, we're gonna go fight the Hunters."

Dalisay looked at him as if he were being incredulous.

He frowned. "Would you rather hide in fear all your life? And it's not like we'd leave now. There aren't enough of us yet."

"...But what about-"

"Yes or no, Time?" Marcus' voice dropped into a growl.

Dalisay's heart was running a marathon. "Well, actually, I'd umm… W-well, well no."

Through the gap in his lips, Dalisay could see his teeth starting to lengthen into fangs. His pupils dilated. He really needed to work on his anger issues. "You sure about that?"

Dalisay didn't answer. The anxiety was too much for her.

Marcus started backing out of the room, his presence still dominating the room. "I'd reconsider. But in the meantime," he stopped in the doorway. "Don't expect any pity fro-"

"Oh, fuck off, Flint." A voice snapped from in the hallway, behind Marcus.

The werewolf spun around to face Elliot. He cracked a smirk. "I was just talking to her, no need to defend your girlfriend, Diaz." Marcus budged past Elliot, knocking his shoulder as he did so, and causing Elliot to stumble backwards.

Elliot, however, was smart enough to know that a true confrontation with the werewolf would be unwise, and so stayed silent until he had gone around the corner.

He turned to his best friend. "You okay? What did he say?" He said as he came in the room, closing the door behind him.

"Just some weird stuff. It doesn't matter." She knew, though, that this wouldn't suffice for him. "Probably just wanted to make fun of me in some twisted way."

Elliot gave her a sympathetic look and pulled her into a hug, allowing her to release all of the anxiety she had been feeling in the form of tears.

After a while, Elliot said, "One day… I'm gonna beat the crap out of him."