Chapter 1- Home

A girl is seen running through a town which was busy with people and old cars driving on the cobblestone streets. The girl seems to be in a rush. She could not be older than fifteen or sixteen at most! Her clothing was a mess and unkempt and most definitely was not what other girls her age wore. Though she liked her clothes better even if they were more tomboyish just because she didn't wear a skirt and wore pants instead. Plus they were hand-me-downs from her older brother so she didn't really have much choice. Her hair was a complete mess as she ran, it whipped behind her in a trail of dark brown almost black. The girl's crystal blue eyes looked frustrated as she ran. The streets were full of people walking to the places they needed to be. Up ahead, children playing with their toys while sitting on the sidewalk. The girl, not thinking twice as she ran towards them, leaped in the air over the children and continued on her way to a large building in the center of town. Dodging and weaving her way through the crowded streets she finally made it to the building. She went up the stairs to the building's entrance and she slipped in through the door of the building and made her way down the hall to another door which led into a classroom filled with students her age. A tall woman with black hair with streaks of grey and a mismatched outfit was at the front of the classroom writing something on the board and talking. A blonde girl with hazel eyes in a lavender dress across the room was motioning her over. She quietly snuck in and across the back. When she made her seat towards the girl. When she made it to the seat she gave a quiet sigh of relief and pulled her chair back which made a terrible screeching sound! She cringed at the sound and groaned when she heard the woman call her out with her back still turned to her " Miss Shadow, if you are trying to sneak in class and not be caught maybe try being more quiet." The girl sighed " Yes Ms. Peters!" As she sat down as the girl next to her lead over to whisper "What were you doing that made you so late Luna?'' Luna turned her head slightly to the girl whispering back "I slept in and had to feed the animals and clean up my parents' shop for them before I left! What did I miss while I was running here?" At this moment the two boys with black hair that looked identical in every way except their eyes since one had sea green and the other hazel, behind her decided to butt into the conversation "You missed the old crow talking about some old folklore stuff!" One said, " Yeah it's rather boring if you ask me!" The other said. Luna leaned back towards them sighing "Why do you guys come if you two don't actually care to actually listen to the lessons?" The boys shrugged. The girl next to her turned to look at the boys and angrily whispered at them "Kyle and Jordan! You two are the most unreasonable people ever! She is talking about Dryad people and other creatures in the forest like...!" Ms. Peter's called out again "Miss Sommers, and both Mr. Lune's please pay attention!" The girl turned around in a huff "Wow Bria! Getting called out by the teacher!" Kyle said. "That's new isn't it Kyle?" Jordan asked his brother, "It is!" The boys smirked as they talked about Bria getting called out by the teacher during class for the first time! Luna tried to tune them out and reached into her bag for her leather bound notebook to take notes! Ms. Peters continued her lesson "As I was saying, the fae people are really mostly an unknown species to us. The only things we truly know is that they don't particularly like us, and that there are different types of them. They are one of the reasons that we stay out of the forest and don't go outside the borders of the wall. A few other reasons are the witches, were-people, shapeshifters, dragons, wizards, dryad people as I mentioned before and all manner of beasts. Now we…" The bell rang at the top of the school building signaling for them to go to their next classes interrupting Mrs. Peter's lesson. "Okay class! For homework tonight you are to read Pg. 164-170 and write a report about the creatures in it! And tomorrow we will be talking a bit more about what we were discussing today! " Ms. Peter called out as the students got up from their desks and packed their belongings in their bags. Luna and her friends were walking to the door when Ms. Peter called out "Miss Shadow, if you would stay for a moment please!" Luna turned with a sigh to her friends "I'll catch you guys later." Her friends gave her looks of pity as they turned towards the door and walked out. Luna walked over to Ms. Peter who was at her desk while watching her friends leave. Luna stood in front of the desk "Yes, Ms. Peter?" Ms. Peter was shuffling some students papers as she began to talk. "Miss Shadow, why is it that you are late so frequently to my class in the mornings? You seem to get to your other classes on time." She said as she looked at her through her glasses that needed to be repaired very badly. Luna sighed "Well I have to help my mum and dad at the shop by cleaning it and I forgot to clean it last night so I had to do it this morning which added to my chores of the morning which usually is just feeding the animals out back in the pins." Ms. Peters gave her a curious look raising her brow at her. "Hmm, and why might I ask, did you forget to clean the shop last night?" Luna responded looking down at the floor " I was busy reading a book. And finishing homework until almost midnight" Ms.Peter gave her a small smile that met her eyes which were surprisingly very bright stormy grey eyes "Miss Luna you work too much it's starting to affect not only your sleep but also your school, you may be excused, just try not to be late to my class again that's all I ask. You may leave now. Also please feel free to stop by my class anytime on days off."Ms. Peters turned around to prepare for her next class and Luna made her way to the door to go to her next class. The school consisted of 9 different classes of students. And was in a constant buzz with students from the town. It was a surprise they could fit so many people in it. Luna made her way to her second class of the day, which was math for 6th grade, and sat in her seat after the bell rang. A thin and rather stupidly tall man with chestnut hair and eyes the color of coal was at the front waiting to teach. "Good morning students! Today we will be…" at this point Luna stopped listening to him and tuned him out. She was good at math but absolutely hated it and it always lasted forever. After math class things that day seemed to go by much quicker and went to her other classes she had. After school she started to make her way to her house at the border edge where her parents' shop was located. "Luna! Wait up!" she turned and saw Bria, Jordan, Kyle running down the stairs to catch up to her. "You said you would wait for us so we could all walk home together today!" Bria whined at Luna. Smiling, Luna turned around to face them as she continued to walk home as the others caught up to her. " Man, why do you always walk so fast!" Kyle said breathing a little hard. "Come on Kyle, a little exercise never hurt anyone," Luna said teasingly. "Man, Mr. Richard's class sucked! He told us to write a three page essay on what we talked about in class for homework!" Jordan complained. "Well did you pay attention in class?" Bria said "Nope!" Jordan responded "Well maybe if you paid attention in your classes it wouldn't be so bad" Bria scolded him! As they made their way through town Bria and the twins kept bickering while Luna thought of the amount of homework she had from all her classes that day. Maybe Ms. Peters was right about her working too hard but she couldn't help it! She just wanted to be able to graduate and help everyone that she could while doing so! The twins' house was the first one that they got to. It looked like someone kept adding to it making it one of the tallest houses in the town. The twin left and went inside to help their mother with their seven siblings in the house. Next was Bria's house which was much fancier than the twins house and Lunas. Basically it looked like a castle compared to other homes in the town. Bria went inside to her parents who were trying to get her baby sister who was one years old to eat some of her food. Luna continued down the stone paved streets towards her house! She passed some other houses along the way all looked the same to her most of the time with their cream colored walls and dark brown trims. When she came around the bend on the right she was met with noises of people talking, music playing, shopkeepers and stall people calling out prices of things that they had to sell. She weaved her way through the people and made her way to shop with a sign outgrowth that read, 'Grimms Apothecary' which was the shop that was her parents at the very end of the road. She went to the bright red door and opened it making the little silver bell at the top ring. As she opened the door the familiar smells of herbs, medicine, and books came to her! When you looked in the shop one thing that was noticeable was how tall the ceilings were and the next was the rows of drawers that lined the walls behind the counter all the way to the ceiling which was only accessible by the tall giant ladders back there. Another was the many herbs, books and assortment of trinkets around the store on the shelfs. "I'm home mum and dad!" Luna went around the sales counter to the back where a door was hidden out of sight by the rows of drawers that their living quarters were at and opened it to go up the stairs to the rest of the house. When she got up she went from the entryway to the kitchen to another set of stairs and she made her way up and went down a hallway to her bedroom at the end of the hallway and opened the door to find that her giant dog that looked like a black bear laying on her bed completely covering it with his body! "Russ!" Luna scolded, the dog cracked  open his eyes but didn't move. "You know you're not supposed to be on furniture! Get off!" Luna dropped her on the side of her little desk in the corner and went to one side of the bed and tried to push the dog off. "Russ! Get off!" Luna huffed as she tried to push him off with all her might. The dog still didn't seem to want to move. Sighing and giving up Luna looked at the dog with her hands on her hips. "If you get off I'll give you a treat!" She said the magic words because immediately the dog rolled off the bed and was staring at her with expectant eyes. Laughing, Luna went to the desk and opened the top right drawer and pulled out what looked like a cookie from it. Luna turned to the dog and threw the treat towards him to which he caught and ate in two bites. "Alright now go bother Lucas while I get dressed to help in the shop." Luna said while walking over to her dresser next to the desk. Meanwhile Russ turned and sprinted out the door to do just what Luna had told him. After he left Luna went and closed the door to change into a light forest green shirt and some clean pants that didn't have dog hair all over them. Downstairs she heard her brother telling Russ to stop doing whatever he was doing and to go bother someone else. Snickering, Luna finished getting dressed and then opened the door to go downstairs to the shop and help. When she got to the kitchen her brother, who was now on the floor getting attacked by kisses from Russ making his dark black hair stand up in odd places and his clothes were now covered in dog hair galore, called out to her "Luna come get your dog off of me and outside! Please, he's slobbering everywhere!" Luna finding it amusing raised an eyebrow at her brother. "Isn't he also your Lucas?" Her brother, trying to avoid Russ giving him kisses, responded "Yes but he only really listens to you!" Snickering some more, because that was only partly true, called the dog off of her brother "Russ. Get off Lucas and go watch the sheep." The dog immediately got off and went to the backdoor in the kitchen and hopped right over the bottom part of the door since the top was already open. "There he's off!" Luna said as she turned and headed down the stairs to the shop! "Thanks!" She heard Lucas call after her! Luna got to the bottom of the stairs and grabbed one of the shop aprons from off one of the pegs and went out to help. After tying the apron on Luna went to look for her dad to see if he needed help with making or putting out any of the trinkets that he makes for the store. She went down the hall that had more rows of drawers and opened a door on the right to see her mum with her dark black hair partly in a ponytail and dad with his honey brown hair all over the place and like usual they were talking. "Hi Mum! Hi Dad!" Her parents looked over and smiled at her "Hi there little moon! What are you up to?" Her dad said at his desk that was covered in all sorts of projects and papers he was working on. "Just wanted to see what I could help with!" Her mother who was standing beside her father smiled at her. "You are always so helpful Luna! We actually need to go collect herbs from the forest this afternoon before the sun sets and organize the ones that we have from yesterday!" Her dad smiled looking at his wife "We also have some news to announce tonight at dinner!" Her Father seemed to always smile when looking at his wife! Luna smiled, it was always nice to see how much her parents loved each other. "Well that's super exciting and I can't wait to hear about it! Do you want me to go collect the herbs?" Her mother looked over her smile fading just a little but was soon back to what it was before, "No your brother and I are going to go collect some! You can stay here and help your father with his trinkets and also organize the herbs we got yesterday." Luna always thought it was weird that her parents would never let her near the woods but she never really questioned it anymore thinking maybe it was just because they wanted her to be older before she went in. "Okay! I'll go start organizing the herbs right now." Luna turned around to leave and went out towards the end of the hallway to the storage where a main majority of the herbs were kept and were also kept as they were dried out and organized and put out in the front of the store or made into medicine. Luna heard the bell at the front of the store ring and her brother welcomed the customers that had entered. Luna went to the shelf and started to go through the bags that had all the herbs from yesterday and put them into different piles so she could bind them with string so she could dry them out. It always seemed to calm her mind when she did this and helped her think better. She always seemed to have a close connection with plants and the outdoors. As she organized she started to hum a little. She heard the bell again and assumed that the customers were leaving now, "Hey Luna! Your friends are here!" Her brother called her. Putting down the herbs that she was binding, grabbing a towel to clean her hands, she went to the front to see Kyle, Jordan, and Bria at the counter along with another boy from their school. The boy was a year younger than all of them and was shorter than most boys and had blonde hair that needed a wash and huge brown eyes that were the size of saucers staring at the rows of drawers. "Hey guys! What are you doing here?" The twins looked at the boy from their school "Jason wanted to see what the shop looked like since he's never been here!" Kyle said while turning his attention to one of the books on the shelf next to the counter. "I didn't know it was this big in here!" Jason said as he looked in awe around the shop! "Where were you at school today Jason? I didn't see you in any of the classes we have together!" Luna asked as she cleaned her hands with the towel she brought up front and draped it on her shoulder after. "Oh I was with Ms. Peter helping her in the library at school today. So she gave me an excuse card so it wouldn't count against me not showing up." Jason responds and finally looks at Luna and not the store. "Cool, how'd you manage to convince her to let you help her?" Jordan asked while looking through the trinkets. "You only want to know so you don't have to show up for class!" Bria scolded him. Jordan just smirked and kept browsing the shelves as Bria continued to scold him. "So Kyle, how is your dad? Since Jordan is too busy with Bria scolding him to answer." Luna asked as she came out from behind the counter. "He's doing good. He actually just got promoted to Head Officer and is incharge of a fleet of soldiers assigned under him." Kyle responded as he pulled out a book to look at. Unlike his brother he actually did pay attention and made decent grades at school. So Bria didn't scold him as much as his brother. "That's cool!" Jason said as he looked at trinkets on the counter. "Yeah. He's been really busy though helping out to manage the borders. So people don't go outside the fence other than authorized people." Kyle said as he put the book on the counter. "Two coppers." Luna said as she opened the draw where they kept the money. Kyle pulled two coppers from his pocket and handed them over. "So how is your mom doing with all the kids?" Luna asked as she put the money in the draw. "She's doing good especially since Katie is old enough to help her out with the triplets." Jordan said as he walked over to the counter with a leather bracelet band he found. Bria followed him with a necklace that she also found on the shelf. "That's three coppers for the bracelet and three for the necklace as well." Luna said as she opened the drawer again. "How about you Luna, how is your family doing?" Bria asked as she and Jordan handed over the coppers. "They are good. My mom and Lucas are headed out to go collect more herbs from the forest this afternoon." Luna said as she put the money in the drawer and closed it. "We wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out sometime this weekend at my place?" Bria asked as she put the necklace on. "Sure." Luna said, just then they heard the bell at the front of the store ring and all looked to see a tall and very large man with eyes the color of coal and his hair and beard dark black, in a long coat with lots of pockets on it coming into the shop. "Uncle Ivan! What are you doing here?" Luna said in surprise. "Hello Luna! Is my Sister around?" Her Uncle said, scanning the store with his eyes! "She just went out a bit ago with Lucas to go get some herbs." Her Uncle came up to the counter and reached one of his many pockets and pulled out a bag. "Can you give this to her when she comes back?" He said as he placed it on the counter in front of her. "Yeah sure. Do you want me to tell her you said hi?" Her uncle smiled at her, "Yes, thanks Luna! And happy early Birthday! Can't believe that you'll be sixteen soon!" Luna smiled. "My birthday isn't until tomorrow!" Her Uncle smiled down at her! "I'll see you soon Luna! Tell your dad I said hello!" He turned and walked back to the door, said goodbye to her friends and left. "That's your uncle?!?" Jason said in awe. "Yep! He's one of the forest hunters. He goes and hunts down the animals to feed the town." Luna said as she picked up the bag which was the size of a giant flower bag and was somewhat heavy. "Hey Kyle can you come around and help me move this to the back? It's a bit heavy." Kyle gave his book to Jason and jumped over the counter and took the bag from her. "There is a door to get in there you know!" Bria scolded. Kyle and Luna made their way down the Hall to the back where her dad was working on his trinkets. "Hey dad! Uncle Ivan stopped by and he left this bag for Mum. He said, `` Hi`` , by the way." Luna said entering the office with Kyle behind her. Her dad turned around and looked at the bag in Kyle's arms. "Well let's put it over there in the corner for her so she can look at it when she comes back." Kyle went to the shelf in the corner and placed the bag on it. "Kyle! How have you been?" Luna's dad said enthusiastically, "Been pretty good. Just trying to keep up with school and helping out my mom." Kyle responded as he turned around to face Luna's Dad. "That's good to hear!" Her dad got up from his chair to follow Luna and Kyle back out to the front. As they got closer to the front they could hear Bria scolding someone. When they came out Bria was in fact scolding Jordan. "You can't just do that and… Oh Hi Mr. Shadow!" Bria said as she glanced past Jordan at the people who just walked in. Her father smiled, " Hello Bria, Hello Jordan! And who is that over there by the books?" Her father said as he looked at the blonde pudgy thing in the corner. The boy was so engulfed in what he was reading that he didn't hear the question. Jordan called out to him, "Hey Jason! Do you want to come introduce yourself to Luna's dad?" Jason looks up at the group by the counter fast. "Oh, uhh Hi. Sorry I was just looking at the books that you have." He said sheepishly.. Luna's dad smiled "That's okay! What brings you to our shop Jason?" Setting the book down Jason went to the counter with the others. "Oh I wanted to see what your shop looks like since I've never been here before! I heard that you have some really cool stuff! So I asked if I could tag along!" Jason said excitedly! "Ah I see! Well feel free to stop by anytime." Luna's Dad said as he grabbed some papers off the  cluttered countertop and placed them in a file nearby. "I will, thank you!" Jason said as he bought a book. "Hey we have to get going, it's starting to get dark! But it was nice to stop by and see you!" Jordan said as he grabbed his brother and Jason to leave the shop. Bria followed them not far behind. "Nice to see you too. Gotta start closing shop anyways!" The four figures waved as they exited the shop along with the rest of the customers that had stopped by. And Luna's dad went and closed the door behind them all and flipped a sign at the front to tell others the shop was closed. "Alright Luna, would you help me clean up the shop really quick before you go back to organizing herbs again." She grabbed a broom and started to sweep as her father started to reorganize the shelfs. Once she was done sweeping she started to organize the books on the shelfs. After doing so she headed back to the back room where the herbs we're so she could finish organizing them leaving her father to organize his trinkets. When she got to the door of the room there was a soft green glow coming from underneath it and she could hear something inside. Cautiously she went and opened the door slowly. The glow got brighter as she opened the door. When she opened it fully the green glow could be seen from under the boards of the floor. Looking around the room she walked closer to where the glow seemed to be coming from but as she got closer the glow seemed to be moving. It traveled under the counter cupboard into a small space in the wall. Luna crouched down to look at where the light was coming from. As she did she could hear whispers of a sort. She couldn't quite catch what they were saying. They seemed to be singing. She looked under and saw the light coming from a small box door by itself. Luna reached to open the door to see what the light and the whispers were. She grabbed the tiny doorknob only to find it locked. Frustrated, she climbed out from underneath the counter and stood up. She turned around to go ask her dad what the light and the door was about. She went to the front to see if her father was in the front still cleaning but when she got to the front he was nowhere to be seen. So she went back to his workshop to see if he was in there and found him drawing a design for another one of his creations. "Hey dad, what is the glowing light in the herbs room?" Her dad looked up from his drawing to her. "Glow?" He said as he raised an eyebrow at her. "Yes, Glow." She said exasperated he didn't believe her. Laughing at her, her father stood up. "Well why don't you show me this glowingness business." He replied as he stretched a bit. They walked to the herb room, but when they got there the green glow was gone. Shocked, Luna rushed into the room in front of her father and looked under the counter where the door had been just to see that it was no longer there. "Where did it go?" She muttered in disbelief. "What are you looking for there,  little moon? She crawled out turning to her father, "The door where the glow came from!" Her father looked at her puzzled, and squatted down to where she was to look at what she was looking for. "What door Luna? " flustered now she replied "There was a tiny door almost like our drawers out front but a door. And now it's gone." Her father gave her a worried look. "I think you might be just tired. There isn't a door here or a glow. Are you okay?" Sighing she turned around to the herbs on the table "I'm fine. I think I might also be a little tired too. I guess." She heard her dad walk towards her and felt a pat on her head. "After you finish the herbs I want you to go get some rest. Your mom and brother can wrap the herbs they get tonight. Speaking of which, they should be home soon." Luna heard him say as he walked towards the door. "Wait, what about the announcement?" Luna remembered what they had said earlier. "We can tell you later! Don't worry!" Her dad said leaving. Sighing again she continued to wrap the herbs and sort them into different piles. When she was done wrapping the last bunch she cleaned the room up a bit and took her hair out of the ribbon she had on before leaving the room, closing the door behind her. Luna then walked to the door which led to the house. She opened the door taking off her apron and trudged up the stairs to the kitchen area where Russ was sprawled out on the floor until he heard her. He got up and followed her to her room where she went and grabbed things to take a bath. After her bath she put on her nightgown and started brushing her teeth when she looked in the mirror to see that one of her eyes was turning slightly green. Confused, she looked closer at it but didn't think much of it think that she was just tired and didn't get enough sleep the night before. After she brushed her teeth and put her hair in a braid she went and trudged over to her bed climbing under the thick layer of blankets that she had. Russ had grabbed his giant bed out of the kitchen and brought it into her room by her bed. Laying down she felt her eyes start to grow heavy as she thought about what to do tomorrow and what that green light in the herb room was about. Pushing those thoughts to the side as her head sunk into her pillow she closed her eyes and fell asleep to the sounds of Russ's breathing and the soft sounds of the animals outside. She felt her body relax and started to drift off to sleep.