• I fell into the bushes, brambles snagging my clothing. I heard the dogs barking wildly close behind me, I let out a scream of fear. I tried to free myself from the brambles, but they held firm to me. The seemed to laugh at me, they wanted me to die. They didn’t care about me, no one did. I was a monster.
    The sunlight blocked out from above me, here they were. I was going to die. I let a tear slip down my cheek, a scream escape my lips. I was going to die. Nothing mattered though, this is what I deserved. Isn’t that what my mother had told me time and time again?
    “You’re nothing but a monster, Kaibutsu, a mistake! You deserve to be killed. Lucky you Kaibutsu, lucky you I haven’t killed you yet. You deserve this Kaibutsu, you deserve to be beaten. You’ve been bad Kaibutsu, this is your punishment. You are a monster Kaibutsu, you hear me? A monster.”
    All those words, all those times… Now I was getting what I deserved.
    “Back!” I heard someone yell. I heard something whizz through the air, “Get away!” I heard a dog whimper, something snapping. I heard popping, something zing through the air. “Don’t come back!” Someone shouted, “You hear me?!”
    I heard brambles cracking around me, breaking me out of my bramble prison. No! Don’t let me out! I wanted to scream, I’m a monster! Get away! But I couldn’t say anything; just hide my face, hoping the person would just leave me alone to die.
    “There.” The person said, wiping their hands on something, probably their pants. I got up and tried to run. “Wait!” They yelled, grabbing my wrist. I flailed around, trying to free my wrist. Get away. I’m a monster, can’t you tell?! I wanted to yell, to let them know what I really was, but again… Nothing was said.
    “I just want to make sure you’re alright. Just stop.” They coaxed at me. I felt like a caged animal, nowhere to turn, but I wasn’t going to give in.
    I clenched my fists and closed my eyes. I felt power surge through me, I hoped this would scare my captor. “What are you doing?” They yelled. I didn’t listen though, and brought up glass-like shards of ice from the ground.
    They screamed and let go of my wrist. Finally, FINALLY. I thought, starting to run. But I didn’t get very far, I found myself falling over my own shards of ice. A shard sliced coldly into my arm, and one jabbed at my ankle.

    I awoke to the smell of hay. It was comforting, until I realized that that meant that the person had found me, caught me. I shuddered and sat up. Maybe they weren’t here, I could make a run for it. I thought, rather slyly. I looked around the small barn, the coast was clear.
    I stood up, shocked that my ankle felt fine. “Good morning.” A voice said. I looked around wildly, only to see a boy drop down in front of me.
    He looked maybe 13, a year older then me. He had bright red hair that looked like someone had set a fire to his head. We was taller then me, but not by very much. His eyes were a shocking green, it felt like he could gaze right through me. He had gentle features, but I wasn’t about to let my guard down.
    “I thought you might try to leave without talking to me, so I camped out in the rafters. Pretty clever huh?” he smiled, probably proud of himself.
    His smile quickly faded as he ‘got down to busyness.’ “Who are you?” he growled.
    I just glared at him. I’m not going to say I wasn’t scared, I was. But I didn’t want to tell him ANYTHING, what if the word got out who I was? What would happen to me?
    “Fine.” he said, his face softening a little. “I’m Yasuo Hiroshi. I live here with my parents. I want to go to a training academy when I get old enough to go out on my own. And YOU are?” The peaceful one and generosity, why was I not surprised? I decided to keep myself a mystery I would only tell him one of my names.
    “I’m Nozomi.” I said, my voice hardly above a whisper. There, only one name: Hope. That better be good enough for him. I headed towards the door.
    “Hey wait up!” I wasn’t surprised there either. “So where are your parents? Where do you live?”
    I turned around angrily, I was sure there was fire in my eyes and steam coming out of my ears. “My parents are dead.” I spat. OK, not the whole truth, but one of them was. “I was left alone to fend for myself.” How do you like them apples Mr. Questions? I growled inwardly.
    “Wow. No wonder you’re so bristly.” He laughed.
    “What?” I asked, spinning around. “It’s none of your beeswax why I’m so ‘bristly,’ as you put it. Only I need to know that, got it?”
    “Whooah. Sorry.” He laughed, holding up his hands. “Don’t get all offensive. Oh, and if you’re thinking about leaving you better think twice”
    I turned around, eyes narrowed. “and why not?” I snapped.
    “Cause it’s dangerous out there with those dogs. As you noticed.” He chuckled.
    “And YOU’LL lead me?” I asked, catching him off guard.
    “Oh… Surrre.” He said shakily.
    “Let’s go then.” I growled.




    That was when my life changed forever… It would just take me a few years to truly figure it out.



    Chapter one

    I took a deep breath, readying myself. Stupid bandits, I growled. They would get theirs. Raiding this city, just because no one stood up for the poor peoples here, how truly pathetic. This city was a small farming village, mostly small families or older folks.
    I had taken it upon myself to protect this city the last time the bandits struck. Since then there has also been a small group of students from a training academy that came to help. They looked well prepared and well trained; there was no way that the bandits would ever win this fight.
    I saw a small signal light shine up into the sky, they were on their way. A few of their best students and I were stationed up upon the buildings, ready to hit before they met the main force.
    I saw them coming, but they were much large then times before. I looked over to a girl squatting close to me. “It looks like they knew, but how?” I muttered.
    “Well it doesn’t matter. We’ll still chase them out. Besides, it’s probably just that they have spies set up in this area, it’s highly common.” She talked to me like talking to an ignorant child. I was about to snap back, but it was time to fight.
    Our small group shot off some attacks, just too really say that we mean it, but when they broke into a run forward, all the rooftops were attacking.
    Suddenly they were being battered with ice, wind, ground, waves… Everything imaginable, the main force was here.
    The bandits ran quickly, they were no match for skilled peoples. But what startled me was that most of the group left immediately.
    An older man, probably a teacher, came up to me with the snotty girl beside him.
    “Hello. I’m Raidon and this is Naomi Cho.” Thunder god and Beauty Butterfly, I thought. With great names came great personalities. “Naomi was talking about how good your ice skills were,” Oh yeah, Miss Beauty wants to up her cool. I thought bitterly. “and I thought it would be a wise decision to extend an invitation to our facility.”
    I tried my hardest not to laugh, don’t get over your head in words buddy boy. “Well thank you for your invitation, but I’m not very good and I think I must deny your request.” I said.
    Naomi looked slightly shocked at my denial. “Oh, but you would be so good at it! Besides, how do you get better except through practice? Please join us, we could use good fighters like you.”
    I sighed, this was hopeless, but before I could say anything Raidon interrupted. “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe I know your name.” He said.
    “Right, where are my manners? I’m Nozomi.” Now when you were talking to someone of higher or equal status you were supposed to say both names, but I refused to let anyone know my second one. “But I do believe I might be able to leave my little city and join you… if it means absolutely so much to you and your school.
    Naomi clasped her hands together in excitement. She was actually very beautiful. She had silver hair with blue and red streaks running through it, and her hair was ankle-length. Her eyes were a pale blue, like silk. She was wearing a tight-fitting black top that showed off her butterfly tattoo near her belly button. I knew that she did wind, but I didn’t know if she had any other talents… and beauty didn’t count!!
    “Who’s that?” a boy asked.
    Naomi smiled at him, “It’s a new student here. She’s an ice dealer, pretty good at it too.” She said, stealing a glance at me.
    I shrugged, keeping my head down, “I try.” Now that I was here, I was pretty worried. I didn’t really care about fitting in, but seeing these people in action made me wonder if I was going to be good enough. These people probably practiced at least 5 hours a day, along with classes.

    I shuddered; I had never had any classes.


    “Nozomi, this is Yasuo Hiroshi.” I gasped as I looked up at him. His eyes seemed to blaze through me like they did 4 years ago. His hair had grown out more, and he was taller… but he still pretty much looked the same. 4 years had passed since that day he saved me. Did he remember? Would he question me?
    “Hello.” He said shortly. “I’m sorry, I have to get to class.” He said, not meeting my eyes. And just like that, he high-tailed it.
    I guess he did remember me.
    “Hmm. He must be swamped with classes and such.” Naomi shrugged, brushing it off.
    “So what does he do?” I asked, like I didn’t already know.
    “Fire mostly; he’s training with metal too.”
    “Metal?” I asked.
    “You’ve never heard of it?” I shook my head. “Well it’s where you can take like rods or metal and like bend them, you can also turn some things into metal too. Turning things into metal is really hard though, and that’s what Yasuo is working on.”
    “Wow. That’s amazing.” I said in awe, I had never known that was possible, or ever would be.
    “Well let me show you around then you can head off to your room, OK?” She asked. I just nodded, wondering about Yasuo, why was he in my path again? And why was he afraid to speak with me?


    Kaibutsu Nozomi
    Monster Hope

    Yasuo Hiroshi
    Peaceful one Generous

    Raidon
    Thunder god

    Naomi Cho
    Beauty Butterfly