• Chapter Two
    I woke up at the crack of dawn and looked over at Harris. He was still sleeping soundly. I got up and quickly changed into my normal clothes. I put on my patched brown skirt that flowed down to my ankles, my top that was fairly tight, brown, and the short sleeves fell over my shoulders so they only stayed there because of my corset whish was a lighter brown than the rest of my clothes. I pulled a red apron around my waist but I put it so, it hung to the side instead of the front and threw the lockets chain around my neck. I walked down to the kitchen and opened up the pot where we kept the eggs.
    “Out again?” I muttered “Father and Harris are going to eat us out of house and home.”
    I sighed and opened the back door; the cold breeze blew around my ankles. I walked over to the barn, where the livestock lived and pulled open the door. I shivered as I stepped inside the barn. Walking over to the chickens I started searching for eggs. My cold hands found one and I plucked it out. With my other hand I pulled up my skirt so it made a slight bowl shape. I placed the egg down and went searching for another.
    After I had found about 8 eggs I walked back to the door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something shiny. I stared then carefully moved closer. Realising that I couldn’t do a thing with eggs in my skirt I walked back to the door, I kept glancing back though. I kicked the door shut behind me and made my way back to the house. As I got back into the kitchen, Harris came wandering in. I put the eggs in the sink and said to him
    “I saw something shiny in the barn, scared the hell out of me.”
    Harris slumped into a chair and muttered
    “Was it money?”
    “No it was too big. From the quick glance I saw it looked more like, a handle.”
    Harris sparked up
    “A handle? Are you sure?” I nodded then said
    “Wanna go check it out before breakfast?”
    “Definitely,” He got up from the table and headed for the back door. I followed him. I opened the door and he went in, I followed and closed the door behind myself.
    “It was over............ here,” I said pushing hay out of the way.
    “It’s a trap-door!” Harris cried pulling the handle. It didn’t budge. I grabbed the handle as well and started pulling. Ever so slowly it came up. We finally managed to pull it the full way. I knelt down and looked in, Harris looked over with me. I felt like someone had pushed me from behind and suddenly I was falling forward headfirst for the ground, Harris by my side. We fell and fell. I opened my mouth put no scream came out. We were 20 feet from the ground when we slowed down. We came to an abrupt stop a foot about the ground. I had barely breathed a sigh of relief when we plummeted the last foot, smashing into the ground hard. I could hear Harris groaning next to me. I managed to push myself up off the ground. I looked around. The scene I saw was like a dream. The trees were a lush green, as was the grass under our feet. My shoes made almost no noise as I twirled silently. The sky was cloudless and dreamless blue.
    “Is this a dream, Harris?” I said feeling the cool breeze, blow lightly across my face.
    “If it is I don’t want to wake,” said Harris finally getting to his feet.
    “Harris let’s see what’s over that hill!” I cried pointing at it. I ran towards it and Harris ran after me. I made it to the top first and saw placed right before me a quaint little village. Harris stood next to me. I smiled at him then started running down the hill like a little kid.
    “Harris hurry up!” I cried looking back at him. I noticed a huge shape heading right for Harris. I was already hallways down the hill, but I still turned and started running back towards him shouting in desperation
    “Harris look out!!!” I cried tried to run faster but I kept losing my footing. Harris turned just as a giant claw grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and hoisted high into the air. I fell over then watched helpless as he slowly disappeared into the horizon.
    “Harris!” I screamed after him. No this couldn’t be happening, Harris wasn’t gone. Was he? I fell onto the ground staring at the now distant thing that had carted him off.
    ‘There’s no point staying here,’ I thought getting up. I started walking down the hill, looking for somewhere to go and wash my face. It was a habit, whenever I’m worried I wash my face, usually with cold water. I spotted a river not too far off from the village. I walked towards it in a daze, stumbling over the odd stone here and there. I almost fell into the river when I finally reached it. I fell to my knees and started to throw the cold water onto my face.
    I stood up and sighed. I heard a twig snap behind me and I whirled around. I lost my footing on the bank and fell backwards. I expected to crash into the water anytime soon, but I had stopped falling. I opened my eyes and realised that someone had me around the waist. I looked at my savoir. It was a boy no older than I; he had dusty brown hair and gentle brown eyes. He was hanging onto a tree branch that had been hanging over the river, and his other hand had me around the waist.
    “Are you alright?” He asked
    “Is this really a time to be asking?” I said my voice an octave higher than usual. He swung so we were both on the bank. I sighed in relief.
    “Thank-you,” I said my voice returning to normal. I looked back at the boy. Now I realised it he was wearing a patched and frayed shirt, and patched pants.
    “It was no trouble,” He said looking at me. I saw his eyes widen for second, and then return to normal.
    ‘What was that all about,’ I wondered.
    “What’s your name?” I asked. I felt that I should at least know his name, before I went to look for Harris.
    “James,” He said “And yours would be?”
    “Anna,” I replied.
    “I could show you round if you’d like?”
    “That’d be a big help,” I said as I took off in a direction I thought was the way to town. James caught up with me and grabbed my shoulders
    “Town is that way,” he said turning me so I was facing the opposite direction I had been going.
    “Oh right,” I said “But why do you care? I’m just a stranger. Not that I’m not thankful for you saving me but I must ask......why?”
    James looked at me as if I didn’t make sense
    “Is it so bad to do one good deed then be questioned?” he asked. I sighed and said
    “I’m sorry if I’ve offended you in some way......could you show me where town is?”
    James seemed to brighten up. I could easily tell he was used to being treated like a piece of dirt and that he wanted to be helpful.
    “That way,” he said pointing “It’s about 2 miles walk, but 3 and a half for slow walkers.”
    I nodded and started walking towards the town; James walked beside me his hands behind his head.
    “So where you from anyway?” he asked “Cause I’ve never seen you ‘round before.”
    “Truth be told I only just got here,” I said staring into the sky “You see my brother and I found a trap-door which led here. So I guess you can say we fell from the sky.” I smiled as I said the last few words. It took a few steps before I realised that James was no longer walking beside me. I looked around. James was standing still right at the spot where I’d said “Fell from the sky”.
    “What’s wrong?” I asked looking confused.
    “Fell......from the sky?” he said slowly, like as if every word caused him pain to force out “You do fit the criteria.”
    “Fit the whaaat?” I said dragging out the what.
    “The criteria,” he said simply “But I can’t explain it here; not safe.”
    James suddenly lurched forwards grabbing my hand he started to take off down the road.
    “Damn their on to us!” He cried glancing over his shoulder. I glanced too, seeing the giant bird creature, then sped up. But the image would forever be burned into my brain, I could tell. It had a huge ugly head the size of a large boulder, its body was the same but only bigger. Its beak was long and had a deadly curve on the end. Its wingspan was twice that of its body length. Its eyes were nothing but black slits staring blankly at us.
    “What is that thing?!” I cried still running. Not that it helped that the road we were running on had no cover what so ever.
    “Not now Anna we have to get to town first,” James managed to gasp out. I doubled my efforts to run but that ‘bird-thing’ was still after us. I knew my legs or my lungs would give out soon. I tried to call to James to ask if we could stop running, but I knew with that bird thing on our tail, I knew, we wouldn’t be able to. Town came into sight but it was still a mile down the track. Then disaster struck; my foot caught on a stray rock and I went head over heels. I lost my grip on James’s hand and fell flat on my face. I tasted the dirt in my mouth as I pushed myself up.
    “Anna!” James cried turning and running back towards me. I was the prize that both, bird and James were running at, luckily James was slightly faster. Instead of grabbing me and dragging me to my feet, like I thought he would, James slid along the ground grabbing me in the process. The bird’s claws were coming closer and closer. James and I slid along the ground until we stopped just before the bird. It suddenly landed claws on either side of us. I let out a little gasp and James covered my mouth quickly. The bird thing turned its head side to side. I waited for a moment then took off, not looking back. I sighed with relief and wondered why it hadn’t seen us.
    “Why didn’t it-?” I asked but James cut me off saying
    “No time now, it might come back with friends; we have to get to Angleberry Village.”
    James got up, dragging me with him. He sighed and started walking again, I followed him.