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Book 1: Sunrise
By AKI
I


Shiraga was picking berries. She picked only the best and ripest, which took a lot of time to find, and poured them from her hands into a small wicker basket. She did all this because her mother told her to do so, but it was in the middle of the night. She did not know why her mother sent her out here at this time of night; she just did what she was told to do.


Shira (I suppose we better call her that, since it’s easier to remember.) was four years old. She had long white hair and bluish-greenish eyes with a grayish tint. She lived in Japan in the mountains, so she never saw anyone besides her family and family friends. They all were always awake at night. Shiraga didn’t know why this was, for she always read in books that other people were awake during the day, and slept at night. She called these people ‘Day-dwellers’. (Shira had the reading level of a collage student.)


“There we go. All done!” Shira said happily. She had a full basket and decided to head home. She climbed up-hill to where her home was, but then stopped. Something wasn’t right. Normally, the forest around her home was full of life; from buzzing cicada, hooting owls, crocking toads, the occasional wolf, bear and raccoon and even the birds and monkeys that wake up too early. But around her it had gone silent; even the mountain creek that was near her home was somehow muted. There was a savage, yet eerie glow coming from up ahead where her home was behind the line of trees that blocked the view of the house. She rushed towards the glow and saw her world was going up in flames, literally.


Shira’s home was on fire and people were fighting in front of it. Many were already on the ground, laying unnaturally still; in what look to her was red paint. She began to walk forward to ask what they were doing, when a rough hand grabbed her around the waist. The person be with her then gave a shout and dropped her hard on the ground. She was covered in the red paint. But wasn’t the red paint as she first thought. It was blood, the red stuff that came out of scrapes that she got a few days ago when she slide down-hill the wrong way. She was a little scared now.


She turned to look if the person was okay, but her eyes were covered suddenly and gentle hands grabbed her. There was her mother’s voice saying repeating “Don’t look Shiraga. Everything’s going to be alright.”


“Mommy, what’s happening?” said Shira in a terrified voice. She wanted to see what was happening. She heard shouts, yells, explosions, the sound of metal against metal, and what she thought were whispers of the wind. Shira had begun to whimper. She had never been this afraid in her short life. She felt the heat from the fire gobbling her home up.


Shira felt her mother run, away from the load noises and heat; into the cool and quiet of the night. Her mother uncovered her eyes and put her down gently, then begun asking questions. “Mommy, who were those guys? Why are they there? Why is our home on fire? Why….?”


“Shiraga, listen to me.” Her mother began, crouching down and holding her by the hands, “Those were people that want to hurt you and everyone in our family. You must run away from here. If you don’t, they will kill you.” Shira’s eyes went wide. She did not know what ‘kill’ meant, but she thought that it meant something bad. “Kill? But why? Why do they want to kill me?” whispered Shira


“All these answers will come in the future.” said her mother. Her mother flipped her head back, looking at the forest behind them, then begun to talk rapidly, “You must run away now, quickly! Before they get here!” Her mother pushed her towards the bushes on the side.


It was lucky the bushes were so thick, because a few seconds later, the people they were running from came. Shira couldn’t make out what they were wearing in this night; they seemed to be too dark to see properly. She looked at her mother, standing alone in the mountain clearing alone while they numbered by who knows how many. One of them came into the clearing. “Where is the child, wrench?” said the mysterious person.


Shira’s mother normally looks gentle and beautiful with her soft pale face with loving sea-blue eyes, soft shiny long gray hair, and her wide pink lips. But all that had disappeared when she looked at these people. She looked like a demon from another world wanting to tear them apart. Her mother spat on the ground bitterly “You will never harm her you--” She said something Shira didn’t understand, but apparently they did, because they took out some things that were similar to the things called ‘ninja weapons’ that her father made her study and use at home. Could it be that these people are ninja?


Shira stared at the ninja, and then blinked. The clearing was empty. Huh? But… how? Shira thought, but before she finished the thought, the ground exploded in front of her. She was blown back and landed with a thud, but was unharmed, save a few scratches. She got up quickly and, without looking back, she ran.


It was no problem for her to run quickly through the dense undergrowth of the forest, she did it all the time. Shira never looked back while she ran; she wanted to put as much distance as possible between her and the ninja. Nearly all the way down the mountain she stopped to catch her breath, and found herself in an unfamiliar part of the forest. She had never been this far down the mountain before. She looked back to where she had come from, but couldn’t tell where her home was. The forest was too thick. Shira felt even more scared then she had been when her mother told her to run.


She walked the rest of the way down the mountain, away from her home. Little did she know that she would possibly never see it again, nor the people that dwelled in her home. She didn’t have a clue that her journey through life had just begun, and that she would have to make it with no one beside her.



She was alone.

(End Chapter One)