I stood in a wet pile of soggy leaves and held my sore reddened cheek in my cold hands as two boys stood over top, looming down upon me. I had gone into the forest to escape the real world but even here, it finds me.
"You're a fool for coming into my woods like this," the one boy snarled, still glaring down at me. "There is a war going on you know, so why don't you run home and hide little girl."
"Yeah! A fool!" The other howled, this got an annoyed look out of the elder boy.
"It's as much my forest as yours," I squeaked, "you don't own this land."
His smirk quickly turned to a frown, he continued to loom over me as he said, "So, she thinks she's smart."
"Yeah smart." The boy who seemed to be the lackey repeated. The elder boy didn't like his words being repeated for he turned and glared at him before turning back towards me.
"At least I'm smarter than you two bird brains." I replied quickly, trying to stand my ground.
"Big words for a baby."
"I'm not a baby," I frowned, "or are you just that stupid."
"Ha ha she just called you stupid!" The lackey exclaimed.
The other boy smacked him across the back of the head in annoyance. As the lackey rubbed the back of his head and stared at his friend who had just hit him, the one who had hit him turned back to me. "Enough chatter girl, get off of our property."
I stood tall, which unfortunately for me, was only up to their chests. "No."
"What?"
"You heard me, no. I was here first."
After a moment of dead silence the elder boy slowly and quietly said, "You know, you're very bold for a girl." The boy drew closer, pulling something out of his pocket. I backed up a little, not wanting to know what it was but having a slight idea of what it might be.
Suddenly an object flies past the boy's face in a whiz. "Leave her alone," a voice said. I turned towards the voice to see an older boy, maybe ten years old, with dark black hair, peeking out from behind a tree.
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I watched from behind a tree as the one boy slapped the young girl with brown hair, across the face. She held her cheek as she stared up at the two of them with her big brown eyes. She couldn't have been over eight years old but she held her ground bravely. They continued to argue, I couldn't understand what they were saying but I realized I had to do something when one of the boys started to pull a weapon out of his pocket. I pulled my knife out of its sheath, I peered out from behind the large tree and not wanting to hurt the boy, aimed right beside his face as a warning.
"Leave her alone," I said.
He turned, face full of shock and surprise but just as quickly, gathered himself, "Go, this is none of your business!"
The younger of the two leaned over and whispered something in the other boy's ear. It took him a bit to process what the boy had said to him before he looked back in my direction.
"Apparently this is your business," The boy smiled evilly. He pulled a short dagger out of his jacket and pointed it at me. "An enemy of the Greeks is not welcome here." He said as he pointed the dagger at my face.
Apparently the warning shot was not enough. I stepped full out from behind the tree. I grabbed another knife and threw it at his shoulder. Making sure not to pierce it but to leave a nice sized cut, enough to scar.
The younger boy stepped forward with an angry look on his face, trying to shield the elder. "Now, we going to keep doing this," I said as I pulled out three more knives and twirled them in my fingers, showing them off for the boys to see. "Or are you going to leave this poor girl alone?"
The younger boy stepped closer once more but was stopped by his friend. They slowly backed away, then after a few cubits, turned and ran. I watched them intensely making sure they actually left and were far away before I approached the girl.
"You should probably get out of here." I said.
I stared at her large brown eyes as a smile played across her face. "That was amazing!" She squealed. "How old are you?"
"I'm uh, twelve." she didn't give me much time to answer before she began talking again.
"You are very good for only being twelve. Almost the best knife throwing I've ever seen!" She chimed.
"Um, thanks? But I wasn't joking girl, you need to-"
She interrupted me, "Where did you learn how to do that?"
"My father is a swordsman. You know you are very brave to stand there and talk to me like this."
"Why? There's no reason to be scared." As she smiled a cheeky smile she looked up at me, her big brown eyes shown from the light escaping through the canopy of trees. There was so much joy in those eyes it almost made me forget about the horrible war going on between our people.
"Don't you know what I am?" I asked, she shook her head. "I'm a Persian, you are a Greek, I'm guessing, I am supposed to be your enemy." Even with this information, her smile never wavered.
"Well if you ask me, this whole enemy thing is stupid. We're all human here so I don't understand why humans have to hate other humans. We're both children in a war our parents started, we should be able to choose if we want to fight or not."
I smirked at this. "We need more people like you in this world. Those boys were right, you are smart." This made her giggle a bit. "But you need to get back to your parents before you run into any more trouble."
"I can't," she stated plainly.
"And why not?"
"Well my mother is dead and my father is off in the war." Even with this sadening statement, her eyes never stopped shining.
I sighed internally, another orphaned child, orphaned by this terrible war. "I can walk you back to your home, make sure you don't run into any more trouble. But I have to stay out of sight, I'm not welcome in your land." And with that she nodded, took my hand, and led me through the woods.
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I watched as the knife sliced through the air making a whizzing sound. After slicing through his shoulder, it stuck in the tree behind the boy who had been teasing me, right next to the first that had been thrown. I didn't hear the rest of the conversation between the three of them because I was so intrigued by the boy who had stepped out from behind the tree.
I hadn't even noticed when the other two boys left when the mysterious boy walked up to me. "You should probably get out of here," the boy said gently.
Yes, I thought, but I ignored my thought. I wanted to know so much more about this mysterious boy. "That was amazing! How old are you?" I excitedly exclaimed.
"I'm, Uh, twelve." After talking for a few moments, he decided to follow me home to make sure I didn't run into any more trouble, and I led him through the woods towards the direction I came.
I skipped next to him and hummed a little tune my father had taught me. "So, your fathers a swordsman?"
"Yeah, he's taught me everything I know," he said shyly.
The woods slowly started to fade away to reveal a dirt road. "Well this is the road that takes me back to the orphanage," I smiled. "I can make it the rest of the way by myself. Many people use this road to get back and forth from the town, I should run into someone I know eventually."
"Okay well… stay safe I guess?"
The uncertainty in his voice made me giggle. I turned and took a few steps but then turned back and started to say something but when I looked up he had vanished into thin air. "Hello? Where'd you go?" I yelled. After standing there for a moment, I shrugged, turned around and walked away as if nothing happened.
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I watched the little girl from behind yet another tree, walking away, humming a little tune I'd heard her sing earlier. I regret leaving her like that. I wanted to spend more time with the little girl but our worlds should never collide, Greeks and Persians will never be friends. I then too, turned around and started walking off. I thought about her as I walked, she was so different from anyone I have ever met. After a few minutes I found myself humming that very same tune.
But then I realized…
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But then I realized…
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I never got their name.
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