That morning Emma didn't feel like eating breakfast. She was fidgeting a lot, which she did when she was bored, nervous, or uncomfortable. Essentially, she fidgeted all the time. She got up and paced up and down the hall a bit, she was back at her parents unfortunately and to tell you the truth, she was miserable. She decided that it would be best if she walked to school to avoid talking to her parents as much as possible. She wasn't in the mood to be lectured or questioned, which seemed to be the case every time that they spoke to her.

She walked back down the hall and looked at the clock. 6:16 a.m. It was still dark outside. She didn't care, she felt restless and needed to get out of the house. She left her parents a note that said, "walked to school early, will walk back home. May go by Grandpa's old house for a few minutes to see Seth this afternoon."

Seth was the new boy in school. Unlike most of the children, he was kind to Emma. Usually she got bullied because she talked too much and always had to be moving. She got in trouble by the teachers a lot too. She couldn't help that she had a lot of energy, it had been years since the A.D.H.D. diagnosis but she still refused to believe that is what was wrong with her. How long had it been... 8 years?

In fact, it had been 8 years. Her Grandpa George passed 2 years ago from a heart-attack in the winter close to Yule. That Yule was a particularly horrible one because she not only lost her best friend and closest relative, but also had to move back in with her parents. She really disliked her parents. Her mom talked about fashion trends all the time, and her father talked about his job at the Wall. She found her father's stories more interesting, but he was against ever exploring outside the Wall. He said it was too dangerous.

Her Grandfather had been outside the Wall though. He lived on an island far away that was very cold. It snowed there almost all the time is what he told her. He told her that the island was dark for 8 months out of the year, "dark as night," he had told her.

He also had said that Mom had a sister and a brother that she had never met. Her mother despised her Grandfather up until the day he died because she felt like he had loved her siblings more than her. He sent her off to live with her mother, Grandma Gwenn when she was a toddler because the island was too cold to raise a child. She always suspected that it was because he had another wife, and that he had cheated on her mother and sent them away. That was not the truth, however.

Grandpa George loved Grandma Gwenn, but she didn't understand his experiments. She had been the one who left him after the house nearly exploded due to one of them when Mom was just a baby. Grandpa had been alone for many years before he came and found Mom after Emma was born.

Emma shoved her books and homework in her backpack, and left the house that day with little more than a backpack, some pencils, and a squashed peanut-butter sandwich she had made and wrapped in plastic before shoving it in the side pocket of her pants that morning.

She started her walk down the street, off to school. She knew she would be early so she planned to hang out at the playground for a while and eat her sandwich for breakfast. As Emma walked down the dark, barely-lit street she heard footsteps behind her. Emma felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. It wasn't normal for footsteps to scare her like that, but she sensed something bad was about to happen and couldn't explain what it was.

CRACK. Someone had hit her with a stick over the head and knocked her down. Her head spun a bit and she fell to her knees, not crying but angry. She knew who it was because she heard the voice. "A loser like you shouldn't be walking alone in the dark, you never know what could happen. Well, I guess now you do." Timothy Vanderbilt. Emma gritted her teeth and got back to her feet and kept on walking as he followed her jeering at her. She started to get angrier..and angrier, until she thought she was going to explode. She was blocking his voice out mostly, but the next time he hit her, it was with a rock. THAT'S IT! Emma spun around and suddenly sparks started emanating from her hands, her eyes turned silver-blue and suddenly Timothy looked terrified. She went to grab him by the shirt but when she did the sparks shot from her hand. A bright light erupted and Timothy howled in pain. She had shot a something that looked like lightning out of her palm and now Timothy had a huge hole in the rear of his pants. They were singed and he looked like he had seen a ghost. "FREAK! OW! I'M TELLING MY PARENTS ON YOU!" Timothy cried then turned and ran down the street trying to cover the hole in his pants with his hands, embarrassed.

Emma was shocked and looked at her palms, they were glowing a faint blue light. It started to fade back to her normal skin-color as she calmed down. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, she spun around and bumped into a tall lanky boy face first.

"Whoa! Are you okay?! I...uh... I saw... Nice job with Tim!" Seth Langley grinned a goofy grin at Emma. Emma turned red, blushing hard. She liked Seth. She thought he was cute; as did half of the other girls in her middle-school. "Uh...t-thank you Seth. I didn't realize.. that you were watching." Emma mumbled and tried to regain her composure.

Seth hugged Emma. "It's good to see you Em, you look like you're hurt. I um.. can fix that for you if you'd like..." He motioned to her head and she put her hand to where he was pointing. Blood. She knew he was squeamish of blood, it made him uncomfortable is what he had told her. He grabbed his shirt and helped wipe the small amount of blood off of the small cut that had been opened by the branch that she had been hit with. He was so...gentle.

Seth was tall for his age, at 14 he was already 5'10 inches tall. Nearly 6 foot already. He had medium-length, coal-black hair that he wore in the traditional "skater-boy" style, and he always wore a baseball cap to keep the sun out of his eyes. He said he was sensitive to sunlight, and that it made him sick if he got hit directly in the face. He was very pale, and always complained of being hungry but he never ate in front of Emma, not even at school.

"Seth, something is bothering me.." She looked at him but couldn't make eye-contact. Her "A.D.H.D." wouldn't let her do that, it made her uncomfortable. "What's up Em?" Seth looked mildly concerned, Emma was usually a happy person. Hyper, but happy. He liked it, he liked her. "Seth, I keep having the same dream I told you about with my Grandfather.. Where he tells me that story as a child about the Alkonost. I need to go outside the Wall soon to try to find what he was talking about. I can't shake the feeling it is more than a dream, that it's a memory instead." She looked down at her feet and teared up. "Em don't cry, I know you miss your Grandpa a lot. You can't go alone outside the Wall though. It's dangerous, you know that," Seth frowned as she started to cry and she sat down on the curb and put her head in her hands.

"Seth I can't sleep... I can't hardly eat. I feel like I am losing my mind.. I have to go, and I am not asking you to go, but I have to. If I don't return, no one would miss me anyways.." She cried harder now, she knew it was true. Her parents didn't love her, and Seth was her only friend. She was sure he would find someone else to hang out with if she didn't come back.

"Emma.. don't be like that. Don't say that, I would miss you a lot. Emma I really care about you.. More than you know. If it means that much to you, I will go with you. We shouldn't be out after dark though, so we really need to be back before then. Can we at least do that?"

"I am not sure how long it will take Seth. I only know a bit of the directions my Grandpa gave me, but I know where I am headed. I have never been outside the Wall, so I don't know how far that is really but we can try at least. You don't have to come though if you are scared or worried. I will be okay on my own.." Emma's tears still were flowing down her face although she tried to hide it from him, but he could tell that she was really upset. 

"No Em, I will go with you... but we need food and things to drink. We also need some sort of protection in case we were to get attacked. We don't know what's out there but I have heard a lot of stories. I guess with your..powers.. we wouldn't need much, but it would be good to bring along something at least." She nodded and looked up at him, wiping her eyes. "You would really go with me?" She asked. He nodded, "of course I would Emma, I told you I really like you. A lot." He covered his mouth embarrassed at what he had just said. He groaned and Emma turned red again and giggled. "Uh... I like you too Seth.. Don't be embarrassed." Emma blushed more, and got very shy but giggled a bit more. Seth felt quite relieved that it had finally came out, but was still very embarrassed. He took this time to take her hand in his. It was soft, warm, but a bit sweaty from her nerves like his was. She bit her lip and he said, "don't worry Emma, I won't let you be alone. We will do this together. Let's go find your tree."