My breathing is ragged as I run through the endless maze of the market place, carts and stands full of everything you could imagine line the rough dirt road. Dust and sand cloud behind me as my feet hit the dirt, good better advantage involving the city guard chasing me around. A head in the distance I see my sister’s flower stand, she see’s me too and ducks beneath the counter; my body barks in protest as I crouch down and drag my heel in a circle to create more dust. This gives me time to run and hide behind Ella’s stand, hopefully I’ll evade the guards long enough that they’ll forget they were chasing me.

“What the hell did you do Lyra?!” Ella growls anger shining through those golden brown eyes. I open my mouth to explain but she cuts me off. “You know what I don’t care, just stay here if you want to…”

My eyes shoot to hers, I hold up my necklace; she looks away but a smile tugs at the edge of her mouth. She hold up hers too, it was always our sign a representation of the bond we have; our necklaces join to form two dragons in the shape of a heart. Mine is engraved with the word “Twin”, Ella’s is “Sisters”, the metal clinks together as we join them, their ruby eyes glow like fire in the midday sun.

“Lyra you need to be careful if anything happened to you I’d-”

“Nothing is going to happen to me I’ll be fine, I just stole an apple nothing big like last week” I said willing my eyes to be comforting. Ella and I are twins we are almost exactly alike except for in appearance; She has dark golden hair while mine is deep brown, my eyes are emerald green and hers are golden brown. She looks just like Mom and I look just like our Dad.

I peer over the counter and see the city guard coughing in the dust, they look to one another.

“You look down this way” a tall muscled guard said to the other shorter chubbier one, pointing behind them “and I’ll go this way.” he said pointing straight in my direction. I had to make a run for it now otherwise they’d catch me; I looked to my sister pleading for her help. She sighed but pulled back the bushes behind her stand to show a small alleyway, I could make it home from that way I just had to be quick and quiet.

“Thank you!” I whisper in her ear as she squeezes me tight.

“Good luck.” is the only reply I get as I dash through the bushes, branches scraping my arm, I keep my breath steady as I sneak through the small alley.

Suddenly I hear shouting behind me, I snap my head back seeing the guards enter the alley way.

“Get her!” I quicken my pace and burst into an all out sprint. My lungs burn and my arms scrape against the rough stone walls, I can hear the guards feel them right behind me. The alley opens up, unfortunately at nothing but a dead end.

“Shit” I curse under my breath, the only chance to get away would be to get past them, to fight.

I back up into the open space the guards racing towards me, they stop just a few feet away snapping out their lightning bats, inventions created by the capitals used for stopping people without killing them. The short and stumpy guard rams toward me but I quickly step aside tripping him making sure to grab his weapon, zapping him in the back to keep him down. Fast as lightning I swing at the other guard but he pulls up his bat just in time to meet mine, sadly for him he exposes his right side, giving me time to elbow him; he stumbles to the left giving me a gap to run.

“This is not a game girl!” he snaps

“Really? Cause it seems pretty fun to me.” I reply smirking

“Surrender now!” the chubby one barks rising to his feet slowly.

“Never!” I punch the big one in the nose as hard as I can, my fist screaming in pain. But I hear bone crunch and see blood pour from the guard’s nose as he crumples in a ball. The short one runs at me but I sweep his legs out from under him, he thuds to the ground letting out a yelp of pain as his arm twists. Before I notice him the tall guard punches me in the gut utterly tearing the wind from my lungs, I fall to the ground dropping the lighting bat, my only hope shatters on the ground sending glass skittering across the pavement. I gasp for breath as the tall one picks me up by the waist throwing me over his shoulder, I thrash against his grip but to no avail.

“Where are you taking me?” I rasp voice barely audible.

“Mayor Burkley, he’s been waiting for you.” My heart falls to my stomach, oh no.