My friend, Asia and I created this story using characters from some of our short stories. Check out Asia’s POV here!

Martha and I were slowly ambling down a sunlight path with tall oak trees shading our shuffling feet. There were startling blues and greens mixed into the dark green foliage along the trail path. It was the flowers that made such beautiful contrasts. This was nothing like the drab browns that had populated my world at the slave camp. I shook my shoulder length blond curls as I chased away the dreadful memories of the slave camp. That’s when I spotted the most gorgeous purple flower I had ever seen. I drew closer to it. I held it in my hands careful not to pluck it from its slender stalk. The petals were a dark velveteen purple while the center was more a lighter purple. I think I must have sat there staring for like five minutes before my senses came back to me. I looked up about to call Martha’s attention to the flower, but my voice got stuck half-way through. There was a stranger standing there looking just as startled on seeing me here. The stranger had curly blond hair, but it was not as curly as mine. The eyes that were staring me down were the absolute creepiest. They looked like blue lighting had been trapped in them.

            “Um, hi” the stranger said and began to continue walking along the path.

            “Wait! What’s your name? What’s that thing on your shirt? Why don’t you have a sweater on? It’s cold after all.” I bounced up to her.

            “It’s not cold.” The stranger answered abruptly.

            “It is too cold! And you’re rude when you don’t answer people’s questions.” I pouted.

            “I did answer your question. It’s NOT cold.”

I skipped ahead and positioned myself in front of the unwelcoming stranger with my fists on my hips. I had met these kinds of kids before at the slave camps. They just needed to be softened up before they would actually start being friendly. “I asked what your name is!” My face was set in what I thought to be a scary face.

“My name’s Samantha kid” She arched a thick eyebrow and a flicker of a smirk flashed across her lips.

            My brows furrowed. Was this girl, Samantha, being purposely mean or was she usually like this? “You know, you would be a great slave master. In fact, you’d probably fit right in.” Uh oh, I should not have said that.

            “Really? Cool, I should put on my job description that I’m a good slave master.” She stepped around the adamant figure and waved carelessly. “I have to meet up with my friend, kid, I’ll see ya later.”

“Wait! I don’t know where my friend is either, I think she must have gone in that direction.” I gestured in the general direction that Samantha was going. “Also, can I call you Sam? Your name is wayyy to long.”

            “I don’t care.” She shrugged and jerked her head toward the path. “I’m not carrying you if you get tired though.”

I muttered under my breath, “I bet I’ve done harder work than you’ve ever done in your entire life.” Louder I said, “I won’t get tired. Don’t worry.”

“Cool.” Samantha walked forward slowly enough for me follow at a regular pace.

I was actually getting quite curious about the symbol on Sam’s shirt. Was it a coat of arms or something? “What’s that symbol on your shirt?”

            She seemed to gloat and then looked down at me smirking. “It’s Switch’s. Have you heard of her? We are pretty far away from where the whole event happened, you may not have heard of it.”

I blinked multiple time. Switch? What kind of name was that!? I didn’t want to insult Sam as she was finally becoming friendly in her own way. “Well, no, I’ve never heard of her. Who is she?”

“She’s a pretty cool superhero. She has some kind of cloning ability that replicates matter. Something to do with atoms.”

Now I was really feeling like I had fallen into the deep end of a pond. I could feel my face reddening, “What’s a, um, superhero?”

Samantha stopped in her tracks and looked down at me with a raised eyebrow, “I’m sorry… You don’t know what a superhero is?”

My entire body was now becoming uncomfortably warm. “Well… I mean… I know what a hero is. Does superhero mean a really great hero that has done fantastic things?”

“Uh…” She shook her head and started walking again. “In a way, I guess. You do know what superpowers are right? You can’t be that ignorant.”

I could start to feel my eyes water from shame, “Um… um… I… I… don’t know,” I scuffed the ground with my lambskin boot, “I know… I’m an ignorant child.”

            She stared at my downturned face for a few seconds, then hunched her shoulders and looked ahead. “Don’t worry about it. It’s just a weird thing I’m interested in. Don’t feel bad.” She had her face turned away and she was tall enough that I couldn’t really read her expression.

I made a mental note to ask Martha what superpowers were before commenting, “Look, I think I see the end of the path up ahead. Maybe this path leads up to the other path we left.”

“Yeah, probably considering that the sign at the beginning of the trail said it was one path.” She sounded annoyed again.

“Oh. I guess so.” I heard a familiar voice and practically bounced forward, “I hear Martha!”

“Who’s Martha?” Sam looked down at me for a moment, then down the other side of the path. “The girl walking by Natalie?”

“Yup that’s her! Natalie doesn’t look happy, does she? Mater of fact neither does Martha. Wonder what’s the matter with them?”

“Hey Nat, What’s up with you?” Samantha raised an eyebrow at the girl named Natalie.

“Nothing. Sam, we need to catch up with mom and Dad.” I saw her glance down at me, and then toward Martha. “Oh, are you Martha’s Friend?”

“Martha, what’s the matter?” I bobbed over to her.

“The worlds not as it once was, Lizzie. That’s all.” There was a slight tartness in her voice that belied the calmness of her face. I also knew by the way she was staring at the other two girls that she wasn’t about to tell me anything.

“What about the world?” Samantha queried.

            I whispered to Martha, who was still watching the two girls with barely perceived anger, “Are you and the other girl not friends?”

            The other girl spoke now, “Nice meeting you, Martha and…” she glanced over to Samantha as if asking her something, then as Samantha shrugged as an answer to the unspoken question, continued, “and you.” I can only presume she was talking about me. “We have to go and meet up with my parents. See you around.” The other girl gave me a somewhat forced smile that did not seem real whatsoever. The glare that she gave Martha was quite nasty. Then the two girls left without looking back.

            “Martha, what just happened?” I asked, perplexed

            “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that. I’ve given my word that I won’t.” Martha said softly in a tone that told me not to ask any more questions.

I nodded. If Martha had given her word, then not even a thousand wild horses could tear it out of her.

PS: If you want to know more about Martha and Lizzie go to my story, “The Slave”.