Chapter one 

Gentle autumn rain knocked soothingly on our tent. Shira, my older sister, lay by my side, sleeping peacefully. I could hear her breath, her chest rising. And falling. She was pale, especially now, in the moonlight. That was the only time Shira wasn’t yelling at me. She has a toxic personality, always on edge, hot-headed. I was a classic image of a blondie. Kind, naive and a bit dumb. Everything about me irritated my sister: my posture, my tanned skin, my heterochromia (one eye amber, one green), my positive attitude about everything. I never cried. I never put up a fight, felt sorry for every single thing, from a distant relative who passed away, to a bug who was accidentally squashed by the wheels of a bicycle. I chuckled. I remembered when me and Shira were inseparable, but why did that change? I slowly drifted to sleep, gently holding my sister’s hand. Half asleep I heard someone calling my name, a voice creaky as an old house. “Numelinne…” I couldn't open my eyes to face it, to capture the moment, yet I felt the voice flowing like raindrops into my ears. I fell back to sleep.

What happened? Shira shook me awake. Once I opened my eyes she turned away and scoffed. “Can you walk?” I nodded and slowly stood up. Only after I was on my feet, I noticed where we were. It was mostly dry, cracked dirt, disturbed by lonely patches of yellow grass and thin, bumpy trees as far as I could see. It felt so unreal, so manmade…