“Hurry up, Caroline!” a boy with black hair and brownish-gray eyes yelled to a girl with red hair and brown eyes. Both of them were hurrying down a crowded, cobbled street.

Gray buildings enclosed the street. Merchants stood under tents, shouting out their prices amongst the crowed and children played as their mothers watched from their houses, doing laundry. But Caroline, the red-haired girl, and the dark-haired boy, her brother Dylan, were separate from the crowd.

“I’m coming as fast as I can, Dylan,” Caroline heave. She was carrying a large item under her arm in a black sheet. It was very heavy.

“See how fast you can move with who-knows-what under your arm,” she thought savagely. Her brother stood a little aside from the crowd, an annoyed look on his face He did not want to be late for their appointment.

“C’mon, we still have a long way to go,” he said, before plowing through the crowd. Caroline sighed heavily and followed her brother with difficulty.

As they passed through the ever pressing crowd, no one noticed the continuous bumps and “Sorry,” coming form the two kids moving through the crowd. To a foreigner, it might seem strange. To a native of the country of Beldann, especially in the capital city, Namden, it was like they were invisible.

Dylan and Caroline Flagel, ages thirteen and twelve, would not be classified as citizens of Namden, Beldann. This was because of the mark on their arms. The mark is an ugly, black circle with one line going down, another across, and two diagonal, stretching out to make a dark ring around the circle. The circle identified them as being non-existent.

The circle is the sign of the ihanatar. In Beldann, if you were ihanatar, you were below peasant. Being ihanatar, Dylan and Caroline were ignored, except by other ihanatar and other people who thought the law regarding ihanatar was stupid and ignored it. Not that they minded. Well, they didn’t show they minded, anyway.

---

Dylan and Caroline had finally made it to the outskirts of Namden an were sitting with their backs against a red, stone wall with a gate in the middle. It was the entrance and exit to the city. A guard clothed in red, identifying her as a patroller, stood at the gate, her face stony. Other than her, there was no one else there.

“When is he coming?” Caroline asked after a while.

“Soon,” was all Dylan muttered. Caroline frowned. She knew her brother was worried.

“Personally,” she thought, “I don’t blame him.”

Dylan had been doing a trade with a man who he knew nothing about except his name. Mallard. Dylan gave Mallard items that seemed quite valuable. In exchange, Mallard gave him money for his troubles. This was the only thing that kept him going.

“But lately,” thought Caroline. She shook her head and continued to look for Mallard.

---

Caroline felt Dylan shaking her awake. She didn’t remember falling asleep. She opened one eye and realized it was raining.

“What?” she asked sleepily.

“We’re leaving,” Dylan said shortly. Caroline saw that the bulky, black, thing she’d been carrying was still underneath her arm.

“What about this?” she asked, indicating it.

“Leave it,” said Dylan, halfway down the street. “Mallard’s not coming.”

Caroline ran down the street after her brother.

As soon as her red hair had whisked around the corner, a dark figure with blue eyes that had been hidden behind a dilapidated house appeared and scooped up the item, then disappeared quickly.

---

That’s all I’ve got. I will be changing all the other chapters too. I didn’t like them too much, and I like the new ones I’ve made. I might change the title later on, but I’m not sure. R&R.