This is my first story. I hope you enjoy it. I've had this story in the works for quite awhile actually, but I never got to putting it up. You're the first to ever read it online! Thank you for your time! Remember: Please Review! I'd love to hear your comments good or bad. And now, to begin:

Chapter 1: Before a Storm

“You ever wonder what it’d be like to fly?” pondered Skye to the younger kids around him. “Just to let go of this little rock and leave everything behind,” he said, all of them looking out into the sunset over the ravine.

“Can you fly, Brother Skye?!” asked a certain little girl with bright brown eyes.

“. . . I don’t know,” he replied. With a sly glance, he smiled, “You wanna find out?” Skye closed his eyes and held out his arms, leaning forward slightly. The two older boys grabbed him- one by the wrist, the other by his long shirt.

“Are you crazy?!” one asked, horrified. “What are you thinking?!” Skye turned back, still smiling. “I was gonna give flying a whirl. You never know what you can do until you try.”

“And what if you’d fallen?!” asked the other wide-eyed.

“Then I would have been glorious for the last few seconds of my life,” he returned wistfully.

“You’re so adventurous, Brother Skye!” said the girl amazed. Skye smile gently towards her.

“Mum was right. You’re a horrible influence!” said the eldest of the three youngsters. The words snapped Skye harshly back into reality. “We really should be leaving before you give her anymore ideas!” he said picking up his little sister. Skye watched them leave as the boy and his younger siblings disappeared into the steadily darkening night.

Skye sighed deeply and leaned against a tree nearby, watching as the last rays of day trickled into dusk. His emerald eyes shone brilliantly as he gazed up at the withered branches of the tree that held him.

“You’re broken and twisted, just like me…” he said aloud feeling the thick bark beneath his fingers. He closed his eyes as the breeze flowed through his wispy red hair.

Drifting slowly to sleep he was transported to the world in his dreams. He was no longer at the ravine, but rather a masquerade. That’s what he though it was at least. He couldn’t make out any faces. Everything was very vague but he did vividly recall the warmth he received from everyone. They were all kind and smiled graciously…The exact opposite of the treatment he usually received.

“This has to be a dream…” he thought sadly. Almost as if sensing his doubt, the world started to fade away. As the dream dissolved into blackness, Skye felt an urgent tug of emotion at the sight of one among the crowd. Someone with beautifully long hair turned towards him with a smile that made him want to melt for some sudden, unexplainable reason. He reached out desperately as the visions blurred ever quicker. He wanted to call out and somehow reach the person, feeling that something dreadfully important tottered just at the expanses of his memory, but he just couldn’t quite reach it…

Skye was thrown back into his harsh reality yet again. The sun, by this time had completely set, and the moon brightly illuminated the ground, casting eerie shadows in the night. Skye rubbed his eyes wearily.

“Great,” he thought. “I’m really in for it now…”

He didn’t want to think of the consequences in store for him when he was found staying out so late. “I’ll be in even more trouble if I tell Kay I was dreaming like that…” It was a well known fact that his aunt didn’t approve of his dreams. She blamed that he was cursed by an overly active imagination, but weird dreams were only the beginning of the things she and others of the small town ostracized him for. He knew of things he’d never witnessed in person from his dreams, and he was different it seemed from all the other ‘normal’ children his age. All those around him seemed somewhat bothered by his mere presence nowadays. If there were reasons why being different was so wrong, he couldn’t think of anything that made logical sense.

Dismally he decided it was probably past time to head for what he called a home…