chapter 1
Aria leaped from branch to branch. She aimed and as always hit the bird that had been soaring through the sky moments ago. Aria was a tree dweller.
Tree dweller ment that she lived in the trees high up off the ground. She lhad never set foot off the ground. Aria lived in the wood. The Wood was a large area of ground around the river that inhabited many living creatures, including humans.
There were three tribes: Tree dwellers, Land dwellers, and Water dwellers.
Legend was that once when the people moved to The Wood, they worked together becouse it was nessasary to survive. Now the tribes lived seperate, avoiding each other.
Aria walked across a few branches to where her kill was lying in a pile of leaves. She picked it up. It was small. food was scarce during the drought season.
Aria walked to the big tree where she deposited the bird for a package of supplies. She noticed the lack of water that usually came with the package. If rain didnt come soon, they would have to trade with the water dwellers.
Aria returned to her nest where she returned her bow to its spot and cleaned off her remaining arrows. She pulled her long brown hair into a braid, grabbed her bow, and left for the village.
She walked to a woman selling arrows. Aria held up her last canteen of water. The woman eyed it greedily.
"I want two packs of arrows for this canteen." The woman held up two fingers.
"Two canteens? We both know that won't happen. How about one canteen for one pack of arrows?" The woman grabed the canteen and held out a pack of fourteen arrows.
The people started leaving the village. At high sun almost everone chose to stay in there nests because of the heat.
As the people started to disperse Aria made her way to the big tree for the council meeting.
When Aria was twelve her parents were found dead at the base of a tree. Most people believed that Land dwellers did it. Ever since then she has been a council member and as soon as she reached the coming of age fourteen, she was given her own nest. Now, at age fifteen she was the youngest council member ever.
Aria listened to the senoir council represenitive talk about the drought a scream rang out among the trees. Everyone looked up. It came again. Aria lept to her feet, grabbed her bow, and ran towards the scream.
It came from below. Aria looked down to the ground where she saw a bear attacking a Land dweller.
As much as she hated Land dwellers, it woudn't be right to walk away and do nothing.
She raised her bow and fired.
It embeded itself in its skull. The bear roared once before it died in front of the terrified Land dweller.
Aria stayed a few more minutes before disappearing into the trees.
Chapter 2
Aria couldn't sleep that night. Her dreams were tormented with visions.She saw her home but instead of the paradise that she usually saw, it had turned into desert. Fire tore down the trees. She heard the screams of friends amoung the flames.
Then the dream shifted. No longer were the flames but the land was covered in ice. Trees were still missing from the fire but everything remaining was frozen. The screams were gone but Aria could see the bodies of her people stuck in solid ice. The dream was terrible.
Aria shook herself out of the nightmare. Should she tell someone? Dreams were considered prophesis among the Tree dwellers. She had just gotten herself out of bed to talk to someone when Aria heard a scream. The scream gave her shivers. More screams followed. She stood and looked outside her nest. People were running. When she looked around she saw what from. The first part of her dream had come true. Fire.
Aria, as quickly as possible, grabbed her bow and arrows. She slung the bow across her back and shoved the arrows in a pouch tied to her waist.
She started to run but saw a branch fall. People were stuck behind the branch. Aria couldn't leave them so she ran back towards the fire. She jumped over and started to help people over. She had helped the last person dand started to climbed over her self when the branch supporting her gave out and she plummeted to the earth.
Mid air she twisted so that she landed hard on her side. Pain jolted through her shoulder as she struggled to get up. Smoke clouded her eyes and she coughed hard as the fire got closer. Aria started to run but running on the ground was different than running in the trees. She stumbled along as solid ground and smoke got the better of her. The fire was getting closer by the second. Aria yelled at her self to focus becouse she knew that it was the only way to make it out of there. The screams of the people got quieter as she fell behind. "Help! Someone please help me!" She scremed despretaly, "Please! Help!" But she knew that everyone was too far to hear her.
Aria ran to the nearst tree thinking htat maybe she could climb up fast enough to catch up to the rest of the Tree dwellers. Her shoulder throbbed as she scrambled to climb. But she couldn't get up. A branch fell torwards her and she jumped out of the way to avoid being hit. She fell and tried to get up but didn't have the strength. Aria tried to get up but chocked on the falling ashes.
Aria could no longer her the screams. She was too far. She gave up. Aria knew she would never make it.
The last thing she saw before she fell into unconsciosness were the orange flames that began to engulf her.
Chapter 3
Aria woke up with a start. She could still feel the heat from the fire on her skin
As she struggled to get up a sharp pain shot through her shoulder. She lay back down and took in her surroundings. She lay in a field of tall grasses.
Aria tried to sit up again and succeeded when she used her other arm. a boy sat a few feet away from her. Aria painicked. she reached for her bow but cit wasn't where she left it. she looked around franticly. The boy, sensing her fright, turned around.
"calm down your weapon is over there," He said looking terrified.
He's afraid of me, Aria thought,
good he should be. Aria looked over to see her bow and arrows lying in the grass beside her. In one quick movement Aria had grabbed her bow and arrows and notched an arrow in the string. She tried to pull back the string but her shoulder kept her back. Her hand kept slipping due to the pain. Her left shoulder could barely move.
"What's wrong with my arm?" She cried at the boy, "what did you do to it? Why won't it move?" Aria stood up and stumbled. She was still weak. She sat back down and asked one more question, "Why am I here?" The boysat down but at a distance as if he were afraid she would attack. Aria noticed that he kept his knife held tightly in his hand. "You were in the fire," he said. " I know that but if I was in the fire shouldn't I be... you know... Dead?" " I got you away" he said simply. "You did?" Aria exclaimed both questioning and apalled.
"Yeah. The land Dwellers started to run too when the trees started to fall. I saw you running and since I knew it wasn't a Land Dweller I knew it had to be a Tree Dweller. It couldn't have been a Water Dweller because they almost never leave the water. I snuck away from the group to see who it was and recognized you from the bear attack the other day. That was you wasn't it?" "Yes," Aria said surprized. She didn't think that he rembered. " I saw you fal and when you didn't get back up I ran over to you. We may be enemies but I couldn't just leave you there." And with that, he compleated his story.
Aria looked at him. "What's your name?" She said softly. "Matt," he said. Aria stood up, gathered her things and stood strongly before Matt. "I'm going home now." Matt stood to block her path, "You can't!" He cried. "Why not," She shot back. Matt sighed,"I don't know where your people went. The fire destroyed the entire area where your people were livieng. I'm sorry but they're gone."
Gone? Aria shouldn't have been surprized but she was. She had been hoping that somehow they were still there.She was shocked but stood strong to hide the fear deep inside of her. "I can find them. I will find them" She said more to convince herself then anyone else. She tried to leave again but Matt stood in front of her still. "The ground is dangerous and you can't use that weapon with your shoulder. Let me help!" He insisted. I don't need your help! I'm A Tree Dweller, I will climb." "I don't know if you've noticed but they're aren't any trees around and by the time you woudv'e reached the trees I garuntee that someething wouldv'e attacked you. And can you clinb with your shoulder? I know some one who can help."
Aria thought about it, The more matt said the more she felt convinced. Maybe he could help.
"What do you have in mind?" she said cautiosly. Even though she admited that she needed help she still didn't compleatly trust him. Every Tree Dweller knew that Land Dwellers were not to be trusted. "We're going to visit a friend of mine." Matt had already started to walk in the direction of the remaining woods. Friend? Would it be another Land Dweller? Aria's face fell at the thought. "Who is it," she said depressingly.
"her name is Crystal and she's not like us."
"Wait... What do you mean by 'not like us,'" Aria asked halting abruptly.
"Well she's a Water Dweller..." Matt trailed off. Aria was in shock. Before today she had never met any one from anyone outside of her own tribe and now she was trusting a Water Dweller and following a Land Dweller. In her club that was enough to get you kicked out of the council or even arrested. Land Dwellers were hated and considered barbaric. The more Aria thought about it the more she doubted herself. Was she doing the right thing? Maybe it was time to find that out.
Chapter 4
The two stepped into the forest that separated them from the river. When they reached the forest Aria looked longingly at the trees that she passed. Was Matt right? At one point she aproached a tree. She grabbed the lowest branch and tried to pull herself up. Her shoulder jolted with pain and she fell towards the ground. She was so distraught that she didn't realize matt walking up behind her. Saying nothing he bent down and held out his hand. Aria noticed it and looked up at him. He had a look of symapthy on his face. She took his hand and he helped her up. She looked back at him but he looked down. Suddenly he turned and continued walking.
Walking on the ground was different then in the trees. I the trees you had to be aware of the thinning branches and tread carefully and lightly. You had to think about the swaying of the branches to stay balanced. On the ground, everything was so different, everything was solid. Aria was amazed at how, when walking, you didn’t have to think about branches breaking and plummeting to earth. That left room in her head to think about other things.
Water. Aria couldn’t swim. No Tree Dweller could. There had been no point. No one went to the water. No one left the safety of the trees.
As they approached the bank of the river, Aria noticed the change in texture beneath her feet. She looked down to see the soft sand. It was so soft, unlike the rough bark her feet were used to.
Matt marched up to the river but Aria kept her distance. She did not want a crash course swimming lesson.
Matt reached down and gently laid a finger on the water’s surface. Several ripples swam away from the area where the water was disturbed. When the water was calm again Matt reached out and repeated it. When the ripples had again disappeared, Matt repeated the process a third, and final, time. He retreated to the bank and waited.
Aria watched in confusion as Matt did this and was about to complain when the water was again disturbed. But this time Matt wasn’t touching it.
A figure began to rise out of the water. She was a girl about the age of fifteen with long blonde hair that fell into perfect little curls. She wore a dress made of a shimmery, glittery, blue material. It sparkled as she rose up out of the water. Aria stared and the girl smiled, showing perfect, white teeth.
The girl spoke with a calm, clear voice, “Hello Matt. I see you’ve brought a friend.”
Matt stepped closer to her, “Hey Crystal. This is Aria. How’s everything in the water?”
Crystal looked down at the water and her smile faded. She looked troubled, “The water levels are sinking and getting warmer. Just this week we lost three inches from the surface. That is the equivalent of one ton. I fear the worst.”
Calendar
i'll keep reding it its really cool 
