"It was happy at first but then…" I trailed off as I recounted the lost events of my ninth birthday. I didn't have any of my memories before the age of nine, so I had to see a therapist. At first I was skeptical, but I have to admit, she's pretty good at making me forget my troubles and remembering things.

    "And do you remember anything else?" she asked. I shook my head, same as always. "Ok, then we'll move into the dream portion of the session." She had me lay down on her sleek gray couch she had recently purchased. I stared up at the ceiling, waiting for dreams to overtake me. I felt myself slowly but surely drifting into sleep. It felt nice, like all my current worries were being washed away. My dreams were usually peaceful and relaxing, so for me it was a great way to spend my time. Much better than going to a stupid marriage meeting. I smiled as the drowsiness overtook me and I drifted off into my slumber.

    I could feel the fear radiating off of me, off of my mom. It was dark, and we were crammed in some small space, hiding. The thunder echoed around us, roaring it's arrival at the castle, shouting that the storm had arrived. The earth shook at the rumbles, the earth quaking, trying to shake the castle apart. brick by brick. And although I couldn't see it, I could tell lightning was flashing beyond the thick doors, pulling people into the light before plunging them back into the menacing and treacherous dark again. I could feel myself shiver and shake in fright.

    "It's okay," my mother tried to soothe me. "It's just a storm" she cooed. "Do you know what happens to storms?" she asked quietly. Everything was a whisper, as if we were playing a game of hide and seek and if she talked too loudly, we would be found. But it wasn't just a storm that would pass, it was the rebellion. And it wasn't just a game of hide and seek that I was playing with them. If we, the hiders, were found by the seekers, we would be killed. Just thinking about it made shivers run down my spine.

    "Shh, mommy. If you talk too loud they'll find us," I whispered, going along with her lie. We waited in silence for first ten, then twenty, and finally thirty minutes before a hand reached in and pulled out my mother. It yanked her to the middle of the and I could hear the quick, light, pitter patter of her footsteps against the brick floor as she tried to run away. I also heard the heavier, louder footsteps followed, like the booming thunder chasing the quick and evasive lightning, growing closer with every boom, not far behind hers. I heard as they stopped too, and only then did I dare peek my head out of the door frame. I watched in horror as the broad man pulled my mother back onto his knife like she was little more than a twig.

    Blood welled up on her beautiful silk dress, the one she had worn just for me and my sister. Her pupils grew as large, no larger, than her irises, and her previously rosy lips turned and icy, ghostly blue. Her skin turned pale, her body limp, and her head hung from her neck like a helpless rag doll. The man dropped her onto the floor and as she let out her last breath I could tell she was trying to say something. The brute leader and the rest of his men promptly went to beat her to a pulp, but before they could start, I screamed.

    "Stop it!" I'd screamed, horrified. Tears were streaming down my face when I realized my mother was no longer alive, no longer there to help me. The man stepped toward me, his smile growing more menacing with every step he took. "S-Stop it," I wailed it this time, all of my previous authority gone. I was afraid, more afraid then I think I've been in my life. "Stop," I whisper one last time, using the rest of the energy I can muster.

    Then, the dream, no vision changes. It was a long time ago, ten years. I was five. My sister and I, we were sitting by the warm fireplace, trying to catch one of the pixies in the room. They were so tiny, and cute. Too bad they weren't as nice as we thought they'd be. We had just pulled the edge of one of the pixies wings when she burned me. ME, not you only ME. I shied away from the pixies and sat down, pouting and waiting impatiently after that. We were going to get our new names and learn what type of magic we would have today, I was so excited.

    It officially started when the clock struck five thirty-four, the exact time we were born. I got even more disappointed when they started with my sister. It was so unfair, just because she was born first meant she got to go first on a lot of things. She even bossed me around, teasing me about being the eldest. Not only that, it took AGES for them to evaluate her. First they had to give her objects and see which ones she was drawn to. Then they had to ask her a bunch of questions. And after that they were talking over in their corner before one finally stepped up.

    It was the same one who had burned me and I couldn't help but feel a little resentment towards you for having her as a pixie. I mean, she had already favored you, but now, and you, ugh. I didn't understand why it had to be rubbed into my face by you getting chosen first. Besides, that meant you were at least a little like her. She looked like some kind of model, she even acted like one the way she milked out all the drama. As she went up, she held her wing that I'd touched like I'd freaking ripped it. I mean seriously, it wasn't that bad.

    "I am Fierscha, the fire pixie, but you probably already knew that" she announced with some kind of self proclaimed authority and fame. "I have chosen you to be my disciple and a user of magic." She touched my sister's forehead, turning her hair a beautiful scarlet and giving her a beautiful tattoo of the sun on her forehead. My sister's eyes stayed the same chocolate brown though.

    Then, finally, it was my turn to be evaluated. I finished the test much quicker than my sister did, probably because I had time to prepare. I knew exactly which objects I liked and I knew most of the questions and their answers by heart. The same ones I'd been practicing for a week. But when it was my turn to get my magic and they went into the circle, they argued the entire time. Finally, thirty minutes had passed when the leader finally stepped up. "I am sorry to conclude that… she trailed off s as burst of wind blew open the window and knocked her to the side. A new pixie stepped in, but she was clad in a black cloak with the hood pulled over concealing her face. I had never seen her, and yet, she looked familiar. I studied her hard.

“If you will not take in this child, I will,” she stated coldly. “It’s time for you to learn to accept people no matter their level of magic capability,” she said, tearing off her cloak.

“What and learn from you?” Fierscha taunted. Right then and there I felt like slapping her, but I didn't't’t dare for fear of getting burned again. Let me tell you that stuff hurts.

“I am Silvanica, the ice and snow pixie,” she stated calmly, keeping herself composed, ignoring the comment from Fierscha. “I hereby make you my disciple,” she said, touching my forehead. My hair turned a wonderful bluish-silver, and for once I felt like I had topped my sister. Sure, her hair was beautiful and I had never seen anything quite like it, but mine was truly one of a kind. My symbol was a simple shard of ice, but it seemed like more than that. It seemed like my lifeline. The last thing she did before turning away from me was heal my burn using her ice magic.

“After studying her closely I noticed something. It’s no wonder none of you want her.” I was put off by her statement at first, but then she continued. “She has all of her talent focused into the ice and snow magic she possesses, much unlike anyone I’ve seen. Even her sister over there, who will become a talented fire mage only has about eighty percent of her magic there but she…” Silvanica trailed off and came back over to me. “Your new name is Yukino,” she said suddenly, “That’s your magic name. You will use it to call for your inner power when you use magic,” she whispered. “Don’t tell anyone, not even your parents or sister.” Before she left, she glared at Fierscha. “You knew,” she hissed, “So why did you burn her? Something like that could have caused permanent damage, especially to someone of her power.” Fierscha just narrowed her eyes and turned away, leaving Silvanica to leave.

I was so happy to finally have something my sister didn't't’t have. Finally, we weren't’t both the same, we didn't't’t have the same talents. I was very skilled at ice magic, while she was skilled at fire magic, or at least we would be. I was so caught up in my daydreams of what life would be like if we were different that I barely noticed when the rest of the pixies started flying in a circle, starting off slowly, then accelerating in speed that is was impossible to make out a single one. Then, they all combined into one and started to state a prophecy. I strained to hear it, this was probably important. The more I strained, the closer I got to hearing it and I could almost make out a few of the words when, Rring!

I was torn from my dream by the sound of my phone buzzing. I return from my lost memory,checking the time that's passed, -fifteen minutes- and let out a small irritated sound before answering the dumb thing. I was almost tempted to let the thing keep ringing until it stopped when I noticed the call was from my sister, but I picked it up and answered irritated.

“Hello?, What do you need?”

“That’s not any way to answer the phone,” she lectured, “And I want to know why you’re not at the train station yet?”

“At the train station?” I ask, pretending not to know what she wants. “Why would I be at the train station?”

“We have a marriage interview. Please don’t tell me you’re skipping again. This time grandfather picked them out, so you have to go. And take it seriously.” She sounded irritated. Really irritated.

“Chill, I’m over at the therapists’. I didn't’t know that that was today, so you can go ahead without me.” I laughed at my pun on chill because of my ice magic, but she wasn't’t laughing.

“You’re going. I expect you to be here in fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen minutes, you have to be kidding. I can’t be there in fifteen minutes. Besides I’m already doing something.”

“You can be here in fifteen minutes because I’ve seen you do it before. In fact, I’ve seen you traverse that distance in ten minutes.” She had me there.

“Um, you’re not the boss of me.”

“I’m not, but Grandfather is.”  

“So? I said there’s no way I’ll make it. It’s not like I want to go to these things anyway. It’s not like i want to be here. I’d much rather be in Europe, but no.”

“If you’re not going to take these seriously and you don’t want to be in America then we can go back to Japan.” She had brought out the trump card with this one. She know I can’t go back there, that I... Something happened in Japan, and whatever it was, wasn't’t good. It had to be something so awful and horrible that I would forcefully forget all of my memories. Just thinking about it was enough to send shivers down my spine, but the thought of going back… “We still have to solve the issue of the rebellion,” she added.

“Fine.” I snapped quickly, admitting my defeat. “I’ll be there in fifteen.” I quickly thank the therapist for her time before running out the door, rushing to get their on time. Well, I rushed to get there earlier so that I could make a big deal out of stomping and huffing.

On my way over there I ran into some weird guy. He was pretty rude and even acted like he kind of knew me in a bad way. He had dark hair, my guess was black, and green eyes. He just hurried off without even acknowledging that we had run into each other other than by grunting. I looked back at him with fierce eyes as I ran as fast as I could to the train station.  

As I neared the station, I made extra sure to stomp on my way over, acting like a little kid. I pretty much sighed as soon as I got there and saw that the train wasn't’t even there yet. If I had know I would have to wait for the train, I wouldn't’t have come so quickly. My sister shoved something into my hands. I stared at the bundle dumbly, wondering what to do with it.

“Put those on,” she commanded. I hated it when she did that, when everyone did that. They acted like I was some child that always had to be told what to do just because I had lost some of my memory. That’s why I acted the way I did all the time. It was my own little way of mocking them and myself at the same time.

“Why?” I asked, already predicting her all-too-predictable answer.

“Well, you’re not going like that?” She said it like it was obvious.

“Why not? This is who I am,” I said everything like it made total sense.

“I already told you to change, now do it.”

    I huffed as I walked into the public bathrooms, preparing to change into the foreign clothes. I seriously had no idea where they were from. As far as I knew, I didn't’t have any clothes like that. I slipped into my clothes, studying them ,but not really caring. I made sure my usual Gi was hidden under my clothes. I always keep it there, in case I ever need to practice my jiu-jitsu and take someone down. I throw my old clothes back into the bag, making sure to keep it with me if something happens.

    I finally step out of the bathroom, and the train is there. I’m glad, because if I had to wait for ten minutes I was about to leave then and there. I quickly boarded the train, pushing through hordes of people as I made my way to a seat, not bothering to apologize for my rude behavior. My sister sat next to me ten minutes later after personally apologizing to every single person for my behavior. I didn't’t even bother to engage her in a conversation.