Canstar

Amée Perkins

mages swirled in her vision; she could make out a black cloak with a strange knife, a robotic arm, a yellow and red cat and a shining amethyst. The rest was a blur of purple, red, green, light blue and a fiery orange. She tried to run, she knew what was going to happen next but she couldn’t move. Suddenly an ash black lion leapt through the haze, red eyes blazing, gold claws flailing, bellowing the most terrifying growl imaginable. Beautiful

Amée woke up in a cold sweat, shed had that dream again but like every morning, the dawn music weaved its way through her window and Amée calmed down, humming the tune and looking out the window and smiling like every morning, she asked herself, “Where is that music coming from?”
Amée Perkins was an only child, her mother was French and her father came from a small village called Canstar. Amée had turned 13 last week when her father said “Amée you are going to my high school, so we’re moving to Canstar.” Amée was ecstatic she had read on the Net that there was a mysterious hero they called Black Dagger, and a singer called Rockin’ Robin.
“Amée!” she was jolted from her daydream by her Mama and fell on the floor,
“Le temps pour se lever!”
“Je suis en haut la Mama!” Amée yelled back, or more to the point down she thought picking herself up. Amée walked to the box marked ‘shirts ‘n’ pants’ inside was her guitar. Amée sighed, Papa named my boxes wrong again. After half an hour Amée found her clothes in the box marked ‘Breakable’.

Amée walked out of her room wearing her much-loved faded camouflage pants, lavender t-shirt, black jacket and sparkly purple shoes. Mama looked at her with one of those ‘where have you been?’ faces. Mama’s name was Belle “Papa labelled the boxes wrong again.” Amée said, sitting down at the breakfast bar. Belle’s face changed to an ‘I know’ face and gave her daughter PB&J on toast,
“Your Papa has a knack for that…” Amée was still listening for the dawn music but it had stopped.
“Mama…?” Amée asked,
“Where does that music come from?” Belle had a twinkle in her eye, Amée had been asking that since they had arrived, but this time she had an answer for her. She bent down and whispered, “According to the children at your new school, it is an elf.”


* * * *


Amée entered the school grounds with her mind full of questions, where’s my form? Where’s my first class? Where’s the office? Who is ‘the elf’? But when she rounded the next corner her mind went blank. A girl was being held against the wall and pounded by a bully. Amée hates bullies. She started toward him, but something stopped her, to be correct someone stopped her; it was a small girl. She was about a foot shorter than her but she was looking into Amée’s eyes with knowingness she had never seen before and had a firm grip on Amée’s shirt. She wore a white formal shirt with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and long black pants. The girl looked at the bully and yelled, “Better run Alex before the teachers come.” Her voice sounded flat and empty. The bully, Alex, dropped the bleeding girl and ran off, but the small girl didn’t let Amée go. “Leave her,” the small girl warned, “nobody goes near Treeroot, unless to hit her…” Amée looked at Treeroot, her shirt and pants looked like they were made of green leaves and her chest displayed a breastplate made of wood, Treeroot face was covered in scars and bruises, and her yellow eyes looked like they hadn’t slept in weeks, she picked herself up, jumped up a tree, jumped to the roof of the closest building and ran off.
“Oh and by the way,” she continued, letting go of Amée’s shirt, “my name is Emma. But everyone calls me Mackintosh.”


* * * *


Emma had shown Amée what her time table said, and it revealed that today they both had art together in D4, but first Amée had Math in C12. After finding her class Amée was asked to stand so her classmates knew ‘who the new student was’. Amée hated being the centre of attention, stupid teacher she thought
“I am Mr Hatch,” he announced. Mr Hatch was wearing a coffee stained shirt, a tie, and dark brown pants.
“I was going to have a pop quiz but since there’s a new student you will only have to fill out this work sheet.” Mr Hatch then started to hand out the sheets, the whole class started whispering and smiling at Amée in a ‘thank god you came’ way. When he was heading to the front of the class Mr Hatch did something strange, he passed a sheet out the window and a hand came down from the roof and took it. Amée looked down at her sheet trying to make sense of what she saw, someone was on the roof she thought, and they needed our… she realised what was on the sheet, Amée felt a smile spread across her face Riddles! I love riddles; I wonder why they have them in Math? Amée had forgotten about the person on the roof and scanned the page for a riddle she hadn’t heard yet.

The beginning of eternity
the end of time and space
the beginning of every end,
and the end of every place

Easy, it’s the letter e Amée thought, and wrote it down. The whole Math class was having trouble but Amée zipped through the riddles like a warm knife through butter. Who knew that high school would be so easy?

After class Amée felt happy and ready for the next lesson; Art. After walking around the school trying to find D block, Amée walked up the steps to her classroom, at the top she saw Emma. Amée ran up to her, “Hi Emma.” She looked up at Amée with a confused stare but then her face cleared when Emma realised who she was,
“Everyone calls me Mackintosh, I told you.” Before Amée could reply the teacher unlocked the door and the class filtered through. Amée sat in front of Emma and wondered, 'Why doesn’t she like her name?' But Amée didn’t think about it for long because Treeroot had jumped through the classroom window and landed in the seat in front of her. The teacher didn’t seem to notice.
“Good morning class, you may continue with your assignments.” Amée’s hand shot up into the air,
“Miss” she said, after the teacher had walked up to her, “I’m new to Canstar, and I don’t know what we’re doing.” The teacher smiled and moved out of the way of a rushing student.
“My name is Ms Ellis, and I believe that a student should have all the time they can to do their assignments, it is called ‘Do what you Can’ and basically you Do what you Can. Jane,” she said pointing to a girl who looked like she’d come from a teen fashion mag, “is a fashion queen, so she’s making a dress.” Jane was sewing together two fabrics that looked in style.
“Mackintosh,” she continued pointing to a black screen, “is a computer wiz, so she’s making a metal sculpture out of scrap metal from her other projects” Amée saw bright zaps of light coming from behind the black cover.
“What are you good at?” Amée paused in thought.
“Well,” she started, “I’ve been having a really… Strange dream. Maybe I could paint that?”
Ms Ellis smiled and said in a reassuring tone,
“That would be perfect.” She pointed to a cupboard beside Emma, “you’ll find small easels in there, it’s much easier to paint sitting down at your desk than standing up.”

After Amée had gathered up her utensils and colours she started on the background, she didn’t watch what she was doing, she was watching Treeroot. Treeroot had made a handful of figures out of clay, and went to get paint, Amée stared at them ‘oh man,’ she thought, ‘look at the detail, it looks alive! And very much like Treeroot’ the figures were all the same. Strong men with their hands beside them, their smiles seemed like one from a prince charming. The eyes! The eyes where spellbindingly magnificent, like a dragons she mused. Amée looked back at her canvas, it was perfect, and the colours melted together just like her dream. Amée smiled, she had to wait for the paint to dry before she continued.
After awhile, Amée heard a very loud zap followed by a very angry voice.
“Frizzle!” Emma walked out from behind the screen shaking one hand and pulling dark goggles off with the other. Emma’s goggles dangled around her neck as she walked toward the sink looking at her wounded hand.
‘Ouch!’ Amée thought, ‘that looks like it hurts.’ Emma ran the gap between her thumb and first finger under the cold water. She looked around and spied Amée looking at her, Amée saw her become enlightened but confused; it was the strangest face she had ever seen. Emma turned off the tap and walked back to her work. Not taking her eyes off Amée, she got a good look at Emma before she disappeared behind the barrier. Emma had slender arms and long fingers, her face was pimple-free, her nose was short and her eyes were round and chocolate brown. She changed her face to one with no emotion and pulled up her goggles, Emma rubbed her hand before going back to work. That let Amée see the end of a thick scar just above her elbow. Amée looked at her painting, the background had dried but she just gazed at it trying to make sense of her head, ‘Dieu’ she thought, ‘my mind’s a mess.’


Who’s Emma?

loud Bell sounded throughout the school; Emma turned off her blowtorch, shoved it in the nearby cupboard and looked at her sculpture. What’s wrong with it? She thought, it was darker than it should be, then Emma realised that she was still wearing her welding goggles. That’s better. Emma poked her head around the side of her screen to see how far the other students were, most of them had already left for lunch, and the only two students still in the classroom were Treeroot and Amée. Emma was the kid with all the information around Canstar, but to get that information she had to be on both sides of the law. The idea sent shivers down her spine, while Emma was off in thought, Amée walked up to her,
“Excusez-moi” Emma kept her face emotionless, even though she had jumped out of her skin,
“Yes, your name is Amée Perkins is it not?” Amée smiled,
“Oui, I was wondering why you don’t like your name?” her English was excellent; if it wasn’t for a little French you wouldn’t even notice her accent. Emma answered her question, “I don’t have much choice in the matter.”
“Why, it is your name isn’t it?”
“Yes, but I am recognized throughout Canstar as the Mackintosh dictionary, because I am familiar with what’s occurring everywhere…” Her voice trailed off as she spied someone in the doorway. He had a lanky figure, his face had a firm chin and ice blue eyes, the top of his head held matted blond hair, Emma knew who it was “Andrew” a smile spread across her face, Andrew’s voice had broken last week, leaving it deep and strong,
“Emma,” he yelled “I’ve got your lunch...maybe you should start on the tracker. I pushed it behind the library for you.” His smile hit Emma like a camera flash, but she didn’t let Amée see. Emma controlled her emotions, wiped the smile from her face and replied to him flat and empty voice, “Thank you Andrew.” She turned back to Amée, “if you wish to continue your questions I suggest you find the library.” With that Emma picked up her bag and followed Andrew out of the door and to the back of a large brick building.
When they where alone Emma thanked Andrew,
“You don’t know how hard it is for me to get my lunch there, and keep my face straight.”Her voice held all the emotion it should, “I really treasure this Andy, sorry if I sounded unappreciative.” Andy shot her another camera smile, “I understand more than you think. What I don’t understand…” He said taking off his bag, “is how you eat all this food?” with that he opened his bag wide revealing two soft drinks, two salad containers, three donuts, two bottles of water, a sticky bun and two fruit containers. Emma smiled and shrugged, she pulled out a 50 dollar note and swapped it for the food. “I eat a significant amount, is that a good explanation?” Andy rolled his eyes and shoved the money in his pocket, “I don’t know where you get the cash but I have a feeling that I don’t want to know.” he helped Emma get the food on the tractor and went into the library. Emma picked up a donut and looked around; good she thought no one’s looking. Emma took a bite out of the donut and said quietly, “you can get your food now Treeroot.” A figure jumped down from a tree and landed on the tractor roof. She crouched with her hands in front of her feet with her knees bent so her thighs rested on her legs. Even though it would have been uncomfortable to anyone except an expert gymnast or a cat, this was how Treeroot sat. She gazed across the land like a hunter then slowly reached down and took the salad, fruit, and water, and then looked at Emma. Her eyes changed from yellow to hazel as a smile spread across her face. She jumped onto the library roof and collapsed into a leaf hammock that blended in so well you wouldn’t see it unless you knew where it was. The hammock was connected from the roof to the tree, Treeroot flopped her head around the edge to talk to Emma,
“Thanks for stopping that new girl from getting hurt.” Emma shrugged and took another bite from her donut.
“She is new…although I have never observed anyone who would aid an absolute stranger.” Emma shoved the rest of the donut in her mouth and started rummaging in her bag, “with the exception of you.” The noise of a snapping twig made both girls jump, Treeroot’s smile washed off her face and her eyes changed to bright blue, she covered herself in her hammock becoming invisible, as Amée came around the side of the building, pulling a twig from her hair. Amée caught sight of Emma and smiled. Emma kept her face blank and pulled an assortment of tools out of her bag.
“You wish more questions answered?” she assumed.
“Oui, I mean yes…” Amée fell silent and Emma opened the tractor’s bonnet and leaned in so far her feet left the ground.
“Well?” Emma’s voice echoed slightly, “what is the subject you wish to discuss?” Amée bit her bottom lip, looked down and mumbled, “I want to talk about…tee froot.” Emma’s questioning emotionless voice came from the tractor, “I have never heard of a ‘tea fruit’.” Amée stepped closer to Emma and mumbled again,
“I still can not hear what you are trying to say.” Amée stood next to Emma,
“I want to talk about…Treeroot.” Emma fell in the tractor struggled inside for a wile then looked out with her hair a mess and her eyes wide. Treeroot had given up hiding and was hanging halfway out of the hammock, listening to what Amée and Emma had to say her eyes, now amber, were twinkling. Emma’s eyes changed to their normal size and she replied.
“This is neither the time nor the place…I will give you my address in the next class...” Emma got out, looked around, and whispered to her, “Amée in case you want to know, her first name is Alice.”

Dark backstreets
rush of students hastily ran from the school grounds and gathered with their friends or grabbed their bikes and zoomed away, one student didn’t. She was staring at a slip of paper, walking slowly.
Amée looked up and at the street signs; Emma had given her instructions on how to get to her house right before slapping on her skates and rocketing off. “Here is the way to the pub next to my address.”
After an hour Amée still hadn’t found the right street, and she was getting creeped out, it felt like someone was watching her. In fact three people were watching her. Two men stepped out from a dark alleyway in front of Amée, “Are you lost sweetheart?” “We’d better make sure nothing happens to you.” There voices were harsh and unsympathetic, one was fat and clean shaven, the other was twig thin and his face bore a grimy goatee, Amée was terrified.
“No thank you,” she said her voice trembling, “I’m fine.” Amée turned to walk away, but the fat man hit her on the back of the head, and she fell on the hard cement path, unconscious and limp. The two men dragged her into the alley and into a beaten up car. But unknown to them another was watching, one who had been following Amée from school, the mysterious prowler was Alice Treeroot.
Treeroot witnessed Amée’s kidnapping and sprung into action. Even though she had no father or mother to bring her up, the forest had taught her more than anyone knew, around school she stayed on the rooftops. While she was following Amée’s kidnappers she used lampposts, powerlines, trees and other car roofs to keep up, the chase went on for a kilometre, but Treeroot kept the same distance all the way.


* * * *


Amée awoke to find herself in a shadowy room, once her eyes had adjusted to the darkness her heart beat quickened, there were six men who all looked like thugs in their mid twenties, brandishing switchblades and sharpened wood stakes. Amée lifted her head and they all looked at her, they where grinning like foxes at a trapped lamb, Amée found out why, she was tied to a chair and gagged. One man stepped forward, he had greasy black hair and bright blue eyes, he grasped Amée’s chin roughly, and his voice was menacing and threatening,
“Well done twig, you and chubby make a great team. This one will fetch a good price.”
His sly grin grew broader as twig responded, “and good fun, right boss?”
The gang laughed, and Amée’s eyes filled with fear. The boss pulled out his knife and held it at Amée’s neck; the cold steel sent shivers down her spine
“Now,” he declared, “you will do what we tell you, and this won’t happen again.” At that moment he lifted his blade to her cheek, kept her head still and sliced a deep gash in her skin, she whimpered under her gag as a tear slid down her cheek. Suddenly in a blur of black, the boss lay on his back two metres from Amée, and standing next to her was a man in a black cloak and full face mask, fixed in a forceful position, with a dagger in each hand, the gang knew who he was but Amée couldn’t believe her eyes. Amée’s hero was defending her, he was just as she imagined, and the boss uttered the words that most were afraid to say, “Dark Dagger.”
The boss picked himself up and wiped blood from his lips, Amée’s eyes never left Dark Dagger, his voice was deep and sounded like a lion’s growl, “If you lay one hand on her again you will be my first kill.” His eye’s flashed scarlet red, but the boss wasn’t giving up.
“If you haven’t noted, Dagger, there are six of us and, one of you.” His sly grin creeping across his face once again, “Kill him.”
Dagger leaped into the air and landed on one gang member’s shoulders, stabbing him in the chest, but not before twig pierced Dagger’s back. He hardly flinched, instead he span around and kicked twig to the ground. The battle raged on, the gang gouging Dagger but he didn’t even grunt. Finally the whole gang lay bleeding and unconscious and Dark Dagger stood in the middle of the carnage with five knives in his back and one in his shoulder, he was breathing heavily. Dagger looked at Amée, his black eyes full of pain.
Black? Amée thought, they looked red before.
Dagger limped behind her and cut her bounds, Amée jumped up and ran for the door but stopped, looking back she saw Dark Dagger kneeling on the ground leaning on the chair, a pool of blood had already started to form around his knees, she took a step toward him, “No, run.” His voice was weak and slow, “I can make my way to the rooftops, I can...” he tried to get up but fell down again. Amée ran to his side and lifted his arm over her shoulders, wrapping her arm around his waist, supporting his weight. “What are you doing?” Dagger asked.
‘What am I doing?’ Amée asked herself, she didn’t dwell on it though, Amée looked in his eyes and answered his question, “One good turn deserves another.” I must be going mad,’ she thought ‘his eyes look brown now.’


* * * *

Crack. Lightning flashed across the sky as Amée hammered on her door. Her Papa opened the door and fear bleached his face, “Amée,” he said, “Do you know who...? Why is he..? What happened to...?” he stopped and ushered them inside.
Amée sat her hero on the couch as her mother walked in, she went pale as well, but got the first aid kit and started moping up Dagger’ s wounds. He mumbled something under his breath, and then he lifted his head and turned to Amée, “He will be here soon.”
Before she could say anything there was a knock at the door, each hammer felt like a dagger in her back. Papa opened the door a crack and a voice was herd from outside, “I know he’s here, don’t worry, I’m his doctor.”
Papa still wasn’t shore until Dark Dagger spoke, “Please Sam I need your help.” His voice was getting weaker by the second, Sam pushed through Papa and froze when he sore Dagger balanced on the edge of the couch, Amée looked up at him with pleading eyes, Sam then ran to his patient. Amée watched while he worked, his strawberry blond hair was neatly combed back, and his emerald green eyes darted all over Dagger’s back as he slowly pulled the knifes out. Dark Dagger’s eyes never left Amée, although they where full of pain they were still reassuring.
It must be the light. she thought staring into his amber eyes. Sam finally got the last blade out of Dagger’s back and they both stood up to leave, Amée stood in front of them.
Dagger put his hand on her cheek, wiping away some blood he said, “It’s not often someone saves my life,” he lowered his hand and pulled out one of his daggers,
“And it’s not often someone gets this gift.” unexpectedly he cut a deep gash in his hand and dropped his dagger.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Sam warned, “you’re too weak.” Dagger placed his bleeding hand on Amée’s wound took off his mask with his left hand and dropped it, his face was still covered by his hood’s shadow. He then placed his hand on her other cheek and stared into her eyes. A powerful energy surged into Amée’s face, she couldn’t help but stair into Dagger’s eyes, they were changing colour so rapidly that Amée couldn’t count haw many colours there were, “I give you Amée,” he said officially, “the gift of sight”.
Unexpectedly Dark dagger flew back like an explosion hit him luckily Sam caught him, but his hood fell down revealing his face. Amée’s mouth dropped, she had so many different images in her mind of what Dark Dagger’s face was, but her face was not one of them. Lying lifeless in Sam’s arms was a girl she had seen once before, Alice Treeroot.
Sam’s wide eyes darted to every person in the room, “No one can know who she is,” he said. Amée hardly heard him but nodded subconsciously, thoughts where zooming through her head so quickly that she didn’t notice Papa escort Treeroot and Sam out the back door, all Amée could do was stare into space.
Mama walked up to her child and waved her hand in front of Amée’s face, I must look blind. Amée blinked and looked at her mother’s worried face. Amée gave a weak and confused smile and Mama returned it, her eyes shifting to her cheek. The hand print. Amée remembered, she raised her hand and wiped some blood, then stared at it in amazement, Mama looked at Amée and then the blood and back to Amée again, “What?” she asked, “What’s wrong?” Amée looked up, “It’s silver.” She said. Something caught her eye. Amée saw Treeroot’s mask and dagger lying on the floor, the same silver blood was on the dagger. Amée picked up the mask; it was rigid except for some strange material around the mouth and eyes. Amée had seen that face somewhere before and knew exactly where, it was the same mesmerising face Treeroot had sculpted into her art assignment.





















Anonymous Secrets

ll Amée could see was a blur of purple, red, green, light blue and a fiery orange. “Oh no,” she said, “I’m having my nightmare again.” But, instead of images swirling around a small black circle appeared in the middle and slowly got bigger, until the blur was only on the very edge of her vision. Then the black changed to a very beautiful shade of glossy purple and faded into a picture of the edge of a forest.
Treeroot walked into her view her eyes were amber and she was talking to someone next to Amée, “There are a wide variety of weapons you can make, what one do you want to learn?”
Amée turned her head to see who she was talking to, “Oh my,” she said, “it’s me.” In the dream Amée looked determined, “The staff. It may be very hard to hide, but someone told me I would be very good at it.” She smiled and the image faded into the same glossy purple.
Amée felt wind blow through her hair and another image zoomed towards her, it was a beautiful woman with purple hair, eyes and clothes and a thick scare on her cheek. She was holding a staff with an eye-catching amethyst on top; she looked familiar, and was talking to a gargantuan lion with a black mane. The lion was patting a small cat with a red head, arms and tail. It had yellow on his face around his nose as well as on his body and the tips of its tail and ears, the same cat she saw in her other dreams.
The lion’s voice was deep and strong, but very familiar “You fought well today Amethyst.”
The woman, Amethyst, smiled and shrugged, “You taught me how to use the staff…as well as my magic.” It was Amée’s voice, but older.

Amée woke up with a start, her dream fresh in her mind. She quickly got dressed and ran out to Mama. “Amée,” she said, “you look white as a sheet, what’s wrong?” Amée told her mother about her dream. Mama gave her some advice before sending her to school, “Why not ask Mackintosh what it means?” Amée stared at her mother in amazement, “How do you know about her?” Mama smiled, “She’s the one that told me about the elf.”