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CHAPTER ONE: White and Black

The Hordens’ mansion stood out like white did from black. Its walls were taller than any other in town and were topped with a variety of thorned flora.

The bricks glimmered gold in the sunlight and the ornate windows reflected everything like a mirror. The smooth paved path was as straight and polished as could be and behind the manor was a large cherry tree that hadn’t bore fruit in many years.

Crouched behind its thick branches, a girl wearing a peculiar ying-yang mask was waiting for the perfect opportunity to sneak in. She wore a ying-yang patterned dress as well, the top half white with a black dot and the other half, black with a white dot. She had her dark purple hair short, so as to not bother her during whilst stealing.

The thief, Yana, was not a bitter person. As she saw the blue-armoured guard pass by, she jumped onto the wall tops with great limberness. Yana could kill and steal from other houses if she needed to – but, she chose not to. All she wanted back was her family’s dignity.

After landing on top of the wall, the familiar thorns greeted her appropriately, hugging the sensitive skin close to them. Yana cursed and pulled out what looked to be a blue knife-handle and shook it roughly once to the side.

The effect was immediate.

Sharp blades slid from the side of handle into a fan that cut cleanly through the plants. She cringed as she glanced at the red bumps on her legs, but, did not hesitate when she jumped down into the courtyard.

The grass was sweet-smelling and sticky from yesterday’s rain. It wrapped around Yana’s feet feebly only to be kicked away and stick instead, to each other. Yana had gone through this path many times in the past – every movement she made had been planned beforehand making her random steps seem all the more clever.

Her soft padded white boots crept through the pruned grass and her eyes were focused on the large unwelcoming doors ahead of her. Instead of opening the door like a normal visitor may have, Yana instead opened one of the large windows. Like all rich houses’ windows, they were certainly wider on the outside than inside.

But with the means of a lockpick - stuck in between the window glass and windowsill - and a little bit of help from one of the thorny vines she had encountered, she easily opened the window. It was always a tight fit, making Yana very glad she was as skinny as she was, but, she was worried that one day, she might just be crushed if she tried to go any further.

After she dragged the heavy glass window up, she slipped through quite easily. On her hands and knees, Yana began to crawl through, the surface below her felt unnaturally smooth - it never ceased to amaze her how easily she crossed through. As the window got narrower, it became much more drudging to get to the end, but, as she had done so many times before, Yana slinked down and landed on her feet much like a cat would.

She pushed back her purple hair and like always, snuck into the kitchen. She had done this so many times, it had become like a routine. Her black gloved hands picked up a few objects lying around the dining table. It was one of the longest Yana had ever seen, laid out with cutlery and plates for the morning and polished to a shine, she saw her own mask in it’s surface.

Yana only pilfered a couple of forks or so. They might not have seemed it, but, the cutlery was made of steel – a rare and expensive find that a merchant she knew valued very greatly. He never questioned her finds because he knew them to be illegal, but, as long as he never suspect who she was, everything was fine. She had brought a small rabbit-hide bag with her in which she carried her goods. Yana sighed, again feeling bad for stealing, but, remembering what the Horden family had done to her own.

Shaking her head at these thoughts, she thrust the bag over her shoulder and crept back the way she came. It wasn’t much further now. The early morning light began to rain through the windows filling the room with a peachy glow. Yana put her forearm in front of her eyes to shield them from the unsuspecting glow. For a few seconds, she was able to appreciate the light warmth that came from it.

Behind the mask, it made her smile just a little.

She shook her head, clearing the unnecessary thoughts away as she made her way back to the place she entered from. She silently laughed to herself at another successful mission. In the beginning, it had been very painful to steal. But now Yana realized that this was the only way justice could take place.

She tried to tell people that the Hordens were responsible for the fire that burnt down their house and killed her father, Kared Sylvane. She had tried so many times, but, she had realized, no one would listen to the b*****d child of a dying family.

When she walked past the usual corridor, she saw her sister, Rosa, had already left. Rosa was a lot prettier than Yana, but, her grief at their faher's dead was still all ubbled up inside her. It almost broken Yana's heart to see her suffer like that - helpless and alone.

But, Rosa had Linei now.
Linei Horden. A Horden. The thought of it would've repulsed most of her sisters, but, Yana knew it was their secret. Yana the thief and Rosa the lover of that accursed family. Yes, indeed, the Sylvanes were an odd bunch.

Although, Yana really wouldn’t have it any other way.



I'm relatively underconfident about this, but, don't let it change your opinion. I thought it was a lot better when I first did it, though. Hit me with your hardest and hopefully it'll be better...

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, ADD, but...it's yin-yang. sweatdrop

I'll go finish now.

Isn't this girl the Crescentia mascot?

Haha, I knew something about ying-yang sounded off.
Thanks. But what does ADD mean?

Anyway, Yana isn't the mascot.
She's my personal character. On an unrelated matter alll people in Crescentia get link cards made with a drawing of their character done by my sister. See?

I agree with what you say about using less words completely. When I re-read it, I noticed that catlike thing too. I'm sure I can shorten sentences a bit if I try to compress it down.

You like the yin-yang thing? i.e. the entire gimmick of her thieving? I think it's really cool because it was based off of an old character who was quite boring. Oh, I'm soo going off-topic.>>

I like your comments!
Is that really true? I didn't think it was written that well. And it means a lot coming from me, because I love your style. Anyway, did you understand the bit where she opened the window? I wanted that to not be confusing...


PS. It's cause I'm very off and on lately and I'm not online as much as I'd like to be. I did reply to your story, though.

Attention defficite dissorder actually affects interest more than it does focus. Hence the "DUDELOOKOVERTHERE" part. Focus, if I'm not mistaken is the following part of attention. That is to say, people with bad focus will be unable to, lets say, read something while its noisy. Although...I can't quite say that, that isn't ADD too. Oh well. I only have myself as a refference point, and from what I've seen ADD mainly affects your internal interest, while your psychological state affects your focus.

Which is cause for some ambiguty as you can quickly loose confidence in your ability to hold either when the other fails on you.

Yin-yangs are the shiz. They inspire me. My book would be nothing without that whole balance, good-in-evil-and-evil-in-good idea. The entire thing's based around it.......

I like Yana. ><

I do like her. ^^ Even though I don't know her that well. She's fun. 3nodding