Intro
Imagine if instead of oceans we had forests. Theoretically you could walk all the way across the ocean but the deeper you go the darker it gets and the taller the trees grow. It'd be like the dark alleys in the inner cities, anyone and anything could be hiding in the shadows. Thats us.

Nowhere is safe for an outsider. We are everywhere and nowhere, seen and unseen. We know these woods as well as you know your living room. We know each other as family. You know us as dangerous, untamable rebels.

My name is Paris and this is my story. Yes Paris like the city. Fancy just like my upbringing. My childhood home depicts our wealth and social status well, with the courtyards, ponds, and over sized rooms. We had it made. I never had to leave the safety of my room.  That is until my room ceased to exist. Fire started the demolition and a flood leveled the estate. I learned later that those incidents were no accident but purposeful acts of defiance. My family was in line for the throne not anymore though, of course, because they are all dead. My Mother, Father, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, all assasinated to destroy the dynasty. Only my brother is alive. He’s stayed with me in the trees where I used to go to be alone. We then did everything together. We were never close before but we bonded over our survival. Building our ranks, we now have a community of underage survivors like us coming from similar situations, all of which feel at home in our forest and are just as willing to protect it as we are. Home. That’s what this is. And no one can take that away from me again.

Chapter 1
Home is where the heart is. Home is where you stop running. Home is where others run from you.

Your home needs to be a safe place. Safe for specifically you, safe from whatever you've been running from. But here we don’t run because we can’t. Here we swing and climb and hang. What started with one small pathetic tree house is now an incredible tree fort village.

 “You ready?” Jonathan asked, I could hear the fear in his voice.

“You know, you worry too much, your like the very definition of an overprotective big brother,” I said trying to relieve the tension as I walk out of my little hut of a bedroom. “Nothing happens when we go out to patrol. And it’s not like this watch will be any different than the last one and the one before that and the one before that and...” I continue annoyingly as I climb down to the tree branch that he and his second in command, Jionni, wait on. Jionni is the same age as Jonathan. When we lived with our parents Jionni was the son of a servant who lived in on the property. He’s lost as much as we have. He has felt the same pain. His story isn’t unique around here. Years ago a group of very angry people set fires in the homes of our division of the kingdom. I didn’t understand back then, but they wanted power for themselves. They got it... to this day we run from those same people. Our enemy. Anyone who lost their home in the raids is welcome in our safe place in the trees. The majority of us are under the age of sixteen. That’s why my brother is in charge, he is the oldest with nineteen years of life behind him. Four years have passed since that dark time and we have finished our grieving, now we have to focus on staying alive.

“What’s up pipsqueak?,” Jionni asks smiling pulling my thoughts back to the present.

“Nothing much Longshot,” I sigh using the nickname that we gave him when he won the last bet I made with him. The two of us would bet on everything back in the palace, this one was on whether or not he could shoot fruit from far away and of course he won that bet; he shot the stupid little thing from a hundred feet away. Long story short, he is our best archer. “Ready to rob the enemy!” I proclaim with a grin, “What about you?”
He starts “Absolute ---,” but Jonathan shushes him. We should know better than to speak while we take survey of the forest. I stab my knife into the tree amplifying the vibrations on the ground “How many?” Longshot asks.

“Couple dozen on foot, a few horses maybe two, and then there’s the palanquin.” I pause evaluating the situation, “We can take them. Jett give the signal.” Jonathan frowns at the nickname.

“We aren’t starting anything today. Today we watch,” he says in a harsh whisper. “They don’t need to know where we are.”

The three of us watch as the group of men march their way down the path in the great woods. They have no reason to be headed in the direction they’re going, there isn’t anything out that far. They are looking for us. As this realization hits us we crouch down lower and press our bodies closer to the trees we wait in. I don’t know what will happen if they find us. They can’t set the woods on fire because they wouldn’t be capable of stopping it once it got started. They also don’t look like they could climb up here to get us without falling out of the tree on their way up. “They sure are loud,” I subconsciously mumble under my breath.

“At least we know they can’t sneak up on us.” Longshot says in a hushed tone.

Jonathan sighs, “Just watch guys. We need to know all that we can about these people if we are going to defend ourselves against them.”

He’s right, me and Jionni both know that he is always right. Another reason he is the leader, always so serious.

Over the troop stomping around on the ground I can barely make out the sound of quiet, trained movement behind me. I shift on the tree branch to see who is waiting. It’s just Hannah. I don’t know much about her past, she doesn’t speak enough to open up to me like that.

“What’s going on?” she asks with a small voice full of concern. “It’s my turn for look out.”

I answer her quickly, “There is something happening, Hannah. We can’t leave right now. Go and wake the others.” All she does is nod her head before she makes her way back to the sleeping huts. I feel bad for her. She was thrown into this life when she was far too young. She is 13 now and one of our smallest members which only makes it harder for her to get around, she isn’t tall enough to jump with as much power as the rest of us. However, she is by far the most graceful. That is an easy thing to notice the first time you watch her swing from tree branches like a skilled gymnast.

As time slowly passes other children gather on the surveillance branches around us. I watch them watch the enemy. My heart sinks as I take in each face and wonder if it is a face I'll lose when the enemy finally finds us. I know I have to protect the family that I have found. I just don’t know how.

We watch until the troop circles back to where they came from. Everyone stay still as a rock waiting for the last man to be a great distance away. When my heart finally stops pounding in my chest I speak to the small group barely above a whisper. “Gather for dinner. We have things to discuss.”
...
Jonathan is finishing the dinner rally. “...and this is our home!” He shouts to everyone.
“Home!” They chant back in unison, their morale building.

“We will fight for it!” Jonathan feeds off of their excitement as he finishes.

The children screech “Fight for our home!” And as Jonathan hops down from the table I join in the the powerful chanting.”Home! Home! Home!”

“Here’s the plan...” He says to me and Longshot when the others begin to go about their dinner as usual. “On their next search we will show them where we are.” I try my best to hold my tongue as he goes through his mad idea. “Then we use what they bring against them.”

“What on Earth do you mean?” I ask, trying to get on board with our best shot at survival.

“You’ll see.”

Chapter 2
Hannah is on watch they next time the troops come through our part of the woods. We gather in the treetops above them.

“What are you doing in our woods?” Duke starts the routine speech,  he’s not our leader or even the oldest but he is the most intimidating, I mean he’s like 6’ 3”, it  gives us a better image.

“Your woods? Boy, these are not your woods,” the large man says.

“Look man, I'm not going to argue with you, either you leave in peace or we attack” Duke was serious, but the large man on the horse laughed.

“Please! You and what army?” he said “Your just a handful of kids.” Duke looked at the very unconcerned man while I looked at his men who were trying not to look up. Glancing into the tall trees they looked terrified, unlike their leader who didn’t appear to care.

“All right but don’t say that I didn’t warn you.” He cautioned then he whistled dramatically and unnecessarily, as we were all watching anyway.

The fight didn’t last long but we did outnumber them 2 to 1. So, we took their clothes keeping the ones we liked and burning the ones that we thought were ugly, too big, or sunk. We also got all of the supplies that they had with them. Overall it was the perfect raid no deaths on either side and no serious injuries on ours and Jett seemed to get happier as we took stock of what we stoll.

“These barrels are filled with blasting goo!” Duke said his face lit with enthusiasm
“Sweet,” Jett said approvingly.

“And these ones are filled with jelly candy...” Longshot says look up with the candy already in his mouth.
“Also good, let’s not get those mixed up. ‘kay guys.” We all giggle alittle, finally acting like the kids we are. That is replaced with a childlike grin once that candy had made its way all around and into our many eager mouths.

“Okay, all right, that’s enough it’s time to get dinner started” I say

Through the eyes of Richard Damark (the man on the horse):
What should I tell him? He wanted a full and detailed report. I only saw 10 of them at one time but they were everywhere and I never saw the same rebel twice. How many? How many? “There’s about 75 of them, Sir.” I said warily “All children.” then I add “Please forgive my appearance they are very well trained little monsters, My Lord.” I finish.
“75?” the great king wondered aloud “Well trained?” he paused sweetly. Then “CHILDREN!!!!” he screamed “And you just let them take your clothes and be on their merry way. Yes?” He said as sweetly as ever, not showing a shred of sarcasm. It was terrifying, he was terrifying. But I guess that’s why he’s the king now.
“We can take them out if we go prepared.” I said showing less uncertainty as the king started to grin.
“Fine, this would be a wonderful opportunity for the prince to see, or even lead a real invasion.
Yes the prince will lead the invasion of the rebels.”

“I don't know if that is a good idea my lord, as I have said they are very well trained and for the safety of...” I begin but the king has made up his mind.

“Officer” says the king, “leave my presents and dress yourself.”  as i'm turning to leave away the king says “send the prince in on your way out.”

Through the eyes of Paris:
“Today we we victorius.” Jett said says in a speech that is informative yet inspiring he was giving the speech at dinner all of our numbers listening intently. “Today we struck another blow against the enemy.” only after we cheer enthusiastic does he continue “I got a special kind joy from the look on one soldiers face when Hannah  jumped down on his helmet and rode him like a wild animal." She gets up on the table and shakes her fists in triumph then sits back down before the cheering and stopping to listen again "The enemy thinks," he continued, "that they don't need to worry about a couple of kids hiding in a tree house. Maybe they're right.”
“Boooo!” We respond.
“Maybe they're dead wrong.”
“Yeah!” we scream and holler even louder.
“Let's eat.” someone said . It was probably Duke, but no one seemed to care so I didn't bother to look up to see.

We are finishing our big dinner and Jett get back up on the table to say “All right I know that this was a big raid and I know everything's all screwed up. But we are going to continue on with the routine schedule so if your scheduled to be sleeping right now then go to bed and everything will be back on track with training soon.”
“Yes sir. ” I heard some of the younger kids say sarcastically not wanting to go to sleep after the day they just had.

Through the eyes of the royal prince:
“You will lead the invasion of the rebels” my father said, “Son? Did you hear me? I said you will lead the...?” I smi zone out, of course I could hear him he was not only the great king so he spoke with loud confidence but we are also in the huge echoing throne room. But I am in shock, completely dumbfound.
Was I really going to lead such an important mission? After what feels like too long I finally pull it together, “What are my orders?” I ask.
My father sighs, “You are to kill them all. Every last one of them.” I try to hide my fear in my voice. I had heard rumors that this dangerous rebels were just children, that were kicked out of their homes when their parents were killed in an expansion of our kingdom.
“When do I leave?” I ask in confusion. How long do I have to prepare?
“You should leave now. The rebels have recently attacked our troops, and we can no longer afford the losses.” I am now  having a full scale panic attack. Why on earth would he want me to lead something so big? When I have never even gone with to see a normal mission. I haven't lead a normal mission for God’s sake. Why?
“Okay, let's go.” I say turning towards the officer who will assist me. “Let’s go.”

Through the eyes of Paris:
“Hey, Parris its morning” says a kid who was just on night watch. I couldn't tell who.
“Thanks” I say getting up, “on your way to bed could you wake Jett and Longshot.”
She smiles, “Yes sir.”
I laugh “What did I say about calling me sir?”
The smile has not disappeared from her face, “Sorry,” she said “it’s just, your so large and in charge.” Now I know that it is Hannah she is the only one who would think to quote the christmas tail I tell every year. Even in the middle of summer.
I go to chime the first rotation bell then all of the kids on first shift look out, gather in the hidden courtyard up in the trees. That’s when it happens. One of the smaller kids is shot with an arrow. We all freeze. We know what is happening. I whisper the coded emergency plan around to the kids closest to me and they spread the word further.
Once everyone is informed we work as a well oiled machine. “Get the leader!” someone shouts. Then I see Jett and Longshot jump down behind the enemy and I follow instinctively.
I see them put a sack over someone's head. “Pipi.” I hear Jett says stern over the commotion. That’s when I know that it’s bad. He would only use a code name for a nickname if I was about to become a memorable the center of attention.
As I soon as I reach him he says, “Knife.”
This sadly is not code for anything just a word an object and a weapon.
But again I know what I must do. “Hey!” I scream at the top of my lugs, everyone freezes and the men turn to look at me. Then all of our kids retreat back to the trees, they know too. “If you don’t stop.” I continued putting my jagged saw blade knife to the neck of the person with the sack over his head. “I will kill your precious little prince.” Duke looks at me from halfway up the tree as if i'm crazy but I guess I might be I had no idea that I was actually holding a knife to the royal prince until the troops gasped in shock then dropped their weapons in surrender.

Chapter 3:
“Leave.” I yell to the silent royal troops. “And never come back.”

“But the prince, we can't leave without him.” That same stupid big man said, seaming more concerned than before.

“That’s just to bad.” I say the knife still at the throat of the said prince. “You were warned to not disturbed our woods but you disobeyed. So now he’s mine.”

He waits.

“Exit.” I say in a perfectly even tone. And he does he leaves with all of his troops on the walk of shame.
We wait until they are all out of sight to react.

“Can he climb?” Duke asks me.

“I don't know. Can you?” I ask dropping the knife as I wait for a response.

“I-I--I think so.” he mumbles.

“Then let's go.” I say turning around and heading for the easiest tree to climb. Before I know it he is running a full speed away from the tree. “Don’t run.” I shout. I remove the a bow from my back and pick up a stone firing it at him and knocking him out. “I told you not to run.” I mumble to myself as I roll him over so somebody can pick him up. He’s carried all the way up the tree and tied up, in all of our least favorite places in the treehouse. Holding. This is the origin of the tree town but also the most depressing. This is where the original 3 of us came to hide the night of the great death.

“Is it dead?” Longshot questions poking at the prince.

“No. I don’t think so.” I say hopefully.

“Thats a shame.” He states. “Now your stuck watching him. This palace jerk can't fend for himself.