This will be quick and not that well-written. Sorry!!

Snow~

"Aspen. Aspen. Aaaaasspen! Aspen-Kallio—" Evergreen ducks as my shoe hit the wall behind him. 

"Nice aim!" He compliments grinning as he pops up again, "but you can't catch me!"  I fight the urge to throw my other shoe at him as he dashes away, laughing. Gosh, I wish I didn't have to share a room with that kid sometimes. As Ever's retreating foosteps and eerie laugh fade down the oak wood steps, a new set of softer footsteps approaches the door. 

"Aspen, you ready to sled down Grannie Bird's hill?" My sister calls cheerfully as her freckled face appears in the doorway. That's one way everyone around the mountainous, snow-covered area of the Western land where we live can tell we're related. If someone sees a kid with freckles, blonde hair, and dark torquoise-y eyes, doing something semi-crazy, they can say: "yep, that's an Izots kid." 

Putting down the magazine I had been reading, I looked up at Pine's hopeful face.  

"You bet," I answer with a grin. Pine begins to answer my smile, then sees the magazine slipping over the edge of my fur-lined beanbag.

"SNOW? Reading?" She gasps, and pretends to have a heart attack while laughing. We both know she loves reading, same as Ever does, but I can't stand sditting and staring at a page of black on white.

"It had an article about the Ice Games," I explain, carefully saving my page so that I could cut out the article later and hang it on my wall. 

"Oh no, not that again!" Pine exclaims, her bright blue eyes opened wide, "you know people die in those, right?"

I shrug. 

"I'm still going to compete when I turn 16." 

"You aren't allowed to turn 16." Immediately, I leap up to face my sister.

"Ha? Scared of what I'll do to the snowmobile? Awwww, you'll wish you had asked for a ride when that day comes!"

"Will not!" Pine protests.

~

More later about sledding (maybe) I have to go.  

Name: Lia (or just Li) Verrah

Age (10-16)*: 14

Original side (Eastern or Western): Eastern

Appearance: Tan, olive skin, smooth, long dark brown hair. Dark honey-brown eyes, narrowed from constantly walking against the wind and sand. Usually wears light white clothing that covers her whole body to protect her from the sun and wind and study sandals or boots.

Personality: Tough and sharp, but friendly. Smart and resourceful, a quick thinker. An ambivert, and neither quiet nor loud, though will become outspoken on certain topics.

Other: Open to shipping or whatever.

Pine~

Aspen rolls his eyes and leaps down from his bed. "C'mon let's go."

He walks out in front of me, and I slap him on the back of the head lightly before running ahead of him and outside.

Mother yells, "Be careful!", but we hardly heed her warning. A fresh layer of snow fell from this morning, so sledding will be really fun.

"Oh wait!" I yell, turning around and practically running into Aspen.

"What?" he asks, still lifting his feet.

"My sketchpad!"

He laughs. "You're actually going to take that with you?"

"Hey, if there's a tree..." I mutter.

But I shrug and we continue to race until we reach Ever.

"You guys are so slow!" he exclaims. "Let's go to the top of the hill, hurry up."

We nod with a smile and trudge up the hill. We finally reach it and look down, Ever preparing the sleigh.

"Here we go," Aspen says, with a wicked smile on his face. 

Can I still join???

Can I please join because this sounds preety cool.

Name: Kai Lock

Age (10-16)*: 15

Original side (Eastern or Western): Eastern

Personality: Kai's not insecure she just knows that she, as a person, isn't particularly special. She's not strong or smart and her weird eyes and scar mean that she's not very beautiful. Still, she is a good healer and care taker and very loving.

Appearance: Please crop off the bottom and resubmit the art.

Admin

Eek! So excited for this to take off!!!

Ashes~

Softly, I take a breath in, drawing back my bowstring. The heat of the desert sun has already made the wood hot and brittle, but I'm hoping I can make this one last catch before it gets too hot for any animals to be out and about. Letting my breath loose, I release the string, letting the acacia wood arrow fly. It finds its mark, but only just barely. The desert hare lies twitching on the ground as it gasps for its final breaths. I leave my cover in the sparse shade of the bush of brambles and stride over to end the creature's life completely. Taking my arrow, I slide it back into its quiver as I reach down and sling the hare over my shoulder.

"You really should work on your shooting skills," a voice says behind me.

I turn, a smile blooming across my face as my elder brother, Lucien, strides over to me.

"Well, at least I know how to fight in hand to hand, Ien" I jab playfully.

Lucien winces, brushing a hand across the bruise on his collarbone from our last scuffle.

'You're no better than a pack of wolves' Mama had said to my brother as he lay on the ground, tears streaming from his eyes from laughter.

Lucien falls into step beside me as I walk over to the spot where I hid the rest of my kills. A tough-skinned magpie and two quail. I had also been able to find a small bush of huckleberries about half a mile from the border to the Western side.

After a few miles of walking in comfortable silence, I sigh in relief at the sight of our house and the slight drop in temperature. My family lives extremely close to the border to the West side. As in, less than three miles away. The house, my father had built himself, with the help of our only neighbour, who lives about a quarter mile away from us. The nearest town is about five miles off from us.

My home is cool and quiet as I stride through the door and toss my bounty on the wood table. The berries I slide immediately into the fridge, then I return to the door to slide my tough, yet comfortable hunting sneakers. My feet tingle with pleasure as cool air hits hot skin. I hear the couch creak softly as Ien flops lazily onto it.

Feigning offence, I turn and say, "Oh, how hard you've worked today, Luz. Isn't it exhausting to sit and look pretty all day?"

Lucien's dark eyes sparkle with laughter as he responds from his sprawled position, "Ah, it is. It is, my lady Ashes."

He takes on a more serious tone as he adds, "Don't worry. I checked all the snares and set new ones. I also scouted the border."

"Hmm. And how is it over there?" I ask. I always do. I have always been curious about the strange white stuff that falls, never touching our side of the invisible line.

"Snow. Like ashes, but cold," Papa had once described it. Only Papa is no longer around to tell me of the wonders of the world. He crossed the border and never returned. Sometimes I wonder whether he decided he liked the crystalline world of the West better and decided to stat a new family there, on his own.

"Actually, I saw something new today," Lucien tells me, sitting up.

"Really? What?" excitement alights in my chest.

"A boy. I'm assuming typical Western features," Lucien tells me.

"Oh? What'd he look like?" I ask, coming over to take a seat in the pale green window seat

"Blonde hair. Pale skin. His eyes were the colour of a storm tossed sea, though. Oh, and freckles. Lots of them, as if someone tossed a bunch of poppy seeds at his face and they stuck," we both laugh at the last comment.

"Anything else?" I question.

"I didn't get to find anything else out about the boy. Someone shouted for him. Aspen Kallio, they said. But I don't think he appreciated the term," Lucien tells me.

I giggle as I say,"Well, if I ever meet this Aspen Kallio, I'll be sure to tease him with it."

"You sly, sly little Fireheart," my brother tells me, using a term of endearment that I haven't heard since Papa...

I fall silent as Lucien realizes his mistake.

I can practically feel the air pull away as we both withdraw to our own individual thoughts.

After a few moments, Lucien and I both look up as a jangling of a collar sounds outside the door.

A breath later, the door flies open as Mama enters with her arms loaded with vegetables and things that we need to buy, since we can't grow them.

I rise and begin to help with putting everything away, "Hello, Mama. Hi Tamlin," I coo to the wolf pup, which Luz and I worked to save a year ago. We both agree that Tamlin's mother lost him during a storm and he wandered over the border by sensing the heat of the desert sun.

_______________________-

Agh... I've got to go to swim practice. I know this is a terrible place to end, but I can't run the risk of all this writing getting deleted.

Pine~

We finish sledding and decide to go again in the evening, but for now, we head back inside. But something intrigues Aspen just beyond Grannie Bird's hill, and he starts walking slowly behind it. If I know Aspen, he takes nothing slowly. Just a fast-action packed life for him, and almost the same for Ever. I find myself following him, and Ever's about to protest when he follows me.

After reaching the point where if we took one more step, we would be behind the hill, I ask, "Aspen, what are you doing?"

Aspen looks back at me, his eyes twinkling. "Let's check out the border."

"But Aspen-" Ever protests.

However, his sentence is cut short by Aspen's glare. For some reason, he hates the name Aspen, but when I say it, he doesn't seem to mind. Oh, well. I'm his sister and we aren't that many years apart, so I guess I have some rights.

"We can't just go over the border," I hiss. "Let's go to Thintree Forest. We can find something to do there."

But he shakes his head absentmindedly, and looks at the border as if in a trance. "No, we haven't been able to see the border before. We should go. Oh, c'mon Pine! Ever! We haven't had this kind of adventure before!"

"Because you know what the rules are!" Ever exclaims. "We stay on our sides, the West and the East."

"Well I'm going," Aspen declares. "With you guys or without. Your choice."

He starts off again, and I finally sigh and nod at Ever. My boots crunch against the snow, now harder ice. I can see bits of the ground poking out, and I realise we are nearing the Eastern side.

"I have to admit, this is actually kind of fun," I mutter with a smirk.

Aspen scoffs and Ever grumbles, "No it's not. We'll get in so much trouble if mom finds out."

"Which she won't," Aspen adds with a glare to Ever.

Finally we reach near the border, and we're forever away from our home and so close to a new place that we haven't explored-a barren desert the complete opposite of our snowy forests.