A soft breeze made a shiver run down my spine as I walked through a meadow of tall grass. I would often walk through this field outside of my small town to think. My town was a small farm village, everybody knew everyone so no one really made trouble.
My town was generally made up of mainly two species, either being a human, or a faun, a half human half goat.
In our town there are a few elven or harpy families too, I fall in an odd category, being a faun and a harpy. My lower body was of a goat’s and I had the ears and horns of one too, my hair was an ash blond with a light wavy flow to it, I had round hazel eyes that had the sharpalmost cat-like pupils. And draped down my back were large wings that were mostly white with my own fur correlation of brown and black dotted across it.
My town was located under a mountain in a valley with a river in the shape of a ‘Y’ around it; many of our farmers would farm outside of the main town. And being a trading town we get a lot of people running in and out.
But the most impressive thing about this little town is that we have created a system of training our own “Knights” as some would call them, this was because the kingdom that rules over our land had refused to assign any knights or guards to protect our town, and because they do this with many small towns, many get raided.
And with our town being one of the most rich for trade, we had no other choice but to train to defend ourselves
Being as young as thirteen, me and many of my peers have trained for years on battle, survival, and strategies of fighting. We are set into groups and being with my same group for a few years, I have befriended them.
A determined elf, and my best friend, Aria is one of the smartest in our group. A dark winged harpy, Devokin is one of our strongest magic users. A blond, loud, but loyal human, Tourn, keeps the energy up in the team. Max and Lappez, also humans, act as a power duo and are hard to fight against alone. And Borrow, the only centaur, or half human half horse, is headstrong and an expert at bow and arrow.
A noise that sliced through the air drew me back to reality as an arrow whizzed past my drooped ear, I instinctively jolted up and was greeted with a laugh. My eyes met with Borrow, who lowered his bow. I bent down and grabbed the arrow, “You could have pierced my ear!”
He kicked a hoof into the mud, his light brown eyes humorous, “You're just angry because I’ve become more accurate in my aim than you with those daggers and throwing knives of yours!”
He had long dark hair that was braided along his back, his skin was tan and the fur on his legs and back was a dusty brown. I started down the hill after handing him his arrow. He followed close behind me.
As we crossed the bridge into the town Borrow looked around at the unusually busy streets, “So what’s the assignment that Sir. Torr is so anxious about?” His voice had an unsure quiver to it. I glanced up at him before stopping, “Well… Aria knows a bit more about it than me, she did catch me with those fireworks of course. But from what I heard…”
I was interrupted by a voice behind me, “We are being sent to clear out a fortress full of low classed bandit scums, because of you.” My ear twitched in annoyance, “Right…” I turned around, with no surprise seeing Tourn. He had short golden hair and a round face with thin, blue eyes.
That night I had found myself crouched in a tree, the sky was dark and the air was cool. I looked around the dense forest before glancing down into a fort surrounded by pillars of spiked wood and towers.
Aria, Tourn, and Borrow would be snuck inside by now. I turned my head as the loud sound of wings landed beside me, Devokin stared down into the fort, “Are they inside?” His dark blue eyes were fixed on the door, he was tense.
I hunched my large wings upward giving the viewed impression as of how a large vulture would sit on a tree, “I would hope.” Speaking too late, yelling stirred up below us. Large numbers of men raced out of the cabins as they chased something, Borrow.
Soon Max and Lappez came in and they fought the bandits with him. I sat up and looked into the sky, I gasped as I saw a distant fire and smoke glowing like a lightbug against misty waters. It was in the direction of the small village we called home.
Devokin glanced up, his teeth clenched. He shouted down to Aria who had just appeared from a tower, “Aria! There’s a fire near the village!” Even though she was far I could see her face fill with terror. She called orders to the rest of our group and we quickly fled the fort in return to our home.
My hooves hit into a pile of soot as I landed into our village, Devokin close behind me. I looked around at our burned and destroyed town, homes were burned to ash, bodies in pools of blood were scattered around.
My heart sank as I forced myself not to look at the lost faces of my neighbors. As the rest of the team approached I turned to them, Borrow stared around where the village once stood, his eyes wide in fear. Devokin walked to Aria to comfort her, her blue hair and round glasses were now dusted in the falling soot, and her pale crystal blue eyes dulled to sadness.
Lappez cried into Max’s shoulder, her long and dark hair messy from the run. Tourn started walking around, calling a name that I could not focus to hear. I stood staring at my broken team, my sadness was replaced with a feeling that felt numb, almost disconnecting me from my surroundings.
I forced my words to steady, “There's a small city across the mountains, we can go there.” Aria’s face turned from fear and sadness to an angry expression I couldn't quite read, “What do you mean? This is our home!”
I kept my voice calm, almost stale, “And it’s gone now, we can't live here.” Tourn’s sad eyes glanced at me before lowering to the soot dusted ground, “She’s right, we have to leave.” I turned and looked over the burned houses at the large and snow topped mountain.
We all agreed to traveling through the mountain, and it took about two days to reach the city of Melvindale. While we traveled through the forest I found myself feeling an odd feeling that left a lonely and sunken space in my chest.
Ignoring that unwelcome emotion, we had made it to the city popular for its markets and farm animal trade. The city had mostly humans and elves, a centaur here and there.
I looked around at my friend’s still sad and dull faces, I announced to them, “Hey, you guys, go try to have fun and explore the city, we can meet here when we are finished looking around.” Tourn rolled his eyes, “That could take hours, I’m tired of walking!”
Borrow walked off, “I’m going to buy some food then.” Devokin led Aria through the market, waving back, and Tourn quickly followed Borrow. Max fixed his curly blond hair that was dark at its roots, “I’m kinda excited for some food too…” Lappez clapped her hands, her brown eyes glowing in excitement, “Let's go find a pastry shoppe!” They walked off waving back to me, “See you around, Ahdan!”
A smile spread across my face as I watched them happily walk off, my grin soon faded and my wings and ears drooped slightly. A deep sadness echoed in my chest, over our trip everyone had been so stuck together, arguing if not. I had known these people for years but as the days progressed through the quaint city, our group became more and more distant. I would wait at the same spot every and all night, a few would come, then just two, then one… then by the second week I found myself sitting alone as white snow danced from the sky. For those nights I would think of the village, if we had been there could we have saved it?
Early in a timeless morning I woke up to being sat against a wall, my wings draped over me as a blanket. I quickly stood up and started walking through the market in hopes of finding someone of my team. Snow dusted the ground and my breath was hot against the still, crisp air.
I spotted Borrow chatting with an old merchant, I rushed over to him, “Borrow!” He looked at me, his eyes crinkled in almost disgust, “Oh, Ahdan…” His tone took me off guard, “Are you okay?”
His hooves clopped against the stone as he backed up a bit, “Uh, I’ll see you later.” He turned to leave, I panicked but all I could do was stand frozen as he walked away.
For the day I looked for people in my group, I found Max and Lappez helping a baker, they just kept quiet and barely spoke a word to me. And I found Tourn working behind a counter at a blacksmith shop. He basically ran from me, hate glowing in his eyes as he called me a monster. When I had finally found Aria and Devokin, they were in a library.
My heart almost ached and my hands trembled, what was I so afraid of? I called to Aria, “There you two are! What have you guys been up to?” Devokin stared at me for a moment of almost fear and mistrust before grabbing Aria’s wrist and leading her away. I felt my heart rip from my chest as Aria didn’t even bother to look me in the eye, I grabbed her hand from leaving and held it firmly, “Aria! What is going on?”
They stopped walking and just stood staring at the ground in almost shame, I narrowed my eyebrows, “Everyone has avoided me! I never see anyone these days, Max and Lappez ghosted me, Borrow just about scowled at me and Tourn ran from me! Now… are you running too?”
Tears raced down my red cheeks as I finished and my hands were tight in a fist as she spoke, “We all were talking a few days ago, and everyone came to the idea that you are the cause of our village’s end.”
I felt my tongue become caught in my throat, I felt as frozen as a tree frog in winter. She continued in a soft voice, “That month ago when you had set off all those fireworks and almost burned houses in town, we were assigned, as punishment, to take care of that fort. Which leads to the cause of us not being able to defend the village.”
“So you all blame me?” Devokin stepped in front of Aria and looked down at me with a hollow glare, “You think it was just a coincidence that you had earned the name Soot when you became a squire? You were always trouble and had always been destructive, you may have helped us move on but you are the cause of all this!”
All I could do was run from them, I know well not to mess with a magic wielder like him. And just like that, in a month’s time, I went from having a close bond with the people I love most, to becoming complete strangers. And I soon found myself needing to steal for food since I was too small or young for most work, or considered too wild. I had been imprisoned many times and from the tips of my fingers and feathers on my wings grew a dark soot black that spread across my body until it reached my heart. And when it did, I had become not the Ahdan Soot anyone had known. And living my last days in a cell, my last thoughts of my friends, and what I saw last? I saw the faces of my once friends smiling as the sharp blade of an ax cut my head off to fall into a basket.

© AHDANSOOT123