The young girl who resembles a doll made by winter fairies touches her chest noticing something odd. It's not beating. She pondered in the shades listening to the rhythmic beating of the tiny hearts of the children cheerfully playing tag at the front of the academy. It really isn't beating. Her silent voice spoke in her mind.
How can a person not have a beating heart? Humans are supposed to have a living heart, don't they? Is she sick? Is she dead? But she's breathing and she's warm, so why? Why is she different from them? Even her silvery white hair stands odd in the crowd. Her lips formed a thin line in frustration fisting in her old ragged linen dress.
I want to play too. Her thought boiling another frustration inside her. She had just taken a small break from cleaning the library by herself - if the headmaster found her playing, she'd be whipped.
It must be nice to have a friend. She wanted to have fun - be a normal little girl who has friends, a girl who plays and be covered in the dirt from playing, not cleaning, running around chasing other kids, playing heroes and villains, and hiding from the seekers. One time, she approached a group of girls comparing presents gifted by their parents, one look of spite and cold silence stopped her. She heard that children love flowers. In hope to gain a friend, she searches for the most beautiful ones in the dangerous woodland, when she gives her bundle full of bright colors they push her away, throw the flowers to the ground, and stomp them till they wilted.
"You stay away from us, you hear me! You gave my little brother a flower, now he's bedridden sick!" She was thrown a rock in the head, slowly a cold liquid trailed down her forehead stained her dress. Sick? But I heard from the Healer it's a medicine. "Why don't you wander the woodland and never come back? You curse our village! You're a monster!"
"Listen, nobody will ever accept a freak like you with that stupid, stupid weird white hair of yours. No one. So stop bothering us and don't ever come near us."
"Ugh, what a freak." They scorned in disgust.
They turn away from her battered self with her silvery hair cut messily. Despite the stinging pain of the wound, it did not hurt her but a sharp pang in her non-beating heart.
Why would no one accept her? She only wants a friend. Is that too much to ask?
"Moon from heaven, my body hurts again. I got ordered to clean the entire library and broke a vase, I got whipped again from being so slow and careless… It was a pretty vase, I didn't mean to break it." She defended herself to the moon wishing it was the elders who were listening. "My hands are too small. I wish I were bigger so things won't slip away from my hands." She stares long at her tiny hands covered in charcoal dirt and new wounds. Yesterday's cuts were already healed, she clenched them in relief. She's thankful her injuries healed fast even without proper treatment, she can't imagine the suffering from the pain she'll experience for tomorrow's work.
"The other kids called me a freak earlier and beat me this afternoon too. Look, I have another wound on my elbow." From the small round window hanging above the attic wall of the old Academy, she told her friend, the moon, her woes again. She shows it in the sky as if the moon can see her injuries and sympathize.
"You heard my woes every night. I'm happy and grateful you never get tired of me yet." Her soft smile glows through the seeping moonlight on the round window, as it slowly descends to a line. "I envy you for having the stars with you up there, always together, you are never alone, unlike I am… Moon from heaven, am I hideous? Why do they push me away like a disease? Am I a scary monster like the one elders told in the books? Am I really a freak for being different? Why does no one accept me?" A momentary silence as she wishfully gazed at the sparkling night sky. "Moon from heaven, will the day come when I'll not be alone anymore?" The lone silver moon reflects in her yearning peridot eyes.
A blink in calmness blows away the serenity of night, opening them again to witness the flame engulfing her homeland.
Clouds of visible breath puff as she inhales them back seeking more oxygen for her little lung. Her foot slips through the wet earth losing her balance, scraping her knees after climbing the muddied hill from the rain the fire called. She can feel her legs giving up on running - I'm tired. No.I want to stop. She can't, not now. Not when the threat is chasing behind. "I have to run," she mumbled underneath her ragged breath as she leaned towards a tree forcing herself to stand again.
They said to run.
They screamed to hide.
They tell - to not let them catch you
I need to run. I have to go away. I'm tired. Shelter. I need to find a shelter. Danger. I need to run away from danger. I need to run.
The little girl with a skin similar to a porcelain doll and white hair that resembles snow covering the land filth with ashes and blood, she staggers desperately searching for a safe haven, safe from the creatures of the night, safe from death.
"I have to run. Must run away." The only thoughts circled in her young mind.
The sound of sheep bleating echoing from a distance startling the little girl washing the adrenaline coursing her tiny body. A barn. It's a barn, full of animal noises, and houses, many of them - she reached the outside of woodland. She finally caught the breath she's been wanting, exhaling relief between exhaustion.
The little girl spasms as if a thunderbolt strike her down frying her nerves, she writhes as she leans towards the tree for support. "I have to hide… I must go" She weakly pants, still, determined to shelter herself from the night.
She inhales once more, deeply, feeling the skin touching the back of her throat. She gathers her almost little-to-nothing strength, fighting back the urges of wanting to lose consciousness. She took a step forward and her entire world shifted to the side before colliding to the hard moisten earth - the exhaustion finally caught her.
"N-no, I can't stop. I must..." The little girl, determined to survive, crawls away, her quivering little fingers becoming her feet, scraping against the sharp pebbles. She took a step one at a time, grasping hard on the grass to pull herself as her skin peels layers leaving trails of blood, she gritted her teeth and harshly grabbed the strong grass making them her leverage to move forward.
"I have to survive. They told me, I have to survive… I must live. I must." Her strong will pulled her one more grunting at the sore muscles throbbing madly. Just a bit more, if only someone would find her, if only she could make it to the shed. Digging her nails deep till they bleed in frustration, she reaches her hand to the space desperate to hide in the barn darkness visits her setting her gaze one last time at the blood consuming the moon fading away.
The sun glorified the sky basking the small village located in the base of a hill surrounded by tall others and vast woodland. Autumn is the current season tarnishing the cheerful greens left by the great summer, a perfect time for the blooming asters and sunflowers, and to harvest the leafy cabbages.
"Oh my heavens, Bimer, come here, quick!" A lady carrying a basket full of fresh fruit yells to her husband from a distance. She found the bloodied young girl lying behind a tree soaked in cold sweat - in a war of life and death. The couple hurriedly wraps her tiny unconscious body with a clean cloak rushing back to their small home.
A small farming village, undisturbed from the forces of treacherous society and lurking blood creepers, a place where a pipedream peace is real, will mark the beginning of the tale of end.