Chapter 1
The sun fell on my face early in the morning and I woke instantly. I shrugged away from my night clothes and put the uniform for school, the same everyone in Foulan was supposed to wear. Our town was not that big and our school was even smaller but traditions had to be kept and a uniform for school was apparently something you had to wear.
The older girls complained but I did not. Why would I? My shirts when I counted them added up to four, my pants to three and my shoes to two. That was including my school uniform. I sighed and run down the stairs to where the small kitchen was. I cut one small piece of bread and dipped it into milk. The bread was stale but with the addition of milk it felt a lot softer and tasty in my mouth.
When I finished I run back to my room again, which was not a room but rather a small attic able to fit only me, my bed, my clothes and books. I grabbed the bag which I had forgotten and went to exit the house. On my way down I discovered a dark figure in the room. It looked like a pile of blankets but when it shifted I let out a tiny whimper. I knew what it was but I had to make sure. I gently nudged it with the tip of my shoe and it shifted, growling. I swallowed and run to the door only hoping that I hadn't woken it.
Once I got out of the house I looked up, half running half walking. The weather was cloudy today and small droplets of rain fell on my face washing the filth of the previous day and waking me up. I did not mind. I liked the rain. It made the ground soft and fertile for crops to grow; it washed away the dirt and sadness and made everything shine afterwards. And most importantly it made it difficult for people to follow you in the rain because running in the rain was not easy and most did not want to soil their clothes.
I was still stealing continuous glances behind my back just to make sure that no one was following me. On my way to the school I passed the bakery which had just taken out fresh loaves of bread and the smell of them was intoxicating. I wished I had some money to spend but the few pieces of coins I owned were left back home and I would not dear go back. I let out a sigh of relief when I reached the school because I knew that for a few hours I would be safe.
When I entered the classroom I realized I was late although I was sure I had woken up at the right time. Someone threw a ball of paper in my direction but I ignored it. I sat at my usual place at the end of the classroom. My chair had wet mud on it which I did not notice and now it was soiling my pants. I heard a few laughs from the other side of the room and I knew who had done this. Again I ignored them and tried to pay attention on the board in front of me instead. The teacher entered at this point and we turned our attention to her. She picked up chalk and started writing on the board, her hand steady and practiced the equations that appeared flawless.
I was always intrigued in the way a certain shape made a letter and then a lot of letters together would make a word. That word when you said it out loud meant something. But now the letters were turning into equations which only managed to intrigue me and something deep inside urged me to find a solution to them. I leaned over some sheets of paper and started writing. In the beginning I was merely copying what the teacher had written but then I added my own notes until I reached a solution. I felt pride swelling up inside me, ready to burst.
That was the first good feeling I had today.
One of the girls in the back peered over my shoulder and then gave me a shove. The force knocked me on the table and I felt air rushing out of my lungs. My heart began to race inside my chest and adrenaline filled my body.
"I know the answer!" the girl in the back shouted and the teacher nodded to her as she went to the board.
I tried not to look at her as she smugly wrote on the board the solution she had copied from me.
"And what would you do now if I added up this to the equation?" the teacher asked, interested.
The girl stared at her and this time I did look, only to see her mouth pop open. She shook her head and shot me a murderous glance which promised that I would pay for that later. As if that was my fault! But I didn't doubt I would.
The hours passed faster than I expected and no one bothered me as much as I expected. Surprisingly the girl who had copied the answer from me was standing with her friends far away and they were discussing something, laughing hysterically but they did not throw a glance at me. Maybe they had found something more interesting to do? I really hoped so but I doubted it.
I sighed and returned to my previous acts only to hear someone saying that I shit myself and pointing at my dirty pants. I turned to look only to see a group of boys this time, some of the wealthiest offspring of our community. They were all laughing apart from a ginger haired boy. I turned away and scribbled something on my notebook and tried to pretend they were not there, humming a bit as I did so.
The last lesson we had was history which didn't interest me as much as the others, but still I listened quietly, hoping that the time could go slower and dreading having to soon leave the school grounds.
"Our village is a small one but you would be surprised to hear that it contributed greatly to the empire's victory by sending food and other supplies to the warfront. As you all know Foulan is a very fertile land and so far even the poorest families have never starved during winter. That is not the same unfortunately for other places north, especially near the mountains where the ground is hard and nothing else apart from wild weeds grow which provide however food for goats. During winter the weeds will usually wither and then a big amount of the livestock will die. The capital's lands are more fertile but not as fertile as ours. That's why we are lucky to be staying in such a gifted place" the teacher said.
Someone in the back snorted. They did not think Foulan was gifted. Maybe they were right. No matter what the teacher said the place we lived in was far away from the capital and the other richest cities in the land where all the wealthy people stayed. We did not produce silk or wool to make clothes and our land had neither gems nor gold something that this community seemed to crave. Everyone thought that we deserved more attention, more castles, more houses but nothing exciting had ever happened here. We lived in peace and we had food. Wasn't that enough for them? Hadn't they heard what happened when people got too rich and too arrogant?
Probably not. I seemed to be one of the few people paying attention in the classroom.
"After the war the Emperor tried to fight those few outlaws that resisted but never managed entirely to extinguish the threat. They are still various attempts to his life but they all pay the price they deserve in the end. So far the emperor has managed to rule the land for more than 80 years in which everyone has prospered. The few magicians that are left work only for him and the most dangerous threat, the dragons are now extinct' the teacher continued and in the mention of dragons everyone's attention shifted to her.
No one had ever seen a dragon in our village but it was said that a hundred years ago they roamed the skies causing fear and havoc until our emperor had decided that it was fit to kill them all. As our history tells at first he had tried to reason with them but that had ended badly so he gave up and hunted them down, every last one of them.
The dark magicians had been aiding them to escape but the Emperor captured them and killed them all. Magicians had been posing a constant threat to the people as well, since sometimes they would summon the forces of nature against peasants for no other reason than spite. That too the Emperor had extinguished and their spells now were meant only for creation.
When I had been younger and first heard of magicians I had been enthralled and hoped that someday I could become one. To have the power to move rivers out of your way seemed ideal. Once, a magician had visited our village after the fall of the Rebellers and had examined the minds of our leaders to make sure we were not aiding them. When he had arrived everyone was so excited! I must have been six at the time and when I saw the dark robes and white faces I did not fear but rather welcomed him. Maybe that was my mistake because as I had approached him he had cast me away a few meters back by using no more than his mind.
The only thing I had wanted was to see his face, ask him questions and if he could, take me with him but the only thing he had said was that I was a demon's child.
Maybe that's when things started going badly for me. The man did not kill me or gave me a second glance for that matter but his words had forever marked my existence. Although I envied his power and craved it for myself I no longer wanted to become like him. Magicians were supposed to be wise and what he had done was not wise at all. I had never harmed anyone, had never done anything to deserve this and yet I was now a demons child. Why?
Because of my appearance.
It was unfair and yet I could do nothing to change it but to endure. I swallowed hard and tried to clear away the memories of that day. Ten years had passed since then and every one of them was worst that the one before. The only thing I could do was to keep going, hoping that one day things might change.
The bell rung signaling the end of the lesson and I picked my bag gently trying to prolong the minutes I stayed in the school. I willed time to move slower but it didn't, so in the end I gave up and walked out of the school's main entrance.
"Look! The demon's child itself! Are we too scary for you?" someone taunted behind me, girl or boy I could not tell, but ignored the comment the same way I had done all these years.
I heard laughs and shouts mingled with the sound of rain falling on the pavement. It clouded some of the noise and I was glad for that.
When I reached the corner to turn for my house I saw the group of girls who had been taunting me before. They were smiling and looked eagerly at me. The girl who had copied my answer, the leader I supposed, threw a ball of dirt at my direction. I moved away and the dirt hit the road instead. I turned back and decided to take the shorter way back to my home but when I did turn, a group of boys was waiting for me and threw a ball of dirt at my direction which hit me full on the face. I stumbled and fell on the ground in a puddle of water and mud. The rain kept falling.
I got up and realized that my knee hurt a bit but it wasn't anything serious. The cobbled street I was in did not offer many routes of escape. There were a few openings between shops and I guessed I could run in one of those and escape the children from school. Between the bakery and a tavern I could see a small passage big enough for one but not for two…
Another mud ball hit me on the shoulder and it stung much more than I had expected. My body's reaction was to fill my eyes with tears and make it even harder to see in the rain or think pf a plan for escape.
"Is the demon's child crying? I didn't know that demons could cry!" a girl said and giggled throwing another ball at my direction. It hit my shirt and I could feel the mud and the rain soaking through my clothes. It would take me more than a day to scrub all the dirt away.
Someone wouldn't be too happy about that. As that thought came into my mind I decided to run as I didn't have any other option. I went into the passage I had seen and the others didn't follow me. I was glad.
Suddenly though, as my vision was getting blurrier, I bumped into the ginger boy I had noticed this morning. I didn't say anything and tried to get away but he was stopping me. The passage was big enough for one.
"I am sorry I can't let you pass. She said to ambush you" he said.
I heard shouts and feet running towards my direction and I realized I was trapped. The children at school today hadn't given me much attention because they had been working on a plan to torture me.
I was frustrated but knowing I could do nothing to change it sunk down on my knees and patiently waited for them to come. Whatever they wanted to do to me I could take it, I thought but still tears swelled into my eyes.
The footsteps were coming closer.
"Go" I heard a voice say and I looked up to see the ginger boy out of my way and standing on the side of the wall. Maybe it was my tears that softened him or maybe just the thought of a person full of mud disgusted him but he had given me a way out.
I got up but didn't say thank you to him. I glared at him once, slightly perplexed and then I run.
