Gray sooten snow fell all around us, freckling the sparkling white earth. I found myself focusing on the face of one of the females across from me and the way the delicate flakes melted into dark tears as they fell upon her cheeks. Her eyes were distant and cold as the falling evening.
I felt a shiver course through me and pulled my rough woolen shawl closer, nuzzling my nose into the familiar scents. My heart lurched, and I inhaled deeply as if the smells of home could erase everything that had happened. But they could not, of course, they couldn't.
The wagon lurched as one of its ancient wooden wheels struggled over a rock, and my eyes fluttered open again. I had to blink twice to clear the fog of moisture from my vision, the soot-laden snowflakes melting onto my lashes and stinging my eyes. The horizon came into focus, a billowing cloud of smoke that rose from what remained of our humble human village, one of the last in the area. We knew this day would come; we had tried to prepare, but what chance did the malnourished sons and daughters of farmers have against the great fae soldiers.
A great burst of flame rose from the edge of the village as a silo caught fire, going up in one massive column of smoke. Even from this distance up the trail, the panicked wails of the farm animals in the neighboring barn were blood-chilling. They were trapped, and they would die.
Unable to watch any longer, I set my eyes on my lap. Trapped, we were all trapped. Perhaps a quick death would be more merciful than whatever the faeries had planned for us.
They had killed all the males, old and young, without a second thought. I blinked back silent tears, their laughter pounding through my head. Laughter. They had been laughing as they had killed them. Sneering and mocking them for their weakness, for their foolish bravery as they ran at them with pitchforks and any bit of rusty metal they had found. My brother had been five years old, and they had shot him through the heart with an arrow. My mother had fallen over him as if she could somehow shield his already limp body. They had killed her too.
I let loose a shaky breath I hadn't realized I had been holding and tried to steady myself, forcing the images from my mind. So focused on my thoughts, I hadn't noticed the small presence next to me. Tiny quick breaths heaved against my side. My eyes fell on a young girl, no more than eight. She held her knees to her chest, eyes darting around at nothing in particular. She reminded me of a mouse I had seen once in the barn, eyes wide and dark and sides heaving with nervous breaths. An animal who felt hunted, that's what we all were now.
I glanced cautiously to the guards around us, their faces all beautiful masks of uninterest. Two trailed behind us on horseback, and one steered the wagon. That was all it had taken, three of them, to take down our entire village. Moving slowly, I wrapped my arm around the young girl, bringing her into the warmth of my body and shawl. She startled but didn't flinch away. After a few moments, I could feel her tense muscles relax slightly and her shivering lessen. What would they do to her, so small and young and helpless.
I looked at the faces of the other three females that we shared the wagon with; we all were weak and helpless - even by human standards. The harsh winter season had turned our bodies frail and our minds dulled by hunger and cold. The faces of the females around me had long since been sunken and defeated. We had never stood a chance.
The realization was heavy and numbing and consumed me. There was no fight left in any of us; our fate was in the hands of the faeries.