Chapter 1
Everyone knew about the forest right outside of the village. Children grew up knowing that they were not allowed to play there. Not that they really would have had the chance. The village was surrounded by a huge 30-foot stone wall. No one—except for the guards sent from the kingdom—was allowed to leave.
"Hey Alliya, are you even listening to me?" Marx asked.
"Hmm? O-oh... Sorry, I got lost in thought."
Marx struggled to stifle back some laughter but failed. "You? Thinking? Never thought I'd see the day."
"Oh shut up," Alliya rolled her eyes and playfully pushed Marx. " I'm smarter than you!"
"While you may be book smart, I'm street smart," Marx retorted as they ruffled Alliya's short, silver hair.
After a small bit of laughter from the two died down, Alliya's mind started wandering again. "Seems like yesterday's lesson at school really got to you," Marx commented, breaking the silence.
"It was interesting. I won't lie."
"So, what," Marx crossed their arms with a tilt of their head, "Thinking you might have powers like some of our ancestors."
"Well, it's not entirely improbable," Alliya muttered, feeling a bit embarrassed. The look on Alliya's face only made Marx laugh even more. "Shut up, it's not that funny Marx!"
"Oh, yes it is," Marx said as they tried to recollect their breath. "Just don't go getting any ideas. You know what will happen if word gets out to the kingdom of us learning about this."
"Yeah, I know," Alliya responded sadly. "I still don't see why we aren't even allowed to learn about our past."
"Because the royal family is scared of what we might do if we regain our powers," Marx said as they rolled their eyes and looked at the nearby stone wall that blocked them off from the rest of the world. Alliya let out a sigh and followed Marx's gaze. The only thing that Alliya wanted more than anything else in the world was to go explore the forest they were so close to. To see the animals that all of the villagers were so afraid of. To swim in the lake that she knew had to be somewhere nearby.
"Oh no. I know that look, Alliya. Don't start again. Don't hope. It will just lead to disappointment."
"But I-" Alliya started as she looked back at her friend, but was cut off.
"Alliya!" Someone yelled. She turned and saw that it was her mother, running towards her, carrying a large sack over her shoulder, and there was some cloth over her torso that was like a sash that carried Alliya's youngest sister, Mizzy. "I told you not to leave the house," her mother yelled as she got closer to the two kids and grabbed Alliya's wrist. "And what did I tell you about hanging out with that Carlie'in kid," she hissed.
"Mom... Marx is a good person, they wouldn't do anything to hurt me," Alliya tried to explain, but her mother was already pulling her back to the house.
"Bye Alliya," Marx said with a sad wave.
"I'll see you later, alright!" Alliya yelled back.
"Oh no you won't," her mother butted in as she kept dragging her daughter. "Your father sold you off. You're leaving soon." The words hit Alliya like the brick wall that slammed into her shoulder as her mother rounded the corner.
"What?" was all she could manage to stutter out.
"You heard me Alliya. You had to know that this was coming. I mean, seriously. With your looks, it was only a matter of time. Hell, it probably would've been sooner if it wasn't for your stupid eyes." her mother spoke harshly. "Gods, I don't know why you had to be born like that. All your siblings were born normal, why couldn't you."
They eventually made it back to the house. Alliya's mom tossed her into her room where a small trunk sat in the middle of the mostly empty room. She had shared the room with two of her sisters, but one was married off, and the other was sold, just like Alliya was about to be.
"Dress yourself," she commanded, "the clothes that you are to wear are in the trunk. And do something with your hair." The door then slammed and there was a little click noise.
As soon as she was alone, Alliya wanted to cry. She forced herself to keep it together though. She had to get ready, and just pray that whoever she was sold to would be at least somewhat kind. She knew that wouldn't be the case though. If she had to guess, she was being sold off to one of the guards who was getting bored while on duty, or to become a slave or servant for a Noble family. That's at least what normally happened when one of their girls in the village got sold off. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. It was Alliya's worst fear, though others might consider it their saving grace.
She stumbled back when she opened up the trunk and saw what it revealed. She picked up what seemed like the top, and knew that she was done for.
Alliya eventually figured out how to put it all on after quite a bit of effort. She looked at herself in her dirty mirror. She looked like a whore. Every part of her felt like it was exposed. The cloth that barely covered her breasts was tight enough to make it seem like they were about to pop out but wasn't tight enough to leave lasting marks on her pale skin. Her bottoms, if you could even call them that, were more like underwear. They, like the top, barely had enough cloth to fully cover her.
Alliya looked back into the trunk and noticed she forgot something. It was a translucent cloth that acted as a skirt, and then there was another piece that covered her face. She put them both on and then looked back at the mirror. She felt disgusting. She was being sent off to the kingdom. To the most ruthless family that the region knows.
Stifling back tears she worked on brushing out her hair with her ratty old brush. She stared into her eyes behind the wire-rimmed glasses that covered them. Both were a different color. Her left eye was white, while the right one was black. She used to get bullied a lot back in grade school for her eyes. Some kids thought they looked cool though and were okay with being her friend. Like Marx, for example. Marx never cared about looks. Marx was just glad to have someone to be friends with. They were never treated right after others discovered that they don’t follow typical gender norms.
The bullying didn't stop for Alliya until here recently. The start of her third year of upper secondary school. This was the year that they finally learned about their ancestors. Most of the villagers who had powers about a hundred years ago had heterochromia. There were some cases where they had normal eyes, but it didn't happen often. After that lesson, though, Alliya was no longer made fun of. People simply avoided her. It pissed Marx off, but Alliya preferred it this way. No one to bother them anymore. Or, more accurately, they were too scared to bother her.
The door nob clicked and then swung open. "Alliya," her mom hollered, pulling her out of her head, "Are you almost done?"
"Yeah," Alliya muttered and let the veil fall over her face. She saw from the mirror that her mom rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Then hurry the fuck up," she commanded as she walked over to her daughter and grabbed her wrist, "The guards are already here to take you away," she commented. Then, underneath her breath, "Thank the Gods."
Alliya's mom led her out of the small room and into the living room. Where the rest of the family was. All five siblings and her father, who was talking with one of the guards who were waiting to take her away. Outside there was a lot of commotion. Alliya could only imagine what was going on. Probably nosy neighbors trying to see what's going on.
One guard grabbed Alliya's arm from her mom, and then grabbed the other and held them both behind her back. The second guard placed a collar around her neck and snapped it into place. The guard behind her handed the other guard her hands and he cuffed them in front of her. He then wrapped her hands tightly in some sort of cloth. The collar was chained to her cuffs to restrict movement.
"Is this really necessary," she accidentally said out loud. The guards both chuckled at this comment.
"Ol' prince is gonna have a field day with her," the older of the two guards joked to his partner. The other guard shook his head and led Alliya out of the house. "What, no laugh? You must miss your ol' girl back at the palace, hmm?"
"Shut up Garrick and let's just hurry up and get her onto the cart. It's gonna be a pain in the ass to even get out of this Gods forsaken village with all the people crowdin' us, so don't make it harder."
The guard named Garrick sighed and rubbed the back of his head. He opened the door and the young guard led her out. Awaiting them was a mob of spectators. Embarrassment and shame washed over Alliya like a tidal wave. Almost all of the kids who went to school with her were among the mob staring at them. There was a lot of whispering between all of them.
"Stop," Marx called out as they ran towards Alliya, "Don't touch her!" they yelled, but a third guard was quickly by their side and grabbed them. "Alliya," Marx yelled with tears in their navy blue eyes. They struggled against the guard, their short brown hair becoming a complete mess, but it was no use.
Alliya stayed quiet and kept her head down. All she wanted to do was go crawl into a hole and die.
"Alliya," Marx called out to her again, this time it felt more like a command. "I'll find you, I promise! Just stay safe!" Tears were starting to well up in Alliya's eyes.
The younger guard tugged at her, forcing her to keep moving. He helped her into a caged cart. The bars were old and rusty, but definitely sturdy. The guard got into the cage and connected her to a chain that tied her to the cart. He then got out and locked the door to the cage. He and Garrick then hopped onto the front of the cart where the horses were. They then started moving. The guard that had been holding onto Marx was following behind the cart on another horse. She still couldn't believe that they needed this much security for one single person. She figured they'd probably pick up more people, but as the day dragged on, it didn't happen. They didn't stop. The bright, hardly cloudy sky was the complete opposite of her feelings. She was just glad it wasn't raining. She'd die of hypothermia before they got to wherever she was going.
Day slowly turned to night as they trudged on. The guard in the back was getting restless, and so was his horse.
"Yo Vix, how much further we goin'," the guard in back questioned.
"We ain't stopping, so quit yer whining," Garrick yelled back at him.
"I don't think I was talking to you, Garrick," the guard in the back spoke rudely as he rode up towards the front.
"Will you both shut up," the younger guard, Vix, hissed. "There have been sightings of some sort a monster, and I don't know about you, but I don't really feel like dyin' yet."
"Hasn' gotten laid in quite a while, so he's a bit cranky," Garrick laughed. All of a sudden the cart stopped, sending Alliya forward.
"Woah, you really are cranky-" the other guard started.
"Shh," Vix hushed as he stared at the wooded area next to them. "I heard something."
"Oh, for-" Garrick muttered. He stood up and called out, "Who goes there? We are armed. By order of the King's guards, show yerself."
No answer.
"It was probably just an animal." the guard laughed as he stared into the forest.
"Show yerself!"
"Will you both shut up with all the noise? Do you want to get us killed?" Vix whisper-yelled at the two.
"Yeah, you two are creating far too much noise for a peaceful night like this," a voice spoke from the shadows of the woods.
"What the fuck," the guard spoke as he led his horse a bit closer to the forest line to get a better look at the person.
"You are scaring away all the animals. So annoying," the voice groaned.
"Sh-show yourself! We are armed," the unnamed guard yelled.
"Oh no..." the speaker came closer, out of the shadows. It was a man. He had long, straight black hair, pale skin, and animal-like ears. The only thing he was wearing was a long white scarf that was wrapped around his neck and a pair of small, wire-rimmed glasses. "A bunch of big scary guards with some feeble swords. How intimidating." He placed a hand on his hip as he stared down the guards, not even paying any attention to the cart.
"Why you little-," the guard on the horse spoke as he charged at the man. He stopped short when he fully noticed the guy. "Woah, what the fuck," he exclaimed, as he stopped the horse. He stopped for a minute, then laughed. He turned back on the horse and started back for the cart. "This fucker is probably just drunk. He's got nothing on but a scarf!"
Not even a second later the man was gone. In his place was a large wolf-like creature with dark black fur. Its teeth shined brightly in the moon. It growled at the guard on the horse. The horse was spooked and bucked the guard off. He fell onto the ground with a loud thud as the horse ran off.
"Oh fuck no," Vix said as he made the other horses start running. The ride got a whole lot bumpier. Alliya was getting thrown all over the place.
"You assholes," the other guard yelled out at them, "Get back here and help me!"
Alliya stared and watched as the beast moved in closer. She actually made eye contact with the monster for a brief second. They then turned a corner and then lost all sight of the two.
