Chapter One: The Song of Feathers and Fire
Heyya! The chapters will get a whole lot longer but this is just the beginning! Hope you enjoy it <3!
Sparrow fought with everything she had, boots skidding through the moss as another burst of corrupted wind screamed past her ear. The witch hovered above the treeline, clawed fingers weaving spell after spell, while waves of undead surged forward like an ocean of bone and rot.
Sparrow's trident spun in her hands—clang, rip, thrust—each motion parrying claws, splitting skulls, deflecting bolts of ice and torrents of flame. She couldn’t advance, couldn’t breathe; every inch was a losing battle, no room to strike back. But she refused to yield—not while her forest still stood behind her.
A flaming wraith lunged. She impaled it, then ripped the trident free with a grunt. And in that instant she saw it—the opening. Small. Fragile. But real.
She didn’t hesitate.
The trident vanished in a burst of spirit-light, swapped instantly for her massive scissors-blade—the gleaming shears almost taller than she was. Sparrow charged, slashing aside elemental blasts, batting hexes back toward the witch with brutal precision. The witch’s expression twisted; the tide had turned. She was the one being pushed back now.
Spell after spell shattered against Sparrow’s relentless assault. The witch raised a barrier—Sparrow split it. She fired a volley of curse-laced darts—Sparrow cut every one from the air. Desperation spilled across the witch’s face.
Then a blast—dark, heavy, explosive—hit Sparrow square in the chest.
She skidded back, boots carving trenches in the earth. Her lungs burned. But when she looked up, she saw it again.
A second opening.
She lunged—
“NO!” the witch screamed.
Because she hadn’t left the opening by mistake.
A summoning circle burst beneath her, and a massive undead dragon erupted upward with a roar that shook the trees. Its ribs crackled with purple fire, empty eye sockets locked on Sparrow.
It dove.
Sparrow didn’t slow.
One heartbeat. One breath.
And then her scissors-blade snapped shut—
SHHK—
The dragon’s skull split clean in two. The beast dissolved before it hit the ground.
The witch’s eyes went wide with pure, horrified disbelief.
She fired a poisoned arrow out of survival instinct alone. The shot flew wild, sloppy—yet still struck Sparrow in the side.
Too late.
The soft sound of thread breaking echoed across the clearing.
Sparrow had cut the ribbon of her life.
The witch staggered, vision fading, and collapsed into the grass.
Sparrow stood for half a second. Just long enough to turn toward her forest, toward the trees she had sworn herself to. Her pupils dilated. The poison spread like wildfire.
She fell forward, eyes rolling back, hitting the earth with a soft thud.
Two bodies lay still.
One witch who fought to protect everything she had ever known.
And Sparrow—who died protecting everything she loved.
