1- PILOT

I will never forget that day. A grey melancholic day. The rain was pouring and there were screams echoing in the air, including mine. In that day I for my life, for my house, for the future that I had always thought to be so certain but now so unpredictable and unsure, I cried for my family because I knew it would probably be the last time I’d ever see them, and I am afraid I was right. Since that day, when the deadly warriors invaded our little village and killed everything and everyone they came across, I saw myself traumatised by all the blood and bodies that had once been people but now just lifeless creatures. But I must admit, what hurt the most was seeing my mother and father laying on the floor, eyes opened and with blood leaving their now cold bodies.

You would have thought that after eight years you would have moved on, at least a little bit, but in reality the loss of my parents has only created a hole in my heart, a wound that even time cannot heal. I have not yet spent one day without thinking about them and wonder what could be our life right now if that crazy day had never happened, if those murderers had never killed my parents. But they did. They killed them and there is nothing I can do to change it.

‘What happened after?’ you might be wondering. Well, after all that blood spill I ran as fast as could to where I thought would be a safe place, the forest to be exactly. I spent the whole night running, trying to escape that deadly scenario and, after some hours, i reached a small town. I felt dizzy from all that run but also from seeing almost the same scenario as my village, blood everywhere, bodies laying in everywhere possible, some now even being carried somewhere with a thin white cloth above them. I then realised that my village wasn’t the only one attacked by the deadly worriers, and i later found out that they had actually attacked dozens of other villages and small towns. After looking from just a far, i slowly got closer to the houses before a man noticed me.

“Hey, little girl. Are you lost?” He said at that time. I was trembling but still nodded yes not knowing what were going to happen to me later. “Rowan, there’s one more over here!” The man shouted. I then took a step back.

“Wait. I’m not from h-“ i tried to explain but he cut me off grabbing my arm.

“You cannot be here sweetie, you need to go with Rowan.” He said still grabbing my hand and pushing me in an unknown direction.

“No!” I screamed but he did not seem to care. I kept trying to get away, kicking and biting his arm but of course the strength of a eight year old is nothing compared to the one of a, what looked like, thirty year old man.

We soon got close to a wagon full of other children. A cold shiver of fear traveled throught my body. If the odd strong man wasn’t pushing me, i would have probably frozen in the place, unable to move.

“Another.” the man said to the man in the front of the wagon, Rowan, i would presume.

“The last one, i hope.” the other said.

The man who was previously grabbing my arm did a quick move and put me on the wagon. I rushed to try to explain that they were could not do this, that my village needed help that i wasn’t from here but they both ignored me. I soon saw myself sitted in the floor, tired, among all this other children, some of them with their clothes painted with blood, some of them hugging each other. It startled me when the wagon started to move forward, away from that destroyed town.

“If you are not from here, then were are you from?” In the middle of this frightening silence a boy talked to me. I looked at him, the tiredness in his dark eyes was beyond noticeable. He looked one or maybe two year older than me.

“Neridas” i said calmly even though nothing about me was calm at that time. None of us talked more and neither did the other children. The silence ruled that wagon and we did nothing to change it. I spent all my time in the wagon watching the landscape, we moved across forests, fields and other villages where we could see that the deadly warriors had also left their little mark there. In a regular day, i would be thrilled to be on a moving wagon since my parents didn’t owe one and we were too poor to even consider having it, but now, today, i just wished i could leave and get away from all those children who reminded me every seconds that my parents were dead and my village was completely destroyed.

The boy who talked to me before woke me up. I did not remember falling asleep, only waking up to a empty wagon and a boy on my side talking to me. “Wake up, come on. We are here.” He said. He offered me a hand to help me get up and i took it. We left the wagon and walked next to a group of children, a much bigger group of children that the one on the wagon.

“You all know what the deadly warriors did.” A voice sounded far away but close enough for me to hear it. I did not see who was talking but from the timbre of the voice i could bet it was a man, perhaps Rowan. “They destroyed our villages, our houses. They killed our families! Justice must be made!” The children shouted ‘yes’ or barbaric names like imbeciles or whatever their little brains could think of. “But until then, i must tell you that you are safe here, from those murderers. They will never find us.” He said, a lie of course, everybody knew that the deadly warriors could find and kill everyone but i guess a little bit of faith could not hurt anyone. “Look around, you all have a new family now. But it is up to you if you choose to embrace it or not.”

“Where are we?” I asked the boy.

“Scarlet Academy.” He said

Of course that in the present i am not an eight year old anymore, i am sixteen, and i have lived in Scarlet Academy ever since. I consider it my home now and i am thankful i got to be taken here, otherwise, who knows what might have happened.

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