Calamity

The village of Kiyomi was a place in the middle of nowhere, settled at the base of the mountain chain in the southern region of Mora. It was a small community of farmers and craftsmen, who struggled for everything that they got.

Faye Thornheart was one of the villagers. She had long black hair that reached her waist, and purple eyes that sparkled like jewels. She was kind and gentle, always helping and caring for the other villagers, but she was also different from the rest of them.

Like her father, she was a fairy, a rare and mysterious race where every individual possessed the ability to carry and use their own mana… something that defied the two-part magical system of the humans. Therefore, their magical abilities caused the fairies to be feared and even hunted for sport in a lot of parts of the world. The parts of the world that didn’t kill them, exploited their “guaranteed” magical abilities however they could.

Faye’s father had come across the village long before she was born, and just like everywhere else, the villagers back then tried to drive him out. That is, before he proved how useful he was at driving back the Festers and other monsters in the area. He quickly became somewhat of a hero to the villagers and ended up falling for Faye’s mother.

Though, six years ago, everything changed when a horde of Festers attacked the village without warning. Faye's father fought the best he could but was outnumbered and extremely overwhelmed. He ended up sacrificing himself to protect Faye and the other villagers, giving them time to escape.

Faye was good friends with Celeste Frostveil, a sixteen-year-old girl who was known pretty well for her long, blond and wavy hair. Celeste was sweet and cheerful, always smiling and trying to make others happy. With sewing and knitting being one of her strong suits, she often made clothes and accessories for the children of the village.

“Faye-chan… do you think things will get better soon?” Celeste asked, wringing out a shirt as Faye and her washed clothes in the river outside the village.

“What do you mean?” Faye asked, tilting her head.

“I mean, with the Festers and other monsters. They've been causing us so much trouble lately. Scaring off all the game in the forest, destroying our crops, and now attacking the caravans of traders that come by…” Celeste said, frowning. “We barely have enough food to make it through the winter now. If it wasn't for us buying wheat grains every month from Mora, we would starve.”

Faye bit her lip as she kept washing the clothes in silence. The number of Festers in this area had grown a lot over the past two years. The devastation of crops and number of huntable game were the results.

It seemed that history was starting to repeat itself again, everything was happening the same as it did back six years ago. The Festers eat everything around before coming after the village, and if everything stayed the way it is going, the village would be the next target, and soon.

“… I don’t know.” Faye sighed, nearly lost in thought. “It’s not like we can do anything about it if it doesn’t. We are already doing everything that we can. The next step would be for everyone to move somewhere else…”

They fell silent for a moment, lost in their thoughts. Then they heard some voices coming from behind them in the direction of the village.

“Celeste-chan! Faye-chan!” A group of four children ran up to them from the village. They were wearing simple clothes made of cotton or wool and had cheerful expressions.

“Hi, everyone! What are you doing all the way out here?” Celeste greeted them with a smile.

“Anada-san told us you were out here.” One of the boys said excitedly. “We came to see if you wanted to play with us!”

“What do you all want to play?” Celeste asked.

“Fester Slayers!” The other boy said proudly.

“Fester Slayers?” Faye repeated, wringing out a pair of pants before looking back to the children.

“Yeah! It's a game where we pretend to be heroes who fight against Festers! We use sticks as swords and rocks as magic stones! It's so fun!” The first boy explained.

“Wow, that sounds like fun indeed.” Celeste said politely, complemented with a proud smile.

“It is! You should join us! You can be our leader, Faye-chan!” The second boy said.

“Me!? Why me?” Faye asked, surprised.

“Because you're a fairy! You can use real magic and fly with your wings! You're so cool!” one of the little girls said admiringly.

“Yeah! You're like a real hero!” The second girl agreed.

Faye blushed at their compliments. She felt flattered but also embarrassed. She didn't think of herself as anything like a hero. She was far from ever being one. She preferred to stay in the background of everything, not standing out, that was just who she was.

“Ha haaaa… yeaaaaah…” Faye laughed softly with a nervous smile, trying to think of a way out in the process. “T-Thank you, but I don't think I can play right now. We have to take these clothes back to the village and hang them up.”

“Aww, really?” The children pouted.

“But it won't take long! We'll be back soon!” Celeste said cheerfully. Earning a stabbing side-glance from Faye.

“Really? Promise?” The children asked hopefully.

“Yes, promise!” Celeste said.

“Yay!” The children all said excitedly.

Faye and Celeste quickly gathered up their washed clothes and put them in their baskets. They followed the children who were running back to the village, laughing and shouting. Faye smiled at their innocence.

The village was made up of wooden houses with thatch roofs, each with a small garden or a field. There were only about thirty houses in total, and everyone knew each other. They all had a simple but happy life.

Faye and Celeste reached the village gate, where they were greeted by a familiar face. It was Silas, a boy who was a year older than them and a friend since childhood. He was one of the farmhands that helped with the animals and tended to the crops with his father and other men of the village.

“Hey, Faye-chan! Celeste-chan!” He called out to them, waving his hand. “You're back!”

“Hi, Silas-kun!” Faye said, smiling.

“Hello, Silas-kun.” Celeste said, blushing slightly.

Silas ran up to them and helped Celeste carry her basket, noticing the wet clothes inside it. “Oh, so that’s where you two were. I was wondering where you were.”

“Just washing some clothes by the river.” Faye said. “Nothing special.”

“And playing with the children.” Celeste added.

“Playing with the children?” Silas asked, raising an eyebrow. His bright green eyes peering through the shaggy brown hair that draped down over his face.

Celeste scratched the back of her head with a smile. “Well, they ran up and asked us to play rather. They were playing ‘Fester Slayers’ and wanted Faye-chan to be their leader.”

“Please let that go…” Faye sighed shyly. “I don’t want to be the one leading. That is one of their jobs to do…”

“Better they want you to be the leader than the Fester…” Celeste said sneakily.

“No!” Faye said in shock. “I would be stoned to death for sure!”

Silas laughed. “You two are too kind for your own good. You should just learn to say no sometimes if you don’t want to do something.”

“But they're so cute!” Celeste said, getting a little too caught up with herself. “There’s no way we can say no to their little faces begging for attention!”

Silas shook his head. “You're hopeless.” He then sighed and looked serious. “Actually, we just came back from checking out the crops.”

“And…?” Faye asked.

“They're ruined…” Silas said. “Again…”

“What? How?” Celeste asked.

“They’re all burnt to a crisp.” Silas said with disdain.

“That's terrible!” Faye said.

“It wasn’t even something like them being eaten…” Silas continued frustratedly. “Those damn Festers just came and burn them all for the sake of it!”

“… Now what are we going to do?” Celeste asked. “We were hoping to get at least one crop in before the winter, so we didn’t need to spend so much buying grains.”

“Well, now we are going to have to spend more money.” Silas said. “No going around that now…”

They walked in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. They reached the center of the village, where they saw another familiar face. It was Eren, another boy who was a little over a year older than them and a friend since childhood. His short blond hair and blue eyes always seeming to have a glow to them. To someone seeing him for the first time, Eren could easily be passed on as Celeste’s older brother. He was also one of the best hunters in the village, along with his father, Akira.

“Eren-kun!” Celeste called out to him.

“Hey everyone!” Eren said, running up to them. He was followed by his father, a tall and muscular man with a beard and a bow on his back. He was the most experienced of the few other village hunters.

“Hello, kids.” Akira said gruffly.

“What are you all doing here?” Eren asked.

“We just came back from washing some clothes by the river.” Faye said, gesturing to Celeste with a nod of her head as well.

“And I just got back from the crops.” Silas added, annoyance lacing his voice and Eren picked up on it.

“Bad news?” Eren asked.

Silas nodded. “The crops are ruined… Festers, they burn it all to the ground.”

“Spineless demons…” Akira murmured to himself, anger obviously shaping his face.

Though, they were interrupted by a loud shout from the village gate before Eren could speak more.

“Everyone! Everyone! Come quickly!” A villager yelled. “There's a group of horse riders heading towards the village!”

Faye felt a surge of fear as she turned to her friends, who looked equally alarmed.

“What's going on?” Silas asked, his voice was steady, but he was obviously nervous.

“I don't know, but you all have to get to your homes!” Akira said, encouraging the group of friends to start moving deeper into the village.

Faye dropped her basket and glanced back to see Silas and Eren following her and Celeste, who led the group, their faces tense.

The village was a scene of chaos. People were screaming and running into their houses, while the men who could fight grabbed pitchforks, axes, or anything they could use as weapons and formed a line at the edge of the village. Faye recognized some of them as her neighbors and friends' fathers.

“Who are they?” Silas asked, pointing at the horizon. Faye squinted as they ran down the main road cutting through the village and saw a group of riders approaching fast. Though, they were still too far away for her to tell who they were.

“They look like Moran soldiers!” Akira said with surprise. Being the great hunter he was, he could see the riders wearing black leather and metal armor, that gleamed with hints of gold and silver, and a raptor-like bird depicted on the flag they flew. The marks of Moran soldiers. “But what are they doing here? We're Moran citizens as well!”

“Maybe they're actually raiders or bandits!” Celeste suggested, her eyes flashing with nervousness.

“No mistaken that they are wearing Moran uniforms and bare the kingdom’s crest.” Akira said with a shake of his head. “Though, their patter is all over the place, they are not riding in uniform files like a professional party. Something is very wrong...”

“Whatever they are, we have to get inside!” Faye said. She and the rest of the group broke apart and ran in different directions towards their homes. It didn’t take Faye long to reach her house, where she saw her mother and brother waiting for her.

“Faye! Thank goodness you're safe!” Hikari said, hugging her daughter. Hikari was a beautiful woman with long black hair and amber eyes, just like Faye's. She wore a simple cotton long sleeved shirt and skirt that came down to just above her ankles and a shawl around her shoulders. She had a gentle smile and a calm voice, but Faye could see the worry in her eyes. “What's happening?”

“There are riders coming! Akira said that they look like Moran soldiers!” Faye said, quickly explaining what she saw. “We don’t know what they are doing but they are coming fast.”

“This is bad…” Hikari said, her face serious but her voice worried. She couldn’t let any of the riders see Faye. If they found out that she was a fairy, they would take her and possibly kill the entire village for harboring her. The kingdom of Mora was not a place that welcomed fairies at all. “We have to hide! Come on, Daiki!”

She grabbed her son and led him to a closet under the stairs. She pushed him inside and turned to Faye.

“Faye, come with me! We'll be safer together!” she said.

“Okay, mother.” Faye said, stepping into the closet as well before her mother.

Hikari checked quickly as Faye passed her to see if her wings were hidden, and thankfully they were. Folded down her back, Faye’s dress covered almost every part of her translucent wings other than the base where they connect to her back, just under her shoulder blades.

Hikari pulled the door closed behind them and locked it from the inside. She pulled her children close to her chest. What am I going to do if they come in? Run out the back? But what if there are more of them there…?

A moment later, Faye could hear a large commotion erupt outside. She could hear the hooves of the horses pounding on the ground, the crackle of the fire consuming the wooden houses, the screams of the men fighting for everyone else’s lives, and the thud of the bodies falling to their death. She could smell the smoke and the blood and could feel the heat and fear. She wished that she could shut out the sounds, but they were too loud, even covering her ears did no good.

Her mind began to wander. How long will it last? She thought. How long before they break into the house and find us…? What then?

Faye gripped the hair covering her ears tightly. She was scared, but new that Daiki was even more scared. Realistically, she was the only one of the villagers that could actually fight. She could use her powers to help everyone get away… But how!? How was she supposed to do that!? She had intentionally stayed away from using her powers, they were unnatural, and she was more human when she didn’t ever use them. She even covered up her wings for as long as she remembered.

I can’t do it… I can’t do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it! Faye cried. She could do nothing to help. She was too scared, and the thoughts of what she wanted to do felt like someone punched her in the stomach. But this was the only thing that she could let herself do. This was the only thing that could save her brother and mother…

“M-Mother…” Faye whispered, looking up to Hikari with tears rolling down her face. “We need to run… I-If I am found, more people will be hurt because I was here.”

“This isn’t your fault, Faye—”

“It will be if I am found with you and Daiki!” Faye screamed, burying her head in her mother’s chest.

“Sister…” Daiki cried, gripping Faye’s dress in his hand.

Faye looked down to her little brother. She needed to protect him. She didn’t want him or her mother to die because of her. “… We need to run—”

At that moment, the loud crash of the home’s front door bursting open shook Faye, Hikari and Daiki to the bone. Everyone stopped breathing as the sound of heavy footsteps walked deeper into the house towards the closet.

The person slung the wooden chairs in the middle of the floor out of the way. The sound of cabinets and clay jars shattering on the other end of the room outside the closet marked the point of where one of the chairs flew, and then a loud bang against the closet door marked the other.

Daiki yelped in fear as the chair slammed against the door, even with the effort of Hikari trying her best to cover his mouth and keep him silent.

Faye kept her breath held as she shook uncontrollably. She listened to the footsteps stop for a moment, and then turn and make their way right for them in the closet.

They found us…! She thought, looking in panic up to her mother, whose eyes had the same fear in them as hers did. Why!? Why, why, why, why…!? Why is this happening!?

The door to the closet ripped open to show a large man in black armor looming over them. He was a terrifying sight, his black armor gleaming in the dim light of the inside of the home. His eyes were cold and cruel, making his scarred face look even more grim. He towered over them, blocking their escape.

Daiki screamed as the man wasted no time grabbing both Faye and Hikari by the hair and began dragging them towards the door. “Mother! Sister! No!”

“Run, Daiki!” Hikari yelled back at her son as she tried to fight the man’s grip on her hair and regain her footing, but she was being pulled too fast. She couldn’t pull herself up far enough to try and get loose of the man or find traction beneath her feet to stand.

No! No! No! Faye thought, kicking and screaming as the man dragged her away. I need to get out of here! They can’t find out who I am!

She looked up to see Daiki running towards her and Hikari out of the house, despite his mother screaming for him to run away. No! Daiki, what are you doing!?

The man hurdled Hikari and then Faye both out into the street. The impact nearly knocked the air completely out of Faye’s lungs. She coughed and gasped for air as she rolled over onto her side.

She looked around to see the same thing happening to all the rest of the villagers. Women and children both being dragged out of their homes and tossed out onto the street, not even the elderly were treated with ease.

Pleads and begs were coming from all the women, trying to make their voices heard to the riders over the cries of the children. Some women even tried to run out of the village with their children. Though, all their efforts were futile.

The riders swiftly cut their way past all the men still standing and began to catch the fleeing women and children. Those that fought back were cut down at the knees so they couldn’t run away and were no longer a worry for the riders, giving them the ability to run and catch up with another person.

It was chaos everywhere that Faye looked. Homes on fire. Men beating women and children. Blood… so much blood…

“F-Faye-san…” a soft, groggy voice came from behind Faye. She looked back, in shock of everything happening around her, and saw Eren dragging himself towards her with one arm, while his other hand held his side covered in blood. He looked up to her in pain and worry in his bright blue eyes, and all she could seem to do was look at him. She couldn’t move her body, or form words to tell him she was sorry. “R-run Faye! Run—”

Eren’s words were cut short as an axe dropped down just above his shoulders. His head rolled a couple feet towards Faye before stopping with his dead eyes looking past her. His face holding the memory of his last thoughts and fears.

“NOOOOOO!” Faye screamed, tears flushing from her eyes. “Eren! Noooo!”

Faye was quickly pulled to her feet, jerked around by her mother as she led her and Daiki by the hands away from the attackers. Faye couldn’t help but look back through her tears. In the blink of an eye, almost half of the people she grew up with, people she had helped on a daily basis and loved, were lying in their own blood dead or without one of their legs.

The screams echoed in her mind as she was pulled away from mothers and children all reaching out, pleading for her to help them as she ran past. But she could do nothing, the only reason she was running was because someone else was making her, it was all that she could do right now to breathe.

“This isn’t them. They aren’t from Mora!” Hakari said in a panic as she led her children towards the end of the village. She needed to get them into the mountains. “Mora wouldn’t ever do this. Nev—”

Hakari cut off as the ground in front of her ripped up and created a wall spanning across the street from the houses on either side. Cutting off her and several other’s escape.

“Now, now…” a voice rang out from behind, causing all the villagers around to look back over the riders approaching them at one unmasked rider still mounted high on his horse. He was holding his right hand up into the air before him, it was obvious that he was the one that bent the earth unnaturally up to block their escape.

A Wielder… Faye thought in horror. Where is his carrier…!?

“We can’t have any of that. Now, can we?” the mounted rider hollered back, cutting off Faye’s thoughts.

The other riders nearby rushed Faye, Hakari, Daiki and all the rest of the ten or so villagers around them. Some began to take all the women and children by the hair and drag them back over to the horses while others drove their swords through those who resisted too much, it didn’t matter if it was woman or child. The pleads and cries from everyone were not enough to stop the bloodshed.

Faye screamed and kick as one of the riders grabbed her again and began to fight for her against Hakari, but the man didn’t want to fight long. The man drew his sword, and the next thing Faye saw was red as Hakari’s blood sprayed her face and heard her scream.

“AHHHHH!” Hakari screamed as she let go of Daiki’s hand and tried to stop the bleeding coming from what was left of her other arm. The rest of her arm from just above her elbow down dropped to the ground between herself and Faye.

She couldn’t get the rest of her body to move anymore. She just stood there in agony, trying to stop the bleeding. But she had to do something. She couldn’t just stand there. She looked up to see Faye pleading to the man who had her to stop as he started to make his way to Daiki hiding beside her screaming and crying in fear.

No… Hakari thought, just wanting to cry. They can’t take them. They can’t take them!

“RUN MOTHER! RUN DAIKI!” Faye screamed before she reared her leg back and slammed it as hard as she could into the crotch of her attacker, causing enough pain for the man to drop to the ground where he stood, but not enough to let go of his grip on her.

“Faye!” Hakari screamed as she grabbed Faye with her good arm and tried to pull her away, but the man who had her daughter jerked her back, ripping Faye out of her slippery grasp, and launched her back onto the ground behind him. Hakari tripped over her own feet and nearly landed back on Daiki. She looked up to see Faye rolling over onto her side to stand up and the man before her also standing to his feet awkwardly.

“BITCH!” The man yelled back to Faye, but she didn’t care.

She looked up to Hakari with tears in her eyes and screamed as loud as she could. “RUUUUN!” That was all that she could do. “PLEASE! RUN!”

Hakari’s eyes flushed with tears as she scrambled to her feet. She looked at her daughter with pain and guilt. I can’t save her… I can’t save my daughter. What can I do!? The tears rolling down Faye’s cheeks, the fear on her face, the pleading look in her eyes, that was all that she could fixate on.

… I can’t do anything… Hikari thought. Right now, she was helpless. There was nothing that she could do. In this moment, they were all pray, and they could only do what pray was capable of…

Flee…

“I’m sorry!” Hikari cried out, taking one last look at Faye, before turning around and taking off with Daiki in her arm, navigating her way through the house and bursting out the back door before the riders could catch her.

She couldn’t believe a mother would do what she just did. Leaving one of her children behind to die like that. She was a failure. Faye did everything. She slowed the man down enough for her to escape with Daiki, and that look in her eyes was a plead for Hakari to just do what she asked.

Faye didn’t try to run, she just wanted them to get away… She couldn’t let her daughter’s sacrifice be in vain. She needed to get Daiki far away and could worry about the dangers of the night once she was sure they were safe… as well as weep for her daughter.

“Shit!” The man cursed once he lost sight of Hakari and Daiki burst through the house. He turned back to Faye trying to stand to her feet and began to storm his way over to her. “I am going to have some fun with you later, bitch!”

Faye lost all the air in her lungs as the man landed a solid kick to her side. She flew back and landed on her back gasping for air as the man walked up to her again. The pain in her side was almost unbearable, she was sure that the force behind that man’s kick broke one or two of her ribs.

The man sheathed his sword as he dropped to his knee beside Faye, grabbing her long hair and pulling her face up to look at his smiling back at her through his mask, “If I could kill you right now, I would, slowly… You’re lucky in that you won’t die yet, but I will make you suffer lat—”

Faye gathered as much spit in her mouth as she could and spat it all in the man’s face. It made her wince in pain, but it was worth it, at least, for a moment that is. That little bit of pride she had left as soon as the man’s fist connected with the side of her face, sending her back down to the ground.

She blinked away her cloudy vision and spat out the blood that nearly choked her, tears streaming down her face. What were they going to do to me next? How am I going to die?

“AHHHHH! Stop! Please!” Faye screamed pleadingly as the man dragged her along the ground by her hair. She tried pulling on her own hair to try and take off the strain on her neck, but she was too weak to pull for very long and the bodies she was pulled over didn’t help.

She looked at the door to the house Hakari burst through with Daiki and couldn’t help but cry.

They got away. Faye thought. Now she only hoped that her mother could make it far enough away to be safe, and that she stopped the bleeding soon so she wouldn’t get too weak to run. Mother could probably make it to one of the nearby towns to the north if she cut through the mountains. Though, they were still a day’s journey away by horseback and much longer since they were traveling on foot. The Festers in the countryside would slow them down as well, on top of mother being in the state that she was. Festers could smell her blood and swarm over it… They will be hunted by them, there was no way that they could make it to the nearby towns…

No! They have to make it. They got away from this, and mother is very smart. She can get herself and Daiki both to safety. Faye argued with her inner thoughts. That is what she has always done. She was able to hide the three of us and Celeste all in the mountains for two days back when the Fester’s attacked the village, all while Daiki was still an infant. She could do it again. I have to believe that.

The man tossed Faye onto the ground in front of him, landing with enough of a thud that it knocked the little bit of air she had regained right back out. She gasped for air as she rolled onto her left side and looked straight into the eyes of Celeste laying tied up and gagged beside her.

The panic and pain filled tears in her friend’s eyes made Faye go numb. She was the only other person next to her. All the rest of the women and children that still lived were being rounded up in front of one of the houses behind her, that was not beginning to catch on fire, all of them begging for mercy between the screams.

It was like a living hell, and all that Faye could do was look into her friend’s crying eyes as she listened to the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer. She caught the shadow of a foot right before in connected to her face, causing her world to go dark and silent.