Heroes Reversed

Prologue

 A walled garden attached to a stone house stood alone in a field. Dark green woods stretched away on one side of the field of tall grass and wildflowers, the other was bordered by a narrow stream that ran out to the horizon. Trumpet vines and ivy were creeping up the sides of the house, and a large trumpet vine had wound around itself into a kind of tree and dominated the center of the garden. Flowers of every color and shape rioted on the sides and stone walls of the garden, and green vines and shrubs were sprouting up in places that the flowers hadn't yet reached. A stone path started at the wooden back door of the house and wound in a circle around the trumpet vine tree, and an overgrown wooden gate stood at the back of the garden, vines and flowers winding up and down it on both sides and creeping into the hinges of the gate, rendering it impossible to open. Hummingbirds fluttered in small clouds over the trumpet vines, and bees and other insects hummed and buzzed in the flowers. Perfect spider webs stretched between the stems of flowers and branches of bushes, small drops of dew shining on them in the early morning light.

The wooden door of the house creaked as a woman stepped out into the garden. She walked slowly around the trumpet vine tree, gazing out at the flowers and the tops of the trees visible over the garden wall. She made it around the circular path, coming back to the beginning of the circle. She held up one hand, and a shimmering green and red hummingbird broke away from the red trumpet flowers and landed delicately on her outstretched finger. She stroked it with two fingers, drawing it closer to her face and whispered in its ear, still stroking it. She withdrew her hand as its wings fluttered to life, and it hummed off over the woods, quickly disappearing into the sky. She smiled slightly, turned around, and opened the door with a creak, disappearing inside.

The door swung shut with a squeal as a jet-black bird rose from the forest with a caw. A raven. A bad omen.

                                                                       ~~~

A green and red hummingbird sped over the treetops, green and brown blurring under it. It had been sent to relay a message, the most important message it had ever delivered.

Underneath his speeding form, buildings began to pop up among the spreading trees of the wild forest, and squares of farmland began to separate overgrown meadows full of flowers and foot-high weeds. In the distance, a city was visible, growing sharper with every flutter of his wings. He pointed his needle-like beak downwards, steadily losing altitude. The city rushed up to meet him, and the trees of the forest ran to a stone wall as tall as a three-story building. Neat stone houses with wooden roofs sat bordered by stone paths and manicured green lawns with carefully selected flowers, worlds away from the wild, purposefully overgrown garden where he lived.

The buildings became larger and more exquisite as he fluttered farther into the city, until the treetops of the wild forest were a green haze in the distance. Sitting proudly in the middle of the wide expanse of buildings was an impressive stone castle, with shining impossibly large windows and the most intricate and selective gardens and lawns he had seen yet. A formidably huge and skillfully carved wooden door stood at the exact center of the front of the castle, with a carefully laid stone path that wound through the gardens leading up to it. He flew around the castle once, searching for an open window with pink-flowered vines growing around it, exactly as the woman had described. There, on the east side of the castle, overlooking a maze constructed with rose bushes. A window set to the right of the castle's east wall stood ajar, pink flowers crawling daintily up the stone wall that it was set into.

He fluttered towards it, coming in to land delicately on the windowsill. He twittered loudly, calling attention from a stout woman in a floral apron who was straightening the exquisitely embroidered pale pink sheets of a luxurious silk-canopied bed, while simultaneously dusting the richly colored wooden dresser that stood next to it. She turned sharply, surprise showing on her face as she took in his vibrant colors and persistent twittering. She walked over, shooing at him, and muttering so quickly and quietly he couldn't make out a word she said, as he wasn't very good at understanding the human language, even though the woman who lived in the house by his garden had tried to teach him. She shooed him again, her hand coming close enough to make him flutter upwards in alarm, and he twittered angrily and flew into the room.