Crowned By Fire

Prologue Part 3 - Ravena

"Father! Where are you?" Ravena called, stumbling on her short, tired legs. She dragged her purple blanket on the ground behind her little body. Ravena grabbed a candle from the cabinet, lit it, and carried it with her as she searched for her father.  

Ravena inched open the front door of her and her father's cottage. She lifted the candle over her head to illuminate the wheat field in front of her house, the golden stalks swaying in the late-night breeze.

A great boom sounded in the distance, from the direction of the town. A plume of smoke illuminated by orange light rose from the town and shouts carried over the wind. Through frightened eyes, Ravena saw lanterns moving through the woods toward the cottage. She saw friends and their families running towards her at full speed. She saw three dark shapes moving in the woods behind the other townspeople. Her best friend Vivalda ran up to her, panting.

"What's wrong, Viv?" Ravena asks

"They're coming," she replied, fear filling her gaze as she trembled against Ravena.

"Who?" She asked Vivalda.

"Them," her friend pointed at the shadowy figures coming towards them slowly.

Two children a little older than her and a man emerged from the shadows. The children, a boy and a girl, were dressed in ragged brown clothes and worn-out boots, they had matted orange hair and muted bronze skin that shined in the moonlight. The man had on a black trench coat and long black pants. His boots were made out of dark leather, his hair was jet black and his skin was so pale it was almost white.

The man looked down at the boy and the boy looked up to meet his gaze. He nodded and the boy raised his arm as fire exploded from his fingertips.

'Cursed children' Ravena thought. They had powers that normal children didn't have.

Everyone was either screaming, running away, or on fire. Ravena started running through the fields but tripped on the wheat stalks. She looked back at the cottage, clutching her purple blanket. Her mother had given it to her a few months before she didn't come home from the town. Father never told her what happened but she had a good enough idea.

She saw her cottage go up in flames and began crying. That had been her home since forever. She heard someone stumbling through the dense wheat toward her. Ravena sniffled and stopped crying so they wouldn't find her

"Ravena?" A hoarse voice called over the wind.

"Over here Vivalda!" Ravena hissed, not too quietly, but not too loud so the cursed children couldn't hear. Vivalda fell to her knees on the ground next the her and embraced Ravena in a tight hug.

"We need to get out of here," Ravena said hugging Vivalda back. She pulled Vivalda to her feet and started to run anywhere but home.