Wings of A Hummingbird

Prologue

The wind gushed over the green hill, causing the girl standing there to clutch her hat to keep it from blowing away.  

The sun, setting past the hill, preparing for the moon, created a glow to emanate from the sky.  Hues of gold, violet, red and blue tinted it, swirling in the air, the surrounding clouds being swathed in light.

The girl on the hill had a long flowing dress, white as winter snow, that swayed with the rhythm of the grass, back and forth, back and forth, swishing around her long legs.

The girl herself was medium height, with long, golden blonde hair, tied into two long braids, the stray strands around her ears whipping the sides of her jaw, rubbing them red raw.

She had high cheekbones and a long jaw, giving her an elf-like face.  She had a small nose, and freckles that dotted the bridge of it, also giving her a slightly child-like appearance.

But most memorable, were her eyes. They were almond shaped; a pale green, and soft flecks of gold, a dark green ring around the pupil- they shone eerily in the dimming light of the sun.  She was looking off, into the distance.

If you had looked where her eyes were locked, you'd have seen a town sitting in the middle of a valley, not much bigger than a large horse from so far away. 

That town’s name was a peculiar one.  Most of the cities were named for mountains, or the people that founded them, but this village was named after a flower-  Iris.  Iris, for the hills the girl stood on, in spring, were dotted with the violet flowers, strewn for miles on the green turf.  The quaint little village of Iris.

She was watching, waiting for something.

The girl’s name was Alida, ‘little winged one’. That’s what her name meant, as her father had repeatedly said. She had been named that, as she was so often told, because the moment she was born, a golden hummingbird came into the room, flitting about, and landed softly on the golden tuft of hair of her infant self.  Alida Orianna Colibri.  A beautiful name, her family had said.

Alida stood there, still waiting, her eyes alert.

All was silent, save for the wind howling past her ears that still caused her hair to whip her face.  Then, through the silence, you could hear bangs and shouts.  The soldiers from The Proserpentia had arrived, come to take down the last town in the area known for rebellion. 

Alida stood straighter, her green eyes alight with energy-  She had been prepared for this, and she was even excited.

With a flash, she pulled a gun out of the grass that had been concealing it until then.  It was bulky, and heavy looking, as was shown by the way she held it, her arm drooping down from the weight.  It was a gun well known to her father, who had been trained with guns as a child, as it was his.  It had room for six bullets, and was only if Alida needed to use it. 

 If you had looked closely at the barrel, you could still see the faded marks of initials, engraved with a sharp knife; E. C.  Those were her father’s initials.  Ezra Colibri.

She had run down the steep hill, leaping on every second stride, anxious to arrive at her destination.  Her large straw hat had blown away effortlessly, not impeded by her hand any longer, gliding in the wind.  She did not turn to retrieve it.

She slid down the hill with ease, skidding down the slippery slope, with the help from mud and wet grass, still not dry from the dew that had landed that morning, getting closer and closer to the cobbled streets of the town, and the brick houses that dotted the sides.

The girl was also getting closer to the screams, her heartbeat quickening with every meter that her feet closed the gap between the hills and the stone road.  When she squinted her eyes, she could just see the houses at the end of the town-  burning.