Eyes Like Gold (A Snow Like Ashes Fanfic)

The Rose of Paisly

"Sarnai Altan is no one in particular. She can never be special- ever." That is what I must tell myself every morning as I stare into a stranger's reflection every morning. For a split second, I let my false form flicker, revealing my powerful, golden eyes, bronze skin, and unbelievably dark auburn curls.
I quickly shut my eyes and pull back the Sarnai that the entire city of Masyv chooses to ignore. My dull gray eyes, skin the color of a dust storm, and frustratingly straight, brown hair return to the me in water and I breathe a heavy sigh.
Nobody.
A branch cracks behind me and my body shoots up and I back away from the shore of the lake.
"I am not waiting around to see if anybody saw that." I mumble to myself as I brush of my simply embroidered maroon skirt and take off for Masyv, running into the woods.

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Paisly has always be my home. I, and no one else in the entire country for that matter, have never seen or heard anything from beyond the mountains. That's just how things are. The ruler of Paisly- who ever they may be- seems to have adopted the "ignorance is bliss" ideal and then applied it to every aspect of their life. No one knows who she is due to the fact that her method of keeping the peace is to use Paisly's conduit to shield us from the world and shield herself from everyone else. The less we know the better, I suppose.
I've never personally had a problem with it. My life has always been simple in these mountains. Well, as simple as they can be. I was born with the ability to use magic without a conduit. I don't know how and I don't care to ever find out. That would only make things more complicated. Paisly is not exactly accepting of change.
The natural order of things has been exactly the same here for as long as anyone can remember. We keep things simple so as to not develop a need for assistance from any of the other countries. Paisly lives off of our own money and farms and no one questions that. If anyone disrupts the order, everyone suffers for it.
As a result of these things, everyone in Paisly has learned to rely on one another for just about anything. Every city plays a part in an enormous family.
The city of Masyv is famous for our bread. At the base of our lone mountain is the richest soil in the country, which we use for wheat farms. Without us, Paisly does not eat. So naturally, nearly every citizen in Masyv is somehow involved in the business of baking.
If only I had been so lucky to become a baker's apprentice four years ago when I had been required to start working at 18. That would've been smart, and Boring, Stingy Sarnai is never smart. She is not even good enough to work in the fields for fear of destroying them with her clumsiness.
Remember how I said that almost all of the the jobs in the city have to do with baking? Yeah, well, there are also a few mainstream jobs just to keep Masyv standing. My lucky pick was livestock. Yeah, I shovel outrageously large and rancid feces for a living. All day, everyday. It's not all bad once you get past the smell. It's there that I discovered my ability to use magic. My first day as a scared 18 year old girl who'd had absolutely no contact with any kind of live animal before in her life, you can imagine my surprise when their thoughts began flooding into my mind. Yes. I communicate with animals. No not in the way your thinking, it's more on a personal level.
The reason I keep my eyes hidden is they reveal my secret. Paisly is extremely reliant on folklore and all things supernatural. Golden eyes are believed to harbor an animalistic nature and the ability to shape-shift. They couldn't have been more right.