Storybook of the Stars

Ithica Hunted

Mythland; Sageus (Kingdom; Planet)

Ithica "Mythical Sausage"; Past

Ithica hadn't always been hunted. In fact, that had been a recent addition to the hellhole that was slowly becoming his daily life.

He used to have parents and a big family and a decent home. He'd had a loving mother who told him stories of his ancestors, a loving father who'd given him his first guayabera that he'd stitched with the story of his parents meeting. His abuelas had taught him how to bake cookies, his abuelos taught him and his cousins how to swing an ax and chop a tree down the right way, his tíos taught them where to replant the trees after they cut many down.

He remembered when any adult was a tío or tía, when every old lady crossing the street an abuela with dulces to hand out to the kids that helped her, when every child was called mija and mijo.

But it wasn't like that anymore.

The guards were harsh and cruel, constantly rotating so no one could get to know them, tíos and tías more paranoid, cousins less willing to go out into the fields to play. He and his cousins had gone to the fields at a younger age than their parents, carrying the harvested crops to and from different locations where they were yelled at for not being fast enough or not bringing enough. There weren't as many festivals or community gatherings, Ithica had even seen guards with their faces hidden by metal masks tearing up a festival stand after the owner had used magic to entertain his cousin's best friend.

And that was another difference: the magic.

Mythland had once been overflowing with magic, the life of the kingdom spilling over into its people and manifesting in them. Families were graced with the magic that the founder of the kingdom had brought out of the land and it had once been a source of pride. To have True Magic in your family was an honor and people used their gifts for good things. Ithica's family had a long history of True Magic, his own sister had it. Dolores' antennae could pick up the sound of a mouse in the barn two miles away, his cousin Laurelin could make their drawings blink and breathe and move the slightest bit, his best friend who lived across the street could make the falling leaves dance with him and the grass sway in time with music.

But the king had changed that.

The greedy, evil king who was called many bad words by the adults in his family. The king who started looking for True Magic to cure his child of the sleeping curse they were placed under. He refused help, listening to the demons that still lurked in the shadows of their dark oak kingdom and sought to collect those with True Magic like a child collected flowers.

His kingdom wasn't like how it used to be. And the world was a scary place.

So now he was hiding under his bed again.

Like any self respecting twelve year old, Ithica was hiding under his bed. Technically it wasn't his, he wasn't even in his own house. But his house might be up in flames at this point so he wasn't exactly going to complain about not being at home. His parents were still at his home, they were trying to hold some kind of meeting with the rest of his family about leaving the kingdom.

Treason.

His parents were committing treason. Hence the possibility of the flames. And why he was hiding under his bed at Eddie's house, a family friend, while his primos y hermanas were at their own friend's houses or secret spots they'd already built. Eddie and his family had been with Ithica's for as long as they'd been in the kingdom, nearly six generations since his ancestors had arrived in Mythland.

It was dangerous. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Ithica was trying to calm down, every few moments he swore he could hear the sound of wood cracking, heavy boots running down the street, torches being lit, dishes and bones breaking against the heavy clubs. There were already rumors that the north side of the kingdom had been torched when the king didn't get what he wanted and who could stop the king?