Everin

Prologue

The world was never supposed to survive this. Fire blazing, animals running in fear for their lives, it consuming everything in its path. It was my home, which now lays in a bed of ash and smoke. My name is Faun, you might as well call me a fairy or an elf. Freckled light brown skin, gray eyes, long forest green hair, and tiny antlers you can barely even see. I lived in a forest, filled with life and lush green vegetation that provided habitat for elves and animals alike. But this was before The Destruction. We should have known that the goblins were up to no good when the forest fires started appearing. Goblins are immune to fire, and so they tried to destroy our homes by setting them ablaze.

I remember the bright scarlet flames licking at my heels as I ran through the dense forest.

The scorching inferno running rampant through the trees, an all-consuming monster of nature, not to be stopped. It hissed like a snake and devoured anything and everything in its path.

The feeling of smoke in my lungs. I always thought I'd die of suffocation, if only because thinking of death made it so hard to breathe.

I didn't die, of course. The plot twist isn't that you're hearing the voice of Faun's ghost, ha-ha...

I found a lake and dove right into it, treading water out in the center where the fire couldn't reach me. Water nymphs cowered by my feet, afraid for their lives as the fire began to surround the lake. A pair of goblins stalk through the flames, finding me, and begin hurling rocks. But the lake was too wide for them to reach, and goblins can't swim. They try and sink like stones.

The goblins leave, laughing all the while at the burning corpses. I waited until there were no sounds around me, except for the crackle of small fires, and crawled out of the lake.

I ran as fast as I could. Sheer desperation pushed me to the point I feel like I am somehow flying, feet lifting off the scorching earth, but I stay grounded. I see the lights of a village in the distance and almost collapse out of sheer exhaustion. Humans aren't friendly to fairies, but they were more moderate in their bigotry against us. Hopefully, these are not the types to banish fairies whenever they are near them.

I knock on the nearest door, soot staining the wood. A human boy opens it, his jaw falling as he takes me in. His family welcomed me after their horror passed, but I couldn't stay.

I had to get my revenge.