Hearts Ablaze

Chapter 1: The Slayer's Vengeance

The sun hung low in the sky, casting long shadows over the desolate landscape. A figure, small and shrouded in a long dark green forest cloak, emerged silently from the thick woods, her face hidden beneath a deep hood. She moved with a quiet grace, her footsteps barely stirring the dirt beneath her boots. The village before her was abandoned—its houses crumbled into ruin, their roofs collapsed, their walls splintered and blackened from fire. A heavy stillness clung to the air, broken only by the distant call of a crow.

She stepped carefully into the remnants of the village, her cloak rustling softly in the faint breeze. All around her lay the debris of destruction—scattered timber, shattered glass, remnants of lives long lost. Among the wreckage were bodies—mutilated and twisted in death, their forms lying as silent witnesses to the violence that had come before.

The figure paused, her head turning beneath the hood, taking in the scene with quiet, measured focus. There was no fear in her movements, only precision. She stopped at the center of the village square, where the ground was scorched and the air still carried the faint scent of smoke.

Her chestnut-brown eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she knelt to the ground, her dark eyes scanning the dirt with keen intensity. Slowly, she reached up and pulled back her hood, revealing her face—a young woman, likely in her early twenties, with shoulder-length golden blonde hair gathered in a high ponytail. Loose strands framed her elfin features, soft but alert. Her eyes, dark brown and sharp, traced the ground, searching for something the casual observer would have missed.

A sword rested on her back, its hilt gleaming faintly beneath the cloak, and as she knelt, her left hand instinctively brushed against the pistol at her hip, a reminder of the danger that could be lurking in the shadows.

The ground beneath her revealed a faint set of tracks—barely visible, but there nonetheless. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she traced the outline of a footprint, too large to belong to a human. Then she found another. Her fingers hovered just above the dirt, brushing aside some of the ash that covered the trail.

She stood slowly, her eyes following the path the tracks led—out of the village and into the forest beyond. Whoever or whatever had been here was long gone now, but the signs left behind were unmistakable. It had come, destroyed, and then disappeared into the trees.

Without hesitation, she pulled her hood back over her head, casting her face once more into shadow. With a final glance at the wreckage around her, the woman began to walk, her boots treading softly over the broken earth. The weight of the sword on her back and the pistol at her side gave her an unspoken readiness.

She moved with purpose, following the trail as it wound out of the village and back into the forest. The trees closed around her once more, their dark canopy swallowing her as she disappeared into the shadows, silent and watchful, following the tracks that had led her here—and would lead her to whatever came next.

###

High in the canopy of a tall tree, the girl crouched on a thick branch, completely still, her dark cloak blending seamlessly with the shadows of the forest. Her sharp, dark brown eyes peered down below, locked on the entrance to a large cave nestled into the rocky hillside. The forest was silent except for the occasional rustling of leaves in the wind. Her breath was slow and steady, her gaze unblinking as she watched, waiting.

The cave mouth loomed dark and foreboding, its blackness swallowing the faint light of dusk. For a long while, she simply listened—ears tuned to any movement, any sound that would betray something inside or nearby. But there was nothing. Only the steady whisper of the wind and the distant call of birds.

Satisfied, she moved with a quiet grace that seemed almost unnatural, shifting her weight just slightly on the branch before she leaped into the air. Her body cut through the space like a shadow, landing silently on the forest floor below. Not a single leaf or twig stirred beneath her feet.