Tainted Scars

Chapter One

Leyna had only just turned four when she lost her mother to a fire. No one knew how or where it had started. Her father—who was looking for a new home and a new life for them all in a distant town—wasn't there to help them. To save them. She had been sleeping beside her mother when it all happened. And when the smoke finally had awoken them, it had been too late. Her mother was up in an instant yanking Leyna off of the small cot they shared, and into her arms. The old, weak wood that made up their one room house caught fire quickly and began groaning. It was going to collapse.

She remembered feeling her eyes water from the heat and smoke. They were almost out the door when half of the roof collapsed. A splintered, burning piece of the ceiling sliced into Leyna's face as it came down.

Her screaming filled the air as the left side of her face burned. Tears streamed down her face, stinging the open wound, making her scream louder. Even after many years she could never truly forget the pain that she had felt at that moment and the instances that followed. Such unbearable pain that if her mother hadn't been carrying her, she would've collapsed to her knees and lost consciousness. When the smoke and sparks cleared, they were surrounded by burning debris, and there was no way out. In her desperation to save Leyna, her mother threw her over the fallen wood, and on instinct, Leyna flung out her hands to catch her fall as she hurled through the open air. She crashed onto the floor and cried again when her arms and legs scrapped the cobblestone floor.

And before any of them could react, the remainder of the roof crashed down on top of her mother. Burning her alive.

The buildings continued to crumble around her, before someone—she didn't see who—came and carried her to safety. After many hours, the fires were eventually snuffed out. No one else had suffered the same fate as her mother. It was as if only the most wildest of flames had hit their house and their house alone.

The locals took care of her as much as they could. And a kind neighbor sent word to her father, telling him about what had happened. He arrived a few days later to find their street in ashes and his wife lost to the flames.

They didn't have the money to hire a professional healer to completely fix her face. The least they could do was clean the wound up and pray that it wouldn't get infected. The whole process was grueling and she had screamed more times than she could remember. By some miracle, her wound hadn't festered, but she was left with a gruesome scar along the left side of her face.

They didn't have the luxury of being born into a wealthy family. As a matter of fact her family was quite poor. Then again, so was almost the entire port town of Cerynth. She never took much for granted and treasured every meal that she had.

For the next three years her father did his best to provide for them both. He sold most of her mother's belongings, and lived off of the coins that he got from them. It lasted them about a few months before they began to starve. Her father was forced to work again.

So every morning her father would take his small fishing boat and fish. Whatever he caught, he sold at the market, keeping some to feed them for the night. Some days, though he came back empty handed. Whenever her father would bring her to the marketplace, she would wander off through the street. Passing the different vendors until she reached her favorite spot at the end of the dock. From there she would look at the sea and its horizon. She would sometimes glance at the waves and see the faint silhouette of fish darting beneath the surface. There were rare occasions when she would see a mermaid or a sea serpent. They were beautiful yet she knew they wouldn't spare a second thought on ending her life. Yet she was not afraid and sat with her feet dangling off the edge of the pier.
She silently vowed to herself that one day she would leave this town and lead a new life. Though she never expected that day to come so soon and in the worst way.
One day, when she was seven, she returned from the dock to find her father having a conversation with a man. When she went closer she found that it was one of her father's friends, Nathon. Leyna knew not to interrupt them. So she quietly waited behind him and listened to their conversation.