Zuwha grows up in a village where all magic is hated and the ones who use it are executed. One day, when the village is attacked by wolves, he turns out to have magic as well. Yet when he is up for execution, two people show up and take him away bef...
Hello there! Thank you for reading. I'm Jane and the writer of this.. draft, I guess. I just want to say that I'm not sure how regularly I'll be able to update, as I'm not home during the week. I'll try my best to make it work. I'll also try to make the chapters at least 1k words long, if not 1.5k+. This first chapter will be a bit short, but the next chapter is already over 1.7k words, so no worries.
Also! Shout-out to for making my cover! It's pretty darn cool.
If you see any mistakes or have any ideas, don't be afraid to comment or PM me! Every bit of feedback is wanted and welcomed, so don't be shy.
And I know you people hate things like this in Author's Notes, but here's Zuwha ^-^ (Credits to @JaxCreation )
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That's it for now. Cya~
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It was a nice autumn day as Zuwha crouched, looking around for branches. It wasn't that hard to find some as the wind had been very rough the day before, ripping off twigs from the trees along with the leaves. Zuwha really liked the leaves in this season, they were so colorful with their different shades of green, yellow, red and brown. He always secretly kept the most beautiful he could find behind the stash of logs for winter.
Winters were really cold out in their valley, so if there weren't enough logs they'd freeze to death. It had happened to a family last winter. The adults said it was the dead people's own fault though, that they were stupid for not getting enough firewood.
Zuwha picked up some more branches as he heard someone run up to him. It was Eshau, his older brother. He was thirteen winters old while Zuwha had only survived nine winters, the tenth soon coming. You could easily see they were related though. Both of them had dirty blonde hair, kept short with their father's knife, along with sun-tanned skin and sparkling, blue/greenish eyes.
Eshau playfully pushed Zuwha's shoulder with a grin. 'Come on! They're gonna burn the witch! You gotta watch!'
Zuwha barely managed to stop his branches from falling, but got up and bumped into Eshau's shoulder as revenge. 'I'll come, just let me bring the firewood home,' he replied.
'You better be on time, everyone has to be there,' Eshau said. 'Also, your pile really needs those branches. It's so tiny, even an ant could gather more firewood than you.'
Then he ran off, with Zuwha following as quickly as he could, though he was much slower because of his load. Zuwha sighed and stopped trying to chase his brother, walking the rest of the way home.
Home was a hut made out of planks with clay smeared on them to keep cool during summer and warm during winter. He entered the hut and dropped the branches on the rest of the pile he had gathered. He smiled to himself, proud of his work. Then he made his way to the center of the village.
The center of the village was more like a space of flattened dirt because of how many people had walked there. It was empty of buildings, leaving the center empty of buildings. Instead of the open space, there was now a big pyre of branches and wood around a pole. A woman tied to the pole with rope. Zuwha recognized her as the woman who always gathered berries and apples from the forest and occasionally gave an apple to him and his brother. She had always seemed nice to him, but he had known the rumours. Rumours saying that she used magic and that she was a witch. And witches have to die.
Zuwha watched the witch writhe around in her bonds, trying to escape the pole. She was begging people to help her, but nobody did a thing. They just watched, some glaring while others were clearly excited, their eyes sparkling. Executions didn't happen very often, so this was a big thing for everyone.
'Come on, the chief is about to have his speech,' Eshau said as he walked up to Zuwha and dragged him to the front of the crowd. Now they could get an even better look.
And just as Eshau said, the chief of the village was there. He was watching the witch with a cold expression, his hand on his sword in case she escaped. Zuwha remembered that he survived 39 winters. He was a fierce hunter and had his bow on his back. Zuwha thought he was a good chief as he was so strong. A hunter like that could protect the village, right?
The chief turned around and looked at everyone. 'People. You have all gathered here to witness the destruction of this monster.' He gestured at the witch.
'No! Stop! You know I'd never hurt anyone, Shiusan. Please, I know you don't want to do this!' the witch pleaded, looking at the chief with begging eyes. He just glared, took a step closer and slapped the woman. The people cheered and called the witch names.
'Shut up, witch. You have no right to speak,' he hissed, then turned his back to her and continued speaking to the crowd, which immediately fell silent. 'You all know how dangerous these magic-using monsters are. I don't have to remind all of you what happened five winters ago.'
Zuwha nodded. Everyone knew. Five winters ago, a man from the next village down the river turned out to be a witch. The monster had gone on a rampage, burning huts and people alike. A lot of Zuwha's family used to live in that other village. They were all dead now. He remembered his mother telling him, "Witches and magic are bad, along with their god of magic. Witches only kill people and don't deserve to live. If you ever see one, tell us and we'll kill it."
The chief continued. 'Now as you all know, these abominations must be exterminated. And what better way is there to kill vermin than fire? We'll use flames to get rid of her and her filthy magic!' He was handed a lit torch, which he waved around slowly to show everyone it was burning.
The villagers started chanting, over and over. 'Fire! Fire! Fire!' they yelled. The chief lowered his torch, the flames coming closer and closer to the pyre. Zuwha noticed the pure terror on the witch's face, but knew it didn't matter. She deserved to die.
The torched reached the branches, and they caught fire in mere seconds. The monster begged and pleaded for them to let her go, to extinguish the fire, but everyone once again just watched her as the flames came closer and closer, calling her names again, saying she deserved it. Zuwha watched too, wondering if some of the stories were true, that some witches were fireproof.
The witch's hair and clothes caught fire, but Zuwha looked away. He didn't want to see the full thing. He could still feel the heat on his face, hear the screams of the witch. Nothing stopped those horrible things.
