Green opened his eyes, gazing sleepily at the trees surrounding the shrine he was sitting atop. His eyes then switched to the stars overhead, where he picked out the familiar constellation, the sigil of his spirit branded on the back of his eyelids.
He sighed in contempt as he averted his gaze, the corners of his jaded eyes glittering with wetness as he blinked several times, dispelling the gathering liquid before it could run down his cheek. Reaching up, he ran a hand through his russet hair, several strands falling back over his eyes.
Today was his birthday, and it was now leading on the list for ‘Worst Day Ever’. It was meant to be a time of rejoicing, a person’s 18th birthday, the day they went to the nearest shrine and prayed to the heavens until a spirit answered their supplications. This spirit was meant to be which animal the person’s traits most embodied, and that was all well and good, except that Green was very unpleased by his spirit. He knew that of all the possible spirits that could’ve answered, he was almost willing to kill himself when this one answered. Nevertheless, life went on, and so would he.
After all, he didn’t have to tell anyone what it was, most didn’t. It was considered a very private thing, considering you were basically allowing people to take advantage of your traits with the information. No one would blame him, but at the same time, everyone would assume the worst if he didn’t share, that was just how it was in small villages.
His friend, Duncan, had came back nearly three months prior, and when he refused to tell anyone anything, even Green, it ended his social life. His family nearly all disowned him; luckily, his sister understood the situation he was caught in, a mark of the Cat spirit that she held. Still, he moved in with her when his family kicked him out.
As Green climbed over several large boulders on his way down the side of the valley his village rested in. A lush glen was visible from his place on the side usually; however, Green couldn’t see anything, the rising plumes of smoke blocking his view of the village.
Wait a minute, smoke! Fire! Green thought quickly as he vaulted over a fallen tree, sliding down the path on loose gravel that sliced into his hands as he tried to direct his rapidly descending body towards the village nestled in the basin of the valley. Animals on either side of him cried out, raising his alarm; the valley was known for being peaceful, tranquil, certainly not a madhouse of fleeing, fearful animals.
Coming around a bend, he saw the source of the smoke, and his heart sank into the base of his gut. His normally lively and cheerful village was replaced with ruins smoldering, stone walls half-wrest from each other and scattered across the ground, thatch roofs, the few that remained, alight and quickly disintegrating into ashes which blew away.
He scrambled through the maze of stones to his house, having to kick the door down as it was barred with burning timbers. Looking frantically through the house, he found only the wreckage of a family fleeing in fear. Or dragged out fighting. Green tried not to think of the latter option, but that chance to avoid it was dissolving by the second as he found pictures of his family, tears straining at his eyes, his nose cringing from the wretched smell permeating the open building. He found his sword in the place he always hid it, inside the chest in his room, unlocking it with the key he kept around his neck.
Liam, Trevor, Ellie, Ma, Pa. All gone. Green thought as he fell to his knees, clutching the picture to his chest as he let the tears out for only a few seconds as he mourned for his missing family, then, the tears stopped, and he stood, heading for the center of town where the marketers stayed, his senses going off like cannon fire as the scenery slowly changed from ruined and black to dying and red.
